A conspiracy theory states that Avril Lavigne died in 2003 and was replaced by a body double named Melissa Vandella.

fun fact: she got replaced by the original Paul McCartney (who also got replaced)

check the earlobes

/s

edit: oh wow the paul mccartney theory is one of the two "see also" links lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead

Only speaking to motive, she only had one album out then. Arista could either roll the dice with a (public:sophomore, "reality":debut) effort performed by somebody who didn't actually have anything to do with the first album or milk Avril's untimely demise for everything they could get. Hell, they could turn the latter into a feature film. I don't see them getting that wrong. Maybe a smaller label entirely dependent on Avril, but not Arista.

I thought it was Miley Cyrus that was replaced with the Hanna Montana body double? So many things to keep up with.