Here's the Actual Story Behind "Hey There Delilah"

What’s it like in New York City, you ask? Well for Delilah DiCrescenzo in the summer of 2007, it was filled with the hit song “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s, which flooded the radio. This wouldn’t have been annoying (or at least, not that annoying) — except for the fact that the song was allegedly written about her.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed recently that the familiar song is now being made into a “scripted romantic dramedy” that would be based around the couple in the song’s long distance relationship. It will be a work of fiction, however, since the song's story of Delilah didn't actually happen, a fact that literary agent Anna Sproul-Latimer reminded us on Twitter this week.

According to an old Columbia College Today article, the real life Delilah, a competitive cross-country runner and graduate of Columbia University, never dated guitarist and frontman Tom Higgenson, who wrote the now-famous lyrics. Although Higgenson admitted that the long-distance relationship between the two was fiction, he did tell her that he had written a song about her in hopes of impressing her.

Delilah said she was dating someone at the time and wasn’t interested. The Columbia College article also cited a quote Delilah made to USA Today, where she said, “When I’m at the gym, ["Hey There Delilah" is] playing; when I’m at the pool, it’s playing. Part of me wants to scream at the top of my lungs that it’s about me. Another part of me wants to cower and say it’s not.”

She later told ESPN in 2013 that she “...was nervous that I'd let Tom's fans down. They'd be disappointed to hear I have a boyfriend. Every girl would want a song written about her, and they'd think I was ungrateful and rude to deny Tom. I felt pressure to live up to those expectations.”

It all seems kind of uncomfortable. But Delilah, who attended the 2008 Grammys with Tom and the Plain White T’s, said in the same ESPN interview that, “ If it wasn't for me, I'm sure Tom would've been inspired by a different girl and written an amazing song about her. As far as I'm concerned, I was in the right place at the right time and met the right person — just the luck of the draw.”

The new series is being shopped to networks and studios this month and does have Higgenson attached to the project as a producer.

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