MILEY HOSTS SNL, RELEASES NEW TRACK

Miley Cyrus will once again do double duty on SNL this weekend, hosting and serving as musical guest on the season 41 premiere. This is her third time as host; the first, in 2011, was part of her coming-out party as she transitioned from Hanna Montana to pop-cultural lightning rod, while the second, in 2013, folllowed her memorable VMAs performance.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, cast member Aidy Bryant was asked what Miley’s previous hosting appearance was like.

“Miley blew me away that week,” Bryant replied. “That was also the height of all that VMA stuff, and it was a really intense time for her, and she was so cool, chill, professional, sweet and friendly. She’s so talented it makes your mouth hurt from smiling. I don’t think the sketch even made it to dress rehearsal, but at one point she was singing a really dumb song about a grandma, and her voice is so beautiful that I was like, ‘Am I getting teary right now from this dumb grandmother sketch song?’ She blew us all away at the 40th too. I’m excited to have her back.”

Meanwhile, in a Page Six item this morning headlined “Is Miley Cyrus releasing new music?,” an unnamed “music maven” was quoted as saying, “There’s no way RCA will promote her appearance without having new music from them. She must be releasing new material.” We laughed it off—until we discovered that a new Miley song, the big ballad “Hands of Love,” had just appeared in the iTunes Store. It’s from RCA’s soundtrack to the upcoming film Freeheld. We hadn’t thought of that scenario. Score one for Page Six; wonder who tipped them off...