Miley Cyrus has been in the public eye since the moment she signed a contract for the blockbuster hit Disney Channel show Hannah Montana at the tender age of 13.
Growing up in the spotlight, with every moment analyzed by the media, made her a household name, but also had far-reaching consequences for deviating from her public persona's narrative.
In a recent discussion with Monica Lewinsky—who is also unfortunately aware of how public perception can change your life without your consent—on Lewinsky's podcast Reclaiming, Cyrus spoke candidly about the effects the spotlight had on her career.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
There is an alternate timeline out there where Cyrus was the voice star of the movie Hotel Transylvania instead of Selena Gomez, but we will never know it, Cyrus said, because the production rescinded her contract due to a leaked photo of her with "a penis cake" that came out before the film starting doing voice work.
She told Lewinsky:
I, as a joke, got my boyfriend a penis cake for his birthday and I got fired."
"I was the lead actress in 'Hotel Transylvania' and they fired me and replaced me because I had made an inappropriate adult joke. But I was 18.”
It felt doubly unjust to Cyrus, because this sort of thing was and is so omnipresent, especially in the bachelorette-party capital of America, Nashville, TN.
“What felt ridiculous to me about getting fired [over] a penis cake was that they sell penis cakes for all bachelorettes … in Nashville, Tennessee, you can get penis cakes."
"It’s not that big of a deal. I thought this [was] a very simple, not vulgar joke … this is silly."
"You can do this for all bachelorette parties; they make necklaces and cups and straws and all kinds of stuff. It felt ridiculous.”
Folks were equally incredulous about the whole thing.
How different would the movie have been if Cyrus had kept the role?
Some admitted it would be difficult hear anyone else in the role of Mavis.
Gomez and Cyrus were both Disney stars at the same time, and camps fiercely supported their favorite as they grew out of the Disney-industrial complex and became entertainment forces in their own rights.
So there were some clear divides in the comments.
Unless you saw it at the time, it's difficult to understand how intense the spotlight was on young stars back then, how every moment was over-analyzed and splashed luridly across the news.
Fans believe that spotlight had enormous, career-altering consequences.
This story is so common in Hollywood that it's almost tiring.
Cyrus' recent visual album Something Beautiful was released on May 30th.
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