With all the hoopla surrounding Megan Fox kinda-bashing Michael Bay and then Michael Bay lightly making fun of her, it’s not surprising that rumors are springing up that Megan Fox’s character, Mikaela Banes, will be killed off in Transformers 3.

Making a valiant effort to squash those rumors is a hilariously silly website called Gossip Cop.  Gossip Cop purports to be the anti-gossip blog by finding rumors and then proving them false.

The only problem is that they do this by asking publicists whether rumors are true or not.  Publicists, whose job it is to make everybody look good and drama-free, just say “no” or “we don’t know.”  Gossip Cop then publishes these denials as “exclusives.”

Their story on the Megan Fox rumor is as follows:

A new rumor claims Megan Fox faces the “distinct possibility” of a “gory death scene” in a third “Transformers” movie, thanks to her outspoken comments about how difficult she found working for director Michael Bay.

Perez Hilton and others are picking up an In Touch report that says Fox’s character might be killed off early in the next sequel and swapped with a new female lead. Supposedly, according to the magazine’s “source,” Bay is “very quietly looking for her replacement.”

Very quietly. So quiet, in fact, no one can confirm it’s actually happening. And you know why? Because a rep for Fox tells Gossip Cop the story is “not true.”

Gee, I’m so convinced.  Especially since there’s no script yet — according to Bay himself they’ve only “broken a story,” which means they vaguely know what the movie’s about, enough to start pre-production.

Memo to Gossip Cop: publishing a two-word denial from a publicist is not the same thing as debunking a rumor.  For now, I’ll assume that killing off Mikaela is something Michael Bay is still privately considering, even though he probably won’t, because that’s stupid — while Megan Fox might not be able to carry movies by herself (like Jennifer’s Body) she’s still a big draw in the Transformers franchise.