We now know the two actresses Miley Cyrus beat out to star on “Hannah Montana.”
There had been online speculation that singer Belinda, who appeared in the 2006 film “The Cheetah Girls 2,” almost snagged the lead role on the popular Disney Channel teen sitcom which ran from 2006 to 2011.
But the show’s original casting director, Lisa London, took to TikTok recently to set the record straight.
“I discovered Miley Cyrus,” said London. “I wanted to let everyone know that Belinda, who is lovely by the way, was never in the top three for the role of Hannah.”
London then showed a piece of paper which contained the names of the three actresses who in 2005 auditioned for the lead role along with about 1200 other young performers.
They were Cyrus, Taylor Momsen and Daniella Monet.
While they didn’t win the role of middle school student Miley Stewart, who is secretly pop singer Hannah Montana, both Momsen and Monet found success in others roles.
Momsen went on to star as Jenny Humphrey on The CW’s teen drama series “Gossip Girl” and Monet starred as Rebecca Martin on Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101” and Trina Vega on another one of that network’s shows, “Victorious.”