Bulk Email

It was the tease heard ’round the Web. Last Wednesday, Mary-Kate Olsen appeared on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” to promote her new role in the Showtime series “Weeds.” She crossed her legs, tossed her big blond mane, and dropped a flyaway joke that she’s pregnant.

Let’s stop there. It was a joke. Repeat, a joke. But it’s a miracle if females between the ages of 13 and 29 got any work done the next day. Searches for the 21-year-old celeb leapt 1,181%, while buzz on her mommy gag blasted upwards—and kept blasting. One week later, we’re still logging queries for “mary kate pregnant,” “is mary-kate olsen pregnant,” and “mary-kate olsen pregnancy.” Girls, she was making a funny!

But it’s not just the happily expectant news that stirs up buzz on Mary-Kate’s physique. The actress sought help for an eating disorder in 2004, yet we continue to see tabloid stories—and searches—on the topic today. Sure, she’s unnvervingly skinny. So are a lot of Hollywood starlets-slash-fashion icons. But none of them saw a 447% surge in “anorexia” queries last week.