Lady Gaga Will Die On Wednesday — Sort Of

The reports are true: Lady Gaga will die on Wednesday. Sort of. In a bold social-media suicide, she's quitting Twitter and Facebook, which will likely send her millions of obsessed fans (aka "LittleMonsters") into a sadness spiral of Gaga withdrawal. But Gaga's untimely Internet disappearance is for a good cause. The global pop phenomenon -- who has more than 7 million Twitter followers -- aims to raise money on World AIDS Day by staging a digital death.

Also in on the stunt: Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Seacrest, Jennifer Hudson and Kim Kardashian, who's pictured in ads laying in a coffin next to the grim headline: "KIM KARDASHIAN IS DEAD."

Keys is spearheading this campaign, called Digital Life Sacrifice, on behalf of her favorite charity, Keep A Child Alive. Gaga and the gang will come back to life once the organization raises more than $1 million for AIDS/HIV-affected families in Africa and India.

This shows a keen sense of media savvy on Keys' part: Getting Gaga to sign off social networking -- even for a day -- is a smart strategy to draw attention to any cause. That's because the singer's fan base is arguably bigger and more intense than anyone else's at the moment (except perhaps the devoted fandoms of Justin Bieber, Madonna and Garth Brooks). When Gaga stops Twittering, people notice.

Which turns our minds to the special public-relations powers of The Biebs: When the teen dream cuts his hair, people notice. So the next gimmick Keys needs to attempt is getting Bieber to cut his hair for the cause. We can hear the Beliebers' banshee howls already.