Celebs weigh in on the Miley Cyrus topless Vanity Fair shoot

by Kyle Hepp (Subscribe to Kyle Hepp's posts)
Posted Apr 29th 2008 at 3:36PM

Ok people, is it really that big of a deal? 15 year old Miley Cyrus looked semi-topless, covered with a sheet for a Vanity Fair shoot. But, Vanity Fair is a respected publication, Annie Lebowitz is a respected fashion photographer and Miley's parents were with her the whole time!

We have criticized Miley here on Styledash before, for dressing too skanky for her age. But, that was in a different context -- she was on the red carpet wearing clothing that totally sexualized her and turned her into an (underage) object for men.

Underage and famous

(click thumbnails to view gallery)

In the context of the Vanity Fair shoot we weren't uncomfortable at all with her pictures. They're artistic and very beautiful -- plus they didn't reveal anything. When we first heard that Miley had gone topless we thought these pictures were going to be crazy, but they were actually quite tame.

Since nobody will let this topic die, reporters have been asking every single celebrity that will talk to them, what they think about the Miley scandal. Here are a few opinions from older Hollywood A-listers who have been there, done that.

"They save money on those shoots with a budget -- no need to get fancy clothes or anything like that." -Ellen Degeneres
"I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted. 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." -Annie Lebowitz
"How many more stars need to get manipulated by Ms. Lebowitz before she is stopped." -Stephen Colbert, said sarcastically.
"When these young people get all dressed up for award show red-carpet events don't we all comment how beautiful, stunning and grown-up they look in their strapless/backless dresses and heels and tousled hair? None of this is new. None of this should be news. But it is news because it is a business. It is all Business. It is called Show Business. Show Abyss-ness! I call it Show-OFF Business. You throw a child into the jaws of a business and they will get eaten." -Jamie Lee Curtis
"Leave Miley Cyrus alone. Disney [is] making her apologize. Ay yi yi...Listen, Annie Leibovitz – I had two photo shoots with her. You kind of do what she says. It's intimidating. I also didn't think it was a pornographic photo in any capacity. I thought it was sort of a beautiful portrait. I like the one of her and her dad, too. I don't know. It's Annie Leibovitz, people." -Rosie O'Donnell
"Everyone goes through things and takes their own path. Who am I to judge decisions that she made? People are pushing you to do something, and if you want to do it, that's your choice, you know? It's not what I would choose to do, but if she did then that's fine. That's her choice." -Hilary Duff
"I think she's a young girl in Hollywood, and she's just having fun. [She]'s exploring herself." -Heidi Montag
"I found it a bit silly. I thought she looked beautiful in the pictures. I didn't find it that inappropriate. Being young and in the spotlight "is difficult. It's a lot of pressure on her since she is a role model, but I think she's doing a good job." -Lauren Conrad

What do you think about the Miley Cyrus scandal?
The photos are inappropriate for a 15 year old girl, no matter how famous she is.	76 (21.7%)
Let her be, she's not technically showing any body parts we shouldn't be seeing. It's not a big deal!	127 (36.3%)
Umm, seriously? When are people going to stop talking about this?	147 (42.0%)

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Filed under: CELEBRITY STYLE, Celebrity
Tags: Annie Lebowitz, AnnieLebowitz, celebrities, expire-images2009-4-29, featured, Heidi Montag, Lauren Conrad, LaurenConrad, Miley Cyrus, MileyCyrus, nude, pictures, topless, underage

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READER COMMENTS

(6)Add A Comment

Marie, 4-29-2008, 6:36PM

It seems that Miley is channeling Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in this photo, the peace sign and pouting lips.

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Emma Leigh, 4-29-2008, 6:36PM

My daughter is 6 years old and, thankfully, unaware of Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana. I think the photo (bed head w/sheet) should have waited until she was over 18. It's a beautiful shot, yes, nothing is showing, yes, but it is a very intimate shot.

The shots of Miley with her father look more like a romantic couple rather than a father and daughter and that just creeped me out.

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Shari, 5-24-2008, 2:33AM

Thank you! I commented on that also but my comment isn't posted. I'm a show biz family kid also - Gew up in a home with an mmy award winning screenwriter and "celebrities " were the only people who were in our home it seems and yet, my parents knew the boundaries between their work and parenting me and my role as their daughter. I remember when mini skirts were all the rage. I went to an end of the deaason cast party of Chico and the Man and when my Dad saw mein a miniskirt, he espted me to my car, trying to pull the back of my skirt down as low as he could and told me not to come back until I was dressed looking like the 16 y/old that I was rathre than than as if I was trying to get the focus on myslef, and maybe be tagged for a playboy shoot once I reached eighteen - nd there is NO picture in ANY family album where I am sprawled across my father's lap as if e are loers! My God! THAT infuriated me! There are enough young girls who had frightening sexual bakcgrounds with fathers who misused their own daughters - it was and is nearly an epidemic of a problem and so to see that made me sick to look at - What is wrong with this family anyway?

Shari, 5-24-2008, 2:33AM

As for this whole Miley Cyrus thing, frankly in and of itself, if a photo is a solo event for artistic purposes - fine ...BUT, when a 15 y/old irl, starts posing in sexy positions, sprawled across the lap of her father looking like his g/friend or wife, more than a daughter, and THEN you add to THIS all the rest, I'd have to say that I'd be delighted if the whole Cyrus lan just somehow evaporated away - I wouldn't miss any one of them a bit and I think the whole clan (which it has taken) to market this young girl, is pimping this kid (poetically and literally in the industry in a sense) and I can't see it getting much sleazier than this. Yes it IS damaging to your everyday non - show biz young teen girl - A picture is wortha thousand words and when kids begin to idolize what/who they are seing they begin to emulate what messages the visuals ares sending to them and I grew up i show biz family smack adab in the center of Hollywood/Bever;y - I am no square, but I'm a parent now and wiser than when I was young - I think her father should be ashamaed - her mother should be ashamed, and God help her as things roll along for her in Hollyweird ...

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Shari, 5-24-2008, 2:33AM

PS - Sorry readers for my many typos in my two comments, but I was literally trembling with upset when I tried to type my comments. I still am - but am trying harder to make this readable. That one shot of father and daughter made me feel as if I was watching a trailer in freeze frame mode from a horror movie. To think the two of them probably take pride in that shot and perhaps even love it - well is this idiocy, insanity, or what is it? I'm at a loss, except to say that the less I see of this sh** online and anywhere else, the better. My eyes - my mind - my heart, is eve searching (as a writer) for ways to write for children that will help hem to make sense of a mad, mad mad world as it is ...These people are throweing the efforts of all of us who are attempting to help our children become more evolved overall, and catapulting all of our eforts in the opposite direction while they take center stage flaunting their ...their...what? My God, finally I am at a loss for words. That's it. Thanks if you have posyed any of this - I hope it was food for thought for some people anyway ...and/ or that others see the wrong in this, as I do ...mostly I hope there are young girls who see why this is wrong and learn to find their own God given magic , and purposes in this tapestry in life, (which they and each of us indeed has), rather than to buy into this ever trivialized version of what their worth is about...or should be about, in order to be winnere and women of value. Whew! OK - NOW I'm done. (sorry) :-\

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Mia, 5-25-2008, 2:11PM

I'm actually more concerned with how redneck Billy Ray Cyrus looks in the pictures he's in. Seriously? Miley was covered. Everybody's just a fucking prude.

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