'Bruce Almighty' Delivers Wrong Number

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday May 28, 2003 05:01 PM EDT

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One of the gags in the new Jim Carrey comedy "Bruce Almighty" is a phone number flashes across the screen, allowing viewers to ring up and talk to God. A few people, however, aren't laughing.

Donna Augustin, of Parrish, Fla., has the very same phone number -- and since the movie opened last Friday her phone has been ringing constantly, reports Sunshine State TV station WBBH.

"They would call up to midnight, 1 a.m. and it just kept happening," says Augustin. Most of the callers ask to speak to God -- which made no sense to the woman ... until her son Michael, 14, happened to check out Carrey's latest flick.

"When I saw the movie, I was like, that's my number," said Michael Augustin about the seven digits plastered on the screen.

The family told the TV station that they have a good sense of humor -- they've subsequently used a karaoke microphone to put a funny message on their answering machine -- but sometimes a caller will still get through in person.

"One guy asked if God was real, and I just played along and said, 'Yeah,'" said Michael Augustin.

Then, hot on the heels of the Augustin's ordeal, the Associated Press reports that another Florida household is under siege because of the phone number, as are homes in South Carolina, Arkansas and Colorado -- all with numbers that moviegoers think might hook them up to God.

Most movies opt for the fictitious "555" phone prefix to avoid potential problems with real phone numbers. A spokeswoman for Universal Studios, which produced "Bruce Almighty," told Colorado's Rocky Mountain News that this number was picked simply because it doesn't exist in Buffalo, N.Y., where the movie is set.