TVSquad

I have a tween-aged girl in the household, so we watch a fair amount of Disney Channel. I'll come clean and even announce that Miley Cyrus, The Cheetah Girls, and Demi Lovato share iPod space with AC/DC, Jeff Beck, and Aerosmith. Hey, those Disney Channel tunes are catchy, and they're easy to dance, I mean, walk to. I draw the line at the Jonas Brothers, though.

But about 10 minutes into the new Cheetah Girls: One World movie the other night, my daughter looked at me and said, "I was really hoping these Cheetah Girls movies would get better." Yeah, me, too.

I actually liked the first two movies, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. The second, directed by High School Musical alum Kenny Ortega, was a downright cute tale about the Girls' escapades in Spain.

Parents, it is time to put our collective feet firmly on the ground. We have spent the last year-and-a-half pumping billions of dollars into the monstrosity that is the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus empire with the ever-increasing amount of products that give our daughters fits whenever they see them in the store. Everything and anything with even a picture of The Hannah or Miley has come into our homes, making our childless neighbors or those with a cadre of boys scratch their heads in curiosity as to why this teenager's face graces so many surfaces.

Well, I say enough is enough! Time to put down our wallets and purses, straighten up and notify our children, in a firm but gentle manner, that we will no longer be supporting their Hannah/Miley addiction. The best place to start is to let them know that, in no uncertain terms, will we be plunking down $250 a pop (plus airfare, lodging, and rental car) to wish Ms. Cyrus a happy 16th birthday at Disneyland on October 5th. Oh, Cyrus will perform a few songs at the party, and it will be limited to 5000 of her closest fans. But, will the cost be worth it for something your daughters will forget when Miley eventually fades into the limelight and they begin to think about (gasp!) boys?

But, if you can't resist, you better get to your phone, computer, or Disneyland now to be one of the first when tickets go on sale this Saturday at 9:00 AM PDT (that's noon to us East Coasters). Don't worry, the rest of us will be there to support you when you return. Just make sure you bring pictures and souvenirs of the event. Hey, we have only so much strength, you know!

The Teen Choice Awards will feature a dance battle between two of the toughest, roughest, street-est (not a word, I know) dance crews around. No, Lil C and his crew won't be there crumping. Miley Cyrus and Mandy Jiroux's M&M Cru will battle ACDC, the dance crew featuring Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani of Step Up 2: The Streets. The two crews are BFFs and they challenged each other back in April. A more heated rivalry has not been seen since TuPac and Biggie. Yeah! Totally street. "Street" is even in the name of the movie.

The Teen Choice Awards have some other performers and appearances lined up too. But they're not "street" so who cares? Shia LaBeouf, David Archuleta, James Marsden, Sophia Bush, Josh Holloway, Scarlett Johansson, Zac Efron, Pink, JoJo, Kristen Bell, and Hayden Panettiere are some of the other names previously announced. Mariah Carey is slated to perform her new single, "I'll Be Lovin' You Long Time."

The Teen Choice Awards will air on August 4th at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

The 2008 Teen Choice Awards nominees are in and if you're a teen (that's between 13 and 19 years old for the math impaired among us), you can get your vote on once a day over at www.TeenChoiceAwards.com. If you've just put in a turkey to roast and have some time, you can follow the link to the complete list of Teen Choice Awards 2008 nominees, of which I can only say ... damn, that's a lot of categories. Do teens really have that kind of attention span anymore to make it through these categories and vote?

As reported earlier, Miley Cyrus has been signed to host with the show airing Monday, August 4 at 8pm ET. I've dropped in the TV-only categories and nominees after the jump, and there are a ton of categories covering a much wider range of television shows than really any of the major television awards do. There are oodles of reality show categories and more specifically, a category for "looking for love" reality shows. Really? And still only one category for animated shows?

Still haven't had enough of Hannah Montana? Well, you're in luck then because teen sensation Hannah Montana AKA Miley Cyrus has been slated to host the 2008 Teen Choice Awards. She's also up for three awards herself, which is nice and all, but pales in comparison to the CW's Gossip Girl with 14 and Chris Brown with nine. I've seen Cyrus in interviews and ad-libbing and she seems incredibly competent and comfortable so I expect she'll do a fine job hosting. The ceremony is set for Monday, August 4 at 8 ET on FOX.

I hate to say it, but do you think there's a legion of people out there just waiting for her to lose it the way many of the teen starlets eventually do. Maybe not as bad as Lindsay "You Really Don't Want to Mess With the" Lohan. But you know they've got the countdown clock for her eighteenth birthday, and they're all throwing little parties because of those Miley Cyrus naughty MySpace pics. The funny thing about all the scandal to me is that those pics aren't really all that big of a deal.

Either an Emmy isn't worth very much these days, or Hollywood actresses are finding that the publicity from spurning a nomination is worth more than the nomination itself. First Grey's Anatomy star -- and last year's Emmy winner -- Katherine Heigl removed her name from consideration for an Emmy in 2008, and now another has followed suit.

Lindsay Lohan is not submitting her Ugly Betty performance for Emmy consideration. What? You don't remember Lindsay's performance, those few minutes of a flashback when Betty recalls being used as a dodge ball target in high school? Yeah, Lindsay really put in Emmy-worthy work there!

This is so ridiculous when it comes to Lindsay. There was no chance she'd be nominated, so removing her name is a stunt. On the other hand, Heigl's move is a real slap in the face to the writers of Grey's Anatomy.

ABC will be airing Disney favorites this summer every Saturday evening. John Goodman, the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, and Jamie Lee Curtis are just a few of the special guest hosts who will be hosting these "movie nights."

From the looks of the schedule, ABC is showing mostly newer Disney films. While I love films like Monsters Inc., I wish ABC would pay tribute to the older Disney movies like Robin Hood, The Sword in the Stone, and Cinderella.

I have the full schedule after the jump. The Disney extravaganza starts this coming Saturday, June 14th.

Controversy continues to swirl around the Disney Channel's once-squeaky-clean Hannah Montana series. Now Kathy Griffin is telling Entertainment Weekly she was fired from the series for comments she made at last year's Creative Arts Emmys.

I dunno. Does "Suck it, Jesus! This award is my god now!" seem all that bad? That's probably one of the classier things the D-List comedian has ever said.

But Griffin didn't go quietly into the night, opting instead to fire off a few shots at the show's star, Miley Cyrus, whose racy Vanity Fair photos are making the water cooler rounds this week. "[She] has been flashing her green bra and posing topless," said Griffin. "I was basically told, 'Disney doesn't want you anywhere near the building.'"

"Penis Theft Panic Update": An update on the ever-popular story about the Congolese penis theft scare. You may not have asked for it, but you know you totally wanted it. The update, I mean, not the weird penis-stealing sorcery. Was the light really supposed to go completely out for Jon's spell-chanting? I think that was the part that made the metal drop in the next segment. Jon's really more powerful than he lets on, for the best black sorcerers are always the tiny Jewish ones.

Miley Cyrus is doing mea culpas all over the news about the racy photo shoot in Vanity Fair, basically saying she's embarrassed, but blaming Annie Leibovitz for the pictures. Umm, Miley, you were there. You could have said, "Oh, no, I won't do photos like that cause I'm a Disney girl and Hannah Montana can't do that, get it?" Whatever. Her story is getting press, but it's another Disney Channel star, Brenda Song, who's filed a lawsuit. She really has a reason to gripe.

Brenda Song, who co-stars on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody as London Tipton -- sort of a Blair Warner for today's teens (and if you don't know Blair Warner, you never watched The Facts of Life), has filed a lawsuit with a company that used her image in an escort service print ad that appeared in L.A. Weekly.

In the pictures, taken by Annie Leibovitz, 15 year old Miley appears to be topless, covered by a blanket. Now hackles are raised in all corners. Vanity Fair insists that Miley's parents were on set and approved of the photos. Other sources say her parents left before those shots were taken. Disney weighs in saying Miley was manipulated in order to sell magazines. And the voice of reason, oddly enough me in this case, would like to add, "Who the hell takes topless, or implied topless, pictures of a 15 year old girl in the first place?" Right? Shouldn't the whole thing have been avoided with basic common sense?

Are you still trying to figure out what to do when all of your favorite programs leave the air for the summer? I was thinking about maybe going outside. I'm told it's nice. ABC has other plans for our eyeballs though. They've signed up Nick Lachey to host a new reality show (I know... boo reality) based on the hit Disney franchise, High School Musical.

At the moment the show is called High School Musical: Summer Session, but apparently that isn't official. Casting calls kick off this weekend, with a premiere set for June 20th. The network is obviously hoping to cash in on some of the success their sibling Disney has seen with the movies. I wouldn't be surprised to see Disney sweetheart Miley Cyrus guesting on the show to bring in her throngs of fans.

As our own Jonathan Toomey has reported, Miley Cyrus, age 15, has signed a book deal with The Disney Book Group.

The book is said to be focused on Cyrus's relationship with her mother, and to emphasize how important Cyrus's family is to her. This is surely gripping material that can fill an entire book. Why, with the exception of some books by a little-known author named Laura Ingalls Wilder, I don't think we have any books about teenage girls and how important their families are to them.

Some have questioned what a 15-year-old girl could possibly fill a memoir with at such a tender age. Let's take a look at some possible book chapters:

(S07E29) Well, this is what you've all been waiting for, right? What's that? Finale? Yeah, I guess that'll be cool, too. But if you've listened to Ryan all season then you know TONIGHT is really what it's all about! If you're looking to find out who got eliminated by vote last night you're going to have to wait until tomorrow. But if you're looking for two-and-a-half hours of entertainment chock full of celebrities and song and charity, then you're looking for "Idol Gives Back."

Last year's inaugural edition was very good, and Kristin's report of the Idol Gives Back taping from this past Sunday was also very positive. We don't have any pesky (non) eliminations to deal with like last year, so just kick back, donate and enjoy. And, if you want, join us online and chat about it in real-time with other giving Idol fans.

You can join the chat starting just before 7:30/6:30pm CDT by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.

Last night I went to a taping of the second installment of Idol Gives Back at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. This year the charities that benefited were Malaria No More, Children's Defense Fund, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Children's Health Fund, and Save the Children.

Keep in mind, there will be spoilers. It's not like I found out the secret to Lost, but I figured I would still give fair warning. The show will air on Wednesday April 9th at 7:30 pm ET / PT. For what happened at the taping and in the press room, read on after the jump. And check back for Jason's review Wednesday night.