The line between legitimate art and risqué sensationalism has always been blurry, and Miley Cyrus and Disney think magazine Vanity Fair went a little too far on the wrong side.
An interview with the 15-year-old Cyrus, the popular star of Disney's Hannah Montana, is being featured in the upcoming issue of the magazine with an accompanying photo shoot. The photographer, famed celeb shutterbug Annie Leibovitz, shot Cyrus topless with her bare back exposed.
Disney has expressed its disappointment at the pictures, saying that Vanity Fair made a decision "to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines," according to the Associated Press.
The magazine alleges that Cyrus' family, including dad Billy Ray Cyrus, and other handlers for the young pop star were on the set all day and were able to see the photo soon after it was taken. Cyrus initially called the pictures "artsy" and commended Leibovitz on her work.
But today she has changed her tune, and some think it may have come as a result of pressure from Disney.
"I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed," she said in a statement. "I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."
Disney has a lot at stake to protect the image of its young star. The company says that Hannah Montana ranks first among TV series on US cable television for 6- to 14-year-olds and grabs more than 164 million viewers worldwide. In the very-safe-for-kids program, Cyrus plays a young schoolgirl who secretly moonlights as a popular musician.
Cyrus has recently been in the news for both good and bad reasons. Some personal pictures have surfaced on the Internet of Cyrus (or a Cyrus lookalike) in some PG-13 poses, causing parents to cover the eyes of their children. She also inked a lucrative deal to pen her memoirs, which is due out next spring, for the Disney Book Group late last week.
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