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PREACH IT! It’s goodbye, Amanda Bynes. Or is it hello?

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We’ve been treated to another celebrity “bombshell” via Twitter: Actress Amanda Bynes, onetime star of the TV series “What I Like About You,” has taken to the Internet to announce her retirement. “Being an actress isn’t as fun as it may seem,” said Bynes, 24. “If I don’t love something anymore, I stop doing it. I don’t love acting anymore, so I’ve stopped doing it.”

So does that mean we’ll never see Bynes again? Maybe. Or, seriously, maybe not.

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Even in show business, where people issue press releases for everything from weddings to death denials -- people rarely confirm retirements. That is, they rarely confirm real retirements.

Joaquin Phoenix announced his flight from film in October 2008, only to signal several times that the joke was on us. He filmed a “documentary” -- which turned out to be a mockumentary -- about a supposed foray into rap. And the whole time, he managed to stay in the occasional spotlight through a gig in Vegas here, an appearance on Letterman there. Point is, he didn’t retire, not really.

Neither did Jay-Z, who also went into retirement. Until he came out of it.

(Yes, for the record, we know Leonard Nimoy recently announced his farewell to film too. But he’s 79, so something tells us that one is real.)

So: Back to Amanda Bynes. Which kind of retirement is this: the Jay-Z or the Nimoy?

Given the business she’s in, don’t be shocked if she’s merely testing her remaining audience, seeing if it still wants to see her on the cover of a magazine -- or, maybe, in a brand-new mockumentary.

-- Leslie Gornstein

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