Kennedy graduate dupes hundreds, gains fame

Kennedy High School graduate Brett Cohen did not star in “The Amazing Spider-Man.” He is not on a television show on NBC, and he did not release a hit album. But Cohen was able to convince hundreds in the heart of New York City otherwise with the help of a camera crew, bodyguards and makeup.

The 21-year-old recently took a stroll through Times Square with fake paparazzi and others in tow –– and fooled hundreds of people into thinking he was a celebrity. With the YouTube video of the stunt now viral, Cohen has achieved fame through national media appearances.

On July 27, Cohen said he “dressed up like a typical celebrity” and walked out of the 49th Street marquee at NBC Studios with an entourage of two professional bodyguards, two assistants and paparazzi photographers. Before Cohen left, the assistants and photographers told pedestrians that a “big star” was about to walk out.

The video shows that as Cohen and his faux-entourage made their way from Rockefeller Center to Times Square, crowds of pedestrians began to follow him. Cohen said his own appearance and the presence of his partners in the project stopped people from questioning why he was famous.

“There was only one guy who came up to me and said, ‘I don’t know who you are,’” Cohen said. “So I said to him, ‘I don’t know who you are.’”

Edward Sturm, Cohen’s friend and co-producer of the video, was interviewing people who took pictures with Cohen on the night of the shoot. The video shows young girls telling Sturm how attractive they thought Cohen was, pedestrians saying that they liked his hit single but “couldn’t remember what it was called” and more. He said other rumors that began floating around the crowd were that he was in “The Matrix” and other films.

Sturm said he was surprised that people accepted that Cohen was a celebrity just because of the photographers and guards even though they had never seen him before.

“When I would ask questions, I wasn’t sure if people would take the hook and bite,” he said. “But people just started guessing.”