Billy Ray Cyrus hopes daughter and 'Hannah Montana' star Miley won't follow Lindsay and Paris

6/21/2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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    Miley Cyrus, left, and Billy Ray Cyrus <br> (ASSOCIATED PRESS) <br> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/photo.gif> <b><font color=red>View</font></b> <a href=" /apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=TO&Dato=20070621&Kategori=ART10&Lopenr=621015&Ref=PH" target="_blank"><b> Miley Cryus photo gallery</b></a>

    Matt Sayles / AP

    • Miley Cyrus, left, and Billy Ray Cyrus <br> (ASSOCIATED PRESS) <br> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/photo.gif> <b><font color=red>View</font></b> <a href= Miley Cryus photo gallery" rel="storyimage1" title="Miley-Cyrus-Billy-Ray-Cyrus.jpg"/>
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    NEW YORK -- Billy Ray Cyrus is crossing his fingers that his daughter, "Hannah Montana" star Miley, won't go the way of Lindsay and Paris and Britney. He even shows her articles about the Hollywood troublemakers as cautionary tales.










    Miley Cyrus greets fans outside of World of Disney NYC, Thursday, June 21, 2007, in New York, after celebrating the release of her first solo CD, Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus, and new DVD, Hannah Montana Pop Star Profile, both out Tuesday, June 26. More than 1,500 fans waited in line to meet the 14-year-old star of Disney Channel s Hannah Montana.
    Miley Cyrus greets fans outside of World of Disney NYC, Thursday, June 21, 2007, in New York, after celebrating the release of her first solo CD, Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus, and new DVD, Hannah Montana Pop Star Profile, both out Tuesday, June 26. More than 1,500 fans waited in line to meet the 14-year-old star of Disney Channel s Hannah Montana.

    So far, so good.

    "The biggest phenomenon in all this is that the kid's been able to keep her head on her shoulders," the 45-year-old country singer tells People magazine in its new issue. "She hasn't flipped out. I'm going to knock on wood."

    He adds: "I pray every day she can stay on that path."

    Cyrus, who recently completed a stint on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," co-stars with 14-year-old Miley on the hit Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana," about a country-girl-turned-pop-star who tries to keep her celebrity life a secret from her classmates.

    Miley, who saw her "Hannah Montana" soundtrack go double platinum last year, is a daddy's girl at heart.

    "We're really close," she says. "I feel like I can tell my dad anything. When we come home, we forget that we even work together and just hang out."

    "It's the same with Miley as it is with all my kids," replies Cyrus, a Kentucky native and Los Angeles-based father of five children with wife Leticia. "I try to be their best friend. ... It's a real fine line, and thus far, it's a line I've been able to walk."

    Cyrus aims to keep life "as normal as possible" for Miley, who's enrolled in a public school that allows her to study on the set of her show and come in for exams on Fridays. His heart went out to her, however, when she went to a friend's dance and "pretended it was her prom, because she doesn't go to a regular school."

    "It made me sad," he recalls. "I get freaky just thinking about it. I feel sorry for her sometimes. She sacrifices a lot for this."

    Read more in later editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com