Miley Cyrus's image hits a new low. Or, is it high?

LOS ANGELES | Fri Dec 10, 2010 5:22pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Home video of singer Miley Cyrus using a bong apparently to smoke the hallucinogenic herb salvia hit the Internet on Friday, capping a year which has seen the teen star throw aside her squeaky clean Disney image.

The video obtained by celebrity website TMZ.com was said to have been shot days after Cyrus turned 18 years-old in November.

It shows the Disney Channel "Hannah Montana" star giggling and laughing after smoking from a large glass pipe, commonly called a bong. TMZ said sources close to Cyrus told the celebrity news website that the video was shot by one of Cyrus's friends but the substance was not marijuana, which is typically smoked in bongs.

"Is that me tripping!?", Cyrus exclaims in the video, after using the bong and mistaking another person at the party for her ex-boyfriend, actor Liam Hemsworth

The herb salvia divinorum has hallucinogenic properties but is not illegal in California. According to a 2007 U.S. survey on drug use and health, about one million people had used it that year.

Representatives for Cyrus did not return requests for comment on Friday.

The video made headlines around the world and even caused one betting site, bookmaker.com, to place odds on what might next be revealed about Cyrus. Examples included whether she might attend rehab, or be dropped by her record label.

Cyrus, one of the world's best-known teen celebrities, has made strenuous efforts this year to distance herself from the "Hannah Montana" character she began portraying on Disney Channel four years ago, winning millions of young fans.

After taping the last season of "Hannah Montana", she played a rebellious and sullen teen in romantic movie "The Last Song", stepped out publicly with co-star and boyfriend Hemsworth, released a series of raunchy pop music videos, and adopted figure-hugging stage outfits.

The new image has dismayed parents of some of the younger fans of "Hannah Montana", whose final episode does not air until the spring of 2011.

Adding to Cyrus' woes this year, her father Billy Ray Cyrus and mother Tish announced in October that they filed for divorce after 17 years of marriage.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Mark Wahlberg comes up a winner with "The Fighter"

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES | Fri Dec 10, 2010 2:16pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After more than four years of working tirelessly to make his movie, "The Fighter," and more than four years of training in a boxing ring to fit the lead role, Mark Wahlberg has changed routines in life.

"My new regimen consists of a bottle of red wine and a lot of food," the actor jokes, "and I'm enjoying myself, but my wife is, like, 'you're starting to look really bad.'"

It has been a rare event when, as an adult, Mark Wahlberg has looked bad. And as "The Fighter" debuts on Friday in major U.S. cities, it is looking very good with Oscar buzz and solid reviews working in its corner.

A troubled teenager who landed in jail, Wahlberg turned around his life as an entertainer, first as a rapper with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, then as a Calvin Klein model when his rock-hard abdomen became the envy of both men and women.

He broke through the ranks of Hollywood actors in the 1990s in films like "Boogie Nights," became a box office sensation in "The Perfect Storm" and moved on to producing hits like HBO's "Entourage," which mirrors his own early years in Hollywood.

Yet "The Fighter," which will expand around the United States in weeks to come, marks something new for the 39-year-old. It is a labor of love that he struggled to get made because, as much as anything, it was about a man -- boxer "Irish" Micky Ward -- with whom Wahlberg had much in common.

"I can't find a reason why I wouldn't be passionate about (the movie)," Wahlberg told Reuters. "And there are so many similarities between Micky's life and his journey and mine."

The two grew up in the Boston area in families with nine children. Both were tough kids, and Wahlberg followed the career of Ward, who is about six years older than the actor.

OUTSIDE THE RING

"The Fighter" charts the ups-and-downs of Ward's boxing. He eventually became a welterweight champion and his three fights with Arturo Gatti are considered legendary.

But what has movie audiences raving are less the fights and more the tale of two brothers, Ward and older sibling Dickie Eklund, who was a strong fighter in his own heyday and the family's favorite son before turning to crack cocaine.

Micky Ward (Wahlberg) must overcome not just obstacles in the ring, but the overshadowing presence of Dickie (Christian Bale) and the overbearing management of his mother (Melissa Leo). He is confused by his family's eagerness to overlook Dickie's drug abuse, and his desire not to disappoint his mom by losing bouts eventually drives Micky from the ring.

But Micky never gives up. He builds his self-confidence through the love of girlfriend Charlene (Amy Adams) and is finally able to stand up for himself -- outside the ring.

When that happens, his career turns around.

"The Fighter" has scored an 84 percent positive rating at review website Rottentomatoes.com, and movie fans on companion website Flixster give it a 79 percent positive rating.

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