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Apparent Oprah Hoax Fools Texas School & Student

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Nov 13, 2008 12:24 pm US/Central

Apparent Oprah Hoax Fools Texas School & Student

VICTORIA (AP) ― School officials and a student who successfully battled a life-threatening illness spent six months thinking Oprah Winfrey was coming to Victoria to tell the eighth-grade girl's story.

It turns out they were victims of an apparent hoax.

The buzz started in April when Victoria school district officials received a packet that appeared to come from "The Oprah Winfrey Show." In it, they were invited to be part of a project that focused on schools and students, said district spokeswoman Diane Boyett.

Follow-up e-mails led school officials to believe they were negotiating for the use of the school and the need for publicity releases for children involved in the filming, Boyett said. But one of the key purported correspondents by e-mail or mail was a former Winfrey executive producer who hadn't produced a show in five years, Winfrey spokeswoman Angela DePaul said in Thursday's editions of the Victoria Advocate.

No one from the school district actually spoke with staff members for Winfrey's Harpo Productions Inc., Boyett said.

DePaul said Winfrey wasn't coming to Victoria to film a show.

"Nor had she planned to," DePaul said.

The apparent hoax fell apart when claims of connections to the Children's Miracle Network, which grants wishes for sick children, turned out to be false.

The student, Hunter Pence, started Hunter's Hope to educate people about the drug-resistant staph infection she overcame last year. She said that until this week, she had no reason to believe her Winfrey appearance wouldn't happen.

"I can't wrap my brain around it," Pence said.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

© MMIX, CBS Stations Group of Texas L.P. All Rights Reserved.