NEW YORK — "Rocky" fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Actor Burt Young, best known as Paulie from the legendary boxing flicks, is not dead.

If you logged onto reelscoopnews.com, however, you'd get a quite a different picture. An ominous photograph of the 63-year-old Oscar nominee slumped in a bathtub is accompanied by the headline "Actor Found in Mott Street Apartment: Was it Suicide or Something Else?"

Sylvester Stallone, who played "Rocky," with Burt Young

Apparently, something else.

In its mission statement, the one-page Web site promises "breaking stories that you will not find in the Hollywood 'gossip' columns or the standard 'celebrity' magazines." Indeed, this exclusive of sorts won't be found anywhere else because it is bogus.

The mock news site is a publicity stunt masterminded by Young, along with advertising and production company Bee Harris Productions. Young, who was recently featured on HBO's "Sopranos," is currently hyping "Murder on Mott Street," a low-budget mob mystery which he directed, co-wrote and stars in.

'After all, any publicity is good publicity' — Robert Bruzio, Bee Harris Productions

Thanks largely to mass e-mails and letters to people in the movie industry, the site alleging criminal activity in Young's death, has averaged 12,000 hits per week since its launch in early March, according to Robert Bruzio, president of Bee Harris Productions.

The site was conceived as a relatively inexpensive way to garner attention from potential distributors and also as a mysterious prologue that blurs the lines of reality by using Young's real image and name.

"Just like I act, here I try to combine fact and fiction and use elements of myself," the grizzled and burly Young, known for playing similarly thuggish roles, told Courttv.com. "Whatever percentage is necessary I think is fair."

Burt Young fakes his own death in this picture taken to promote his film.

Alongside an actual photo and brief bio of Young, an "editor's column" reports that the bathtub image of Young has been circulating and that there have been reports of a possible suicide, mob hit or even a government cover-up and that a reelscoopnews.com reporter will be investigating.

The results of the investigation are presented as downloadable video clips of staged segments and interviews with titles like "Burt Young Tribute" and "Is This a Cover Up?" Despite some poorly worded text and the amateurish appearance of the site, it does go to great lengths to convince viewers of Young's mysterious demise.

"He did not really intend to fool anyone," said Bruzio of Young's plan. "We were grabbing attention. You're seeing Burt Young laid up in a Mott Street apartment and it lends publicity to the film. After all, any publicity is good publicity."

The stunt was a little too good for some. After the site went up, Young began receiving calls from concerned friends. Like any good actor, Young stayed in character and played the part of, well, missing and presumed dead actor Burt Young. Only close friends knew to call once, hang up and then call back in order to reach Young.

After his cyber plot was unraveled by a "New York Post" report last week, Young is reachable to all once again on just one ring.

A scene from "Murder on Mott Street"

This minor-celebrity-rumored-dead stunt recalls a low-tech episode in 1996 when now defunct San Francisco-based satire magazine "Might" created a stir by publishing a fabricated cover story on the death of "Eight is Enough" child TV star Adam Rich.

So why didn't Young, a self-professed "hick" when it comes to technology, go for a little old-fashioned phony print and instead of braving the Internet?

"It seems that everyone is succeeding or failing on the Web these days so I figured before I croak I might as well try that," explained Young. "I am almost high tech now."

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