Miley Cyrus

Destiny Hope Cyrus (born November 23, 1992)^[1][2], better known as Miley Cyrus, is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is perhaps best known for starring as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel Original Series, Hannah Montana. As of March 2008, she is in the legal process of changing her given name to "Miley Ray Cyrus".^[3][4][5][6] The next step in her name change process is a public hearing, due May 1, 2008.^[7]

Cyrus became an overnight sensation after she was cast in Hannah Montana. Following the success of the show, in October 2006, a soundtrack CD was released in which she sang eight songs from the show. In December 2007, she was ranked #17 in the list of Forbes Top twenty earners under 25 with an annual earning of US$3.5 million.^[8] As of December 2007, she is working on a movie spin-off from Hannah Montana, titled The Hannah Montana Movie which is due to be released late 2008 or early 2009.^[9]

Cyrus was born in Franklin, Tennessee,^[1] the daughter of Leticia "Tish" (née Finley) and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus,^[1] and the granddaughter of the late Ron Cyrus. She has two elder half-brothers, Christopher Cody and Trace, the latter being the vocalist and guitarist of an electronic rock band, Metro Station in California.^[10] She also has an older half-sister, Brandi, a younger brother, Braison, and a younger sister, Noah, who is also an actress.^[11] She was named Destiny Hope because her parents believed that she would accomplish great things.^[1] Cyrus gained her nickname "Miley" because she kept smiling ("Smiley") as a youngster.^[1]

Cyrus attended Heritage Middle School,^[12] and now has a private tutor.^[13] She grew up on her parents' farm outside of Nashville.^[14]

On September 24, 2007, rumors began circulating that Cyrus was pregnant.^[38] The cause of the rumor was an image of a page of J-14 Magazine circulating on the Internet entitled "Miley's Meltdown" and saying, among other things, "Miley herself confirmed the pregnancy rumors during a J-14 interview".^[39] J-14 immediately responded saying that, "Someone doctored the "This Just In" article that appeared on page 16 of J-14's July 2007 issue" and that "this story is completely fabricated!"^[40][41] The real story on J-14's Page 16 magazine was about 'Miley's Gross Habits' told by her co-stars on the set of Hannah Montana.

In her movie, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, there is a scene where she and her dad did not put their seatbelts on and, was labeled by some newspapers as a "bad role model".^[42] Billy Ray Cyrus later apologized for this, and said

"We got caught up in the moment of filming, and we made a mistake and forgot to buckle our seat belts ... Seat belt safety is extremely important."^[43]