Miley Cyrus is towing the Disney company line and letting everyone know she’s still fully on board – and totally jazzed about, I’m sure – Hannah Montana. Rumors circulated last week that she and dad Billy Ray Cyrus wanted out of their contracts so that Miley could focus exclusively on music. And because they couldn’t get out of them, they were acting like jerks on the set – intentionally – so that they’d get fired. But Miley has denied the rumor and says she’s still totally on board for Hannah Montana.

Hannah Montana fans, rejoice: Miley Cyrus isn’t leaving the hit Disney show.

Erroneous reports surfaced online this weekend that the teen queen has been trying to get fired from the show by showing up late and saying she’ll only do 12 of the 24-episode season.

But in a statement to Usmagazine.com, she says: “I am fully committed to Hannah Montana. It’s what gave me this amazing opportunity to reach out to so many people.”

She adds, “I’m really excited about our new season. We are making great new episodes that I can’t wait for our fans to see and I’m looking forward to the Hannah Montana movie that will be out in the spring.” (The movie is now due out almost a full month sooner — on April 10.)

But Cyrus does want to branch her career out: She has signed on to star in an untitled film by Notebook author Nicholas Sparks, Variety reports.

The role is being written especially for her.

Sparks told Variety that the Cyrus clan was “very familiar with the work I’ve done in the past. That played a role in this project coming together.”

[From Us Weekly]

That sounds like the typical publicist-written generic refutation you’d expect. There have been rumors that Miley’s been acting like a diva for quite a while, and I still think this could be the reason behind it. I can’t imagine how she could get away with NOT releasing a statement like this. Of course she has to say she’s still good ‘ol sweet Miley Cyrus. Her fan base depends on it.

Hopefully if Miley was acting like a diva, she’ll tone it down now that word is out and she’s getting some bad press. If she wants to last in the business, having a reputation as a consummate professional will get her a lot further than that of a demanding diva.

Here’s Miley Cyrus with her mom on July 26th in Beverly Hills after spending six hours at the salon getting new extensions put in. Credit: Fame. She is also shown on July 27th getting frozen yogurt. Credit: Splash News

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.

For my sweet sixteen my dad took me and one friend to a restaurant, bought us dinner, and gave me a pair of athletic shoes from Costco. The exact same pair he’d given me the year before. Both remained unworn. For Miley Cyrus’ birthday, her dad Billy Ray Cyrus is throwing her a giant party at Disneyland. And if that’s not enough, the girl is even selling tickets to her big bash.

The bash has been described as “awesome,” and “totally awesome” by the teenager with the sixty year old smoker’s voice.

Miley Cyrus wants fans to help her celebrate her Sweet 16 — for a little green.

According to Entertainment Tonight, the teen queen — who earned $18.2 million last year — is selling a limited number of $250 tickets to her bash, set to take place at Disneyland. (She turns the big 1-6 on November 23.)

Tickets for “Miley’s Sweet 16 — Share the Celebration” go on sale August 30 at 9 a.m. PDT. Members of Youth Service America will also be honored for their charitable work.

“It’s gonna be an awesome party with more than 7 things I like,” she tells ET. “It’s gonna be totally awesome. I hope it’s a great time.”

She wouldn’t dish more, but said, “I love roller coasters. So this is my ultimate birthday.”

What’s on her birthday wish list? “A car,” she has said. “I will let you know when I’m on the road so you get off the road!”

[From Us Weekly]

I was a little confused by that whole thing with the Members of Youth Service America being honored for their charitable work. What in the world does that have to do with Miley Cyrus’ birthday? There’s no mention of proceeds going to help them or anything. It just seems like this random bit of do-goodery publicity thrown in there. Maybe it’s one of the seven things she likes.

Something tells me Miley’s wish of getting a car will probably come true. Though I do hope she gets a pair of athletic shoes too. That’s every girl’s sweet sixteen fantasy. No I’m not still bitter, why?

Here’s Miley celebrating her VMA nomination with her family on Saturday. Images thanks to Fame.

Miley Cyrus will probably be a billionaire by the time she’s 20, and I’m not exaggerating, but she’s still just a 15 year old kid. When you’re 15, life seems super intense and your emotions are always right at the surface waiting to boil over. You think your problems are deep and serious, and they certainly are at the time, but you eventually realize that the social intricacies of the ninth grade just don’t mean much in the scheme of your life or even next month.

Miley has a new interview with Seventeen Magazine in which she admits to her rumored relationship with fellow musician and teen sensation Nick Jonas, 15. Miley says that she “bawled for a month” after they broke up. She also said she dyed her hair black shortly afterwards in order to rebel against Nick’s expectations of her. That’s what 15 year-old girls do. Miley colored her hair in January, so I guess we can assume that’s when they split. The article doesn’t say how long the two were together, but really does it matter?

Miley Cyrus didn’t take her split with Nick Jonas lightly.

“At first I bawled for a month straight,” she tells September’s Seventeen (as excerpted by Access Hollywood). “I was so sad. I just went into this weird funk. And I dyed my hair black.”

While they were dating, “Nick wanted me to get highlights – and so I did that, and I got myself looking great,” she recalls.

“And then, on the day we broke up, I was like, ‘I want to make my hair black now – I don’t want to look pretty; I want to look hard-core.’

“I was rebelling against everything Nick wanted me to be,” Cyrus explains. “And then I was like, ‘I’ve got to be by myself for now, and just figure out who I really am.’”

The 15-year-old Hannah Montana singer — who recently said she’s “lookin’” for a boyfriend — also says she relies on close friends to support her when “weird, personal things about me” wind up on the Internet.

“I think you’ve got to keep a very close circle of people you can trust,” she says. “I’ve had so much drama with girlfriends. A lot of them became those tabloid sources you read about.”

She says she “can’t think of one other friend” she can trust besides her YouTube pal Mandy Jiroux.

[From US Weekly]

Nick is now said to be dating Disney star Selena Gomez, 16, who is often called Miley’s rival. Miley says she’s friends with Selena, but she did record a YouTube video with her friend Mandy mocking one of Selena’s YouTube videos with her friend. I wasted like a half an hour watching videos from Miley’s channel and Selena’s channel a couple of weeks ago trying to figure out that story and I got so annoyed, particularly at Miley, that I gave up and didn’t report it. Selena and her friend definitely come off as more mature in their videos. These are still kids to me, though, and I don’t find their foibles that interesting. I used to feel that way about Hayden Panettiere too, but then she decided to care about the dolphins. Maybe Miley should get a cause and quit wallowing in her own problems. She’s 15 though, I’ll give her a break.

Miley and her BFF Mandy are shown at the Teen Choice Awards on 8/3/08, thanks to WENN. From what I could find, Mandy is at least 21 is 20, according to her Myspace. [Thanks MonicaBee]

Over the last few months, barely a day goes by without new, inappropriate candid photos of teen star Miley Cyrus leaking on the Internet. Miley making out with a boy. Miley in the shower posing in a wet T-shirt. Miley and a friend making a video making fun of two other Disney proteges. The big question is, why in the world would Disney’s darling act out so inappropriately when her entire career as America’s Sweetheart is at stake? Well, a recent story at E! Online may hold the answer. Miley herself told E! News’ Marc Malkin that she thought this was the final season of the top-rated Hannah Montana TV show. When Malkin reported this, Disney was quick to respond, saying that not only is Cyrus shooting a Hannah Montana movie at present, she’s also shooting the third season of the TV show and has signed on for a fourth.

Miley Cyrus may be getting ready to say goodbye to Hannah Montana. Or at least she’s thinking about it.

The 15-year-old superstar feels the time may be right for her hit Disney Channel series to come to an end.

“We’re thinking this is our last season,” Cyrus tells me.

Update: Just heard back from a Disney rep regarding Miley Cyrus and talk about the end of Hannah Montana.

“Miley said it best when she said she’s delighted to be part of the Disney family,” the rep wrote in an email. “We start production on the third season of Hannah Montana on August 4 and have an option for a fourth season beyond that. We look forward to the Hannah Montana feature film coming to a theatre near you in Spring 2009.”

[From E! Online]

Could it be that Miley wants out of her Disney contract, just like Hillary Duff before her? Of course, when Hillary Duff wanted out of her contract for the hit show Lizzie McGuire, she just smiled and played along, waiting patiently for it to run out, and then didn’t renew. Miley, 15, doesn’t seem to want to wait that long. Perhaps all these antics have a purpose- to piss off Disney enough that they’ll fire her. We’ll have to wait and see.

Miley Cyrus is shown with her mom on 7/26/08 in Beverly Hills after spending six hours at the salon getting new extensions put in. Credit: Fame. She is also shown on 7/27/08 getting frozen yogurt. Credit: Splash News

I’m actually starting to feel a bit sorry for Miley Cyrus, although up until today I couldn’t stand her really irritating music and can’t believe how much of that Hannah Montana crap I bought for my teenage sister. My new sympathy is because the same week more photos of her have been leaked, she’s given an interview to TV Guide where she seems very confused, caught between her teenage self and her Disney child star image.

Firstly, she talks about wanting to stay a virgin until she’s married – this interview was done before the hacker ‘Trainreq’ claimed to have viewed, but conveniently forgot to save, emails where Miley says she had sex with a Jonas brother. No one has seen those emails, probably because they don’t exist.

The singer and actress wear a purity ring signifying her strong Christian faith and desire to remain a virgin until she marries.

She explained: “I like to think of myself as the girl that no-one can get, that no-one can keep in their hand. Even at my age, a lot of girls are starting to fall and I think if [staying a virgin] is a commitment girls make, that’s great.”

Girls are ‘falling’, by which I think she means they are having sex, unless she’s talking about falling on her ass as Disney kicks her to the curb. Her career will probably thrive if Disney does drop her for newcomers Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Miley has a plan for her next career move, a ‘younger cleaner version’ of Sex and the City.

You know, I think Miley missed the point of the show, which is maybe a good thing because she’s not old enough to watch it anyway!

Then Miley seems to remember that she’s owned by Disney studios and drops this delicious line.

“I don’t dwell on the negativity. I want to be a positive role model, so we just try to keep [that stuff] as much not talked about as possible.”

All Quotes from TV Guide via Daily Telegraph

Do you feel a bit like she’s paying lip service here? It seems like there is no meaning behind it, it’s just something she’s saying?

Some one else who thinks Miley Cyrus might be good for her image is flavor of the month Katy Perry, who sings the song ‘I Kissed a Girl’. She says that she’d like to kiss Miley Cyrus In a Madonna-Britney style pash (why doesn’t anyone ever remember that Madonna kissed Christina Aguilera too?) admitting that while it wouldn’t do much for Miley’s career, ‘it would definitely help mine!’ Poor Miley, everyone wants a piece of her, although Katy’s offer is at least transparent.

Miley Cyrus is shown filming scenes for the Hannah Montana movie on 7/15 and 7/16/08. Credit: WENN

Remember the big uproar over Miley Cyrus’ “Vanity Fair” cover? What I always found odd about that whole thing was that nobody batted an eyelash at other, candid photos that came out around the same time of Miley posing provocatively with some guy, showing off her midriff and bra strap. How come all those reporters who interviewed Miley and her father never brought those photos up? I’ll tell you why: because those photos were taken by Miley herself, so there was no one else to blame for them. Now, more of these photos have emerged, thanks to a hacker who broke into Miley’s e-mail account. There are photos of Miley taking a shower in a white T-shirt, making pouty faces at the camera. There are photos of Miley blowing kisses at the camera and lifting up her shirt. The hacker, who goes by the name “trainreq,” claims he viewed raunchy e-mails from Miley to her ex-boyfriend Nick Jonas from The Jonas Brothers, recalling a night they had sex.

i have worse pictures than these, and those are prob getting sold . . . I have some more pictures of her that I want to attempt to sell to a tabloid, but if i cant, i’ll just leak them with watermarks. I saw alot of juicy emails, but I never thought of saving them.. now I kick myself for not.. there where so many juicy emails that I read…ones with her talking to nick about the night they f’ed, etc.

[From Digital Gangster via Celebslam]

This hacker sounds like a grade-A creep. However, people wouldn’t be trying to hack into Miley Cyrus’ e-mail if they didn’t stand a good chance of finding something. And why shouldn’t young Miley keep on taking photos, when it didn’t seem to hurt any other starlet’s career in the slightest? Fellow Disney girl Vanessa Hudgens is more popular than ever after nude photos of her leaked. And I suppose Disney powers-that-be aren’t too worried about tarnishing the Hannah Montana brand, now that there are two new girls rising in the ranks to replace Cyrus if she messes up too badly: Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. But it’s probably only a matter of time before their first racy pics hit the Internet too.

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.

Miley Cyrus had even more photos released last week showing her lifting her top to show her stomach and pouting at the camera. They were more of the same facebook-style photos of Miley, which have had less attention from the public than that backless Vanity Fair picture. That one picture somehow seemed to capture the premature sexualization and objectification of young teens in the media, and sparked a huge debate. Meanwhile Miley has scores of private photos that have been leaked which are much racier but not as well publicized.

Now Miley has struck up a friendship with John Travolta after they worked on the animated Disney film Bolt together. Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston told a reporter that her husband will possibly sing a duet with Miley. Cue the inevitable question that comes up when a celebrity gets to know John Travolta or Tom Cruise: Are they being groomed for the cult of Scientology? There is plenty of pressure on these celebrities to bring more famous people into the fold, so it’s a legitimate concern:

Miley Cyrus can still command a stadium-size crowd and raked in $18.2 million in 2007 along playing Disney’s Hannah Montana. So it’s not surprising that they 15-year-old has become a sought-after commodity for Scientology, and her pal John Travolta is the most likely person to do the recruiting!

[From Star Magazine, print edition, June 2, 2008]

Miley is young and impressionable, and you could see her falling for something like this, but her family are devout Christians. Miley even made a YouTube video talking about how she loved Jesus. Some insiders claim that Scientologists tell new recruits that you can be a member of their cult and still follow Christianity, Judaism, or any religion you prefer. This is contradicted by the teachings of founder L. Ron Hubbard and to the basic tenets of Scientology, which some Christians claim are anti-Christian and anti-Jesus.

You just hope Miley keeps Travolta and his family at arm’s length. His wife is trying to hype up their relationship with the young superstar, though, so it’s not that far of a stretch to think that they’re also trying to convert her and her family to the cult that has such a stronghold on them. Travolta converted his old “Grease” co-star Jeff Conaway to Scientology under the guise of helping him beat his drug addiction. They surely have a way of helping Miley with her singing, or maybe they have training to assist with her public image, since Cruise and Travolta have had so much success in that department since joining the cult.

Miley Cyrus is shown performing on 5/17/08 in East Rutherford, NJ, thanks to WENN. John Travolta is shown on 4/25/08 at a ceremony presenting Michael Eisner with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.