"Oprah backs Shamcey? 'Twas a hoax, Winfrey's reps say"

 –Comments attributed to Oprah Winfrey about Miss Philippines Shamcey Supsup's third runner-up finish in the Miss Universe contest have been dismissed as a hoax by the US talk show host’s official site, Yahoo News Philippines reported.

Winfrey’s alleged statement, aired via NBC News, spread like wildfire cross the Internet, with many netizens posting it on social networking sites.

The purported statement said: “I have reservations with the results. If the only basis is the Q and A portion, after having been trimmed down to 5, Ms. Philippines deserved to win. What made her different from the rest is that she had no seconds to rethink of her answer as she had no interpreter to break the ice. The rest had their interpreters and having breaks on seconds to think about their answers. Hands down, Ms. Philippines answered straight to the point.”

Supsup was the only finalist who answered in English during the question and answer portion.

However, Yahoo Philippines said that a query made through Winfrey’s Oprah.com site solicited this reply from a moderator, OWNModerator13: "There is no truth to the statement. Ms. Winfrey has not made any comments of this nature. Thank you for asking."

"Please note that there are many rumors circulating on the Internet. For this reason we encourage our members to visit the Press Room on Oprah.com to get the latest updates and news: http://www.oprah.com/pressroom/Press-Releases-Oprah-in-the-News," OWNModerator13 added.