Squeaky-clean Cyrus may have hottest tour of year, but still gets grounded
By Victoria Ahearn, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Miley Cyrus, star of the Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana" TV show, has trudged through a mess of controversy on her "Best of Both Worlds Tour," which lands in the city this weekend.
Shows have sold out in as little as four minutes, resulting in many disappointed tween admirers and their parents. Some members of the Miley Cyrus fan club even launched a class-action lawsuit, arguing they were supposed to get first dibs on tickets and didn't.
Then there was the pregnancy rumour and whispers of weight gain.
Through it all, the 15-year-old has remained remarkably down-to-earth. She still gets an allowance and has even been grounded by her father - "Achy Breaky Heart" singer Billy Ray Cyrus - while on tour.
"It was because I was being a smart aleck, I deserved it. I was smarting off," Cyrus said in an interview ahead of her Saturday show at the Air Canada Centre - her only Canadian stop.
Cyrus acknowledges that the hype surrounding the tour is "definitely stressful," but says she's surrounded by good people, including her famous dad.
"You know - you've got your manager, you've got your this, you've got your that, like, they all know so much more than you do and so I just try to stay out of it," she said in her trademark raspy voice.
The Nashville native with the big blue eyes and long chestnut hair became an overnight sensation a year and a half ago with the launch of the "Hannah Montana" show, which airs on Family Channel in Canada.
The popular series stars the spunky Cyrus as Miley Stewart, who leads a secret dual life as a high school student by day and the pop star Hannah Montana at night.
For the first half of her live shows, Cyrus is in character wearing the blond Hannah Montana wig and singing the breezy, sugary pop songs from the series' hit soundtracks.
She closes the show as herself, cranking out tunes from her own pop debut album "Meet Miley Cyrus," released with the "Hannah Montana 2" disc in June.
Her dad - who no longer sports his famous mullet - plays her father and manager on the show.
The tween queen, who has four siblings, said her parents have been very supportive of her decision to get into show biz.
"They basically just told me whatever I want to do, just to follow my dream," said Cyrus, who wore a purple sweater dress during the interview.
"My mom was super, super supportive and really was very into this, you know, me kind of finding my own thing to do."
Cyrus's squeaky-clean image is a refreshing contrast to some of the other scandal-plagued pop stars on the scene.
Her tour has been one of the hottest tickets of the year, attracting celebs including Nicole Richie, Heidi Klum, Steven Spielberg and Kobe Bryant.
And Cyrus, who was born Destiny Hope and now lives in Los Angeles, said she's doing what she can to help with the ticket demand.
She recently added more dates, but said it's impossible to make everyone happy, adding she'd have to tour "for months and months" to allow everyone to see her show.
