Celebrity Watch: Miley Cyrus' Dad Billy Ray 'So Sad' About Bong Video

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Miley Cyrus' Dad Billy Ray 'So Sad' About Bong Video

'There is much beyond my control right now,' singer/actress' father tweets Friday.
By Jocelyn Vena

Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus
Photo: WireImage

Earlier Friday (December 10), footage of Miley Cyrus smoking from a bong appeared online. In the clip, Cyrus giggles and talks to an unidentified woman who is filming the teen star. The bong was reportedly filled with salvia, a psychoactive herb that is legal in California.

On Friday afternoon, Cyrus' father, Billy Ray, took to Twitter to express his disappointment over the video. "Sorry guys. I had no idea," he wrote. "Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. I'm so sad. There is much beyond my control right now."

Just hours before he reacted to his daughter's clip, he tweeted about Jesus being on Twitter, seemingly unaware of the scandal that was brewing online. "Oh wow! I'm so excited !!!" he wrote. "I tweeted follow Jesus and He showed up!!! I didn't know He was on twitter!!! I'm following Him ......"

The video was reportedly filmed in Cyrus' L.A.-area home on November 28, just days after she turned 18. "Having a little bit of a bad trip," she laughs in the video, moments after taking a hit from the bong. Cyrus then looks off in the distance and asks, "Is that Liam [Hemsworth]'s lookalike, or what the hell is that? Is that my boyfriend?"

She then spends the next 90 seconds laughing uncontrollably while someone behind the camera asks her to "tell us your thoughts, girl, tell us what's on your mind!" The footage reportedly got out when "someone stole or copied the video from that friend's camera," a source told TMZ. A rep for the star has yet to comment on the matter.

Legal experts weighed in, noting that Cyrus is not breaking the law in the video since she was of age and allegedly smoked the substance in a state where salvia is legal. "[The video] might be embarrassing to her, but it does not put her in any legal risk," Keith Stroup, legal counsel at the marijuana advocacy group NORML, told MTV News on Friday. "At the moment, [salvia] is not illegal in California, so even if she walked out on the street and smoked it in front of police, she couldn't be arrested. And the video of her smoking isn't enough to get her in trouble, because there's no proof she wasn't smoking tobacco."

"Salvia is a drug of concern," said Michael Sanders, a spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Agency. "We are taking steps to look further into it."

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