Right now Vanity Fair photographer Annie Leibovitz may be wondering how she could have once gotten Whoopie Goldberg into a tub full of milk for a photograph but is finding herself in hot water now over the Miley photographs. A message posted on Vanity Fair’s Web site wants people to judge for themselves: “Our exclusive video shows that the session was a relaxed family event in the picturesque hills of Calabasas, California.” Miley’s statement is more deflecting, “I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about.”
Satin Sheetgate has prompted the second apology in two weeks from Miley, who last week put up the mea culpa for shots that surfaced on the Internet of herself in various suggestive poses: pulling down her shirt to show off her green bra in one, cuddling up to a boy with her stomach exposed in another. The photo in question now in Vanity Fair is of Miley who appears to be nude, clutching a satin sheet to her chest. Scarlet lips, dark flowing hair and a knowing look, and sure, there you have “Lolita Does Disney.” Celebrity sniper-blogger Perez Hilton has already christened her “Slutty Miley” on his Web site. But at the time did Miley think it was too provocative? Or was it a case of getting under the mind control of the famed photographer? Leibovitz has released the following statement: “I’m sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted,” she says. “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.”
If Miley were just some neophyte who hadn’t already appeared on “Oprah” and the “Barbara Walters 2008 Oscar Special” as well as in countless other magazine shoots, one might entertain the thought that she’d somehow been “manipulated” during the shoot, as a Disney spokesperson is claiming. But her parents attended and monitored the shoot. And Miley herself is by now well steeped in the maneuverings of celebrity. Witting or unwitting, she should have known better. And she plainly did not see the backlash coming until too late.
The ironic thing—there has to be an irony here somewhere, right?—is that Miley was supposed to be the last great hope. With Britney and Lindsay making the rounds of rehab and back again, Miley was the shimmering example of how to keep it together. Or at least not to lose the plot so severely, and so quickly. For now, at least, the girl who found fame by singing about the “Best of Both Worlds” has learned, maybe the hard way, that it’s not always as simple as changing from one costume to the other—or out of one.
