9:36a.m. 28th April 2008

Miley Cyrus in the Leibovitz photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine (left) and the photographs circulating on the internet last week (right)

Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus heats up the headlines at only 15 years of age with a suggestive photo shoot.

The young actress and daughter of country singer Billy-Ray Cyrus appears topless and wrapped in a satin sheet in the June issue of Vanity Fair.

Entertainment Tonight's commercials promoting Vanity Fair's photo shoot with the topless teen by photographer, Annie Leibovitz, met with public outrage, NY Times reports.

There is speculation that the photo scandal damage the Walt Disney Company’s billion-dollar “Hannah Montana” franchise.

With more than 3 million viewers, most of them age 6 to 14, retail sales for the franchise are expected to total about $1 billion in 2008.

A motion picture is in the works for 2009 and Cyrus signed a seven-figure book deal with the Disney Book Group last week.

But its difficult to keep the image completely clean, as was obvious in the Vanessa Hudgens nude photo scandal in September 2007, when racy photos of the High School Musical star were leaked onto the internet.

Last week photos surfaced online showing a girl believed to be Cyrus - who was was chosen favorite television actress at Nickelodeon’s “Kids’ Choice Awards - pulling away her tank top to flash her green underwear.

Cyrus however, seems to not be too happy about the shoot and article according to a statement released on Sunday.

“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. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about.”

A Disney spokeswoman, Patti McTeague, also rested the blame on Vanity Fair, saying that the situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines.

In the actual article, Cyrtus is reported to say: “Annie took, like, a beautiful shot, and I thought it was really cool. That’s what she wanted me to do, and you can’t say no to Annie.” She also said of the photo, “I think it’s really artsy. It wasn’t in a skanky way.”

A spokesperson for the magazine said: “Miley’s parents and/or minders were on the set all day. Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley.”

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