Entertainment

Miley Cyrus, pop sensation and star of the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, says she’s embarrassed about provocative photos taken by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. Here’s one of the photos Miley is obviously referring to, which shows her topless with a sheet covering her chest. We certainly wouldn’t be too thrilled with our 15-year-old daughter posing for a photo like that… Better keep an eye on that one, Billy Ray!

“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,” Cyrus said in a statement her publicist released. “I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans, who I care so deeply about.”

The 15-year-old Cyrus, daughter of country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, stars as an ordinary teenager with a double life as a rock star on the Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana.” The channel says “Hannah Montana” is the top-rated cable television show for children aged 6 to 14, reaching more than 164 million viewers around the world.

Nice damage control there, Hannah!

The word “memoir” was just downgraded. We’re not quite sure what a 15-year-old has really had enough life experience to write an engaging autobiography, but we’re in our 30s and are probably not exactly the target audience. No word on if all the i’s in the book will have little hearts over them.

The multi-hyphenate teen star has signed a book deal to tell the story of her young life, it was announced Tuesday. The memoir by Cyrus, who stars in the Disney Channel series “Hannah Montana,” is planned for release next spring.

Disney said the book will focus particularly on the guidance of Cyrus’ mother, Leticia.

“I am so excited to let fans in on how important my relationship with my family is to me,” the 15-year-old singer-actress said in a statement. “I hope to motivate mothers and daughters to build lifetimes of memories together and inspire kids around the world to live their dreams.”

See if you can follow this one: Miley Cyrus, whose real name is Destiny Hope Cyrus, plays the character Hannah Montana, who is really Miley Stewart — also played by Cyrus — in disguise.

Well, Ms. Cyrus is taking one part out of that confusing equation — she has filed papers in a Los Angeles court legally changing her name to Miley Ray Cyrus. (OK, also changing her middle name to match her dad’s is creeping us out a little.)

The 15-year-old singer and TV star is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who filed the papers last Friday with wife Leticia. Her father writes in the filing that the request was “to make her commonly used name the same as her legal name.”

The name-change request was reported by the celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

Miley Cyrus has said her father gave her the nickname “Smiley Miley” as a baby because of her sunny disposition. On the Disney Channel tween hit “Hannah Montana,” she plays a teen who hides her singing stardom.

In an interview with Latina magazine, Jessica Alba revealed that she plans to only speak Spanish to her baby, due to regrets that she didn’t learn Spanish — the language of her grandparents — when she was a child. Only one thing: Alba doesn’t even speak fluent Spanish:

Now, Alba is committed to mastering Spanish so she can speak the language to her baby.

She adds: “Hopefully I can pick it up because I want my kids to speak Spanish. I don’t even want them to speak English for maybe the first two to three years, until pre-school.

“We’re in the United States so they’re going to learn it anyway.”

Jessica, take a little time to Google “immersion programs” and “language studies” before you carry on with your awesome little plan.

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus is bigger than Jesus.

She is taking over the world, one tween at a time and wearing parents pocketbooks out.

We saw the concert movie over the weekend and we have to say, that is one savvy 15 year old. She knows how to work it. We also used to think her father, Billy Ray Cyrus was a dumb lug, but now we think he’s some sort of Svengali or something!

On Friday, theaters nationwide premiered “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” a 3-D film version of the sellout tour. Tickets for the film remain in short supply. (In fact, the film was originally supposed to run for just one week, but demand — the film debuted No. 1 at the box office despite premiering in just one-third the theaters as No. 2 “The Eye” — has prompted theaters to keep it for a second week, through Valentine’s Day.)

Clearly the “Hannah Montana” brand — which started as a Disney TV series but has branched out into multiplatinum albums and stage shows — hasn’t reached saturation point.

For the second time in a month, the police were called to the home of Britney Spears, who once again was taken away in an ambulance. This time, she is currently at the UCLA Medical Center on a “mental health evaluation hold”. Let’s hope whatever they do sticks this time, girl needs some serious help!

More than a dozen motorcycle officers and a Los Angeles Fire Department ambulance swept through the front gates of Spears hilltop Studio City residence shortly before 1 a.m., as a police helicopter hovered overheard. At 1:08 a.m., officers inside the home radioed to commanders that “the package is on the way out.”

Spears was rushed from a side entrance of her home into an ambulance. As she was driven down Coldwater Canyon Boulevard, her vehicle was escorted by more than a dozen motorcycle officers, two cruisers and two police helicopters. Her final destination was the UCLA Medical Center, authorities said.

Continuing with the parade of Britney Spears’ erratic behavior, the fallen pop princess failed to show up in court today for a custody hearing. Perhaps it’s for the best, as an outside observer she doesn’t seem quite up to the whole parenting task right now…

A throng of photographers and reporters waited outside the downtown courthouse to see if Spears would come to what one attorney described as “the most significant hearing in the case so far.” Law enforcement officers watched over the scene.

But Spears has had trouble making recent legal dates: On Dec. 12, she called in sick for a court-ordered deposition, then arrived nearly two hours late at an attorney’s office on its rescheduled date, Jan. 3.

Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, told The Associated Press on Sunday that he didn’t know if Spears would come at today’s hearing, and he indicated that it would be important for her to be there to take the opportunity to try to persuade the court restore visitation.

“You can’t phone this one in,” he said.

Shock! Dismay! Scandal!

To help speed the transition from Hannah to Miley, there is a production element during the performance of “We Got the Party” incorporating a body double for Miley. After Hannah has completed the featured verse on the duet with the Jonas Brothers, a body double appears approximately 1 - 2 minutes prior to the end of the song in order to allow Miley to remove the Hannah wig and costume and transform into Miley for her solo set. Other than during this very brief transitional moment in the show, Miley performs live during the entirety of both the Hannah and Miley segments of the concert.

A 10 year old girl scout decides, on her own, to give up her coveted Hannah Montana concert tickets to a sick girl she heard her mother talking about.

Her mother should be so proud. Amongst all the horrible news, it’s nice to hear of such charitable offerings, especially from a young person.

10-year-old Emily, a Girl Scout, has learned very good values. She overheard a conversation that her mom was having about a little girl who has been through a lot due to her heart condition and really wanted to attend the Hannah Montana concert. Emily, without any thought, decided to give Meghan her tickets to the popular concert.

Emily Fromhold, Gave tickets to girl she didn’t know: “I mean her music is really good, but she is not the whole world.”

Wow, there seems to be no rock bottom for Britney Spears. Just when you think you’ve heard the last of it, she spirals further downward. It’s being reported that she was in a heated domestic dispute last night while “under the influence of an unknown substance”, which resulted in the cops showing up and Britney leaving on a stretcher.

Police were called to Britney Spears’ home Thursday night in a custodial dispute that lasted nearly three hours before an intoxicated Spears reportedly turned over her children to ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Officers were called to the home around 8 p.m., and the 26-year-old singer turned over the children around 10:50 p.m., Officer Jason Lee, a police spokesman, told City News Service.

Aerial footage from KTLA-TV showed Spears being lifted in a gurney into an ambulance. It was unclear where she was being taken.

Tsk. Tsk.

Where are the Disney handlers to corrall these no-good, neuvo riche brats underground. This is the kind of publicity that makes parents cry.

Well, at least Zac and Vanessa are still together. Thank God. HSM3 just wouldn’t be the same without their puppy eye’d chemistry.

LOS ANGELES — Despite reports that Disney darlings Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens have parted ways, Pop Tarts can assure you the two young lovers are still making more than music.

Tarts popped the pop prince and princess getting intimate at their own little booth at Hollywood’s hottest hole-in-the-wall, Lola’s, on Friday night. The dancing duo sipped a selection of signature martinis in between constant kisses and cuddles. (What happened to being 21?)

Miley Cyrus, AKA “Hannah Montana” turns 15 and the only thing she wants is family time, in Nashville. (Why do I get the feeling that wish was rehearsed by her handlers?)

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Miley Cyrus celebrated turning 15 Friday with more than 15,000 hometown friends, who serenaded her with “Happy Birthday” toward the end of her concert, complete with pyrotechnic displays and a cake delivered onstage.

“I’ll tell you guys that my main wish when my parents asked me, ‘Miley, what do you want for your 15th birthday?’, the only thing that I had to say was, ‘I want to be here at home with Nashville and all of you guys,’ ” the star of the hit Disney TV show “Hannah Montana” told the crowd, according to People.com.

Marie Osmond’s son is in rehab and she’s getting a divorce and her Dad just died and she’s all over the place. (Give me a break! It’s a slow news day!)

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Marie Osmond said Wednesday that her 16-year-old son has entered a rehabilitation facility but she didn’t disclose the nature of his problem.

“My son, Michael, is an amazing young man, shown through his courage in facing his issues. As his mother I couldn’t be more proud of him,” Osmond said in a statement issued through her publicist, Marleah Leslie.

The statement was first reported by “Entertainment Tonight.”

Michael is one of Osmond’s five adopted children. She also has three other children from two marriages.

Those of us wistfully gazing at eBay and Craigslist as the price for Hannah Montana tickets soar into the hundreds — if not thousands — can on one hand feel sympathy for this group of parents. A class action lawsuit has been filed against Interactive Media Marketing, Inc. and Smiley Miley, Inc., owners of the Hannah Montana Fan Club website, alleging that the site misled people to register with the hope that their $29.95 annual fee would get them higher priority to buy tour tickets.

On the other hand, the phrase caveat emptor comes to mind. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the number of members could easily surpass the total number of tickets available (membership was also provided to those who purchased the latest Hannah Montana CD), and the site did say in their fine print that there were no ticket guarantees. So it does sound like a bit of sour grapes:

“Thousands of people joined the club based on the understanding that by joining they would be able to purchase Hannah Montana concert tickets before they were offered for sale to the general public,” said Peirce. “In reality the vast majority were unable to obtain concert tickets.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kerry Inman, a New Jersey woman who joined the Hannah Montana fan club.

She was shut out when she tried to purchase tickets to the Hannah Montana concert in Atlantic City, N.J. through the web site.

“The scenario that the Inman family went through — paying for a membership, then logging on to purchase tickets as soon as possible-this scenario has been replayed thousands, if not tens of thousands of times over the past few months,” said Peirce.

Hey, don’t know if you’ve heard, but Hannah Montana seems to be a bit popular right now. Can you believe it? Good thing we have some hard hitting journalism from the Dallas Morning News letting us in on the “Hannahmania” and why Ms. Cyrus is so popular, even though anyone that’s watched more than 5 minutes of the show with their kids can figure that one out.

So what is going on here? Why, pray tell, have little girls (and by extension their parents) gone nuts over a rhyming-named character with a raspy voice? Here are 10 reasons, thanks to statistical data, professional insight and, most importantly, the wise words of second-grade girls.

1. “She sings really good” was the first answer from most of the second-graders as they ate their sandwiches at Bluebonnet Elementary in Fort Worth. They also like her “sparkly” clothes, her funny TV show and the fact that she has her priorities in order. (OK, they didn’t put it like that.) Her TV brother wants to be popular, “but she really doesn’t care about that,” says student Skyla Fisher. “If she gets a chance to, she’ll probably go for it, but usually she doesn’t care.” As her pal Maddy Waite put it, “She’s a nice girl.” Which brings us to the next reason.

2. To parents, she’s as pure as the Disney-manufactured snow. This explains why Mom and Dad aren’t opposed to treating their kids to her concert, even if it means taking out a bank loan. (A recent check on stubhub.com showed 67 tickets available for the Fort Worth show, ranging from $145 to $1,600 each.) Hey, in a world full of fallen pop sweethearts (oh, Britney!) and other assorted tawdriness, we’re apparently willing to pay for a night of good, clean fun.

3. That “superhero in disguise” thing gets them every time. Just as no one ever clued into the fact that Clark Kent was the Man of Steel, Miley-Hannah also has her friends on the show fooled. How can this be? Second-grader Bailey Strother has a logical answer: “Because she has a ton of makeup on and has a wig on.” Ah, yes. Just like Clark’s clever glasses.

Read the rest of this painfully obvious list if you have nothing better to do.