In the past week, Miley Cyrus has uploaded 34 selfies on to Instagram, perhaps because she is – in her words, or her hashtag, at least, #boredasfuckwithnothingtodo. But, taking a break from doing her own procrastination photography, she went to get controversial photographer Terry Richardson to take some photos of her.
Posing (fully clothed in a jacket) with her head on his shoulder, she added the caption: #terrysdiary. And the full shoot includes her posing cutely with her dog and pulling silly faces. Very tame, by Terry and Miley's standards.
But fans weren't best pleased, one commenting: 'Omg, that guys such a per… Eeep! [sic]' and another saying: '"I'm so not Disney any more I supper rapists" GOD WE GET IT MILEY UR LYKE SO EDGY [sic]' and another putting it: 'You are a feminist Miley. Stop working with this pervert.'
See, Terry's been accused by several models of coercing them into doing sexual things on shoots that they're later not too comfortable with. The girls who have said he's acted inappropriately towards them or sexually harassed them each explain that it's because he's worked with celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and, um, Barack Obama, that Terry has been able to get away with it.
At present, there are no criminal charges against Terry but in light of the various allegations, several magazines and fashion companies have decided to drop him and his work.
So why is Miley determined to publicly back him? And why isn't she the only one? Sky Ferreira, who supported Miley on her North American and European legs of her Bangerz tour, has also worked extensively with the photographer-turned-video-director and came out in support of him over the weekend. 'As someone who has worked very closely with Terry Richardson on many many many occasions since I was 17 years old, I would like to say... from my OWN personal experience: I have never been forced or manipulated into anything,' she wrote
While she insisted she didn't want to judge those making allegations - 'I'm not against/doubting people that have said they've encountered things with him (it's not my place to say so)' - she thought the celebrities shying away from him weren't exactly moral.
'The media acting as if Terry Richardson manipulated Lady Gaga into making a video about getting touched by R-Kelly or whatever is a whole other thing. She is 28 year old woman & fully capable/aware of what she was doing,' she wrote of the stories last month that Lady Gaga had tried to get screenshots of a Terry-directed music video of hers for _So What U Want t_aken down because they [included a dodgy storyline.
She concluded: 'Basically, if one more person has the nerve to ask/tell me that I've fucked Terry Richardson, I will slit their fucking throat.'
Yeesh. The whole thing gets murkier as it goes on. Maybe just stick to the selfies for now, Miley.
** Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson**
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.