Academic advisor's music to play in movie

Academic advisor Jeanette Castillo spent a mere 16 hours writing and producing her song "Christmas in Whoville."\nOther recording artists spent months preparing work for the Universal Studios contest to find a theme song for Ron Howard's new multi-million dollar film "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas", starring Jim Carrey.\nCastillo found out about the contest while surfing the Internet. She saw the record label Tonos, of which she is a member, was submitting members' songs to the contest. This gave Castillo only two days before the deadline. When she turned in her submission she said she did not give herself much of a chance; recording professionals had been working on the project for months and there were about 1200 entries.\n"I wrote it, recorded it, turned it into a MP3 and uploaded it all in one weekend," said Castillo.\nNeedless to say, she did not sleep much that weekend. \nThe field was narrowed down to five finalists and Castillo was one of them.\n"I was amazed to be a finalist," Castillo said. "But there was no guarantee that if your song won the contest it would be in the movie."\nRon Howard personally picked the winner and liked her song so much he decided to put it in the movie. \nThis all might not have happened if Tonos' co-founder Carole Bayer had not taken the initiative.\n"I contacted Ron, who has always been a champion of innovation, about doing the contest and he responded very positively to the idea," Bayer said in a press release from www.Tonos.com.\nBonnie Greenberg, music supervisor for "The Grinch," said Castillo's story is a great one.\n"I believe that everyone in life should have their chance, and we feel great that we gave someone that opportunity," Greenberg said in the release. \nCastillo said she decided to write about the "Whos in Whoville," which was different from all the other finalists.\n"I'm a big fan of the story," Castillo said. "You couldn't write about the Grinch or any other Suess book."\nNot only will Castillo be flown to Universal Studios in Hollywood to see the movie's release, she will also get royalties from the movie. When asked what she will do with the money and a possible record deal, Castillo joked, "pay off my credit card debits"