Does 'Wizards of Waverly Place' Have The Magic Emmy Touch?

Gold Derby by Tom O'Neil (LA Times)

In past years there wasn't much hope for traditional drama and comedy series to win the Emmy Award for best children's program. Sometimes shows like "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" — even mega-hot movie "High School Musical 2" — got nominated, but they usually lost to high-minded, real-life fare like "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee."

This year, however — presto, change-o — "Nick News" has been zapped off into a newly created category for nonfiction children's shows, leaving the main slot to nominees "The Wizards of Waverly Place," "iCarly" and Miley Cyrus' "Hannah Montana."

"Wizards of Waverly Place" is a popular new show about a magical family that includes one smart-cookie girl and her two brothers (one bright, one dimwitted). It was created by Todd J. Greenwald, who once wrote for "Hannah Montana" and other tween hits like "Saved by the Bell."

Greenwald is happy about the new Emmy rule change. "The fact that they split the categories makes it a fun and level playing field now," he says in our podcast. Click the arrow below to listen to our chat.

In our dishfest, we cover what makes shows like "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "Hannah Montana" such hits: They give frustrated tweens the feeling of secret empowerment.

"'Hannah Montana' is a genius formula," Greenwald says. "Kids love music and they love being popular. Imagine being popular in your own school, but nobody knows about it. It's a fantasy for every kid to have.

"As far as wizards go, you can do whatever you want whenever you want, but if it's against the rules, that makes it more exciting for the audience. There's a little rebel in every kid."

Photo: Disney Channel

Retailers Banking on Star Power to Sell Styles

By BETSY TAYLOR; Associated Press

MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — Summer Johnson’s back-to-school wardrobe includes shiny wet-looking leggings, a tie-dye camisole and basic tees — all part of a new collection by Miley Cyrus and designer Max Azria at Wal-Mart.

Stores are hoping a touch of star quality will inspire back-to-school shoppers — and their parents — to look beyond basics and seek out clothing lines with ties to celebrity actors and singers, from clean-cut Disney shows to the racier Gossip Girl.

Johnson, a 22-year-old college student from suburban St. Louis, was drawn to the Cyrus collection’s rock-star edge and under $20 prices, but the star power didn’t hurt.

“Celebrities are great, but I go toward a celebrity line because they’re reading up on fashion, teaming up with a good designer,” she said. “They know a thing or two about fashion. They’re our fashion template.”

And the templates abound. A “JONAS” line, inspired by the television show featuring the Jonas Brothers, mixes prep school styles with a rocker twist. A second Disney line based on the show Wizards of Waverly Place is being billed as a “boho chic” collection including tunic-length tops with print scarves and miniskirts that draw inspiration from the show’s Alex Russo character, who happens to be played by Selena Gomez, the newly named Teen Choice red-carpet fashion icon. They’re selling at JC Penney, Kmart, Sears, Wal-Mart and Target.

Star power alone won’t sustain a successful clothing line.

“I’ve seen the peaks and valleys of it,” said Tina Knowles, the mother of singer and actress Beyoncé. Tina Knowles serves as creative director for Dereon, a clothing line that draws from her famous daughter’s style. “The celebrity being attached is a plus, but the clothes have to be good quality,” she said.

Customers respond to Beyoncé, but they come back when they like the fit, style and value, Knowles said.

This fall, the Dereon line includes a Sasha Fierce collection with some back-to-school looks inspired by Beyoncé’s tougher, alter-ego character.

Not all of it screams classroom, but pieces that would make a splash at school include skinny jeans, a houndstooth-print jacket and a lightweight leather jacket that Knowles calls one of her favorites. Sasha Fierce items sell for $25 to $125, and are currently available at some specialty retailers and about 100 Macy’s stores.

Another line that’s new for back-to-school is “Mad Style for True Jackson,” designed by Jane Siskin, perhaps best known for her work on 7 for All Mankind’s famously fitting jeans. The “Mad Style” clothes at Wal-Mart draw from Nickelodeon’s popular tween show, True Jackson, VP, which stars young actress Keke Palmer, whose character lands a dream job as a vice president at a fashion company.

“The thing that excited me was to bring fashion to a tween customer in a collection and in a way that’s already styled,” Siskin said. A gray V-neck dress, for instance, includes a built-in plaid shirt underneath and a black-patent belt with silver charms hanging from it for $12.

Palmer, the tween star of True Jackson, says she’s thrilled about the line. “Wow, words cannot express how exciting it is to know that little girls will be wearing clothes that originated from the show, amazing!” she said by e-mail.

Celebrity clothing lines don’t capture all shoppers’ interest in the same way.

With clothes selling, in some cases, for just a few dollars, industry watchers say it’s safe to say a lot of celebrity lines were manufactured to catch a right-now trend and not intended to last forever.

And if people don’t like a star, they’re probably not going to like the clothes.

An older back-to-school shopper like Johnson says she gets interested based on a designer’s reputation — she knew of Azria, for instance, from his stylish BCBG clothes. She’s not a huge Cyrus fan, but assumes she’ll get trendy looks at good prices when a star works with a designer and a mass retailer.

A high schooler might follow a celebrity’s look in magazines and on the Internet and then shop for a similar style. And young tweens respond to a show, its storyline and its fictional characters, not so much the real-life performers.

“As long as the shows are relevant, the products are relevant,” said Disney Consumer Products’ vice president for global fashion and home, Pamela Lifford.

Target plans to unveil a line by designer Anna Sui inspired by the Gossip Girl television show from Sept. 13-Oct. 17 in more than 600 stores. And in October, Nordstrom will offer Twilight: New Moon-inspired apparel.

Why Miley Cyrus is Stripping Down As She Grows Up

By Wendy Shalit; Source: NY Daily News

The song may have been called "Party in the USA," but when Miley Cyrus recently treated her Teen Choice Awards audience to a pole dance atop an ice cream truck, dressed in extremely short shorts, black boots and a bra-revealing tank top, the general impression was that the party was taking place in a strip joint.

Mothers of little girls cringed: Who provided the pole? And since when do Miley's backup dancers gyrate like the Pussycat Dolls?

Then there is the August issue of Elle, which features America's favorite 16-year-old in a number of contrived poses. In one, she's in black stilettos, with an exposed midriff, striking a backbend-pelvic-thrust combo. On the cover, she's in a leather push-up bustier, her cleavage revealed.

The overall impression of the girl in these pictures is perhaps the opposite from what is intended: She projects not confident sexuality but confusion. Even when reclining on her back offering up her black thigh-high boots for inspection, Miley seems to be saying not "Take me!" but, "Do I really have to do this?"

We are told in the magazine's text that Miley was under the "watchful eye of her parents" the whole time, just as she was during last year's Vanity Fair naked-bedsheet photo shoot at 15 and, no doubt, during her recent pole dance. This is all supposed to be reassuring.

Not to me. Elle editor Robbie Myers is at pains to explain, in her sanctimonious "Editor's Letter," that Miley, in "facing the camera" this way, is "offering a very clear view of herself" and "trying on a more mature persona." You see, Miley exhibited more than mere cleavage on the set that day; in going along with Elle's plans for her, she showed "genuine openness."

Ah, yes. How prudish and "closed" girls can be when they refuse to disrobe for the public. But Miley was not like that.

Elle claims its interest in Miley is not titillation, but empowerment, "watching her take the wheel." Think about this for a second. Miley is a talented singer of chart-topping songs, a multimillionaire teen mogul and actress. She has launched a fashion line and is the envy of little girls around the world. Yet we are to believe the girl simply did not "have the wheel" until a fashion magazine induced her to pose with her pelvis thrust forward.

It's not difficult to read between the lines and see that, having pledged abstinence before marriage, Miley poses a threat to conventional wisdom. Many people - indeed, whole industries - are invested in "neutralizing" that threat by getting her to take her clothes off as much as possible, as soon as possible.

But the sexuality-industrial complex doesn't have to win. So it's sad and more than a little creepy when the adults in her life - up to and including her own parents - are onboard for the virtual deflowering. (We learn from the accompanying piece that her father shows Miley photographs of guys and asks, "You don't think he's really hot?")

Ironically, it's Miley's younger fans who are acting more mature. They are screaming not for stilettos and cleavage but to hear her inspirational hit "The Climb," which encourages them to be themselves and "keep the faith."

Despite all the self-serving banter about her "taking the wheel" by disrobing, the truth is that a confident, modest Miley would be far more rebellious than a Miley who takes the usual route of pornification. The Britney Spears path out of Disney has, after all, been well-worn. The road less traveled nowadays is for a child star to grow up without stripping down. The problem is thus not really with Miley but with the rest of us - specifically, with our false notions of female empowerment.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this battle for Miley's soul plays out. Will she be able to resist the script we adults are handing her? Does she even want to?

In the meantime, she ought to keep in mind that Audrey Hepburn never needed "hooker boots" or a pole to prove her maturity. And no amount of cleavage can ever reveal a clearer view of Miley than do her work, her leadership and her beautiful personality.

Shalit is the author of "The Good Girl Revolution: Young Rebels With Self-Esteem and High Standards."

Miley Cyrus, Like Other Stars Before Her, Struggles Toward Adulthood

By Monica Hesse; Source: The Washington Post

Was it or wasn’t it?

For the past several days, the Internets — the mommy bloggers, the celeb stalkers, the generally righteously indignant — have been studiously debating whether Miley Cyrus’ performance at the Teen Choice Awards, which aired last week, could be described as a pole dance.

A brief recap: Midway through the actress-singer’s choreographed routine, two stagehands lugged out an ice cream cart with a pole on the top. Miley, 16, jumped on and grabbed the pole, squatted to her haunches, stood up, was wheeled across the stage while holding the pole, jumped off. Some say the pole was there for balance, some say the pole was there to corrupt your children.

Whole thing took maybe 30 seconds, so the hubbub surrounding it (if Miley was pole-dancing, are all of the pole-holding subway commuters doing it, too?) leads one to conclude something: It’s not about the pole.

It’s about how awkward it can be for teen and tween stars, especially the freshly scrubbed ones, to transition to adulthood.

The cycle has played itself out again and again: There was Britney Spears going from schoolgirl pigtails to flesh-toned bodysuit at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, an act that made co-host Marlon Wayans exclaim “Girl done went from ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ to the strip club!” There was Christina Aguilera, purringly instructing listeners to “rub me the right way,” just a few years after hanging up her own mouse ears. There was Vanessa Hudgens in lingerie, causing parents everywhere to have awkward teachable moments with their pint-size High School Musical fans. And there was, yes, Miley’s first shocker: Last year’s arty/creepy Vanity Fair spread, in which the star of wholesome Hannah Montana wore nothing but a bedsheet.

For every child star who has forged a smooth path to adulthood — Jodie Foster, Brooke Shields — there’s another who has taken the Lindsay Lohan path, which leads Directly to Video.

Miley’s booty-shorted performance might have had some parents cringing, but it also might have been a survival tactic. “Seventeen magazine isn’t read by 17-year-olds, it’s read by 11-year-olds who want to be 17,” says Joal Ryan, author of Former Child Stars: The Story of America’s Least Wanted, who adds, “And 17-year-olds want to be 25.”

The conundrum: When the tweens who now worship Hannah Montana age a year or two, they won’t want to be reminded that they once worshiped Hannah Montana. Miley, just like Britney or Debbie Gibson before her, will become an embarrassing relic of her fans’ childhood. “It behooves you to have an older audience,” says Ryan, one whose tastes have already matured. Often, the child stars who thrive are the ones whose careers have paradoxically never depended on a kid audience. Nobody would say E.T. was just a kids’ movie, but Drew Barrymore seems to have done OK.

Gaining an older audience, though, can mean booty shorts. It can mean posing on the cover of not Seventeen but Glamour, as Miley recently did. It means leaving the chaste constellation of other tween idols like Taylor Swift and Ashley Tisdale, and competing against adult performers with adult sensibilities, like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

The smartest stars have eschewed the issue altogether by stepping away from the spotlight to finish growing up privately. Foster took an acting hiatus to go to Yale; Shields went to Princeton. Harry Potter star Emma Watson, 19, seems to be trying that tactic — just as the leering fanboys began to beg for topless pics, she announced that she’d be absconding to Brown. She’ll be a freshman here in Providence this fall.

As for Miley, she’s committed to a fourth season of Hannah Montana, and is in the middle of filming The Last Song, co-starring Greg Kinnear.

It looks like a wholesome family affair.

Hannah Montana: Miley Cyrus To Appear at Teen Choice Awards with 'Twilight' and 'Glee' Cast

By Maria Gonzalez, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Futon Critic

A leaked single is nothing to Miley Cyrus, as the tween sensation has once again landed a spot at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards. The Hannah Montana star has been slated to perform her newest release "Party in the USA" for the two-hour special.

Airing on Monday, August 10, this year's Teen Choice Awards will be hosted by the Jonas Brothers. Miley will obviously be thrilled at being with Nick Jonas again, but it looks as though they won't be spending that much time together as expected. She'll be too busy performing with two other famous groups.The 16-year-old actress and musician will reportedly be a guest along with the cast of Twilight and FOX's new comedy series Glee. Miley's going to rub shoulders with the vampire flick's Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed and Kellan Lutz and the TV musical's Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Jenna Ushkowitz, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley and Kevin McHale.

While several other celebrities will be making their appearance, Miley Cyrus seems to remain queen bee in the bunch. She hosted the Teen Choice Awards last year and has already won a couple. This year, she's been nominated for six categories.

Miley Cyrus is in the running for Choice Movie Actress: Music/Dance and Choice Movie: Liplock from her hit Hannah Montana: The Movie. In addition, she's also been nominated for favorite TV Actress in Hannah Montana, as well as in the category Choice Music: Single for "The Climb", and Choice Red Carpet Icon: Female.

Of course, there's no doubt the Hannah Montana star will rise to the occasion once again, as she hopes to stand out despite the Twilight and Glee phenomenon she'll be facing. Even though "Party in the USA" has been heard by fans already, they'll most likely still ogle at their idol when she takes the stage this Monday.

Dress Like Miley Cyrus with Her New Clothing Line Out In Stores TODAY

From Blair Wilson (Source: The Examiner)

Miley recently worked with famed designer Max Azria to create her own line of affordable fashions. The line includes graphic tees, shoes, accessories, jeans, tops, etc; all Miley staples. Miley says the line is a reflection of her own personal style. The line will be sold at Wal-Mart stores. Miley is also releasing a special promotional album, featuring 'Party in the USA', along with the debut of her clothing line through Wal-Mart. Her music video for 'Party in the USA' will highlight styles and items from her new line.

The collection is named Miley and Max and hits Wal-Mart stores TODAY!

Check out the new line here.

Mouse Ears All Over the Chart

Compiled by Dave Itzkoff (NY Times)

Teenage and tween-age listeners had plenty to squeal about this week as Demi Lovato, above right, and other Disney-spawned acts were widely represented on the Billboard album sales chart. Ms. Lovato, the 16-year-old Disney star, opened at No. 1 with her second album, “Here We Go Again,” which sold 108,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. (The week’s best-selling album was Michael Jackson’s “Number Ones,” which sold 154,000 copies but is considered a catalog album and isn’t tracked on the Billboard 200 chart.) Farther down that chart, Ms. Lovato’s Disney colleague Miley Cyrus was No. 5 with the “Hannah Montana 3” soundtrack (54,000 copies); the “Hannah Montana” movie soundtrack and the Jonas Brothers’ “Lines, Vines and Trying Times” also placed in the Top 20. The Top 5 was rounded out by Daughtry’s “Leave This Town” (RCA) at No. 2; Maxwell’s “BLACKsummers’night” (Columbia) at No. 3; and the 31st installment of the “Now That’s What I Call Music” compilation at No. 4. Jordin Sparks, the 2007 “American Idol” winner, was No. 7 with her second album, “Battlefield” (Jive).

Friday Tween Gossip! Even Disney's magic can't protect its teen lovers from heartbreak

By Marina Hyde (The Guardian)

If you're easily devastated, do look away now. Our business this week is with the internecine struggles at the House of Mouse.

Remember when Disney stars had names like Donald and Daisy, and the worst thing that could happen to them was three mischievous nephews coming to stay? Those days are long gone. Today's Hannah Montanas and Jonases must negotiate altogether more complex perils, such as prescription painkillers, the leaking of wet T-shirt cameraphone photos, and deciding what technically constitutes virginity.

In seeking a significant other, then, it is no surprise that many of these gilded teens turn to fellow indentured players in Uncle Walt's repertory company. I believe the never under- rehearsed interview line is, "We're just taking things really slowly, but it's great to be able to share a chaperoned milkshake with someone who can relate to all the craziness."

Frankly, Disney prefers its craziness to be relatable. It works better that way. If High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens had been chastely betrothed to her co-star and current boyfriend Zac Efron since she was 11, there wouldn't have been a sleazebag ex-boyfriend to leak her nude photos to the gazillion-strong armies of perverts that stalk the internet. And the corporation wouldn't have had to issue a creepy public rebuke to their teenage star. "Vanessa has apologised for what was obviously a lapse in judgment," this ran. "We hope she's learned a valuable lesson."

Much better to date a co-worker, thereby knitting yourself into a Disney heritage that includes the erstwhile union between fellow Mouseketeers Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. Unfortunately, sometimes even Mouse-endorsed love turns sour, and the Magic Kingdom echoes to the sound of anguished OMGs and WTFreaks.

This week, just such a romantic sundering seems to have occurred between Trace Cyrus, brother of Hannah Montana star Miley, and Demi Lovato, another Disney star with a TV show and recording deal. Should you care to know more about them, Trace is in a band with the brother of a Hannah Montana cast member (when are this lot going to get their own dedicated volume of Rock Family Trees?), and is soon to open for Miley on her world tour, despite appearing to violate several of Disney's body art statutes.

Right now, Demi is the Salieri to Miley's Mozart, but if Miley's controverisal semi-nude Vanity Fair shoot last year showed us anything, it is that child marketing prodigies oxidise heartbreakingly quickly. As Gina Gershon remarks in the Lost in Showbiz movie classic that is Showgirls: "There's always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs after you."

Anyway, back to our star-cross'd lovers, Trace and Demi. We lay our scene in fair Los Angeles, where our tale is of two households if not alike in dignity, then certainly as undignified as the other. Needless to say, the fallout from the break-up is taking place on Twitter.

"I know there's such thing as a Mr Right," tweets Demi. "But can there be such thing as a Mr Not Right Now . . . ?" Alas, it is not long before she is musing "Ur So Gay, Katy Perry – such a well written, relatable song. ;) HaHaHaHa."

"Another storybook ending," declares Trace sarcastically, before posting a picture of the girlfriend before Demi.

"I'm sorry, was that supposed to hurt?" responds Demi. "Hmm. Oh well."

Yes, think of it as Dangerous Liaisons for heavily sexualised, abstinence-ring-wearing teens. After all, Twitter is basically the epistolary novel for the ADD generation. How you allot parts is up to you, although I'm afraid the Glenn Close/Marquise de Merteuil role must go to Miley and Trace's mom, Tish, who wades right on in with a mother-loving salvo.

"It really makes me sad that most people find it so easy to hurt other people," tweets Mommytish, whose bio reads, "I love cupcakes, butterflies, my beautiful kids, my gorgeous husband and of course JESUS." "Why is that?" she continues menacingy of the love split. "I never want to hurt anyone . . . EVER."

Enter Miley. "We can't control the path of their wicked hearts mama," she tweets back somewhat unsettlingly. "All we can do is shine a light & guide their way back home. Smile mommy."

"I wish I was the one hurting," Tish tells her son – and his 186,000-odd followers. "I wish I could switch places with you right now, because I would. You love so deeply, you deserve that back . . ."

I love the sound of Old Mother Cyrus, don't you? (Free life rule for you, kids: never go out with one of those boys or girls who says "My mother's my best friend". They have all kinds of things wrong with them – and don't even start Lost in Showbiz on the mothers.)

Thus far, the silence of formerly be-mulleted paterfamilias Billy Ray is deafening. But if he painstakingly divides his line-dance classic Achy Breaky Heart into 140-character instalments, then your week will be complete.

Miley Cyrus Grows Wings With Disney Film

Anne Lu - Celebrity News Service News Writer
(All Headline News)

Los Angeles - Disney princess Miley Cyrus is starring in another film production from the mouse house. The tween queen is tapped to star in the film adaptation of the young adult novel "Wings."

According to Variety, Disney has acquired the screen rights to the project and is developing the film as a star vehicle for Cyrus.

The story centers on a 15-year-old Laurel who grows up sheltered and home-schooled in a small town. Her suspicions that she is not like the other kids was realized when, upon adjusting to a big high school, wings start to grow from her body and she learns she is a fairy.

Temple Hills' Marty Bowen and Wick Godfrey will produce, while Cyrus' mother, Tish, will executive produce.

OpEd: Miley Cyrus’ Elle Shoot: Over The Top Or Get Over It?

Posted by Jeanne Sage; Source: Babble Australia

Another set of Miley Cyrus photos. Another scandal. But is the teen queen’s new photo shoot in Elle Magazine really too racy for teens?

A post over at Buzzfeed this week challenged Hannah Montana’s alter ego for “showing cleavage, wearing hooker boots (?) and posing questionably on tables.” The comments followed from folks joking that she may well turn out to BE a hooker if she continues dressing like that.

Let’s step back a minute and ignore the Vanity Fair brouhaha of 2008. She was nekkid then, and it was gross for a 15-year-old. Now she’s 16 and fully clothed… and still no one’s satisfied? Because she’s wearing high-heeled boots and has boobs?

A little perspective here. Have you gone to a concert and seen what most of the teen girls are wearing? Thigh-high boots, which may be the most uncomfortable things on the planet in my shlubby mum-garbed opinion, are everywhere. Ditto a little bit of cleavage - thanks to summery tank tops. As for lying on tables, have you seen teenage PDAs lately? Actually, I take that back… have you seen teenage PDAs ever? At 16, I was sitting on my boyfriend’s lap, cuddling up against him, kissing him, hugging him — doing anything and everything we could get away with in public.

The tagline on the front cover of Elle says Miley’s talking about dad, boyfriends and why she’s not a kid anymore. Which seems to be the big issue with child stars - no one wants to let them grow up. Among the comments on the Buzzfeed article are reminders that Disney is going to drop her if she gets too grown up.

But doesn’t she have to move past the Disney era at some point? She’s 16, and the cutesy going to school, living a double tween life thing is not going to work for her much longer. Why? Because she’s not a tween anymore. She’s a teenager, two years from adulthood. Two long years, but still, two crucial years when kids really begin to let go of childhood preferences and fashion their adult skin.

It’s a time when they try out unfortunate wardrobe choices and begin testing sexual limits, including how MUCH to show in public. Only most kids do it in their hometowns with only their parents, family and friends watching. Miley Cyrus is doing it with the world watching.

And like it or not, she’s still going to grow up.

Image: Elle via Popeater

Teen Choice Awards: Tweet All About It

Miley's Got Fans; Spencer is The Villain

by Aly Semigran
Source: MTV

Even though most of the nominees for the 2009 Teen Choice Awards (airing August 10th on Fox) have already been announced, news of more pre-Teen praise sent some stars into Twitter overdrive. Multiple nominee Miley Cyrus gushed over her TC love, Tweeting, “I honestly can’t believe I got more nominations! I have the most amazing fans in the world!!! : ) I’m grinning from ear to ear! Xoxooxoxox.” Spencer Pratt, on the other hand, felt conflicted about his nomination (see after the jump for further proof).

Elsewhere, Katy Perry found herself with an unconventional (albeit, pretty awesome if you ask us) dressing room, Mandy Moore (pictured) ponders her 7th grade craft skills and Kellie Pickler gets the Free Credit Report jingle stuck in her head (we feel your pain!)

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our Tweet Dreams list for Thursday, July 9, 2009 below! And stay up to date with all the rest of your celebrity news by adding Hollywood Crush (@hollywoodcrush), to your account!

@katyperry AND I have a boat for a dressing room. FML.
-Katy Perry, Singer

@spencerpratt I’m nominated for teen choice award for best Villain! I want to start being a HERO so I won’t be upset if you don’t vote for me!
-Spencer Pratt, Reality Star (”The Hills”)

@jeremypiven Getting a little make up on for press (back off..) And the artist working on me just told me “I’m blind as a bat” I don’t think this is …
-Jeremy Piven, Actor (“Entourage,” “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard”)

@TheMandyMoore found my “bug in a jar” pillow that i made in 7th grade home-ec. it’s further proof of my total lack of artistic application but i tried!!
-Mandy Moore, Singer, Actress (“License to Wed,” “Because I Said So”)

@therealpickler singing “F-R-E-E, that spells Free credit report.com baby”…(on repeat)…To who ever wrote this song, I am your biggest enemy.
-Kellie Pickler, Singer

@oliviamunn Worst pickup line just happened- “So, its Olivia….. Is that with an ‘o’?”
-Olivia Munn, TV Host (“Attack of the Show”)

@David_Henrie 20… goodbye teenage years. Ive been going up to people randomly and informing them that im 19 years old.
-David Henrie, Actor (“The Wizards of Waverly Place”)

@emmyrossum @ the eye dr, doing the cover-one-eye-read-the-letters-on-the-chart-thing… Why does every letter and number look like an “s” to me?! Uh-oh
-Emmy Rossum, Actress (“The Phantom of the Opera,” “Dragonball Evolution”)

iPhone Apps for the Miley Cyrus Set

By Robert Copeland: Original Post: Wall Street Journal

Many of Apple’s advertisements for the iPhone application tout services for business people, college students or harried urbanites looking to save time. But a look at the applications people are actually buying reveals a different demographic.

For the past two weeks—it was dethroned this weekend—the #1 application has been a game called Sally’s Spa, whose main customer seems to be the type that would get carded trying to sneak into a PG-13 Miley Cyrus movie. Place cucumbers over someone’s eyes for a faux facial! Tap your fingers across the screen for the perfect manicure! Paint toenails (“piggies”) and then open a second location in Banff!

The goal of the game is to keep customers circulating through an imaginary spa, dropping money on various treatments until they run out of cash. If the service isn’t fast or skilled enough—watch out how long a client is in the sauna!—the spa cannot upgrade for more treatments or new exotic locations.

A review from Gamezebo sums up the application’s nuance: “[It] features a lot of nice graphical details…whether it’s the way the cute old couple (who have to be moved to each station as a pair) share a kiss after paying, or watching a customer’s face recoil in horror if you pluck their eyebrows wrong, or the way they sink into the bath with delight if you give them the right bath bomb.”

At 99 cents, down from an original price of $4.99, the game has “done millions in sales” said Steve Shatford, president of GamesCafe, which designed the program. Apple prohibits him from revealing the total number of games sold, but he said that for every day an application is in the top ten it can have tens of thousands of downloads.

And the audience isn’t necessarily exclusively the Bat Mitzvah set. “We’ve had requests from people saying, ‘I can’t stop my husband from playing my game,’” Shatford said.

User reviews seem to back him up.

“I’m a guy and I’m not gay but this is soooooo addicting[sic] I recemend[sic] this app fir[sic] guys that are bored and not gay,” wrote user delaromen.

“I work so hard to keep all my customers happy and love it when they say ‘aaahhh,’” wrote Pjbee.

As of this weekend, though, the boys—at least those who won’t admit to enjoying a simple hot stone massage—were fighting back. Hero of Sparta, a Zelda-like fantasy game, cut its price to less than one dollar, relegating Sally and her seaweed masks to #2.

'Twilight,' 'High School Musical 3' dominate Teen Choice Award noms

No surprises here: The young-adult vampire phenomenon Twilight scored 12 nominations for the Teen Choice Awards, including actor and actress in a drama, and drama itself (up against Slumdog Millionaire, Angels and Demons, Obsessed, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). The Disney franchise pic High School Musical 3 garnered 10 nominations, as did The CW's Gossip Girl. Miley Cyrus nabbed 10 nominations all by her lonesome, one more than the hosts of the show, the Jonas Brothers. The Teen Choice Awards will air Monday, Aug. 10, at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox.

ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE

"Miley Mart": The Ultimate Tween Dream: Miley Cyrus, Max Azria and Wal-Mart Partner to Launch Clothing Line

By Melissa Magsaysay
Article Source: The LA Times

Not since the Olsen twins’ merch first hit Wal-Mart shelves has the store been affiliated with such a dynamic design duo. Miley Cyrus is partnering with Max Azria to do a clothing line for Wal-Mart. The pop star is reaching to her “rock 'n' roll roots” and turning out a collection of tops, pants, T-shirts, shoes and accessories all priced under $20 and available in Wal-Mart stores in August.

Along with housing the teen star’s new line of clothing, Wal-Mart will sponsor the “Miley Cyrus Live in Concert” tour -- which makes sense since Cyrus is one of the store’s highest-selling recording artists.

The line will probably sell like crazy to tween girls who've worshiped Cyrus from her wigged days as Hannah Montana. They should start calling the place Miley-Mart.

ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE

No End in Cyrus - Miley Agrees to Another Year As 'Hannah Montana'

By MAXINE SHEN / California Chronicle

MILEY Cyrus, who hinted last year that she was ready to call it quits as "Hannah Montana," is coming back for another season. Just as filming is set to end this week on Season 3 of the hugely popular tween series, the Disney Channel said that Cyrus had agreed to stay on the show for another year.

To keep things fresh, Cyrus and producers have decided the show will get a change of scenery. Next season, Miley Stewart (played by Cyrus) and family will be saying goodbye to the beachfront Malibu home they've lived in for three seasons (the series premiered in March 2006) and moving to a new house. The network won't say yet where the Stewarts are heading.
The announcement of a fourth season lays to rest tween fears that Cyrus would bail on "Hannah." Last summer, the 16-year-old rock star hinted that this season of "Hannah" would be her final one and that she would start making music her full-time job. "We're thinking this is our last season," she said, explaining that she'd been working on the series since she was 11 years old. Cyrus insisted that she wouldn't stray far from the company that turned her into a household name.

"I'm still with my [Disney] family," she said. "You know, they're safe. They always feel like home. And that's what I love about the company. They are family."

Two months later, reports surfaced on TMZ.com that both Cyrus and father, Billy Ray, were so eager to get out of their "Hannah Montana" contracts, that they were late showing up to work.
According to the gossip site's sources, Billy Ray told people on set that he and his daughter would only film 12 of the scheduled 24 episodes before leaving the series. Disney's response was to increase the third season episode count to 30.

By the time "Hannah Montana: The Movie" premiered in April, things settled down. Cyrus told reports that it was unlikely that she would do another "Hannah"-themed movie, but "would love to do another season [of the show]. That would be what we would all agree on." The long break between seasons will give Cyrus time to work on her music and movie roles. She's signed on to star in "The Last Song," a film that Nicholas Sparks ("The Notebook") wrote with her in mind for the lead role.

With the exception of Mitchel Musso, who plays Miley's friend Oliver Oken on the show, all of her other "Hannah" cast members will be there when filming is scheduled to begin early next year in Hollywood. Musso is being listed as a recurring character for next season.

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