Hannah Montana Fans Suit Themselves

Next week on Discovery Channel, "When Hannah Montana Fans Attack…"

A possible class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Miley Cyrus Fan Club alleges that the lure of club membership in exchange for a better shot at concert tickets is entirely bogus.

Tickets for Cyrus' 54-date Best of Both Worlds tour sold out within minutes starting in August, sending desperate wannabe concertgoers—and scalpers—to the Internet, where sellers were asking for as much as $2,000 a pop for $63 seats.

According to court documents filed on behalf of New Jersey resident Kerry Inman in U.S. District Court in Nashville, Interactive Media Marketing Inc. and Smiley Miley Inc. couldn't back up the promise of easier concert access in exchange for an annual $29.95 membership fee.

The suit claims that tens of thousands of people like Inman could possibly join the suit, based on the popularity of the club's official Website, mileyworld.com. Inman states that she tried to get tickets to an Atlantic City show right when tickets went on sale, but came up empty-handed.

"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," Inman's attorney, Rob Peirce, said in a statement. Peirce is based in Pittsburgh but filed the suit in Tennessee, where the defendants operate.

"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."

Meanwhile, Cyrus' camp is calling the suit "frivolous" and defending the advantages of becoming an official Miley fan.

"The MileyWorld Web site expressly states that MileyWorld does not guarantee every member a concert ticket," read a statement released by the 14-year-old singer's publicist, Meghan Prophet, who added that 70,000 concertgoers did in fact get hooked up through the club.

"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 said. "MileyWorld will vigorously defend itself from the frivolous claims in the lawsuit."

Either way, the defendants should have been more careful in promising an edge when it came to tickets, according to the suit.

The Website does not guarantee tickets, the suit admits, but implies that members who log on right when tickets go on sale will have a good chance of snaring some.

The National Association of Ticket Brokers backed up Prophet's statement, telling MTV News that a large number of tickets were reserved for the fan club. In Missouri, for instance, 7,000 out of 11,000 seats for sale for a concert at Kansas City's Spring Center went to club members, according to NATB.

Which left 4,000 tickets for the general public and about 7,500 for…? (Spring Center seats 18,500.)

Attorney generals in Missouri and Arkansas weren't too pleased with the numbers, either, and promptly launched investigations into a handful of online ticket sellers' seemingly shady tactics.

Cyrus' tour kicked off Oct. 18 in St. Louis and has been playing to obviously sold-out crowds ever since. The daughter of country singer and Hannah Montana costar Billy Ray Cyrus spends half of each concert styled up like her blonde alter-ego and the rest in Miley mode.

Seems like enough to drive a teenager—and now her fans—positively mad.

Via eonline.com