HOLLYWOOD (CAP) - Fox News is reporting that a racier version of Disney's Hannah Montana Movie starring Miley Cyrus has been leaked on the Internet, much the chagrin of Disney executives.
"We deeply regret that this very incomplete and not at all authorized cut of the film has made its way into the public eye," said Disney spokesman Ron Carlisle. "And by incomplete, I mean prior to all the nudity and adult situations having been removed."
As to how the racy content got into the film in the first place, a high-placed Disney source who declined to be named said the version was one that was privately produced for Disney CEO Bob Iger, and did not feature any compromising footage of Cyrus.
"All the nudity was from a specially picked adult body double who happens to look exactly like Miley," said the source, adding, "You have no idea what a sick effing place this is to work."
The film was apparently never intended for commercial release, but rather was to be placed inside the "Disney vault" and viewed only at executive functions and at Iger's mansion when his wife was away, like the CEO does with the Annie Leibovitz-directed version of High School Musical 3.
"Of course, there was a lot more interest in this one, because at this point everyone's already seen Vanessa Hudgens naked," pointed out the source. A recent study found that Hudgens' nude photo is still on 94 percent of all cell phones in active use in America.
The Cyrus camp, not surprisingly, has reacted with outrage to the news. "This is entirely unacceptable," said Miley's father and co-star, Billy Ray Cyrus. "If we knew there was gonna be a naked version we woulda asked for another $5 million."
The leak was the second high-profile black eye for the industry is as many weeks, with BBC News reporting that an incomplete version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman had been leaked on the web. But further analysis of that film showed the illegal downloaders may have been the victim of a high-tech prankster.
"It's actually made up mostly of clips from the trailer spliced together with parts from other movies," noted researcher Dr. Roderick Crawford of the Rochester Institute of Technology, whose team studied the film. "Primarily the 1999 production of Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!"
That production featured Jackman in the lead role of Curley. "Dude, I was wondering why he kept singing!" said 'Josh,' 19, who downloaded the illegal version this week. "Too bad that Ado Annie's not in the real version, though - she was hot."
Meanwhile, sources say an illegal version of the upcoming Beverly Hills Ninja 2, starring David Hasselhoff and Lucas Grabeel, has been available for download on file sharing services for more than two months, but apparently no one has noticed.
- CAP News Staff