While Miley Cyrus hides in the hills after her sexy Vanity Fair photo shoot, Disney honchos are reportedly plotting to push her to the side in favor of an untainted young star.
Executives at the company that produces the “Hannah Montana” television show are eyeing lesser-known Selena Gomez to step into the wholesomeness gap created by Cyrus’ photographic escapades with Annie Leibovitz, E! Online re ported yesterday.
Like Cyrus, Gomez is 15, has dark hair and innocent good looks.
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“I’m told Disney executives are so worried about Cyrus’ recent controversies that, more than ever, they want to make Gomez an even bigger star,” wrote E! columnist Mark Malkin.
Gomez now stars in her own Disney Channel show, “Wizards of Waverly Place.” Coincidentally, she has also appeared on Cyrus’ blockbuster, “Hanna Montana,” as a rival pop star.
“Selena sings and acts and is really young,” a source told Malkin. “She is going to be the next Miley Cyrus. [Disney executives] really want this.”
The young Cyrus and photo diva Leibovitz have created an international firestorm with Vanity Fair pics showing the all-American Tennessee girl with a bare back, turgid lips and suggestively tousled hair – all while wrapped in nothing more than a piece of cloth.
Cyrus has already apologized to her fans. Her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, has expressed outrage at the shots, which he said were taken without his knowledge after he left the set of the photo shoot.
Miley is now lying low until the controversy dies down. Her people declined to comment any further yesterday.
Also yesterday, the stylist who created Miley’s lurid look took offense at accounts referring to the cloth she wore as a “bed sheet.”
“It’s a duchesse satin stole, Champagne, specially made,” Michael Roberts told Women’s Wear Daily. “It was 83 inches long. She’s not wrapped in something skimpy. She had her jeans on. She looked at the screen and loved the picture.”