It seems that even a celebrity parent can sometimes put aside the best interests of his kids’ TV show and suggest that, just maybe, being on TV is less than glamorous. Or that raising your kid as a mini-celeb is also perhaps a little dangerous. Billy Ray Cyrus now claims that Malia and Sasha Obama are unlikely to appear on Hannah Montana, as he previously suggested.

“It’s a double-edge sword for me because first of all, I have a great deal of respect for President-elect Obama,” Cyrus said. “I just mentioned about them being on the show, and it snowballed.”

Cyrus says he isn’t sure it was a good idea for Obama’s daughters to be on TV, anyway.

“As a daddy, I’ll say to him what I say to any daddy, you may not want your daughter to get into show business,” he warned. “But if the girls want to be on the show, and him and his wife think it’s a good idea, I always say, everything in life, what’s meant to be will happen.”

Us Magazine

Billy Ray brings up quite a few good points here, considering that the girls are going to have a hard enough time being the president’s daughters in the public spotlight. However, if they appear on Hannah Montana then they go beyond being children of a famous person onto being celebrities themselves, which sort of allows the media to expose them more.

Hopefully the girls get a chance to visit the set or something fun like that though, because it is going to be very hard to explain to 7 and 10 year olds why they can’t appear on their favorite show.

Unfortunately Billy Ray hasn’t thought this through with his own child, and is allowing her to date a 20 year old underwear model. Miley’s boyfriend has put out a new song titled ‘too much too young’. However he seems by far more interested in Billy Ray than he is in chipmunk faced Miley.

“I met Billy Ray on the show and just became friends with the whole family. And they’re such a great family,” Justin explained. “I moved [to LA] two years ago and started a modeling career and that’s kind of just to break into the music business and everything.”

The Improper

At least if he’s only interested in using Miley for his career I guess he’s less likely to do something that could land him in jail.

Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus are shown performing on Good Morning America on 11/12/08. Credit: Fame

When you’re 7 and 10 years old the excitement of your dad becoming President of the United States might be a little lost on you. But being invited to appear on Hannah Montana is a whole other story. Malia and Sasha Obama, President Elect Barack and Michelle Obama’s daughters, have been invited to appear on the hit Disney show.

President-elect Barack Obama’s two young daughters have been invited to appear on popular kids television show “Hannah Montana,” actor Billy Ray Cyrus said an interview aired on Monday.

Cyrus, the father of “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus and also an actor on the hit Disney Channel show, said the show had asked Malia, 10, and Sasha Obama, 7, to take part in an episode possibly around April.

“They probably will. The invitation is there,” Cyrus told Access Hollywood in an interview. “You know the ‘Hannah Montana’ film comes out in April. Maybe something might happen around then.”

Pressed for details, Cyrus said; “I can’t, I can’t. I have got to keep a secret.”

[From Reuters]

Obama has mentioned that his girls are big fans of the popular tween show so I’m sure they’re freaking out right about now. But the next President and his wife haven’t said if the invitation will be accepted. The girls have been kept pretty sheltered from the media side of the circus that has surrounded their family for the last year, and that’s been done on purpose.

How would you explain to your pre-teen girls, who will be right in the midst of having their world turned upside down in April, that they can’t go be a part of a show they’re crazy about. Sasha and Malia appear to be very mature and well-raised young ladies, but no 7 and 10-year olds could be expected to be that understanding. On the other hand, it would be hard as a parent to let your young, impressionable daughters go hang out with Miley Cyrus.

Photos used under Creative Commons license from Barack Obama’s flickr. Credit: David Katz/Obama for America.

While most parents would be concerned about their barely 16-year-old daughter dating a 20-year-old, Billy Ray Cyrus couldn’t be more supportive of his daughter Miley’s relationship with underwear model-turned-country singer Justin Gaston. The pair have been spotted together everywhere from church to a Pussycat Dolls concert- with her dad’s blessing. In fact, Justin has been staying at the Cyrus family home and even performed alongside Billy Ray at a concert for Miley’s 16th birthday at Disneyland.

Billy Ray Cyrus doesn’t have a beef with his 15-year-old daughter Miley dating 20-year-old aspiring musician Justin Gaston.

“He actually reminds me a lot of myself when I was 20-years-old and I was living and searching for the dream,” Billy Ray tells Access Hollywood of the model (and former Nashville Star contestant).

“He’s got a great heart and soul, and a lot of determination,” Billy Ray added. “I think that’s the true measure of a man, is when you measure his heart.”

Gaston and Cyrus have gotten cozy since they were first linked together last month.

He was spotted attending an L.A. church with her family and supported her at Disney’s Concert for Hope, where she performed.

Most recently, he serenaded Miley at her pre-Sweet 16 bash at Disneyland this past weekend.

[From Us Weekly]

That’s just the problem, if you ask me: this guy IS a man, while his daughter is still a child. No matter how rich and famous she is, Miley is still a young girl, and you have to ask yourself why this 20-year-old is hanging around. The whole thing is creepy beyond comprehension. I’m a parent of a daughter who is nearly 14 and there is no way in hell I would let her date an older guy. But I guess when your daughter is an almost billionaire, she calls the shots. I’m sure if Daddy told Miley no, he’d be off the payroll. It really is a train wreck in the making, isn’t it?

Miley Cyrus and her many faces are shown at her 16th birthday party at Disneyland on 10/5/08. Credit: Bauergriffinonline.com. Just Jared has photos of Miley out with Justin.

Miley Cyrus has big plans for her career – and they don’t involve wasting any more time on the set of Hannah Montana. According to TMZ, Miley and her dad Billy Ray Cyrus have been acting like total divas on the set of the Disney show, all with the hopes of getting fired. Why? Miley wants to focus on singing, and Billy Ray seems to agree with her.

TMZ has learned Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus want off “Hannah Montana,” and their conduct has triggered a war on the set.

Our spies on the set tell us Miley has bragged that she will get fired, making it clear she wants to focus on singing and not the show. For his part Billy Ray has also made it clear that there is more money in singing than a Disney cable show. As a result, the father-daughter team has been showing up to the set ridiculously late, stalling production and infuriating cast and crew.

Emily Osment, who plays Lilly Truscott, used to be extremely tight with Miley. Now we’re told Emily is so bitter she literally turns away from Miley after each scene. We’re told Emily’s dad got in a screaming match with Billy Ray, complaining he and Miley were unprofessional.

Sources tell us Billy Ray has told people on the set that he and Miley will do twelve more episodes and then they are out. Disney was so pissed they called his agent, railing that Billy Ray and Miley were ingrates. Disney insisted that Billy Ray and Miley not only finish the twenty-four episode season — but Disney was adding six more episodes.

[From TMZ]

While I appreciate any young person who has career plans and goals, there’s a line. Purposely being the biggest bitch you can be in order to get your way pretty much crosses it. Especially when it causes major inconveniences to other people and generally ruins their day. And Billy Ray teaching Miley that this is an appropriate way to act is surely going to regret it. Give her a few more years and he’ll be writing a Lynne Spears-esque memoir title “Whoops – How Should I Have Known Teaching My Kid to be a Spoiled Brat Would Mess Them Up?”

Not only is this poor parenting but it’s also poor business practice. Miley Cyrus is a big star, but she became one because of Hannah Montana. The vast majority of her singing is related to the show in some way. There’s a decent chance she could have a music career apart from all that, but not if she alienates her fans. Put it this way: I don’t know anyone under the age of 18, but even I had head of Hannah Montana a few years ago. Long before I’d ever heard of Miley Cyrus.

Here’s Miley at Disney’s “Concert for Hope in Universal City, CA on September 14th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Disney and Billy Ray’s sweet, innocent little cash cow, Miley Cyrus, has been seen getting cozy with a 20-year-old underwear model and former “Nashville Star” contestant Justin Gaston. And by “getting cozy” I mean, of course, “going to church.” In photos that I’m sure were completely candid, young Miley (looking like a 30-year-old hungover divorcee) was seen walking into a Los Angeles church with Gaston, who is holding a bible.

Earlier today, Miley Cyrus was seen attending Saturday morning church service with buff-bodied Nashville Star hottie Justin Gaston, who’s also an underwear model.

The 15-year-old Disney sensation and the 20-year-old hunk were accompanied by Miley’s family. Justin is originally from Louisiana and left home at age 17 to pursue a career in music, while supporting himself as a model.

Most recently, Gaston was featured as the love interest in teen country superstar Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” music video.

[From JustJared.com]

Seriously, Billy Ray Cyrus has to be the stupidest father on the planet. I have asked every father of a teenage daughter I know if he would be cool with letting his daughter hang out with a 20 year old, and the resounding answer was, “Hell no!” Is he that much of an idiot to think a 20-year-old just wants to be “friends” with Miley? And please, don’t tell me that “it’s okay because they were going to church together.” Jamie Lynn Spears and the 19-year-old boy that impregnated her used to attend church together, too – that’s where they met. Rule of thumb for parents: just because they’re holding bibles doesn’t mean that guy doesn’t want to get into her pants. I wonder how long it will be before we see inappropriate photos of Miley and this new guy?

Miley Cyrus is shown out on 9/15/08. Credit: Zink/Fame Pictures. Her 20 year-old friend Justin Gaston is shown from the waist up in an underwear ad. Just Jared has plenty more photos of Gaston in his skivvies if you’re interested.

Billy Ray Cyrus has talked about those pictures of daughter Miley. The Vanity Fair ones, not the myspace pictures of her with various boys and lifting up her shirt.

“I didn’t know they were gonna strip her down and wrap her in a blanket,” Cyrus told Meredith Vieira on “Today” Tuesday in New York, referring to the shot of his 15-year-old daughter taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz. In the photo, the “Hannah Montana” star appeared to be topless, covered only by a sheet she clutched to her chest.

Though Cyrus doesn’t approve of the photograph, which Leibovitz defended as “a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup,” he said that heeded his dad’s advice on the situation.

“My dad always told me the more you stomp in poop, the more it stinks,” Billy Ray said. “So I was just, ‘OK, this happened. We got to deal with it.’ ”

And what about that other photo of Miley in Billy Ray’s lap, which also raised more than a few eyebrows?

“That’s just a daddy who loves his daughter a whole lot,” Billy Ray explained, laughing off the question about the pose that Vieira thought made them look like more like girlfriend and boyfriend.

Los Angeles Times

I know a lot of people think Miley should have been more carefully supervised at the photo shoot, but you don’t drop your 15-year-old daughters off to work as babysitters and supervise their shift, maybe they were trying to give their daughter some normalcy at work. Posing for photos and publicity is what she does for a living to promote her show and music.

I also thought that the pictures of Billy Ray and his daughter were nice. The matching clothes bothered me, not the pose. I think anyone that suggests that there is something inappropriate in their relationship is way out of line, particularly when it is based on a photograph.

Any photographers working with Miley in the future are probably going to give the Cyrus camp the power of veto over what gets published.

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:

15 year-old sensation Miley Cyrus and her dad, country singer Billy Ray, were interviewed on Access Hollywood by former “Brady Bunch” star Maureen McCormick. Billy Ray talked about how he tries to keep the paparazzi in line around his teen daughter by asking to see their faces and having chats with them. Miley also told a cute story about how she took her dad to get a little tattoo on his hand she designed and took him to a salon afterwards to get highlights in his hair. Billy Ray, 46, said it was Miley’s day when that happened and that he willingly submitted to the makeover.

On the paparazzi
Billy Ray: “When I see people taking pictures of my little girl, I usually try to get them to roll down the window and get a picture of them, because I just want to know who’s stalking my family.”

“I’ll go knock on the window and say ‘I just wanted to see your face because you’re taking pictures of my little girl’… just in case.”

Miley: “‘If I have to hunt you down and kill you,’ then he knows what they look like.’”

Miley told a story about how her dad intimidated a photographer. She said “He was like ‘Dude. Not cool’ [making mean face] The other guy was like ‘Sorry Mr. Cyrus’” [holding hands up]

On the heart tattoo and highlights Miley got her dad
Billy Ray: “We were sitting in church, uh…”

Miley: “You never start a tattoo story off with ‘I was sitting in church,’ that sounds so terrible.”

Billy Ray: “This is the truth… we were sitting beside each other and I noticed that she picked up my hand and drew this little heart on there, and I had already declared that day was Miley’s day. I said ‘Anything that you want to do, today is your day’”

“She said, ‘Daddy, I know what I want to do… take you to the tattoo parlor.’ The next thing I know we’re driving out there, heading for Pasadena on a Sunday afternoon.”

Miley: “And then I took him and got him highlights.”

Billy Ray: “We come across a place called ‘Wackos,’ open on a Sunday afternoon.”

Miley: “It was $20 for a whole head.”

Billy Ray: “It was Miley’s day, she took me to the tattoo parlor and to Wackos for a hairdo.”

Miley: “So I get my dad a makeover”

15 year-old Miley is the new paparazzi target after Britney’s return to sanity. It’s nice to know that she has a protective family and that they do fun activities together. Still, it’s can be a nasty business and I hope she can get through her teen years with her childhood relatively intact. It’s got to be crazy to be swarmed by photographers like that wherever you go and it’s nice that her dad is looking out for her. Maybe a move to the country might be in order soon.

Here’s the video of the interview, thanks to rockers94 on redlasso. Photos are of Miley out shopping yesterday at the Beverly Center, thanks to Splash News.