A couple of people have pointed me to this really quite remarkably weird story about R&B singer Omarion. There’s something more than a little odd going on here.

First – on the day of the horrific London bombings, Reuters ran a story, purportedly inspired by the singer’s publicist: "In London, uninjured Omarion seeks prayers." It’s an entertaining, quietly snarky little piece.

“Omarion was in London during the tragic bombings that struck this morning,” a statement by the singer’s publicist AR PR Marketing, released hours after the bombings, said. Making no mention of the fatalities or casualties of the blasts, the singer’s statement concluded, “He would like his fans to pray that he has a safe trip and a safe return home. He appreciates your support.” … Asked why anyone should pray for him, [publicist Shauna Gilmore] said, “He wasn’t hurt or anything, but just the fact that he was there and all that.”

As you’d probably expect, my first reaction on reading this story was: "what a wanker". As my friend Chris Wood at Maverick put it: “While tragedy unites us all, it also brings out opportunist maggots.” Sad, but true.

But then my inner fact-checker kicked in and I decided to dig deeper. The plot... curdles.

If you go to Omarion's website right now, you'll find a note denouncing the Reuters story as a hoax:

According to representatives at the artist's record label, Sony Urban/Epic Records, statements and sentiments appearing in a Reuters-syndicated article (Thu Jul 7, 2005 9:22 PM BST) and attributed to the American R&B singer Omarion were never made by the performer. Contrary to statements made in the article, Omarion is in no way affiliated with the pr marketing firm mentioned in the piece. The "publicist" quoted in the article is not a legitimate representative of the artist, is not known to the artist, and is not acting on the artist's behalf. Omarion regrets any association with the article and hopes that fans will not be taken in by unfounded and unauthorized statements.

Strange. Stranger still is that this is a revised version of the original disclaimer that went up the day after the Reuters piece appeared:

"Statements and sentiments appearing in a Reuters-syndicated article (Thu Jul 7, 2005 9:22 PM BST) and attributed to the American R&B singer Omarion were never made by the performer. Contrary to statements made in the article, Omarion is in no way affiliated with the firm, AR PR Marketing, nor is "publicist Shana Gilmore" a legitimate publicist acting on behalf of the artist. Omarion regrets any confusion and sends his thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims of this horrific tragedy."

Curiouser and curiouser. The totured layering of deniable disavowal hints at much lip-biting and hair-pulling at the record company.

Yet two minutes of Googling brings up a couple of stories seeming to confirm that Omarion IS "affiliated" with AR PR, including this puff piece about the agency stating: "AR PR Marketing has also successfully planned events for Omarion's album release..."

The AR PR website appears to be down at the moment, but Google's cached version of the site last week showed they were still prominently touting their work with Omarion at the top of the page.

Before the site went down, it went sideways. For a few days the front page of the AR PR site went unchanged, except that all of the links went to Google, Yahoo or MSN search pages. Now all you get is a default Windows IIS error message.

So what the fjǿrk is going on here? Is someone screwing with AR PR, or with Omarion, or both? I’d love to see a statement from the PR agency explaining their side of this puzzle. You’d think they’d want to do a little reputation management here, before the flying fickle finger of fisk flicks them into the wastebasket of failed agency startups.