Taye Diggs Reveals Why He Suddenly Started Following 45,000 Strangers on Twitter

In April, actor Taye Diggs followed 24 people on Twitter—which was 23 more than Kanye West, but still pretty diminutive. Two months later, he was up to 45,500 followers, causing joy, confusion, and calls to investigate from strangers across the Twitterverse. Journalists especially.

After months of speculation, Diggs went on the TODAY Show Friday to set the record straight regarding his follow spree. And it was an answer we all should have guessed: he hired a social media expert.

“I mean I’m embarrassed,” Diggs said. “Everybody was telling me I needed to have more of a presence on Twitter, so I met with this dude that deals in social network.” Diggs gave him a list of people he was interested in—from athletes to politicians—and the social media manager started following them so the actor’s Twitter feed could function as an RSS reader.

(Disclosure: this reporter is followed by Diggs and refuses to let this revelation diminish her excitement.)

Now the real question is — what’s Montel’s reason for the follow surge?