Were Miley and Selena Told to Diss New Moon?

Disney tween queens Cyrus and Gomez say they don't watch Twilight, and it may not be as nefarious as you think

Why are people so up in arms about the comments Miley Cyrus made about not liking Twilight? I'm sure there are plenty more people out there that don't care for it either.
—LeAnn, via Facebook

Miley Cyrus—and fellow Disney pixie Selena Gomez—sure do dislike themselves some Twilight, yes they do. Miley told a radio station this week: "It's a cult. I don't believe in it." And Gomez then confided in Bonnie Hunt that when it comes to the Saga flicks, "I don't watch them."

Which is odd, because just this past June, she was asked about Twilight and said: "It was good. It was really good."

Hmmm.

What people are wondering here is whether Miley, and now Taylor Lautner's punkinhead of an ex, were compelled to say nasty things. Because no teenager is allowed to hate Edward Cullen. It is the Tween Code, and it must never be rent asunder. So, people assume, something sinister must be going on, and by "sinister," people suspect "Disney." Did the Mouse have a hand in this?

Well...

Certainly studio contracts do contain some muzzling of their stars. For example, if Miley actually loathed that sunny, singing Hannah Montana character she plays, she couldn't exactly let loose on Disney in the press without suffering some sort of legal backlash. But do those contracts also require nastiness toward perceived rivals?

Not likely, entertainment attorneys tell me.

"I would be a little surprised if there were something in their Disney contracts that said, 'You can't comment favorably on a product that is being produced by Warner Brothers,' " for example, says Jeffrey Spitz, attorney at the entertainment law firm Greenberg Glusker.

"If a studio were asking something like that, the person's attorney would probably say, 'Wait a minute, what are you talking about here?' It's just too weird."

So what's left?

Casting directors have told me in the past that occasionally an actor will disparage an overly popular franchise just to get some cred with a new, older audience. Which could be the case with these tweens, who likely are trying to grow up and away from, like, tween stuff.

Or, sometimes one must simply apply Occam's razor—if Miley says she doesn't like Twilight, she just might simply...not like Twilight. End of story.