By Neal Justin
The most shocking aspect of the Miley Cyrus feature in the new issue of Vanity Fair isn't the topless photo. It's that the Hannah Montana star gushes over Sex and the City.
"It's my favourite show! I love it!" the 15-year-old actress tells the magazine.
Ring StyleMiley isn't the typical SATC fan. According to TBS, only 29,000 girls between 12 and 17 regularly tune in for the reruns, roughly three per cent of the total audience. About 154,000 girls watched the show during its final season on HBO, 2.4 percent of its viewers.
But that may change when the big-screen version of the show hits theatres May 30. In a summer swamped with superhero flicks, teenage girls may flock to a female-friendly movie, despite the R rating in the U.S.
"So few movies come out aimed squarely at women, featuring more than one female in a leading role, and young women may want something to look up to," said Chad Hartigan, an analyst for Exhibitor Relations Co.
Hartigan predicts that the film could pull in between $25 million and $39 million in the first week.
That's bad news for Melissa Henson, director of communications for the Parents Television Council, an organization that frowns on children being exposed to racy programming.
"To a certain extent, the show promotes promiscuity, sex without risk, sex that's free and easy," she said. "If you watch the entire series, the characters end up in monogamous, committed relationships, but if you just tune in to certain episodes, taken out of context, girls can walk away with the idea that promiscuous sex is... actually a lifestyle choice that's glamorous."
That's not the conclusion reached Fake TAG Heuer by Ashley Fairbanks, 21. The college student doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs. In high school, she gave a presentation on the importance of school sex education that earned national recognition.
She's been watching SATC since she was 13.
"I felt like I had a secret window into the adult world," she said. "I think you can never learn about sex too soon. It's better to have been a girl going into the world knowing those things."
-- Star Tribune (Minneapolis)