Friend: Cyrus death claim a hoax

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Miley Cyrus' friend Mandy Jiroux says someone posted a fake message supposedly from her on YouTube, falsely reporting the U.S. pop star was dead.

E! Online said a video set to Cyrus' song "Goodbye" and posted on the "Miley and Mandy Show" YouTube page early Sunday featured an alleged message from Jiroux claiming Cyrus had been killed by a drunken driver, even though the teen actress and singer is alive and well.

"Hey guys, this is Mandy and I have some very sad news :( ... We're very hurt to tell everyone this, but Miley died this morning after being hit by a drunk driver. Miley told us if anything ever happened to her, then we should let her fans know before the public," the Internet message attributed to Jiroux said. "R.I.P. honey, we will miss you so much."

However, Jiroux told E! News the video is the work of "a hacker" and it is being removed from the YouTube Web site.

She also wrote on her MySpace page that "some1 hacked the miley and mandy youtube account" and emphasized, "MILEY IS OK!!"