It’s a lot harder to report accurately on celebrity jewelry than it looks. First you have fake engagements cooked up for publicity like Heidi Montag’s. Let’s face it, you even have to wonder about more well known engagements by couples who got together while promoting a movie. Was Bennifer ever on the up and up? Who knows.

But then even when the celebrities are telling the truth, the people doing the reporting sometimes make up stories, or just don’t care enough about jewelry to get the details right.

For example, let’s look at the engagement of Nick Cannon & Selita Ebanks. The reporting is all over the place. People magazine announced that the engagement happened in Times Square and said the Jacob & Co. ring is 12 carats. Then there are reports that the couple married in Vegas. But actually they didn’t. Then in a bizarre twist, there are reports that Selita told her friends the engagement is a sham and she was just playing along. Oops. The fake engagement story was actually faked itself. Confusing, isn’t it?

Then it turns out the 12 carat ring is 15 carats. Nick Cannon confirmed it himself. So at least you can rely on the 15 carats, right? Well I’m no longer sure. The NY Daily News just spent a day with Selita and here’s what they said about her ring:

Conversation also turns to Selita’s recent engagement to rapper and actor Nick Cannon, whom she speaks to on her cell throughout the day.

Flashing her blinding 12-carat diamond ring, Selita says, “I’m no Bridezilla. I’m fine with the courthouse.”

Last but not least, one of the reports on the price tag are wrong too. $300,000 or $400,000? I’m going to try and get the right info, but why do they bother reporting things if they don’t have any clue?

Now let’s move onto the Jennifer Aniston / Vince Vaughn relationship for another example. Aniston has been seen wearing a 9.5 Suzy Fabrikant fancy canary yellow diamond ring. Track this story down and you will see that major news outlets are now reporting things without basis. CNN broadcast reports of Jennifer Aniston getting engaged even though it turns out it never happened. Some reports even showed a picture of the engagement ring!

Both stars denied it. If you follow the story on US Magazine, it gets really weird. First on June 14th they say the couple is in Paris. June 15th they are shooting down engagement rumors, saying the rings Jen was wearing were borrowed from Fred Leighton and Bulgari. July 6 they report that Vince proposes. They even put it on the cover. The couple vehemently denies it. US Weekly won’t back down. They say the ring cost $500,000 and even claim their sources are better than the publicists!

Then, just to make your head spin a bit more, by July 12, Noelle Hancock of US Magazine says the engagement ring rumors are false and adds some pretty harsh words about Suzy Fabrikant’s design and more. She’s even claiming that Aniston’s rep is putting the blame for the stories on Fabrikant: “[Fabrikant] must be trying to get press because we know of no such ring, he told Us. It is really rather a pathetic attempt to get attention - shame on her!”

A Fabrikant ring was involved in a fake story before about the engagement of Cameron Diaz. Jossip is raising questions about Life & Style magazine “fauxing” stories. Jossip themselves have several jewelry-related mistakes in their article, like thinking the name Suzy Fabrikant sounds made up. It’s not. It’s quite prominent in the jewelry business actually.

It’s hard to know what to think, but Suzy seems to have no reason to make up stories. She’s in lots of retail locations and has lots of press. I doubt all that press is made up.

There’s always a possibility her PR person was to blame…but I don’t think there’s enough evidence to blame this on Suzy or her people.

The Aniston story described where Vince proposed. Why would Fabrikant make that up? The Cameron Diaz story discussed a Hawaiian wedding…

Clearly the blame has to be placed on the mags. One mag creates a story out of thin air, the others report it. That’s not how journalism is supposed to work. They are supposed to have corroboration by 3 sources. Clearly that’s not happening.

So if you like to get your facts straight, it does take a lot of work.