Twitter hoaxers have Cruise dead in NZ - again

Tom Cruise has not died at Kauri Cliffs - again.

It's the second time the actor hasn't died after not falling from the cliffs at the luxury lodge and golf course in Northland while in New Zealand.

Cruise didn't die there in 2008 either. Jeff Goldblum and Tom Hanks are other stars who haven't plummeted to their deaths there. If that all sounds a bit bizarre, blame the internet.

The latest Cruise rumour, which began on Friday, had some bizarre variations, however - one version had the actor dying in New Zealand after a plumbing accident.

Cruise confirmed he was alive in an interview with MTV News. "I'm really alive," the actor said from London. "Did the internet get it wrong again?"

Kauri Cliffs receptionist Sandy Hafner hadn't heard the rumour and had no idea why the lodge was so popular with hoaxers.

After the Goldblum rumour last year, Kerikeri police were flooded with calls and issued a statement confirming nothing had happened.

Yesterday the station had yet to receive calls about the incident involving the diminutive actor, but an officer noted "it would be a very small coffin".

Fateful cliffs

June 2009: Jeff Goldblum is rumoured to have died at Kauri Cliffs while filming a movie - the same day as Michael Jackson's (real) death. The hoax spreads via Twitter and Channel Nine's Today show in Australia reports the rumour as fact.

October 2008: Tom Cruise supposedly meets his end off the same fateful cliffs. Cruise is not in New Zealand.

November 2006: A rumour spreads about Tom Hanks' death after falling from - where else - Kauri Cliffs. He is in California at the time