Hannah Montana And Her 'Sisters'

Disney executives attribute the fan rage to its star, Miley Cyrus, who had little professional acting experience when she was tapped to play the part in 2005. Cyrus is the real-life daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, the "Achy Breaky Heart" country singer who plays her TV dad.

Disney's writers often crib details of the Cyruses' real-life relationship -- including a montage of her baby pictures and an argument in which her exasperated cry, "I hate you," has an authentic ring to many viewers, young and adult. Some of them get confused about where the real-life Miley ends and the fictional character begins.

"She's a normal kid, but you have this incredibly aspirational hook for the show that kids seem to love. That's the thing that sets it apart," said Adam Bonnett, senior vice president of original programming for the Disney Channel.

Her father, perhaps best known for his 1992 line-dancing hit, is no stranger to the vagaries of celebrity. But he is at a loss to explain his daughter's sudden fame. According to the Web site TMZ.com, young fans of the show burst into tears at one of his recent promotional appearances when they realized she wasn't coming.

"It's pretty crazy," he said in a brief telephone interview. "There's a lot of things I don't know the answer to, but all I can say is the kids love the show. . . . Every now and then, something comes along that's passion-driven."

Critics say tweens, and their open-wallet parents, are being driven less by passion and more by Disney's marketing machine, which cross-promotes its young stars through its TV channel, satellite radio broadcasts, movies, theme parks, merchandise and concerts.

"It speaks to a real confusion about children and childhood today," said Susan Linn, a psychologist at Harvard University's Judge Baker Children's Center and author of "Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood."

"Parents are being coerced into believing that kids should have adult experiences at younger and younger ages, like a concert like this and with this sort of celebrity. . . . There is a feeling that their kids should never be disappointed. They're not thinking about what it says to a child to get a $2,000 concert ticket," she said.

A few days before Hannah Montana tickets went on sale this month, Ellicott City resident Catherine Parks went shopping at Columbia Mall. In nearly every store, moms were buzzing about how to get special pre-sale ticket codes off the fan Web site and whether they'd have to resort to paying a scalper if they failed.

Then she went down to the food court. While her daughter ate her Happy Meal, a woman at the next table flipped open her cellphone to plot her strategy. Parks felt panic set in.

"I started to get freaked out," she said. " 'What am I going to do if I don't get these tickets?' "

She ended up winning one of the codes on eBay and bought her tickets on the fan site before they went on sale to the general public. Her son and daughter, ages 9 and 3, will be ferried to the Hannah Montana concert in a rented stretch limousine.

Just like well-wardrobed singing sensations with secret lives should be.