False. It is not possible to register multiple variants of the same address. The reason you get misdirected email is because people are entering the wrong address in forms. You should see all the email that goes to paul@gmail.com :)
On an (un)related note, my google voice phone number is (xxx)-234-5678, and it is completely unusable. You should hear the kind of voice mails that I get. I have started archiving the most amusing ones in my account. I have been blocking the numbers from area code (xxx) since I registered that number (June/2009), but it is still not usable.