Infinite MonkeysForgive me, but I'm still hung up on this "Hannah Montana topless" business. (RedBlueAmerica.com covered the topic here.) We've had a chance to survey some of the fallout. Most immediately: The Disney Channel show's ratings are dropping. Oh, and Hugh Hefner is looking to book a photo shoot for sometime in 2012. Lovely.
At National Review Online today, Jennifer Graham muses on the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana/Vanity Fair row. She focuses the same thing that bothered me -- no, not the "topless" picture, but the picture of Miley and her dad, Billy Ray. "Isn’t anyone else on the planet a little uncomfortable with Billy Ray and Miley Ray (yes, she’s legally changed her name, effective May 1) draped all over each other, in skimpy black tank-tops and tight blue jeans?"
As a matter of fact, yes.
Just about every story about the controversy reported some variation of how Billy Ray Cyrus was "outraged" at the shots, which he said were taken without his knowledge after he left the set of the photo shoot. But I wonder if he's given a thought to that other picture, in which Miley looks less like his child than his lover -- her midriff provocatively exposed and her expression smoky as he gazes off in the distance. But, of course, to point this out is to invite the criticism of having a "dirty mind."
Might that be precisely what Annie Liebowitz and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter intended? Or could that even be what Miley and her parents had in mind?
Graham actually watched the behind-the-scenes video of the shoot, "where normal people and pedophiles alike can watch father and daughter snuggle and caress each other in profoundly disturbing ways. We see lots of skin and curves and muscle, and close-ups of dad’s tattoo and daughter’s black toenail polish. It’s all very touching, but not in the Hallmark way." Graham also read the Vanity Fair profile a little more closely than I did initially. Turns out, Hannah Montana has a Jeremiah Wright problem: The more she talks to the press, the worse she sounds. Read what Miley Cyrus says about Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, and weep. Human sacrifice, anyone?
I've informally polled a dozen or so friends and family about the pics. Most people weren't as put off as I was. They were more bothered by the bra shot that started circulating the Web about a week before the Vanity Fair pictures made news. But the people I polled hadn't seen the video, or read some of Miley's on-the-record remarks.
There's a pattern here, one we've seen before.
My friend Julie Ponzi offered the most trenchant analysis at No Left Turns: "It all stems from an inability to recognize what is truly beautiful or truly erotic in this life. We hold up the example of a young girl who--clearly, no matter what her 'experience'--knows nothing of the erotic. But in that, she is just like us. She is the embodiment of our cultural naiveté. Like her, we are all promise and potential and, very likely, no delivery."
Truth is, I enjoy the "Hannah Montana" show. I watch it with my son, who's a fan. It's like a 21st century version of "I Love Lucy." But I don't like what's happening with Miley Cyrus. Lucille Ball was a Ziegfeld Follies girl, but Miss Cyrus is clearly on a far more destructive path, no thanks to her parents and grown-ups who should know better.
For what it's worth, MadTV predicted all of this (more or less) months ago:
Posted by Ben at May 9, 2008 12:52 PMVery creepy. It reminds me of some of the weird stuff you see on "Your Mama Don't Dance."
Posted by: chad the elder at May 9, 2008 01:00 PMMy five year-old son is in love with Zoey, from Zoey 101. Of course he has no idea about her present situation so I continue to allow him to watch the show. I had tremendous hope that Ms. Cyrus would not fall victim to the usual Hollywood tragedy of most young starlets. I pray she learns from this and despite those that should be making decisions for her, keeps to the light; there is still time for her.
Posted by: Hamilton at May 9, 2008 02:16 PM