Miley Cyrus’ probably well-meant but embarrassing comments about pal Justin Bieber in Rolling Stone magazine — which she covers topless, tongue-out, tattooed, and mascara stained — most likely stung the “Baby” singer, as the songstress is now trying to make amends.
Either late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, Cyrus tweeted :
“Always have ALWAYS will root for @justinbieber he always has and ALWAYS will be the shit. #onlylamestwistwords.”
It’s hard to see exactly where and how the 20-year-old can claim her comments about Bieber were twisted, given that Rolling Stone simply pressed record in their lengthy, highly quotable interview then published what she said.
Bearing her foam-fingered, legs astride, MTV VMA’s twerk-pas-de-deux with Robin Thicke in mind, somewhat laughably Miley positions herself as a sage to the 19-year-old Bieber, telling the mag:
“I do mentor him in a way. Because I’ve been doing this s**t for a long time, and I already transitioned, and I don’t think he’s quite done it yet.”
“He’s trying really hard,” she adds . “People don’t take him seriously, but he really can play the drums, he really can play guitar, he really can sing. I just don’t want to see him f**k that up, to where people think he’s Vanilla Ice. I tell him that. Like, ‘You don’t want to become a joke. When you go out, don’t start s**t. Don’t come in shirtless.’”
Saving her best zinger until last, Cyrus’ take on Bieber’s six months of dramatic incidents — some of which are alleged — was a corker: “I think boys are, like, seven years behind. So in his head, he’s really, like, 12.”
While many adolescent-centric psychologists would agree there is a developmental lag between males and females, it’s not exactly the kind of PR Bieber needs right now.
As Cyrus is keen to stress to Rolling Stone , her own show business lineage and Hannah Montana days make her almost an industry veteran. As such, it couldn’t have been a surprise to the “We Can’t Stop” star when her remarks about Bieber were exploited by some quarters of a soundbite-focused media.
Quite apart from the fact that many would argue with Miley’s contention that her recent behavior is proof of a successful transition to credibility — images of her in a state of undress with a capuchin monkey , boasting about a seven hour visit to an Amsterdam cafe, her teary, twerking, iHeartRadio hot mess of a performance, her admission that her VMAs spot was a tamer version of what could have been, interview lash outs at Brooke Shields and Taylor Swift, and cooing over fellow talented narcissist Kanye West — indicate Cyrus is some way off being an adult, or role model to anyone.
Granted her observations about the “double-standard” of Thicke’s relatively unscathed treatment by critics post VMAs and Breaking Bad remarks are on-point and her racism defense is plausible, Cyrus’ latest portrayal of herself as a post-feminist pioneer striking a blow for her right to party in a sexually, obscene way whenever she feels like it is disingenuous to the point of hilarity .
The multi-million dollar wanne-be punk princess tells Rolling Stone, “I hung out with way too many adults when I was a kid. So now I don’t want to hang out with any adults. I’ve already done all the hard work. Now I can kind of f**k off.”
This seems fair enough and many would applaud the last part. Might we also suggest that seeing as most reasonable folk — including Joel McHale — can’t see any substantive difference between Bieber and Cyrus, that she gives any future advice to the Canadian in private like any other normal, celebrity “mentor.”
Update: Bieber’s demonstrably mature response to Cyrus’ tweet:
@MileyCyrus all good. I know what it is. We keep it interesting
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 25, 2013
[ Image via Spin ]