Embarrassed Miley Cyrus Apologizes for Pics

Even the ever-artful Annie Liebovitz couldn't expect that an almost-topless pic of 15 year-old pop millionaire Miley Cyrus would escape without controversy.

In this case, it's a full-blown Disney PR war to reclaim Cyrus' good-girl image and have her proclaim embarassment over a potentially image-tainting — and, by extension, income-reducing — Vanity Fair spread.

But don't believe the hype; this has an all-too-saccharine aftertaste of manufactured pop regret.[q url=" target="_blank"http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080428/en_afp/entertainmentusmusictelevisionchildrencyrus"]Miley Cyrus, the 15-year-old television and pop music sensation revered by little girls around the world as "Hannah Montana" has apologized for a recent racy photo spread of her published this week in a popular glossy magazine.

"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 wrote in an apology posted on Sunday on the online edition of People magazine.

The artsy, skin-revealing shots include a picture of Cyrus, draped in a sheet, with her naked back exposed, looking alluringly at the camera.

The photo provocative photo spread threatens to sully her fresh-scrubbed, good-girl image, and could raise doubts about whether she is an appropriate role model in the minds of parents of her impressionable young fans.[/q] But there is a bigger issue here: money.

No one is really concerned about the actual photographs in question, what's troubling Disney and the Cyrus clan is a legitimate concern that the photos could negatively impact Miley's uncanny ability to rake in the dollars.

There just aren't that many fifteen year olds with a $31 million opening weekend box office draw — for a concert film.

And Brand Miley/Montana must be maintained at any cost.