Well, you can't always trust what you read on the Internet. I'm usually the skeptical one. When I get those e-mails warning about some new virus, I check it out first. When I get e-mails suggesting that Madeline Murray O'Hair is suing the FCC to ban the broadcast of Christmas songs, I patiently point out to the mailer that O'Hair is dead and was chopped up into a bunch of little pieces several years ago.

But when something plays into one of my own preconceptions of the world, I'm less likely to express the proper skepticism, and it appears as though "The Bachelor" scandal is one of them.

According to the New York Post's PageSix, one of Alex Michel's old Harvard buddies (you've got to pick your friends better, Alex) created the fake e-mail.

Problem is, that part of the e-mail exchange was fabricated. Jonathan Locker - a friend of Michel's Harvard pal, Jeffrey Sahrbeck - made up a response from Michel and attached it to a string of real e-mails between Michel and Sahrbeck.

But ABC says the prank is no laughing matter, and wants to assure fans of "The Bachelor" that Michel is not a kiss-and-tell cad.

"It has gone around to everyone," ABC flack Kevin Brockman groaned. "I want to let everyone know that it's a hoax. Alex has been inundated with e-mails about this."

My apologies, Alex.

*A side note* It's amazing how commenting on these sorts of pop-culture scandals can drive Web traffic. Quite a bit of my traffic over the past two days has come from google searches on this very subject. Google -- God's gift to bloggers.