I Called It

And so did many other reasonably observant people.

The online world has been punk'd by an adorable teen science geek who led us to suspect she was about to become a virgin sacrifice for her parents' "Satanic" cult.

Here's what I wrote on July 28:

"Youtube is starting to freak me out. It's great for important stuff like Eddie Izzard clips and cartoons from The Electric Company, but looking at the most-viewed videos you find some questionable stuff. Not disturbing-questionable. Just questionable. For example, there's a very photogenic homeschooled girl calling herself Lonelygirl15 who posts a video diary that has become extraordinarily popular. She's sweet, she's smart, she's cute. At first you think, Now isn't that adorable? Then you look again, and you think, "WTF IS GOING ON HERE?!" Not only is the production value far too high for a 15-year-old who says she can barely operate her own webcam, but the girl's facistic parents (who seem to be uberreligious) allow an older boy to hang out in her room with the door closed for hours at a time? And what 15-year-old, no matter how smart, reads Richard Feynman? The whole thing seems to be exquisitely scripted and edited to perfection...but why? Is she after a modeling career? Attention? Pervy older men who will possibly pay for a boob job? I'm just... confused."

I continued to watch Bree's videos for a while, stopping about three videos ago. There was some drama with pal Daniel and her dad, lots of science-geek stuff, a cute rap-music video. There was a kerfuffle when Daniel refused to videotape a religious summer-camp play in which Bree was appearing, but peace was made when Daniel showed up announced at her performance. Awww. The videos are so charming and polished that lonelygirl15 and danielbeast spawned online forums, v-blog responses and imitations, and quite an impressive fan base. Teenage girls all over the world earnestly flicked on their webcams to offer the socially stymied Bree romantic advice and moral support.

The mysteries of Bree's religious affiliation mounted when more observant viewers noticed a photo of Aleister Crowley hanging on the wall of her abnormally tidy bedroom. (It's him, thogh at first I thought it might be Churchill. If you freeze "What Did Daniel and My Dad Talk About?" when Bree takes the webcam on a tour around the room, it comes into crystal-clear focus. It's this picture.) Four days ago, in a video entitled "A Change in My Life", Bree announced that she would be fasting ("going on a a diet") in preparation for a very special religious ceremony that's "very difficult to get into", requires many arcane preparations, and is only conducted once in a great while. "There are some exercises I have to learn to do. My mom said she'd help me with those," Bree glibly said. Things were gettin' awful creepy. But Bree went on being her usual sunny self. Two days ago she posted a video about... what else?...Pluto.

Was Bree's family caught up in a sex magick cult? Was it the OTO, or a more dangerous offshoot? Was Bree being prepped for initiation, or to be a virgin sacrifice? Was Daniel being groomed to initiate her? Did she have any clue what she was in for? Let's face it, this is better than Passions!

Today, the L.A. Times and lonelygirl herself dissolved the mystery. A forum message on www.lonelygirl15.com (which, as some YouTubers had already noted, was registered before Bree even began posting her videos!) thanked the duo's "fans" for participating in a "new art form", an "interractive" webcam/filmmaking project, and hinted at a more ambitious project that would pay fans for their feedback.
Richard Rushfield and Claire Hoffman of the L.A. Times, in today's article "Mystery Fuels Huge Popularity of Web's Lonelygirl15", revealed that "e-mails sent from a lonelygirl15 account came from inside the offices of the Beverly Hills-based talent agency Creative Artists Agency", and that "lonelygirl15" was copyrighted. Most of this info, it seems, was sussed out by YouTubers who just couldn't stand the suspense any longer.

The mystery still isn't 100% resolved, though. The ultimate motive behind it all is hazy at best. Viewers have already speculated that anti-Christian filmmaker Brian Flemming (whom I've mentioned on my blog The Devil Appears) is involved in the hoax, though he denies it, and others suspect it's just a viral marketing campaign for an unidentified horror movie. For the time being, I'll take "Bree" at her word and accept that it's just a very silly film project set up by two aspiring actor/models with too much time and money on their hands. Bree and Daniel, you've successfully conned entire continents of teenaged girls. Congratulations, I guess.

And for the record, I seeeriously doubt that the OTO holds summer camps for teenagers. Nice try, guys.