Hannah Montana Contest Winner a Fake

Posted Dec 29th 2007 11:00AM by TMZ Staff

A 6-year-old girl won four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert in New York with an essay that claimed her "daddy died this year in Iraq." Heartbreaking? Yes. True? No.

Priscilla Ceballos, the mother of the young girl, had told the company sponsoring the contest that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq. When the spokesman asked the girl's mom if the story was true, the mother said no. God bless America.

"We never said this was a true story," Ceballos told FOX 4 in Dallas. "We do essays all the time. My daughter does essays at school all the time. It never did say it had to be true, but [the contest organizer] said, 'That's what we expected.'" Duh!

Club Libby Lu, the company behind the contest, has not yet made a decision as to whether the girl will get to keep the tickets.

UPDATE: Club Libby Lu has released the following statement on their website: "Club Libby Lu has been evaluating the situation surrounding our Hannah Montana Rock Your Holidays Essay Contest and is extremely sensitive to the fact we're dealing with a 6-year-old little girl. We wanted to take ample time to gather all the necessary facts in order to make an appropriate decision regarding whether or not we would award the Hannah Montana concert tickets and other prizes to the Ceballos family.

After awarding the grand prize, we unfortunately learned that the statements made in the essay were untrue. Club Libby Lu greatly values honesty and integrity. In order to uphold these values, we have decided to withdraw the award initially given to the Ceballos family.

Consequently, we will award the prize to another winner already identified. With this decision, we hope to revive the intended spirit of the contest, which was designed to make a little girl's holidays extra special. In order to protect the family's privacy, we have decided to not disclose the name of the new winner."

Filed under: Wacky & Weird

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(Page 2 of 13)Previous 15 Comments | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

16. Forever anon, I'm not condoning this freak. I'm saying that she lied about the roadside bombing to get free tickets. I don't know anything about the father or who's the child molester!

Posted at 11:37AM on Dec 29th 2007 by Lenn K.

17. that is so sad that a mother would think that is ok. What about this girls dad? She should not get those tickets.

Posted at 11:44AM on Dec 29th 2007 by Holy Crap

18. Give th tickets to some one who else .what about the people who have lost loved ones in Iraq. Thata not something to make up way go mom teach your daughter that those people's feelings dont count

Posted at 11:46AM on Dec 29th 2007 by christina

19. It's the fault of the people who sponsored the contest if they did not specify whether the essay was to be fiction or non-fiction. Dear Lord please help this country in which no one bothers to understand the English language anymore.

es·say /n. ˈɛseɪ for 1, 2; ˈɛseɪ, ɛˈseɪ for 3–5; v. ɛˈseɪ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[n. es-ey for 1, 2; es-ey, e-sey for 3–5; v. e-sey] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.
2. anything resembling such a composition: a picture essay.
3. an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.
4. Philately. a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.
5. Obsolete. a tentative effort; trial; assay.
–verb (used with object)
6. to try; attempt.
7. to put to the test; make trial of.

Posted at 11:47AM on Dec 29th 2007 by Petunia

20. I think they should give her the tickets. If they don’t, there will be a lawsuit against Club Libby Lu for thousands of $$$$$. The easy way the deal with the situation is to fold and cut their losses.

The mother totally correct when she stated that the rules did not say the story has to be truthful. I blame Club Libby Lu for not stating the rules clearly.

I understand the readers’ point of view about what the girl did was morally wrong but she stayed within the limitations of the rules, which made it OK.

Posted at 11:47AM on Dec 29th 2007 by Commentkiller

21. Do you all really think that this little 6 year old wrote this on her own? I am sure she had help from her "wonderful" mother. Give the tickets to someone elsel What a great role model for this little girl.

Posted at 11:48AM on Dec 29th 2007 by NatRat

22. Does anybody else find it interesting that a real kid submitted a fake essay to win tickets to a concert by a fake 'musician' and the reps for the fake 'musician' are upset about it?

Last time I checked, Hanna Montana was not a real person.
She is, what them thar ejamakated fokes calls a 'Fictional Character'.

So what if the girl told a lie to win the tickets?
Disney has been selling lies to children for decades.

Disney has made billions of dollars off of lie like 'Britney Spears: LIVE IN CONCERT' and countless other lip synch 'Concerts' they push.

I say Disney got what they've been giving and they don't like the taste of it.
LOL!

Up the Irons!!!
\m/

Posted at 11:51AM on Dec 29th 2007 by Hotdog on a stick

23. C'Mon. My daughter is a HUGE fan of Miley/Hannah. She would never lie to get tickets, and she is a straight A student. Give the tickets to a kid who's mother raised them right.

Posted at 11:51AM on Dec 29th 2007 by Rebecca

24. I think a lot of the "reality" shows such as Survivor have led people to believe that anything is okay if your playing a "game or contest". Also it's just the way things are these days, people have no shame about anything!

Posted at 11:53AM on Dec 29th 2007 by pay attention

25. Maybe this will teach people to do background checks, i.e., checking Iraq casualties, before handing out the prize.

Posted at 11:58AM on Dec 29th 2007 by lala

26. Nice job that woman is doing, teaching her daughter morals and ... no, wait ! Thats the exact oppositeof what she's done! Why on earth would you tellyour six year old that its ok to lie to get what you want?? If it wasn't bad enough that she just plain lied, she lied about her father being killed in iraq!!! C'mon lady! what about all of the kids that actually DID have thier mom or dad killed in iraq, you know those kids aren't trying to cash in on it. The mother is at fault and everyone will be able to point the finger @ mommy dearest 10 years from now when the girl is in juvie. This is no way to raise your children!!!

Posted at 12:00PM on Dec 29th 2007 by SanityLost

27. writing essays? at six years of age. this six year old and her mother are future heirheads just like the spears sisters, lilo, paris and nicole. the six year old should be punished rather than winning the contest..

Posted at 12:05PM on Dec 29th 2007 by rob

28. TMZ, how transparent and despicable you are to attempt to sully the name and reputation of today's biggest young star(Miley-HM-TMZ HM story). Of course everyone knows that this story is a childish, passive-aggressive response to your readers' reactions to your previous smear story today. Tell you what might work. Maybe someone could jackslap TMZ jackanapes into a more festive holiday attitude. I'm sure that many of your readers would be happy to provide TMZ with some much needed attitude adjustment. Don't you think?

Posted at 12:05PM on Dec 29th 2007 by always on call for TMZ

29. 6 yr olds do essays at school all the time ????
I dont think so.
They barely know how to write !!

Posted at 12:05PM on Dec 29th 2007 by Me myself and I

30. I am so disgusted by this story. First of all, my husband is a soldier. Lying about your father dying over there is just sick. People really are dying over there and they make some pathetic essay up about it just for some concert tickets. All that I can think about is what kind of mother would HELP her daughter do this? Obviously, she helped her. What six year old girl is so informed about Iraq and the things that happen there. This honestly makes me sick. They should give the mother a mental evaluation and yank the tickets from the kid to teach her a lesson. What are parents teaching their kids these days? It's just sick. Plain and simple.

Posted at 12:06PM on Dec 29th 2007 by Ugh

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