Destiny Hope Cyrus is one of America's hottest teenage stars right
now. You probably know her better as
Miley Cyrus, the star of
Hannah Montana on the Disney channel. This 15 year old is also the
daughter of country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus of “Achy Breaky
Heart” fame. He also stars as the on television co-star of his
daughter’s spotlight show.
Miley became an overnight acting sensation with her first few
appearances on the Disney hit, "Hannah Montana". She starred in the
lead role of Miley Stewart in spring of 2006. Initially she had
auditioned for both the lead and the best friend roles for the show.
Disney executives at first thought that she was too small and too
young for either one.
Luckily for her fans, Disney made the right decision and chose her
to have the lead role. This show was not Miley’s first acting job.
She had previously appeared as "Kylie" on her dad's television show,
"Doc". She also played the role of "younger Ruthie" in "Big Fish".
Her musical career took off in the fall of 2006 with the release of
her first album which was the Hannah Montana soundtrack. This album
included eight songs from the television series. After the
successful release of the album
Miley Cyrus was signed to
a four year contract with Hollywood Records to produce her own
albums.
In June of 2007 Miley released her second album which was titled
"Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus". The single from that album,
"See You Again", was the first of her songs to reach the top ten on
the Billboard 100. Her highest ranking album did not come out until
2008 and it is titled "7 Things".
All of the popularity gained from her musical talent has helped her
to enhance her acting career. She made a cameo appearance on High
School Musical 2 and did the voice of "Penny" for the big screen
movie, "Bolt".
Unfortunately even a small town Southern girl from Franklin,
Tennessee isn't immune from controversy. The first major controversy
about this teen began in September of 2007 and it was over a picture
of Miley that appeared in a J-14 magazine. The article that
accompanied the photo said that Miley herself had confirmed that she
was pregnant. The magazine next issued a retraction saying this
story was completely fabricated!
The next hot topic that erupted actually involved Miley and her
father Billy Ray Cyrus. A scene in her movie "Hannah Montana and
Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds" had the two of them riding in a
car without having on seat belts. Critics immediately chastised both
and labeled Miley as a bad teen role model.
The most recent and most explosive controversy concerned some photos
taken of the star by a revered photographer, Annie Leibovitz. The
pictures were planned for publication in the well known Vanity Fair
Magazine. It showed Miley's back exposed and her front covered only
by a bed sheet. The photos were fairly racy for someone who carries
the squeaky clean approval of Disney and who was only 14 years old
at the time.
In the April 28th issue of Vanity Fair both the photos and an
interview about doing the photo shoot were published. When asked if
she felt anxious about the photo, Miley has said that she thought
the pictures looked good and that Annie was so cute and insistent
about the style of photo that she just could not refuse to go along
with the risque pose.
This statement then fueled more controversy in the public opinion
forums, because Annie is not usually viewed by anyone as someone you
would describe as “cute”. Leibovitz is also known for having a long
relationship with Susan Sontag. This furor did eventually die down
and Miley Cyrus continued
with her run of successes. Now 15, she has a super hot boyfriend who
is a working model and Miley has convinced her parents to let him
move into the family home. This relationship has not stood in the
way of Miley continuing to perform for her fans.
She has had a national tour which was extremely popular but did
receive some negative notes when it became known that she had a
stand in appear in her place briefly during her performances. Most
recently she has been working on her latest movie, "Hannah Montana:
The Movie", where she plays herself. The HM movie, starring Miley,
is due out sometime in 2009.
