'Dancing With The Stars' Voters Call Woman's Cell Phone Instead Of Show

[matcom]

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GRANDVIEW, Mo. -- Fans of "Dancing with the Stars" who tried to call in and vote for Mario Lopez on Tuesday night may have talked with a Missouri woman instead.

Hundreds of people called Carmen Allen's cell phone by accident.

Allen, who has never watched the show, said she was surprised when she started getting hang-up calls on her cell phone Tuesday night.

"Finally, I just said, 'Well, maybe I just need to quit saying 'Hello' and just pick up the phone and say, 'Who are trying to get a hold of?'" Allen said.

Callers were trying to vote for actor Mario Lopez. Viewers were asked to call a 1-800 number, which was the same as Allen's cell phone number, the only difference being the area codes.

But the calls did not stop. Allen said she received 200 calls in one hour Tuesday night. She turned off her cell phone, but the calls continued. She said she had 80 messages in her voice mail when she checked Wednesday morning.

When out-of-state callers were getting through, Allen said she thought it was more than just a wrong number.

"When I started getting really irritated, I just started picking up the phone and saying, 'You need to dial 1-800.' And they were saying, 'We are.' And it was just, it was like a person would call back three or four times," Allen said.

The calls were eating Allen's cell phone minutes, which her service provider will give back.

Allen said she didn't know who Mario Lopez was until friends told her.

http://www.wftv.com/entertainment/10334818/detail.html

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1. So that's why Emmet won. I voted for Mario.