It gets worse...
"A source close to me" reliably informs me that half of those "real life" stories are made up. (And certainly when you see some of the more ridiculous "My dad beat me with my brother's severed penis while bumming my dog"-style stories, it's hardly surprising.)

Basically, when they're short of a story or two, they ring around various agents/managers and ask if they have anyone on their books willing to pose for a photograph next to some ridiculous story, under a false name, pretending to have had a child following a lesbian affair with their own grandmother. My friend does the odd bit of modelling work and received one such offer from her manager. She considered changing her manager after that one...
(LongJohnBaldry, Mon 8 Feb 2010, 9:45, Reply)