Miley Pal: Vanity Fair Controversy "Hurt Her Inside"

Sometimes the negative press gets to be too much for Miley Cyrus says a Hannah Montana costar, but bonding over "normal girl stuff" helps

Miley Cyrus may have lived most of her young life in the spotlight, but that doesn't mean the negative press doesn't get to her from time to time.

So says her pal Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, who plays Ashley Dewitt on Hannah Montana.

“Sometimes I’ll talk to her on the phone and she’ll be like, 'It’s really hard' or 'I’m really tired. I can’t do this,' ” Perez de Tagle said at last night’s Declare Yourself and American Eagle party for a new line of celebrity-designed “Vote” T-shirts at Palihouse in West Hollywood. “But I’ll always say, 'You do want to do this. You love your job.' And she’s like, 'Yeah.' ”

Perez de Tagle said Cyrus’ friends avoid talking to her about the Vanity Fair controversy. “It really hurt her inside,” she said. “She didn’t know that people would look at it like that.”

Even so, Perez de Tagle insists Cyrus is no different than most other teens: “When she’s not busy, we usually go shopping, go bowling—do normal girl stuff.”

—Additional reporting by Laura Lane