Tuesday Morning Notebook
Notes on "HIMYM" and on Miley Cyrus, after the jump.
– I have caught up with "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men" from Monday night. Some laughs in both, but "HIMYM" took the prize. Interesting, too, to see how it's setting up the Britney II episode (see previous post), since Barney and Ted have now had a falling out. I have issues when comedies try to get too dramatic, but this seems to work. (That also reminds me that I need to post about "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," which — needless to say — was somewhat on my mind while watching "HIMYM." No, not because of that, although I suspect some moviegoers are still traumatized. Because of seeing Jason Segel back as his farcical self after his much more serious work in "Sarah Marshall." But this parenthical has to stop … now.)
Anyway, loved the payoff to the goat story. I want a complete edition of the Bro Code. And the next time I'm in Vegas, I want to stay in the Valderrama Suite. I want to hear no more about the devil's threesome.
– The whole Miley Cyrus/Vanity Fair nonsense irks me. And not just because of the semi-nude shot. This one also makes me uncomfortable:
(Vanity Fair)
And I know at least one mom of a Miley fan who also found it creepy. But back to the photo Miley apologized for, below.
(Vanity Fair)
I have no doubt that she and her family saw it well before it was published and became embarrassed only AFTER they heard the public reaction. So they're trying for damage control. At the time the photo was taken, they clearly thought it was a good idea. It's not some candid posted on TMZ.
In fact, this reminds me of a Miley/Hannah piece I wrote back in February, or at least this part:
The Hannah business is much like High School Musical, another example of Disney marketing tuneful, young stars before age, maturity and scandal make them less Disney-esque.
With HSM, Disney has already had to contend with a seemingly restless Zac Efron, the buzz around the leaking of nude photos of Vanessa Hudgens and the chatter about Ashley Tisdale's nose job.
Cyrus got some unwanted attention recently over naughty photos, including some of her in her underwear, leaked on the Internet. At least one gossip writer wondered whether the photos' availability was not an accident, but a first step toward a more adult image.
And here we are again, with a different photo, and backpedaling by Team Cyrus. But I suspect they're all trying to figure out when to let Miley ease closer to adulthood — but also wary of the consequences where her young-fan base is concerned.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere's a quick excerptNotes on "HIMYM" and on Miley Cyrus, after the jump. (more…) [...]
April 29th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Why is a teen star in Vanity Fair in the first place? Having said that, and regardless of whether she is of age or not, why wasn't there any hub-bub over Zac Efron's Rolling Stone cover? Is it a double-standard?
April 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am
There was some hubbub about the Zac Efron cover. But it was not as big a shock (or as revealing) as the one David Cassidy had done for RS decades earlier as he tried to break free of his teen image.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
There was a discussion on the Today Show about the Miley/Billy Ray pic - all experts settled on creepy. It's difficult to say no to Vanity Fair and, esp., Annie Leibovitz. I'm sure it crossed their minds that the images were a stretch - but VF is arty. They probably would never have agreed to those same shots in RS or Blender.
On another note, I think time off during the writers' strike has really focused HIMYM. Two consecutive surprise endings with great possibilities for on-going consequences, along with laughs and fresh storylines.