Billy Ray Cyrus regrets not staying for photo shoot

Billy Ray Cyrus regrets not staying for photo shoot

NEW YORK — Billy Ray Cyrus says he wasn’t around when Annie Leibovitz photographed his 15-year-old daughter, Miley, wrapped in a sheet with her back exposed, for the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine. “I wasn’t there at the time,” the 46-year-old country star said in an interview Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show.

“[Miley’s] publicist was there, and everyone seemed in control,” he said. “I didn’t know they [were] gonna strip her down and wrap her with a blanket. So I was surprised when I saw it, you know, but ... stuff happens. That’s life. Things happen and sometimes things get a little out of control and you just gotta deal with life,” he said. “Again, it’s peaks and valleys and ups and downs.” Cyrus, who co-stars with Miley in Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana,” said Leibovitz was a “good person and a great photographer” but looking back, he would have stayed to chaperon the photo shoot.

Katie Holmes on Broadway

NEW YORK — Curtain up Sept. 18 for Katie Holmes’ Broadway debut. That’s the date the former “Dawson’s Creek” star and wife of Tom Cruise begins preview performances in a revival of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” producer Eric Falkenstein announced Tuesday.

The production, which also stars John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Patrick Wilson, officially opens Oct. 16 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre for a limited engagement through Jan. 11.

“All My Sons” concerns businessman Joe Keller (Lithgow) whose factory supplied defective cylinder parts to the military, resulting in the deaths of 21 pilots during World War II. Yet it was his business partner who went to jail for the mistake.

Wiest will play Keller’s wife; Wilson, his idealistic son; and Holmes, the son’s fianc e and daughter of Keller’s disgraced partner. The director is Simon McBurney.

MTV office is attacked

MUMBAI, India — Police arrested 70 Sikh protesters after the MTV music channel’s office in western India was vandalized over posters showing a Sikh girl massaging a man, officials said Tuesday. On Monday, protesters smashed windows with rocks, tore banners and damaged furniture in the MTV office in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, police inspector Raju More said. The protesters said the posters, which promoted the reality show “On the Job2,” offended Sikhs, More said. Sikhs comprise more than 2 percent of India’s 1.1 billion people.

Today’s birthdays

Musician Paul McCartney is 66. Movie critic Roger Ebert is 66. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 56. Singer Nathan Morris of Boyz II Men is 37. Rapper Silkk The Shocker is 33. Country singer Blake Shelton is 32.