I learned something from Jessica Lee Rose, aka Lonelygirl15, aka Bree. If you make a lie pretty enough, no one will mind being deceived.

Jessica started posting her videos, in character as the 16-year-old home-schooled Midwestern teenager Bree, on YouTube. She used the screenname Lonelygirl15 and became a huge success.

Then one day, she was outed as an actress living in New Zealand. Zoinks! But instead of angering fans and being excoriated by Oprah, Jessica only became more famous and (strangely) kept posting daily videos, still in character. She now posts on her own site, lonelygirl15.com, and hobnobs with the rich and conventionally famous.

Now her video series has reached true entertainment status and she's got guest stars -- most glamorously, Katharine McPhee of American Idol fame. She appears as a girl Bree's roommate (and love interest) Daniel brings home from a bar. Rose is so well-loved despite her deceptions that she was named #1 in Forbes.com's "The Web Celeb 25" ranking, and has been reported to have secured movie deals. Want more indications of fame? A recent Law & Order episode had a character reminiscent of Bree (in the episode, the video star is kidnapped in an elaborate scripted ploy to get "ransom" money from viewers, and inevitably, someone is murdered).

Bree's life, full of mystery and glamour in the midst of an ordinary teen's existence, is everyone's dramatization of their own problems -- the makings of a blockbuster, in my opinion. If you're going to lie on the internet, it seems, make your lie dramatic and beautiful and everyone will love it.