A year ago a video titled ‘Chloe and Keith’s Wedding’ swept the internet. It’s a goofy 44 second clip of a couple’s wedding video, wherein the best man stumbles while handing over the rings, and in the process crashes into the bride and the minister, both of whom go tumbling into the pool behind them. It was featured on most of the major morning shows and everyone thought it was just hysterical. But it turns out the whole thing was a hoax from the get-go: it’s actually a clip from an independent movie.

One of the hottest viral videos of the last year has been Chloe and Keith’s Wedding, a funny little clip of a bride getting knocked into a pool by the clumsy best man mid-ceremony. It was uploaded to YouTube in October of 2008 and has been viewed by at least 30 million people since then. In February, Time magazine ranked it as one of Internet’s 99 Greatest Hits. It has aired on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show and Australian, British and Japanese news networks. Take a look:

Chloe and Keith have laughed about their wedding day, and appeared on Good Day L.A. on Oct 5 talking about a longer version is now available as a 40-minute DVD and download.

But today, we can tell you: it’s definitely a hoax.

Chloe and Keith are actors named Josh Covitt and Charissa Wheeler. They’re not married. The clip and its video follow-up are both part of a completely scripted independent film conceived by writer/director Archie Gips along with producing partner Dennis Anderson and executive producer Nancy Moonves (ex-wife of CBS chief Les Moonves). The pool the bride fell into? That was Nancy’s. It was filmed at her house.

“Yes, it’s a hoax,” Archie told Lifeline Live in a phone call a little while ago. Added Nancy, “We didn’t set out to fool anyone. It just took on a life of its own.” Archie doesn’t really like the word hoax. “It’s more a blurring of reality and fiction,” he says. It started as a way of marketing what they saw as a romantic comedy movie and it snowballed so much that they kept the myth alive. What about flat-out lying – as the actors seemed to do on Good Day L.A.? “We tried to lie as little as possible,” says Archie.

But he admits that some people are really ticked off at finally knowing it’s not a real clip of a real wedding – and that they’re now selling it. “I’ve gotten some vicious emails,” says Archie. They’ve been trying to get on several of the shows that ran the clip initially and one TV show producer was “livid,” says Nancy. “He felt very betrayed. Where’s his sense of humor?”

[From Lifeline Live]

Because I am lame I somehow managed to never see or even hear of this particular video. What can I say, I really prefer the cute animal viral vids more than anything else. So since I watched this after I already knew it was a hoax, to me it seemed… well not obviousit was staged, but definitely suspicious.

The emotion of the bridesmaids at the end is very cheesy and unrealistic. So I guess it’s not just that it seems like acting, but like bad acting. Keith appears to yell “No!” as Chloe and the minister are falling into the pool. That struck me as unrealistic – in the moment, I think you’d just gasp or something. But no is sort of like, “No! It’s my greatest fear realized!” I know that’s something relatively minor, but he just seemed to be really quick with it. I’d be like, “Is this really happening? This isn’t really happening.” Right after that a bridesmaid giggles and says “Oh my God,” and it is just really fake. Her bad delivery of one half line should have made people suspicious from the get-go. Thanks for ruining it, Bridesmaid Number 4. Your career just went down the toilet.

Actually I can’t help but wonder if the careers of everyone involved in this little debacle just went down the toilet. Or in their case, maybe sucked into the pool filtration system.

Here are “Chloe” and “Keith” on Good Day L.A.