All lenses are on Miley

To Francois Navarre, the proprietor of the X17 photo agency, the leader in candid celebrity shots, the market for Miley really began to pick up after the notorious Vanity Fair incident in which Annie Leibovitz photographed the teenager seemingly nude covered by a sheet. "She's started to sell more," says Navarre. "Now the pictures are going for a higher price. It used to be $300" for a shot, "and now it's $2,000 for a picture. It has to be a nice picture. I have a couple of guys working on her. It's not like Britney [Spears], where we have 24/7 coverage, but we are watching her. If she goes out of town, we try to follow her."

The Cyrus conundrum

I tend not to feel too sorry for celebrities and their paparazzi issues. They're usually grown-ups, and they did sign up for a life of fame and fortune. Anyone who shops at Kitson or eats at the Ivy is courting attention. Admittedly, I did think Britney Spears should be allowed to have her nervous breakdown in peace, and I'd prefer that the LAPD use its limited resources catching gangbangers and drug dealers rather than accompanying distressed pop stars on jaunts to the psychiatric hospital.

I am also ambivalent about the tsunami of baby pictures hitting the tabloids. As a mom, I'm all for leaving Shiloh and Maddox Jolie-Pitt alone -- it's not their fault their parents are world-famous movie stars. Yet I must confess, I do love those pictures of her Royal Adorableness Suri Cruise. I'm ashamed to admit I'd sooner pay 14 bucks to see Suri toddling around her playhouse than watch her dad star in "Valkyrie."

And I have a good sense of the scary lengths photographers are willing to go to get the shot. Apple Martin (the progeny of Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay singer Chris Martin) attended my son's preschool for a couple of months. On occasion, a throng of 3- and 4-year-olds tumbled out of the gate, away from their mommies' outstretched arms into a big scary photog, who'd happily mow them over to get closer to Apple. And there was the write-up of the kids' school concert in one of the tabloids. Creepy. Definitely invasive. I wish Us magazine would stop feeding me this kiddie crack. I'm resolving right now to go cold turkey.

Miley Cyrus presents a whole other conundrum. At some level, she and/or her parents want the media spotlight. She's a kid, but she's also a public figure, one of the most popular pop stars in the world, who according to Parade magazine earned more than $18 million last year.