The hackers gained access to accounts through a Phishing scam aimed at Twitter userswhich would allow them to enter their password and personal details, which could then be used by the hackers.

The celebrities awoke on Monday morning to find their Twitter accounts – which allows users to post short updates of less than 140 characters – with some bizarre and, in some cases pornographic messages.

Twitter allows for users to send messages to friends about what they are doing.

The fictional updates included a message from Mr Sanchez saying he would not be in work because he was high on crack, a link to free petrol from Mr Obama and some very personal statistics from Ms Spears. Although no actually harm was done, this is quite damaging to the popular blogging site, which is seen as the forefront of the new generation of social networking tools.

Twitter have now claimed to have suspended and secured all affected accounts, but recommend to not click on any links asking you to confirm your Twitter password, as this is likely to be a scam.