Fox denied Glee star Chris Colfer was leaving the show just minutes after a tweet from his verified Twitter account said he was “let go” from the cast, saying the actor was a hacking victim.
In a statement to TIME, 20th Century Fox Television said: “We’ve been alerted that Chris Colfer’s Twitter account has been hacked. Rumors of his dismissal from Glee could not be further from the truth. We love Chris and look forward to working with him again this season.”
Colfer’s manager separately told The Hollywood Reporter that Colfer’s account had been hacked and that the actor was on a mid-Atlantic flight without access to Internet.
The initial tweet set off an Internet firestorm–it was shared more than 6,000 times within an hour after it was tweeted–and prompted media outlets to report he was leaving.
The tweet came ahead of what Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy has said will be the show’s sixth and final season and nearly a year after another show star, Cory Monteith, died.
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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com