SPUN GOLD

MILEY CYRUS doesn’t look like a mouse. Or a befuddled bear. Or even a princess. But make no mistake, like Mickey, Winnie the Pooh and Snow White before her, she is a Disney franchise.

Cyrus is the star of “Hannah Montana,” a Disney Channel half-hour sitcom following the travails of Miley Stewart, a young girl living in Malibu who also happens to be pop star Hannah Montana. Costarring real-life Dad Billy Ray Cyrus and consistently featuring a wish list of costars including Dolly Parton and Larry David, “Hannah Montana” is one of the top-rated kids’ shows of all time (in 2006, it was second only to “American Idol” among kids 6 to 14). Cyrus’ first album, the 2006 “Hannah Montana” soundtrack, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart (a first for a TV soundtrack), sold more than 280,000 copies in its first week and subsequently went double-platinum. Her second album, a two-disc set titled “Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus,” was released June 26 and beat out Kelly Clarkson’s new album to be No. 1, selling 326,000 copies.

There is, of course, a feature film in the works.

This year, Cyrus performed as Hannah at London’s famed Koko club (Madonna had been there a few days previous) and, with Mickey and Minnie, cut the ribbon to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Disneyland Paris.

Only a 14-year-old would have that much energy.

“I just had a 20-minute break,” Cyrus recently announced as she took her place on set at a taping of “Hannah Montana.” “The first I’ve had in about a year.”

She’s exaggerating, of course; the days of run-ragged young stars are long gone. Because she is a minor, Cyrus can work only 8 1/2 hours a day, three of which are to be tutor-taught schoolwork.

In a promotional whirl

IN person, this particular franchise is tall, thin and pretty in blue jeans and hip-hugging layered tunic. On set she holds hands with costar Emily Osment, wrestles with TV brother Jason Earles, mugs for the camera, bats her eyelashes at the director and yelps when Earles sends a piece of jello flying near her person. “No, seriously, Jason,” she says when she can’t locate the wobbly bit after the director yells cut, “where is it?”

On her break, she could be just another baby-sitter lying on the floor of her bedroom, texting her friends. Of course the floor she’s lying on isn’t in her bedroom, it’s in her dressing room. And as she lifts herself off it (all legs and arms and long hair), throws herself on the couch and starts talking, the most notable thing about Cyrus is her voice: A husky alto in song and speech, it is rich and flexible, a voice that promises the possibility of an adult singing career. Then there’s the cadence. As the story goes, she got the name Miley because she was such a smiley baby, but it could also describe the way she talks -- a mile a minute. Although her native twang does its level best to calm things down, even the great state of Tennessee is no match for a 14-year-old living the dream.

“Everything’s starting to slow down,” she says. “Just doing the show is such a break for me. I was on tour with the Cheetah Girls, went to London and Paris, was getting the word out about the new Hannah CD and the Miley CD -- I’m now working for two people. And writing, I write all the time. Miley Cyrus wrote every song on that CD. I write in my sleep. I don’t know how, but I’ll work on a song, go to sleep and it’s finished when I wake up.”

Europe was great because even though her mother, Trisha Cyrus, couldn’t go -- Cyrus’ younger sister was in a school play -- Cyrus got to bring her best friend from Nashville, so it was one big sleep-over adventure.

“Here’s a funny story,” she says. “I cut the ribbon in Paris, and everyone in Paris speaks French -- maybe you knew that. But I’m from Tennessee, and Tennessee girls don’t speak French. So suddenly I’m stuck onstage with Minnie and Mickey and everyone is yelling at me in French -- I guess they’re telling me to get off the stage, but I didn’t know what they were saying at the time, so I start dancing with Minnie and Mickey like on the show and finally my aunt comes and gets me off. Next time I go,” she says, finally drawing breath and hitting the pause before the punch line, “I will learn to speak a little French.”

If Cyrus knows the importance of telling a good story for interviews, she comes by it naturally. Her country singer father also plays her father on the show, and if no one was quite prepared for the juggernaut of “Hannah Montana,” the Cyrus family is quite familiar with fame -- its requirements, its seductions and its limitations.

“My mom is always telling me it takes a long time to get to the top,” Cyrus says in all teenage seriousness, “but a short time to get to the bottom.”

It’s hard to imagine what the bottom looks like for a 14-year-old, although names like Lindsay Lohan and Danny Bonaduce do present themselves. Right now, Cyrus is safe within the Disney biosphere, the multimedia incubation unit for adolescent stars. “The Suite Life of Zach & Cody’s” Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Raven-Symone of “That’s So Raven” then “The Cheetah Girls,” “Lizzie McGuire’s” Hilary Duff -- these are the natural descendants of Annette and Cubby, but Hannah Montana may top them all.

Nickelodeon was the one to invent a channel dedicated to kids programming, but the Disney Channel, which doesn’t have to worry about a pesky little problem like attracting advertisers, often seems to own the demographic. (Nick’s recently debuted “The Naked Brothers Band” is a clear answer to “Hannah Montana” in form and story line.) So with that and Radio Disney in full swing, Hannah is the perfect multimedia creation -- music, concerts, TV, two sets of clothing and other merchandise, and a feature film coming.

“Hannah Montana has turned into a phenomenon,” says Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide. “The music is a giant add-on. The ultimate wish fulfillment. Here at Disney, television is just the launch pad. For other networks, it’s the end, but here it just launches them into the next tier.”

Radio Disney (KDIS-AM 1110 in Southern California) is key to Cyrus’ success. Six years ago, it was a mild-mannered attempt to capture CD-buying ‘tweens, playing a range of bubble gum favorites and Disney movie music. “The audience came, but we were building equity for Britney and Christina,” says Marsh. “We decided we needed to use it to leverage our stars.”

So Duff was introduced to a microphone and Raven-Symone starred as the leader of the group the Cheetah Girls. Then along came “High School Musical,” the smash-hit Disney Channel movie.

“We were very lucky with our timing,” says Michael Poryes, executive producer of “Hannah Montana.” “We debuted after ‘High School Musical.’ The show’s success is due to Miley and the music.”

And to the ever-expanding Disney audience. While much has been made of the ‘tweeners -- the 9-to-14 in-between-child-and-teen demographic -- “Hannah Montana” captures the pre-’tweens as well. At a recent taping there were as many 5-year-olds as 11-year-olds, and they were just as rapt as their elders. For her part, Cyrus is as happy to see the kindergartners as she is her peers.

“These little kids come up and invite me to their birthday parties,” she says. “I keep thinking, ‘You know, I should go to some of them.’ ”

A come-from-behind candidate

AS perfect as Cyrus now seems for the role, she was not on anyone’s A-list when Poryes, Rich Correll and Barry O’Brien came up with the concept. Disney searched L.A. and New York for Hannah and came up empty-handed. Cyrus, who had the acting bug and an agent but no real experience, sent in an audition tape. The execs were impressed but in no way convinced.

“She was charming as all get-out and a natural singer,” says Marsh. “But she was 12. And we didn’t see handing over this show to a 12-year-old with no acting experience.”

Still, as months stretched into a year and still no Hannah, Marsh and company decided to fly Cyrus here. Again they were charmed but not quite sold. There was another actress, a 16-year-old with lots of sitcom experience, and it came down to the two of them. The vote in the room was, at last, evenly split, and Marsh had to make the call. A copy of the e-mail he sent the next day says it all:

“We pride ourselves not just on creating great television, but on creating stars; not just on launching careers, but on launching franchises for the entire Walt Disney Company.

“So, after consulting with everyone involved ... I’m ready to pull the trigger on Miley.”

Now Cyrus can’t go anywhere without an army of children, and adults, swarming her, begging for autographs, photographs and, of course, inviting her to their birthday parties. “It was weird the first time it happened,” she says. “It was the day after the show came out and my best friend and I went to Universal and we heard these girls scream, ‘Is it her?’ We’re looking around for Britney or Lindsay or someone famous and they’re like, ‘Are you Miley?’ And I said, ‘Miley? Yeah, why?’ I thought I was in trouble.”

Just recently, she says, she had to use a bodyguard for the first time. “We went to Six Flags and my little sister was with us so we had to have someone to stay with me so she could go on the rides with my mom and I could stay and sign autographs. But it’s important because the more out there you are, the less people think of you as a character. They think of you as a real person.”

Her father has also experienced a renaissance because of the show -- he was recently a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” -- although his casting was a complete afterthought.

“We had already found Dad before he came in,” says Poryes. “We thought, ‘Well, we’ll be polite.’ ”

“But when he and Miley read together, Miley just opened up like a flower,” says Executive Producer Steven Peterman. “There was such natural chemistry.”

Cyrus pere put his own stamp on the show -- not only did he bring music-world cred (and guest stars such as Parton) but he took a typically over-amped kids’ sitcom and slowed it a bit.

“Billy has his own rhythms,” says Peterman. “He doesn’t do a quick, glib reading of traditional comedy; he calms it down.”

“He makes you feel like everything is going to be just fine,” says Poryes.

That “you” extends to his daughter as well. Cyrus describes their relationship as more friends than father and daughter, although the stories she tells seem pretty standard parent-child. Hollywood style, of course. Billy Ray embarrasses her by asking pretty much everyone he meets if they want to be on the show -- “We were at this party and there was an Austin Powers look-alike and Dad thought he was the guy, you know, Mike Myers, so he says, ‘You should be on our show,’ and I said, ‘Dad, you cannot be asking an Austin Powers look-alike to be on the show.’ ”

And then there’s the matter of carpooling.

“Usually my mom takes me to the set, which I like so much better, and here’s why: Just yesterday, Dad was supposed to take me, only something was the matter with the car so he went out to fix it, and when I went out to go, he was gone. I figured he had gone to the garage or something, and I’m waiting and waiting. Finally I call him and ask, ‘Where are you?’ and he says, ‘I’m on the set, where are you?’ and I say, ‘Uh, Dad, did you maybe forget something?’ And then, when he comes to get me,” drawn breath, comedic beat, wry smile, “he gets totally lost on the way back taking shortcuts.”

But her dad knows what it means to be in for the long haul, and that is what Miley Cyrus wants: a lifelong career without the all-too-common stops in rehab and eating-disorder clinics. “I think about that, but I don’t worry about it,” she says of other child stars, such as Lohan, who have had trouble on their way to adulthood. “I have a pretty strong family, and I think that is important. And my music keeps me focused. I like the acting and the music, but the music is what’s most important. I want to do that all my life.”

Which is precisely what Disney has in mind.

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mary.mcnamara@latimes.com