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Thousands of “Hannah Montana” fans, disappointed and angered over the allegedly broken promise that membership with the Miley Cyrus Fan Club would ensure concert tickets, could unite in a lawsuit against the teenage entertainer’s website.
A class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, on behalf of a New Jersey woman, Kerry Inman, and anyone else who joined the Miley Cyrus Fan Club following reassurance that membership would entail priority in securing tickets for concerts.
This apparently has not happened. The Associated Press reports that the lawsuit names Interactive Media Marketing Inc. and Smiley Miley Inc. as defendants and seeks triple damages for all members of the lawsuit and attorneys' fees. The plaintiff does not know the size of the class yet, the lawsuit says, but it could number tens of thousands of people as the website is extremely popular.
“They deceptively lured thousands of individuals into purchasing memberships, based on the understanding that by joining, they would be able to purchase tickets before they were offered for sale to the general public, and that's why we're suing,” plaintiffs' attorney Rob Peirce said in a statement.
“While the club and the Web site do not guarantee ticket availability, they explicitly state that members who log on shortly after tickets become available will have a good opportunity to get tickets,” Peirce said. “In reality, the vast majority of club members, including those who logged on at the appointed time or shortly thereafter, were unable to obtain concert tickets.”
The suit was filed by Peirce’s Pittsburgh firm and a Memphis firm in Tennessee, where the defendants operate.
Membership to the Miley Cyrus fan club costs $29.95 per year, according to the lawsuit, which nevertheless acknowledges that the website offers no guarantee for ticket availability, instead announcing members that logging on shortly after tickets become available gives them a good opportunity to get them.
Cyrus' publicist, Meghan Prophet, said in a statement that the lawsuit’s claims are “simply false.”
“The Mileyworld Web site expressly states that Mileyworld does not guarantee every member a concert ticket,” Prophet said. “Mileyworld members had far greater access to concert tickets than the general public and other fan clubs, and the claim that the vast majority of Mileyworld members were unable to obtain concert tickets is simply false.”
Prophet specified that more than 70,000 club members obtained tickets due to their membership.
Miley Cyrus, 14, is the daughter of country singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus. They star as daughter and father in the Disney Channel TV show “Hannah Montana,” where Miley portrays high school student Miley Stewart, who is also secretly famous pop star Hannah Montana.
Her sold-out “Best of Both Worlds Tour” debuted Oct. 18 in St. Louis and has started a craze among fans desperate to get their hands on a ticket. Shows have sold out in a matter of minutes and scalpers have made a pretty penny, selling tickets for prices ranging into the thousands of dollars.
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