Son of 'meanest mom' mellows out on 'Ellen'
By John Quinlan, Journal staff writer | Posted: Friday, January 25, 2008
Briar Cliff University student Steven Hambleton poses in a parking lot of the Sioux City school Wednesday. Hambleton says he hitches rides from friends after his mother sold his car(Sioux City Journal photo by Tim Hynds)
SIOUX CITY -- Nineteen-year-old Briar Cliff University freshman Steven Hambleton wasn't too happy when he had his car sold by the "meanest mom on the planet," after she found a liquor bottle under the front seat.
He never stopped talking to his mother -- Steven's not that kind of kid, mom Jane Hambleton said. But their relationship was a bit chilly for a while. And by Steven's reckoning, they didn't talk for a couple of days.
Little did either of them know that the newspaper advertisement that the 48-year-old Fort Dodge, Iowa, mother would place in the Des Moines Register would turn them into instant celebrities, invited to spend time with such TV stars as Oprah Winfrey, Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres. The big chill melted a bit in Burbank, Calif., DeGeneres' home.
The ad read: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
The phone number on the ad brought a few potential buyers and hundreds of congratulatory calls from people who either found the ad hilarious or simply wanted to nominate her for Mother of the Year honors, Jane Hambleton said. Elsewhere, on the Internet, young bloggers were more inclined to support her son.
"I was quite upset. I actually didn't know that she was going to put an ad in the paper like that," Steven Hambleton said. "I actually answered my mom's cell phone, and it was a guy asking for the meanest mom on the planet. And I was kind of confused. But I gave her the phone. And then I kind of put two and two together as she started talking about the car."
For the next couple of days, Steven said, he didn't talk to his mother. But then the ad hit a public nerve and things just started getting crazy. Slowly, the anger faded, eventually dying last week on the West Coast, he said.
"Its' really overwhelming," Jane Hambleton, a radio deejay and copywriter, said in a phone call from Fort Dodge. "It just doesn't seem real. It's very, very strange. I mean, one day I'm picking my daughter up from school and figuring out what I'm going to have for dinner, and the next, I'm appearing on 'Good Morning America' and 'Ellen.' And it's just like, what? How can this be?"
While she doesn't really like the celebrity, she admitted she doesn't hate it, either. And she is glad the window on their 15 minutes of fame is closing. Steven echoed that thought. "I mean, it was a fun ride, for sure. But it's kind of nice that everything's starting to get back to normal," he said.
Despite invitations from Dr. Phil, Oprah, "Inside Edition," Tyra Banks, Star Jones and Leno, mom and son agreed to limit their U.S. TV exposure to "Good Morning America" and "Ellen," she said. Oprah wanted an exclusive interview, which was tempting, but Steven was a big DeGeneres fan, so Mom figured going on "Ellen" was the least she could do.
"It was just so cool seeing L.A. and everything, and everyone on 'Ellen' was just so nice," Steven said. "It was just so much fun being backstage and hearing, like, all the music playing, you know, and knowing that you're going to go out there and be in front of a live audience. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Sometime soon, they will also film an appearance on a German TV show, a "20/20" style program that will be seen only in Germany, Jane Hambleton said.
During their appearance on "Ellen," she told the host she didn't mind being called the meanest mom "because it just means I love my kids." Steven told Ellen he was pretty upset when he found out about the classified ad. But he got over it. "I got to come out here and meet you," he told the popular TV host, smiling widely. Mom, who did most of the talking, agreed.
For his troubles, DeGeneres gave Steven a special bumper sticker. It reads "How's My Driving? Call My Mom at 800-555-1212," with a picture of Steven's mother on the right side of the sticker.
Since he doesn't have a bumper to put it on, Steven said he'll probably just frame it.
A lot of his friends have found the whole "meanest mom" incident as exciting as he has, though some have even taken his mother's side, he noted.
And after last week's brief flirtation with fame, Steven said he is glad to be back at Briar Cliff, a community whose friendly welcome during his first campus visit was what prompted him to enroll there. Majoring in business administration, he hopes to go into hotel management.
And should any future son of his find himself in the same predicament, Steven said he, too, would take away the car.
"I think it's something I would do because it shows responsibility," he said. "It's because of my parents that I'm so in check with my life. So I think it's a good thing what they did."
See the "Ellen" video.
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2008/01/jane_hambleton_the_meanest_mot.php
Car, bottle both gone
The "meanest mom" ad was simply a way to attract attention and sell the car fast, Jane Hambleton said. "I just wanted the ad to get noticed so that the car would be sold and we could put this behind us because it was a very sore subject, to say the least," she said.
A sore subject because son Steven was so mad. " I mean, gol, I can't even imagine just turning 19 and having somebody take my wheels away from me," she said.
It happened just days before his 19th birthday, Christmas Day.
Though Hambleton said she trusts her son and believed him when he said the booze wasn't his, he broke the rules and had to forfeit the car. "Two rules. First rule was, keep it locked. Second rule was, no alcohol allowed." Mom said the rule was specific because she knew her son was usually the designated driver and she didn't want anybody else having or leaving booze in the car.
Why did she suspect something was up?
"It was just a mom thing," she said of her vehicle inspection during a recent visit she made to the Briar Cliff campus. "I got out to make sure it was locked, just to check on it, and the back door opened. So I was like, oh man! So I thought, well there's rule No. 1. Let's see what's in here. And I found it under the front seat."
So what happened to that unopened, confiscated bottle of Smirnoff Pomegranate Fusion?
Laughing, Jane Hambleton said: "I took it home and drank it. It tasted good. It was like a wine cooler. It was really good, and that's wrong because these kind of Kool-Aid-flavored things just suck the kids in. They didn't have that when I was growing up. They didn't have all these fruity, fufu drinks that doesn't make it seem like you're really drinking."
As for the car, the Hambletons eventually sold it to a couple from Hubbard, Iowa, for use by their 19-year-old son.
She also had some advice for the young man. "I told the kid, 'Don't drink! Don't have any alcohol in the car. And if you do, don't hide it under the front seat.'"
He never stopped talking to his mother -- Steven's not that kind of kid, mom Jane Hambleton said. But their relationship was a bit chilly for a while. And by Steven's reckoning, they didn't talk for a couple of days.
Little did either of them know that the newspaper advertisement that the 48-year-old Fort Dodge, Iowa, mother would place in the Des Moines Register would turn them into instant celebrities, invited to spend time with such TV stars as Oprah Winfrey, Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres. The big chill melted a bit in Burbank, Calif., DeGeneres' home.
The ad read: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
The phone number on the ad brought a few potential buyers and hundreds of congratulatory calls from people who either found the ad hilarious or simply wanted to nominate her for Mother of the Year honors, Jane Hambleton said. Elsewhere, on the Internet, young bloggers were more inclined to support her son.
"I was quite upset. I actually didn't know that she was going to put an ad in the paper like that," Steven Hambleton said. "I actually answered my mom's cell phone, and it was a guy asking for the meanest mom on the planet. And I was kind of confused. But I gave her the phone. And then I kind of put two and two together as she started talking about the car."
For the next couple of days, Steven said, he didn't talk to his mother. But then the ad hit a public nerve and things just started getting crazy. Slowly, the anger faded, eventually dying last week on the West Coast, he said.
"Its' really overwhelming," Jane Hambleton, a radio deejay and copywriter, said in a phone call from Fort Dodge. "It just doesn't seem real. It's very, very strange. I mean, one day I'm picking my daughter up from school and figuring out what I'm going to have for dinner, and the next, I'm appearing on 'Good Morning America' and 'Ellen.' And it's just like, what? How can this be?"
While she doesn't really like the celebrity, she admitted she doesn't hate it, either. And she is glad the window on their 15 minutes of fame is closing. Steven echoed that thought. "I mean, it was a fun ride, for sure. But it's kind of nice that everything's starting to get back to normal," he said.
Despite invitations from Dr. Phil, Oprah, "Inside Edition," Tyra Banks, Star Jones and Leno, mom and son agreed to limit their U.S. TV exposure to "Good Morning America" and "Ellen," she said. Oprah wanted an exclusive interview, which was tempting, but Steven was a big DeGeneres fan, so Mom figured going on "Ellen" was the least she could do.
"It was just so cool seeing L.A. and everything, and everyone on 'Ellen' was just so nice," Steven said. "It was just so much fun being backstage and hearing, like, all the music playing, you know, and knowing that you're going to go out there and be in front of a live audience. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Sometime soon, they will also film an appearance on a German TV show, a "20/20" style program that will be seen only in Germany, Jane Hambleton said.
During their appearance on "Ellen," she told the host she didn't mind being called the meanest mom "because it just means I love my kids." Steven told Ellen he was pretty upset when he found out about the classified ad. But he got over it. "I got to come out here and meet you," he told the popular TV host, smiling widely. Mom, who did most of the talking, agreed.
For his troubles, DeGeneres gave Steven a special bumper sticker. It reads "How's My Driving? Call My Mom at 800-555-1212," with a picture of Steven's mother on the right side of the sticker.
Since he doesn't have a bumper to put it on, Steven said he'll probably just frame it.
A lot of his friends have found the whole "meanest mom" incident as exciting as he has, though some have even taken his mother's side, he noted.
And after last week's brief flirtation with fame, Steven said he is glad to be back at Briar Cliff, a community whose friendly welcome during his first campus visit was what prompted him to enroll there. Majoring in business administration, he hopes to go into hotel management.
And should any future son of his find himself in the same predicament, Steven said he, too, would take away the car.
"I think it's something I would do because it shows responsibility," he said. "It's because of my parents that I'm so in check with my life. So I think it's a good thing what they did."
See the "Ellen" video.
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2008/01/jane_hambleton_the_meanest_mot.php
Car, bottle both gone
The "meanest mom" ad was simply a way to attract attention and sell the car fast, Jane Hambleton said. "I just wanted the ad to get noticed so that the car would be sold and we could put this behind us because it was a very sore subject, to say the least," she said.
A sore subject because son Steven was so mad. " I mean, gol, I can't even imagine just turning 19 and having somebody take my wheels away from me," she said.
It happened just days before his 19th birthday, Christmas Day.
Though Hambleton said she trusts her son and believed him when he said the booze wasn't his, he broke the rules and had to forfeit the car. "Two rules. First rule was, keep it locked. Second rule was, no alcohol allowed." Mom said the rule was specific because she knew her son was usually the designated driver and she didn't want anybody else having or leaving booze in the car.
Why did she suspect something was up?
"It was just a mom thing," she said of her vehicle inspection during a recent visit she made to the Briar Cliff campus. "I got out to make sure it was locked, just to check on it, and the back door opened. So I was like, oh man! So I thought, well there's rule No. 1. Let's see what's in here. And I found it under the front seat."
So what happened to that unopened, confiscated bottle of Smirnoff Pomegranate Fusion?
Laughing, Jane Hambleton said: "I took it home and drank it. It tasted good. It was like a wine cooler. It was really good, and that's wrong because these kind of Kool-Aid-flavored things just suck the kids in. They didn't have that when I was growing up. They didn't have all these fruity, fufu drinks that doesn't make it seem like you're really drinking."
As for the car, the Hambletons eventually sold it to a couple from Hubbard, Iowa, for use by their 19-year-old son.
She also had some advice for the young man. "I told the kid, 'Don't drink! Don't have any alcohol in the car. And if you do, don't hide it under the front seat.'"
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