OK, we are going to go out on a limb on this one even though it’s Sunday and getting an official comment is practically impossible.
On April 10th the oh so scholarly and reliable Max-Dan-Wiz site runs a story supposedly obtained from the AP claiming Stephenie Meyer stole the idea for Twilight from her former college roommate, said roommate is suing her, A BYU professor is backing the roommate, and production has halted on New Moon.
OK let’s take this out step by step:
- Article appeared on April 10: filming has gone on since that date most notably Friday when Vancity Allie got pictures of the cast in Bella’s Birthday party attire.
- The article claims an AP wire as their source. We can find no such record of this on the AP.
- The article claims Dr. Peter Benton now head of the BYU English Department is backing the claim. There is no Dr. Peter Benton at BYU (but he was a character on ER or a few seasons).
- Stephenie’s supposed former roommate must be living under the biggest rock ever if in Salt Lake City of all places she is only just now hearing that her former roommate’s success is based on a vampire novel.
- Vampire short story in the BYU curriculum…yeah…I’m sure the BYU undergrads wrote lots of vampire tales 15 years ago right along with all those stories involving lots of swearing, drinking, and pre-marital sex.
So who fell for this nonsense?
The Insider who thought for whatever reason it was a good idea to let fans upload stories and have it appear as if it were an official The Insider story. The site is reporting the story as fact, and is also running the story with the fan made poster WITH A TURKEY in the corner as if it were real. On a quick glance other news outlets who don’t read the fine print to realize this is a fan uploaded story are linking to this story.
Others who fell for this include:
ONTD
Backseat Cuddler
Fanpop
…the list goes on. Run the words “Dr. Peter Benton and BYU” and “Heidi Stanton and BYU” though a Google search and you get tons more links.
EDITED: Official comment from Summit Entertainment regarding the portion of the story as it specifically refers to filming is as follows: “This rumor is certainly NOT true. Please let your readers know.”
EDITED: Official comment from Stephenie Meyer’s publisher regarding the portion of the story that refers to the lawsuit:
“This story is false.”
*Note the story on the Max-Dan-Wiz site has now been removed.
Christian Serratos 
The 
It seems like Kellan Lutz made an off-handed comment that might indicate that the vampires will be done filming in Vancouver shortly. Given that the majority of the Cullens are only present in the very beginning and the very end of the novel, the story seems probable. Given the re-arrival of Edi Gathegi and Rachelle Lefevere and since Cristian Serratos on her blog confirmed that the humans are also done filming, it looks like filming is clipping along at a productive and efficient pace. Also, since New Moon has a lot more interiors than Twilight, and the vampires are less in it, its far less weather dependent.
Robert Pattison haas been named
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