How far we've fallen.....
Hannah Montana essay winner a fake Sat Dec 29, 12:34 AM ET
GARLAND, Texas - An essay that won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: "My daddy died this year in Iraq."
While gripping, it wasn't true - and now the girl may lose her tickets after her mom acknowledged to contest organizers it was all a lie.
The sponsor of the contest was Club Libby Lu, a Chicago-based store that sells clothes, accessories and games intended for young girls.
The saga began Friday with company officials surprising the girl at a Club Libby Lu at a mall in suburban Garland, about 20 miles northeast of Dallas. The girl won a makeover that included a blonde Hannah Montana wig, as well as the grand prize: airfare for four to Albany, N.Y., and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on Jan. 9.
The mother had told company officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said.
"We did the essay and that's what we did to win," Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. "We did whatever we could do to win."
She had identified the soldier as Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar, but the Department of Defense has no record of anyone with that name dying in Iraq. Caulfield said the mother has admitted to the deception.
"We regret that the original intent of the contest, which was to make a little girl's holiday extra special, has not been realized in the way we anticipated," said Mary Drolet, the CEO of Club Libby Lu.
Drolet said the company is reviewing the matter, and is considering taking away the girl's tickets.
GARLAND, Texas - An essay that won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: "My daddy died this year in Iraq."
While gripping, it wasn't true - and now the girl may lose her tickets after her mom acknowledged to contest organizers it was all a lie.
The sponsor of the contest was Club Libby Lu, a Chicago-based store that sells clothes, accessories and games intended for young girls.
The saga began Friday with company officials surprising the girl at a Club Libby Lu at a mall in suburban Garland, about 20 miles northeast of Dallas. The girl won a makeover that included a blonde Hannah Montana wig, as well as the grand prize: airfare for four to Albany, N.Y., and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on Jan. 9.
The mother had told company officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said.
"We did the essay and that's what we did to win," Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. "We did whatever we could do to win."
She had identified the soldier as Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar, but the Department of Defense has no record of anyone with that name dying in Iraq. Caulfield said the mother has admitted to the deception.
"We regret that the original intent of the contest, which was to make a little girl's holiday extra special, has not been realized in the way we anticipated," said Mary Drolet, the CEO of Club Libby Lu.
Drolet said the company is reviewing the matter, and is considering taking away the girl's tickets.
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Future Politican say whatever it takes to win 0 -
The tickets were taken away and will be given to someone else....the update was in todays paper....
If the girl didnt know about it, then she should not be the one to suffer...From what I understand, it was the mother who did it....0 -
According to the T.V. station, the mother has hired a lawyer and will fight for the tickets in court..... 0 -
That is the only way to get tickets, unless you pay $1000 to a ticket scalper broker for $64 seats. Why are the brokers allowed to do this when scalping is illegal? Perhaps this Hannah Montana thing will get some action. The AG's in three states are filing lawsuits over brokers. 0 -
Hannah Montana is actually Miley Cyrus (daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus).
The lady should lose the tickets...she lied about the father being killed in action (hell he might not even be in the military). All she is doing is teaching her daughter that lying to get what you want is perfectly acceptable. Take the tickets and maybe the daughter will learn there are penalties for lying in life.
As to the brokers...they need to have their asses tossed in jail. There is no reason to get 10x or more the amount of the tickets. Guess this is why I quit going to concerts over the years.0 -
quote:According to the T.V. station, the mother has hired a lawyer and will fight for the tickets in court.....
A true sign of the times....It doesn't matter if you are a guilty slimball and everyone knows it. Get a lawyer and fight it.
You might get a jury full of sympathetic idiots......[:(!][:(!]0 -
Maybe the essay was written as fiction. Whoever said it had to be true. Did the rules state it had to be non-fiction? 0 -
How far we have fallen is not measured by the falsity of the essay; it is measured by the interest this nation takes generally in trivialities such as Hannah Montana. Had in fact this girl's father died in Iraq he would still and forever be an anonymous and wholly incidental afterthought to the focus of our national attention. Pathetic. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by DancesWithSheep
How far we have fallen is not measured by the falsity of the essay; it is measured by the interest this nation takes generally in trivialities such as Hannah Montana. Had in fact this girl's father died in Iraq he would still and forever be an anonymous and wholly incidental afterthought to the focus of our national attention. Pathetic.
True, but it has always been that way, so that's not the true measure of how far we have fallen either.0 -
quote:Originally posted by BlackRoses
The tickets were taken away and will be given to someone else....the update was in todays paper....
If the girl didnt know about it, then she should not be the one to suffer...From what I understand, it was the mother who did it....
It's a shame that the girl has to go through this. But missing a concert I'm sure pales in comparison to the embarrassment and shame that her mother has caused her. As for the girl paying for what her mother did, thats how it works, people's poor choices often causes anguish others around them. I feel bad for the kid.0 -
quote:Originally posted by JamesRK
True, but it has always been that way, so that's not the true measure of how far we have fallen either.
No, it has not always been that way. I suggest you review newspaper headlines attending previous periods of war; Iwo Jima and even the Siege of Khe Sahn was not seconded by a national fascination with celebrity. Maybe things weren't different when and where you grew up, but they certainly were with me.0 -
What a disgusting "loser",......both of them IMHO![}:)] 0 -
It is about time that someone "took the gloves off" in an effort to win that contest. With those kinds of tall tales (outright lies) that little girl (or her mom) should be on GW's staff! No one said anything about telling the truth in the essay to win the contest, so she just came up with something to fool the folks reading it into declaring her the winner. 0 -
There are no words to describe the disgust I feel for the mother (at least) in this. 0 -
Who wants to bet that the girl never met her real father... this country is going down the crapper.... and unfortunately I am young enough I will be here for a long time in the future. Founding fathers are turning in their graves. 0
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