On the surface, Jenelle Evans and Ashley Martson have quite a lot in common.
They're both reality stars; they both have seriously questionable taste in men; both would apparently break out in hives if they ever went more than 30 seconds without spouting some sort of obvious lie ... the list goes on and on.
But the same things can be said about countless awful reality stars.
So why are Jenelle and Ashley both appearing in so many of the same headlines, and why is one media outlet apparently under the impression that they're the same person?
It all started Wednesday morning when E! News ran a story claiming that Jenelle had been hospitalized for lupus.
"I am dealing with a lupus flare-up and pyelonephritis," the site quoted Evans.
"I also have a large cyst on my left ovary the surgeons are coming down to evaluate if they need to remove or not.
"They have started an IV of Levaquin and have me in morphine and Zofran."
A source told the site that Evans and husband David Eason have been "quietly dealing" with the diagnosis.
The insider went on to explain that the stress from Jenelle having her kids taken away seems to have resulted in a flare-up of symptoms:
“Things have been so intensely stressful for her that it's made her sick to the point that she had to be rushed to the hospital," the tipster claimed.
But there are a few problems with this story, namely, the fact that Jenelle doesn't have lupus; she's not in the hospital; and she doesn't "quietly deal with" anything.
If she had an actual diagnosable medical condition, Jenelle would be shouting it from the rooftops and using it as an excuse for why she neglected her kids to the point that CPS felt they were no longer safe.
However, Ashley Martson does have lupus -- and it seems that's who E! meant to report on today.
Their original article has since been amended to reflect that.
Mix-ups happen, of course, but this is a big one -- and a weird one.
How did someone at E! confuse Ashley for Jenelle?
And more importantly, why didn't the site publish a retraction once it became evident that a major mistake had been made?
Several sites and countless social media accounts ran with the story, and for several hours, confusion reigned across the internet.
And it seems Jenelle wasn't the only victim here.
Ashley was so upset by false reports that she checked into rehab that she eventually just deleted her Instagram account entirely.
Granting an interview to E! may have been her way of clearing the air about what's really going on -- and the network appears to have dropped the ball and muddied the waters by dragging Jenelle into the mix.
Of course, that last bit is just speculation on our part.
We're not trying to get dragged into this mess with any false reporting!