Miley Cyrus: "Coolest. Person. Ev-er!"
If only every 15-year-old could have Miley Cyrus’ self-esteem.
“Coolest. Person. Ev-er!” she joked to People in a recent interview when asked how she would describe herself.
Then, upon reflection, she replied, “I think I’m chill. I am very hyper but I’m very carefree.”
Aside from her calm and collected side, Cyrus also reveals a few of her oh-so-teenage proclivities, such as her desire for a new car when she turns 16, her big crush on the coolest handbags and her beauty regimenmascara and a suntan.
Ah, to still be years away from voting age.
The star of the upcoming Hannah Montana Movie, which she’s been filming in Nashville this summer, also admits to eating ketchup right out of the bottle (now there’s something the paparazzi have missed) and preferring tomboy wear and Juicy Couture sweats when she doesn’t have to be all dolled up.
But although she might not be your typical girly-girl, it’s not as if she doesn’t make time to think about boys: Ask her who she prefers, McDreamy or McSteamy, and she’ll tell you that she’s a Dempsey girl all the way.
Of course, all this chit-chat is probably just leading up to a few more pressing topics, such as what Cyrus has learned in the wake of the Vanity Fair photo flap.
“A lot has happened,” she says. “There have been a lot of changes, but it’s all good. I’ve been really blessed.”
The teen says that she still has things to learn about “knowing which people I can trust and being more aware of my surroundings. It’s like DorothyI’m not in Kansas anymore.”
Meanwhile, the Disney Channel phenom has a new Hannah-free album, Breakout, ready to drop July 22, all just part of her plan to conquer the world by 18.
“Madonna always reinvents herself, and that’s what I want to do,” Cyrus says. “Whatever comes my way that sounds good, that’s what I want to do. Whether it’s designing clothes or photography or whatever.”
The Valkyrie Flap That Wasn’t
Sometimes a nose is just a nose. As Tom Cruise knows.
In what is some much-needed good news for the actor’s beleaguered WWII flick Valkyrie, Slate has been forced to publish an embarrassing correction retracting its claim that Cruise’s United Artists may have digitally altered a photo of the film’s subject, German hero Claus von Stauffenberg, to look more like Cruise.
The original article, titled “The Case of the Doctored Publicity Photo,” quoted designers saying a side-by-side comparison of a studio-disseminated still of von Stauffenberg in profile and an Associated Press archive photo of the colonel appeared to show the UA version had been slightly tweaked to more match Cruise’s features.
“Look @ the nose, mouth, and chin,” opined Slate expert Jim Festante. “Definite (but slight) altering. Also, the head’s width is squeezed slightly.”
The designers then superimposed the AP photo over the UA picture to demonstrate the physical changes.
The online magazine suggested that finding out who made the tweaks could be “mission: possible,” insinuating the Cruise-powered studio may have made the modifications to appease German critics. Many in the country, including relatives of von Stauffenberg, have said the 45-year-old thesp is woefully miscast as the national hero who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Slate did take pains to state that its designers’ research was “not definitive,” considering no Photoshopping allegations had surfaced in the German press.
Still, the photo flap seemed to be another chapter in the bad buzz surrounding Valkyrie, which has been dogged by missteps, controversy and delays.
But it turns out Slate made an oops, and the publication offered a quick mea culpa.
“Because of insufficient photo research by Slate’s editors, we failed to discover another archival image of von Stauffenberg, which appears to be the one UA used in its publicity campaign,” the editors say in a statement. “As a result of this mistake, the question the piece raisedwhether the photo had been doctored to make Claus von Stauffenberg look more like Tom Cruisewas unwarranted.”
The AP confirmed its archival photo, which dates to 1943 and is part of Getty Images’ database, was not the one the studio released.
Instead, United Artists said it obtained its version from the public domain.
“The picture United Artists used of Colonel Stauffenberg can be found all over the Internet,” Valkyrie cowriter and producer Chris McQuarrie said in a statement.
In refuting any digital manipulations had been done, McQuarrie added that it would have been far easier for UA marketers to alter Cruise’s picture than to go back and change every portrait of a famous historical figure.
Barring any more real disasters, the Bryan Singer-helmed Valkyrie is slated to hit theaters in February 2009.
Billy Ray Rehashes Miley’s Photo Flap
Just when we thought we were out, Billy Ray Cyrus pulled us back in.
The country star and father of Miley has spoken out for the first time about his daughter’s topless Vanity Fair photo shoot, giving his take on the controversial shots on this morning’s Today show.
“I didn’t know they were gonna strip her down and wrap her in a blanket,” he said while promoting the new season of Nashville Star.
“My dad always told me, the more you stomp in poop, the more it stinks. So I was just, ’OK, this happened. We got to deal with it,’” he said, before relaying words of wisdom once given to him. “The turkey with the longest neck’s always going to be the one everyone’s shooting at.”
Wait, did he just call Miley a turkey?
Osmond Blasts Cyrus’ Siring Skills
Pot, meet kettle.
Marie Osmond, that doll-making savior of Middle America, has uncharacteristically lashed out at Billy Ray Cyrus' parenting skills in the wake of daughter Miley's back-baring photo flap.
"My parents never, never left us alone," the little-bit-country one told AOL Television. "We always had some form of a guardian or something with us, a guardian that would represent what they would have done. But in [Miley's] case, her dad stepped out [of the photo session], and that's when it happened.
"How do you say no to somebody like Annie [Leibovitz] when you're a little girl? It's an interesting thing that happened with her."
Also interesting, perhaps at least to Cyrus, is that Osmond's own adopted teenage son checked himself into rehab just last year.
In his defense, when there's no form of a guardian aroundwhen they're busy, say, fainting on national televisionit's hard to say no to somebody like Jack [Daniels].