More details are emerging about the way that Miley Cyrus was persuaded to pose backless and covered in a sheet for famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz in a series of photos to be published in the June issue of Vanity Fair, which is out tomorrow and features Robert F Kennedy on the cover. A spokesperson for the magazine claimed that Miley’s “parents and/or minders were on the set all day” and implied that they approved all the photos before they were published, but both Disney and Miley’s people claim that’s not how it happened.
Disney says Miley was manipulated; her dad says he wasn’t on the set at that point and didn’t see those photos
When the Disney Channel issued a statement that “a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines,” I assumed they were overstating their case in an attempt to do damage control, but new details make it seem as if that’s exactly what happened.
Miley’s reps say that her parents weren’t on the set at the time that the controversial backless photos were taken. Her grandmother and teacher were there and were convinced that it would be ok.
“Miley’s parents did leave the shoot and were not present for the final shot, nor did they see any digital images of the shot in question,” a Miley spokeswoman told The Post yesterday.
Her grandmother and her teacher were left to supervise, according to People magazine.
“Annie convinced them it was going to be artistic,” a source told People. “Her parents are mortified.”
[From The NY Post]
Leibovitz convinced Miley to take those photos after her parents left
Leibovitz explained how the photos came about, saying “Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together, and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful.”
In the article accompanying the pictures, Miley says that it was hard to refuse the photographer’s request. She called the photo “really artsy,” but not “in a skanky way,” and said “You can’t say no to Annie. She’s so cute. She gets this puppy-dog look, and you’re like, OK.” [NY Post]
Given the news that Miley’s parents had left at that point, you can’t help but think that Liebovitz knew exactly what she was doing. I personally don’t find the photos all that revealing or sexy, but Miley’s target audience are young kids and a lot of people say she’s sending the wrong message with those pictures. Her whole image as a wholesome Christian teen star is threatened by this mini-scandal, and rumor has it that Disney plans to keep her out of the spotlight for a while until the story dies down. Meanwhile Miley’s dad Billy Ray is said to be “furious” that the photos were taken and never shown to him or his wife before they were published. He is said to have left early on the day of the shoot due to “a prior commitment.”
Here’s a behind the scenes video from Vanity Fair’s website:
What kind of prior commitment leaves a 15 year old on the set with two adults who were incapable of telling a pushy photographer no?
And how is bright red lipstick very little make up??
Anyone who’s seen the film of Leibovitz’s photo shoot with the Queen knows this woman has no sense of tact at all – so it’s no real surprise to me that she would manipulate a 15 year old for shock value.
That being said, I still think her parents can’t really gripe if they didn’t hang around. If these people they left her with really are ‘trusted’, they may want to rethink that trust.
-Edit- Diva – Thanks for the correction, it was indeed ‘commitment’. Thats what I get for trying to read while eating cornflakes.
It’s not like the people she was left with were strangers… one was her grandmother for heaven’s sake. (Added after Scott’s comment)… it was a previous COMMITMENT. Could have been something with his other daughter, she was there, too, to begin with. We don’t know, the shoot, knowing Leibovitz, well could have run long and Miley’s parents had a schedule to keep. The fact is, they didn’t leave her there alone, they left TWO people there that are people in positions of authority that it would appear they trusted to make the right decisions.
I’ve watched things on TV of Leibovitz at work and she IS very demanding and if that works she IS manipulative. You could tell she annoyed the hell out of the Queen when she shot her. (lol, was writing that the same time as Scott!)
She’s 15, her parents left her behind for something else. Everyone knows that the kid falls in the pool as soon as you turn your head.
This is Billy Ray and Tricia’s fault. They need to own up to bad judgement on their part.
And didn’t they arrange to get any approval of the pictures before the issue went to print??
They work for Disney, for crying outloud?
Disney had no say over what photo made the Vanity Fair cover? Puh-leeze.I don’t believe that for a second. Disney has such tight control over hte images of their stars, that this picture was selected is their faults as well.
Haven’t these Billy Ray and Tricia, AND Disney seen who has been on the covers of this magazine, how they are usually posing and that this is NOT a family magazine? What were you expecting?
Oh for God’s sake, the pic with her father is much more suggestive than the sheet one. Such bullshit back-tracking. It’s not Miley’s fault, it’s the adults. All of them. And the father more so than the photographer in my opinion.
I also thought the picture of her father was a bit disturbing – but then I thought it was just my own twisted mind. They looked like a couple, not like father and daughter.
The reason why her parents left her (I found out this morning on Good Morning America) was that they thought that the photo shoot was over and they were taking Miley’s 8 year old sister home. I really in all honesty; don’t blame the parents…for these photos. I blame the photographer, no matter what Miley is a minor!
I don’t believe him. He and his wife are getting bad press and all of a sudden they didn’t know about the picture?!
Geronimo and AP, i was about to say the same thing. Any responsible parent would make sure that they get to see the pictures and approve them for print, if they weren’t there. And if there is one picture that is kind of odd, then it’s definitely the one with both, father and daughter. Is he going to claim he wasn’t there either and that that picture is some kind of photoshop? Grow some brain, Billy Ray.
Roni, if they thought the photo shoot was over why did they left her behind? Wouldn’t they be taking her home as well? And if she was supposed to drive with grandma home, wouldn’t Miley and granny told the parents that they have shot some more photos? And wouldn’t the parents be curios what photos were shot and wanted to see them?
I don’t understand why everyone is blaming her dad for that creepy picture of them together. You realize that the photographer is the one who posed them like that right? Granted, if they were approving the photos, they probably should have asked them to scrap that one – but still.
I too found the pictures with Dad to be much worse than the others, lying all over him that way. But the most disturbing part of all the pictures is the “come hither” look on Miley’s face, the knowing look in her eyes, and the general slutty expressions. Maybe the photographer was pushy. Maybe Mom and Dad should not have left. Maybe Grandma wasn’t strict enough. But the little girl is behaving way beyond her years.
honestly i mean i GUESS i see what the hooplah is about but i think its sort of a grey area. I dunno… i can understand why someone wouldn’t totaly object. ESPECIALLY when MUCH more graphic images of britney spears, pictures of a 16 year old angelina jolie in underwear and sheer shirts, were around back in the day. I dunno I think comparitively this picture is bunnies and cotton candy. I can understand why someone wouldn’t stand up and totally object at the shoot.
I dunno, have to play devil’s advocate here – not to say that Ms. Leibovitz is allowed to manipulate her subjects, but she is a highly regarded, famous photographer, and her time is worth something too. In regards to her shots of the Queen, I inferred from that that the Queen herself was the one who wouldn’t make the time and was being bitchy. Photgraphers are like that, they want you to move this way, that way, take this off, put this on, in order to get the best shot. Again, not defending the objectification of a 15 year old, but I also feel that this main pic is not such a big deal, especially in comparison to the somewhat risque shots that Miley took of herself. Kids just grow up faster and faster – every time I try to make a snide comment about this, I remember sneaking out of the house, drinking, smoking pot and doing other things at 13 (And I’m now 32 and have a great relationship with my parents and myself)!
He thought the shoot was over so he left Miley there? Something fishy in that explanation.
And the shot with dad ARE disturbing. As someone mentioned before, those are engagement photo shots. How Billy Ray didn’t feel awkward with her across his lap like that baffles me.
Scott, what is it you don’t understand? Billy Ray Cyrus is coming across here as someone so thrilled at the chance of being in a VF photoshoot that he forgot it was about his 15 year old daughter and not him.
Leibovitz posed them, certainly, but that’s no excuse for his own parental instincts not kicking in and him realising that a 15-year old girl sprawling suggestively all over a much older man might come across as a bit dodgy? It’s not a dad and daughter pic.
It’s his daughter, therefore his responsibility to vet and approve pics of her. Leibovitz showed a lack of judgement but it’s her parents who let her down.
Scott F., did Annie Leibovitz made a bad photo of you and now you have personal issues with her 😉 ?
A 15 year old may be intimidated by her ways, but a grown-up? She obviously wasn’t threatening him. He was comfortable with the photo shoot and is now trying do to some damage control.
And just for the record, i don’t find the photos to be that scandalous, but why almost everybody is picking the “backless” one, that i don’t understand.
I don’t think the pictures are all that bad, although the one of Miley & her dad is a little eyebrow raising.
Of course Annie is demanding; she is a world renowned photographer. She probably made room in her schedule for Miley, et al. Her parents should have been there or, barring that, they should have left her with adults who would have objected if they thought the pics were too racy.
No-body started throwing out objections until way after the fact. If they had a problem with it, it should have been raised way before the mag was about to come out
can see how the photographs desired by a professional, world famous, “art” photographer might not be the same ones valued by the disney people. good photographs are often disturbing. the one with poppa in the background gazing off into the distance with little adolescent miley curled up on him all sultry in the foreground, could be taken as a statement about a poppa pimping out his baby girl. and the one with the sheet, one of the disturbing things about it to me is the juxtaposition of the bright red lipstick with a pose that emphasized those adolescent chipmunk cheeks, and that really stresses the lolita aspect. and the sheet, not just an artfully draped sheet, but a wrinkled, rumpled, looked like it had been slept on sheet. i think annie may have been making a statement about how young girls are being whored out. but if that is what she was doing, she did the same thing she was criticizing others for doing.
This is total BUNK. While the photo is in poor taste for a girl her age, I firmly believe that Miley’s parents are using the photographer as a scapegoat. I believe they were well aware that this photo was going to be taken. I also believe that they saw and approved said photo. However, once they realized that their parenting skills and judgment were being criticized they feel the need to back pedal.
I was also uncomfortable with the pics of Miley and her father. First of all, they look slightly inappropriate. Furthermore, why is he even being photographed? 😕 She’s established her own identity…no one thinks of her as ‘Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter’ anymore. Her fan base isn’t familiar with him. He had ONE major hit and now he’s living his dream of fame and stardom vicariously through his daughter.
Ultimately, this will not affect her or her relationship with Disney. Hollyweird turns a blind eye to such negative publicity. Because it’s still publicity. As long as they are still making money. Do we not still see Gabriella from High School Musical EVERYWHERE? Commercials, posters, etc. And her photos were completely nude!!! (Granted they weren’t professionally done but she posed for them nonetheless.) Same goes for Jamie Lynn Spears…ZOEY 101 is still on the air. This sends the message to our youth that sexually explicit behavior at a young age is acceptable and forgivable. Which should be the real issue here.
Firstly, Leibovitz is renowned and famous. Yes. But she isn’t that great a photographer. She is not one of the photography legends and I don’t believe she will ever be… Her pictures are little (or even big) scenes and she has an amazing team, including digital retouching one…
However, I find Dad Cyrus’s argument to be a bit odd. He thought the shoot was over so he took the youngest daughter back home? Hmmm. If the shoot is over, take both girls home as well as Grandma and the teacher. No? 😕
Bodhi- Nobody threw out objections before hand because nobody has a problem with the pictures. They have a problem with everyone else having a problem with it!
Nobody cared the first time they saw the pics, they’re just sorry now because of the backlash. I do think it’s cool that they seem to always have minders around for the 15 minutes that they (the parents) can’t be because they’re watching their other kids. At least they tried with the granny and teacher. Not another Britney Spears Rolling Stone cover debacle once all the cats are away…..
did she convince her to lift her top in the pics with her boyfriend that she put out on the net the other times? did she convince her to say sex and the city was her favorite show?
They suddenly became outraged when there is some flack for their slutty behavior.
I totally agree mollination!
Sex and the City is her favorite show??
Please let her mean the sanitized TBS version.
I have to agree that the pics of her and her dad are gross…but I always thought the song they did together was a little to “Jessica and Joe Simpson” for me…I understand it’s about a girl leaving growing up blah blah but really it can be taken as a coulpes break up song also (to close for comfort)….I mean IDK but I can’t see me even sitting on my dads lap at 15 I really can’t see myself all in between his legs ewwwwwww…..next thing you know JOE I mean Billy lol will be talking about his kids boobs!!! Gross!
As for the daddy pics – if both of them had simply SMILED at each other, it would have looked playful. I don’t understand why Leibovitz had them affect a “Don’t you worry, we’ll be at it as soon as your head turns” expression.
I think the bedsheet one is extremely artistic. It almost moves me to tears, in fact. She looks like she’s just risen from the bed of some rich old guy – lipstick blotted, eyes sleepy, hair mussed – and her expression clearly says, “Well? This is what you wanted, wasn’t it?” I do think Leibovitz manipulated her to get the shot… but it wasn’t to sell magazines.
If the picture of her and her dad was with her mom instead would anyone have a problem with it? I was really close to my daughter when she was a teen and would have never thought there would be any problem if we had posed that way. But then I am her mom. Really people, can’t a father love his child just a much as a mother can?
Yup, sex and the city is her favorite show. I dunno, but i highly doubt that it’s the sanitized version found on tbs or ktla. but even if it’s that, my 15 year old sister isn’t allowed to watch it. anyways, so are they telling me that miley had no other handlers there except for her grandmother and her teacher? where’s her manager, pr person, or the disney people? there are usually a bunch of handlers on set. it seems like they’re just trying to blame it on a.l.
I think the photos of Miley are very beautiful. They are alot better than the ones she puts out there on her own . The photo of her showing her back is a bit old for her I guess, but in this world someone is always up in arms about one thing or another. Some people are finding fault with the picture of her and her dad. Come on people. Aren’t there more important things going on that we could discuss?????
Tastefully done- perhaps, but then why the deception? The pressure to start turning this girl out and make her another Britney Spears style Lolita is simply obscene. She’s f*cking 15 , Annie!! Don’t make me lose my respect for you.
ling made a very good point. we are so upset because annie gave us just what we wanted to see. good photographers and artists have a way of doing things like that. showing us our evil underbelly. annie showed us the little lamb for slaughter and its making us all a little sick and uncomfortable about the way we all contribute to consuming a little girl, photographed, in concert, on TV, in magazines-or anywhere. its more a portrait of the american public than miley.
Annie Leibovitz is nobody’s fool. She’s also the mother of three daughters.
These photos are taken digitally, they’re available for viewing seconds after the shutter is clicked. There were no accidents here. She photographed what she saw plain and simple.
And, something else that’s jumping out at me, so read this as an extension of my original post: she looks sick. Her face is ghostly pale and (I know this is just the arch in her back, but still) you can see all her ribs through her skin. She looks cold – almost consumptive. The lighting is bedroom lighting. Don’t YOU want to reach through the screen and give her a hug?
It’s at the point where I wish it WASN’T Miley in the picture so everyone could appreciate the artistic intention rather than the famous face and the deluge of freaking statements.
shame on her parents! i would say shame on her too, but if her parents don’t know better how could she?
Okay, on the Miley side what happened to grrl power
and ” it’s my back deal with it?” Or “it’s my Dad deal with it?” It’s the mealy mouth slip slide appease the mouse aspect that’s most nauseating here.
yes I do think if it was her mom it would be just as sick. I don’t think any kid boy girl should be laying all over there parents mom or dad.. Once they can walk there really isn’t much need besides the occasionaly “mom I am sick” for any kid to be layed out in any parents lap. And NO reason should they be between the legs that is just disturbing…If any regular person off the street walked in to sears and requested that their daughter have photos made like this there wouldn’t even be any question on how sick it is. Why does her being famous and her dad being semi-famous even bring up the question on weither it’s approprate or not? I just don’t get it. Guys are sitting in jail right now for looking at pics similar to these as they should be…..famous or not she is only 15…where do you draw the line? no shirt is ok? I mean what’s next this is black and white why is it grey b/c she is famous?
Here’s my problem with this arguement that Leibovitz is so ‘highly regarded’ and held in such great esteem and has photo’d such wonderful subjects, ad nauseum. It’s the presumption that this alone means the woman isn’t subject to error, bad taste or a bad day – in short, can’t fail. Sorry but she’s just not exempt from poor judgement, taste or form just because her other stuff turned came good. I judge people on what they’re doing now, not what their rep is. Their rep just puts it into a better context.
Sometimes something that sucks, is just something that sucks.
She may be great but theres just nothing artistically meritous in ‘that’ photo.
And if it’s intended to be that innocent, why does her hair have to be wet and dishevelled, and why do her lips have to be bright red? Please don’t tell me I’m seeing sexual implicaitons where there aren’t any because I’m debased by society. I’m sure even the lobotomised can register the implications of bright red lips.
I’ll give it to Leibovitz, she may be being deliberately ironic with this particular study BUT it’s still EXACTLY the kind of photo that any unimaginative amateur pulled off the street can droll up. And again, why the hell is the most interesting and ‘edgy’ depiction of a ‘squeaky clean’ 15-year old female immediate recourse to the Lolita look? Seriously, is that really all you’ve got? Because the implicit message is that’s all a 15-year old female can do to hold anyone’s interest: become product or become visual stimulant – what else could your young body possibly do? This is ultimately what ‘the kids’ pick up on. Why? Because it’s what women in the public eye in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are doing.
That’s just a pathetic indictment of our current culture.
I maintain something far more interesting and thought provoking could have been drummed up with less make up, more clothes, and without the need to subject me to her back ribs. Ultimately it would have been more interesting overall if Miley herself had seen the real reason why that didn’t need to be the only way she could be provocative, and found a way that suited herself more instead of being intimidated by those around her – THAT’S the message young women should be getting, that it’s okay to put their feelings first in these kinds of situations. But then, this is something most grown women can’t master – which is again another problem with the culture.
If we’re explaining it’s okay because kids are becoming more sexual anyway, why can’t they become more assertive and thoughtful in situations that merit it. Shouldn’t both go hand in hand, or does it just suits some people that you have the body but not the brain?
Artistically, I love that picture. She almost looks like a poster of Les Miserables. I hate the sexy ones with her dad, though. She’s dressed inappropriately there, and posing like a lover. Too wierd.
SHE IS SO HOT
Well said ff.
The first thought I had was she sure looks like Golem from Lord of the Rings. That blue lighting makes her look cadaverous and the boney bits don’t help either. Maybe that was the extended metaphor that Annie L. was going for. She’s got the ring and she doesn’t want to let go of it?
I’m sure it’s flattering to have A.L. chosen to shoot you and to have Vanity Fair agree to cover you and your book deal, but I wouldn’t put my kid in that room. You just couldn’t possibly know what might end up sounding OK. Tub of milk? There were ways that they could have approached this that wouldn’t have put her in such suggestive positions, but I think that’s where her show and career are pointing so it was a no brainer.
But the Golem shot, that’s Annie getting back at her. That’s not beauty that’s curse.
Miley and Billy Ray seriously looked like they were lovers, not father and daughter. That’s the pic that bothered me. I just think of myself at that age posing like that with my father! eeeew
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