Los Angeles - Disney's teen favourite Miley Cyrus says she is embarrassed by a photo taken by famed snapper Annie Leibovitz showing her posing provocatively wrapped in a bedsheet. In a statement issued to People magazine, the star of hit show Hannah Montana said that she had believed the photo would be artistic.
"My goal in my music and my acting is always to make people happy," the 15-year-old singer and actress said. "I was so honoured and thrilled to work with Annie (Leibovitz). I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic,' and, now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed."
Cyrus was accompanied by her parents and other adult supervisors during the entire shoot. For the picture in question, she was clothed but appears to be covered by nothing but a sheet.
In its own statement about the Vanity Fair story, the Disney Channel, which broadcasts Cyrus's series said: "Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines."
Leibovitz defended the photo.
"I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted," she said in a statement. "Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together, and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."
*******************************************************************
Scandal prostitute sues Girls Gone Wild
New York - Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the prostitute frequented by the disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, filed suit Monday against Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis and his film company for allegedly exploiting her name and image for profit.
After the scandal broke, Frances' company distributed pictures and video of Dupre that it took in 2003 when Dupre was 17. In the lawsuit, Dupre claimed that Girls Gone Wild representatives approached her while she was on vacation and plied her with alcohol before inducing her to expose her breasts for cameras and to sign a release form - even though she was 17 years old and not of legal age to properly enter into any contract.
Since then, Girls Gone Wild illegally exploited her name, picture, voice and likeness in a number of deceptive advertising campaigns and on Web sites, the suit claimed.
*******************************************************************
Free single released on web by Coldplay
Los Angeles - British rockers Coldplay are giving away the first single from their new album over the internet, the band said on its Web site.
A note posted on www.coldplay.com says that fans can download Violet Hill, from the album Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends, free for one week starting Tuesday. The album will be launched in Britain on June 12.
Coldplay also announced free shows on June 16 at London's Brixton Academy and on June 23 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The giveaway campaign follows the success of Radiohead, which topped the album charts in Britain and the US after initially offering listeners the chance to pay what they wanted to download the album In Rainbows.
