ABSTRACT
Miley Cyrus was the center of a quasi-scandal in early May 2008 because a) Annie Leibovitz photographed her in a suggestively wrapped bed sheet for the June issue of Vanity Fair; b) Miley is 15 years old; and c) Miley stars in the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana show. Some people think Leibovitz and Vanity Fair manipulated a 15 year old in order to sell magazines. There may be some truth in this idea because the magazine’s website racked up 1.8 million unique visitors and 17 million page views the day after the story broke (Kafka, 2008). Other people refuse to believe Miley was exploited. They note that Miley and her parents and/or minders were on the set all day; they saw the digital photos; they considered the pictures beautiful and natural portraits. Some people see Miley as a youthful role model for three million viewers, ages six to fourteen, of Hannah Montana. Others see Miley as a press-savvy celebrity, who signed a seven-figure book deal and who works for a franchise expected to generate $1 billion in 2008 (Barnes, 2008).
