I was channel-surfing a few evenings ago and I landed on “Hannah Montana” on the Disney Channel. Moments later saw something really weird.

I don’t follow this particular show, but much like High School Musical I’m kind of in awe of it. It’s got that hyperactive Disney synergy going. “Hannah Montana” hinges on a cute enough premise: Miley Cyrus plays Miley Stewart, a tweener who maintains a secret identity, that of superstar singing sensation Hannah Montana. Miley’s real-life dad Billy Ray Cyrus plays Miley’s real-life dad Robbie.

There are a few oddments about this show. it’s one of the very few left on American television that features a laughtrack. Miley Cyrus is a very charming young lady, but has rather painfully obvious acting limitations, mugging and flat-delivering with a Mike Nesmith-like soft Texas drawl. The show provides Miley/Hannah with Lilly, a best friend/Foil/Straight Man played by Emily Osment. She’s Haley Joel (The Sixth Sense) Osment’s sister, and although her character’s probable purpose in the show is to prop up Miley Cyrus she generally acts circles around the titular star.

(God, am I really picking on a fifteen-year-old? Sorry, but as much as I’ve seen the show it’s the only dissonant note in an otherwise perfectly Disney-like show on a channel populated with much more polished child actors.)

However, Miley Cyrus’ acting abilities must not matter: The show is a huge hit, with ancillaries second only to HSM in their pervasiveness and profitability. The Hannah Montana concert tour was so popular it became something of a social barometer: tickets offered for $35 to $65 face value were snapped up by scalpers (oh, sorry: “ticket brokers”) and were fetching up to $1500. The press had a good time excoriating both the heartless scalpers and the overindulgent parents.

Anyway, back to the weird thing. I was watching “Hannah Montana” in my office out for the corner of my eye, while I busied myself with other stuff, when a close-up of Larry (”Curb Your Enthusiasm”) David appeared. I thought I sat on the remote control and the tuner rolled over to HBO. But there he was, with his two real-life daughters, waiting in vain for a table in a posh LA restaurant. Hannah breezed in (You can tell it’s her and not Miley Stewart because Hannah sports a long wig with highlights). She air-kissed the maitre d’ and got seated immediately.

Larry David then did his whiny Larry David thing, and one of his real-life daughters complained “I’ll bet Uncle Jerry could have gotten us in!”

Is it just me, or will none of this register with the kids who typically watch this show?

The whole cameo was so off-putting and stuck out so crudely it begged explanation. There’s only one reason this exceedingly strange nexus occurred: Larry David’s daughters are big fans, and a walk-on cameo for the two on their favorite show is the celebrity equivalent to taking the kids to ride the teacups in Disneyland.

–Skot C.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 11:42 am and is filed under Acting, Ancilliaries, General, Marketing, Music, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.