10 Pop Culture Conspiracy Theories

Supposedly, the 70-year-old ex-Beatle, who we all know is alive, well, and still rocking, died in a car crash in 1966. His bandmates found a lookalike replacement so as to spare their legions of fans heartbreak. Adherents of the theory, however, identify possible clues in the Beatles’ own work: the 'Abbey Road' album cover is staged like a funeral procession, with John in white as the holy man, Ringo in black as the undertaker, George in jeans as the gravedigger, and barefoot Paul as the corpse.

In September 2011, an eBay seller from Seattle posted a photo of a Tennessee man taken in 1870. A man who looks exactly like Nicolas Cage, meaning that the actor is an immortal vampire! Cage had fun with the idea when talking about it to David Letterman but ultimately concluded, “There’s a photograph of me, and you can’t take pictures of vampires.” The more important question he failed to ask is, “Why would any immortal being want to make not one but two ‘Ghost Rider’ movies?” [20th Century Fox]

Fox seemed to predict the 9/11 attacks. ‘The Lone Gunman’ in 2000 dealt with a plot to fly planes into the World Trade Center. But even earlier, in 1997, an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ features a magazine cover with the twin towers on it and $9 immediately to their left. Hence, it looks like 9 11, with the towers themselves forming the 11. Perhaps less surprisingly, they also predicted that Roy of Siegfried & Roy would be mauled by one of his tigers. [FOX]

The idea of Cruise's paramours being under contract has to do with his prominent role in the Church of Scientology. It’s allegedly so that they will toe the Church line. In 2012, following his breakup with Katie Holmes, 'Vanity Fair' published a cover story in which writer Maureen Orth claims actress Nazanin Boniadi confirms she auditioned to be Cruise’s wife. Cruise has never addressed the rumors. [Dave Lewis/Rex USA]

Of course, this rumor ignores the fact that many women actually do lose some weight during the first trimester before gaining pregnancy pounds. But the sight of Holmes’ stomach supposedly getting smaller before getting bigger with little Suri has been catnip to rumormongers who believe that Holmes and Tom Cruise staged her pregnancy, and their whole relationship, to draw more attention to the blockbuster films they were promoting in the summer of 2005: 'War of the Worlds' and 'Batman Begins.' [B

Before that whole inauguration lip-synching scandal, Beyoncé was accused of faking something a bit more serious. A video of her pregnancy stomach appearing to deflate while she was on an Australian talk show in October 2011 fueled speculation that she was actually wearing a prosthetic baby bump and really having her daughter with Jay-Z, Blue Ivy Carter, carried by a surrogate. "That was crazy," she told ‘People’ magazine about the rumor. "It was a fabric that folded - does fabric not fold?" [Fa

Not only has the third in line to the English throne never born much resemblance to Prince Charles, he was born around the time that his mother, Princess Diana, engaged in a much publicized affair with James Hewitt, a household cavalry officer in the British army. It’s a rumor that still persists, even though it’s been totally debunked. Hewitt himself — as well as a former bodyguard for the late Princess — has confirmed that their affair only began after Prince Harry was born. [Daniel Deme/WENN]

Speculation began in November 2011 that Khloe’s father may not have been Robert Kardashian, when Kris Jenner revealed in her memoir she had an affair while married to the late L.A. attorney. His other ex-wives allegedly spoke out to the press to say that he had confirmed Khloe was not his daughter. The rumor only grew when Khloe refused to take a DNA test. The bigger, totally unsubstantiated, theory is that Khloe is the daughter of O.J. Simpson, whom Kardashian defended during his murder trial.

This new doc about Stanley Kubrick’s horror-movie classic 'The Shining' dissects many of the conspiracies surrounding the film. The most notable? That Kubrick reveals in the movie that NASA hired him to help them stage the moon landing. Young Danny Torrance wears an Apollo 11 sweater. The twin girls who menace him could be a reference to NASA’s Gemini program. And finally, the l’s in “All” when Jack Torrance writes “All Work and No Play...” look precisely like the number “1.” All=A11=Apollo 11!