Miley Cyrus didn't always
have her cute name. The pop star, who reportedly spent the weekend enjoying Paris’s
laxer teen drinking laws, was actually born Destiny Hope Cyrus. Surprisingly,
Cyrus did not want to spend her life sounding like a bad soap opera, so she
legally changed her name to Miley. According to TMZ, now her mom, Leticia is
following suit, and has filed to become “Tish” instead.
Hollywood, of course, is
full of discarded names, from Michael Douglas (Michael Keaton’s birth name,
which he had to give up because it was already taken by, uh, Michael Douglas) to Stefani Germonatta
(now Lady Gaga).
But my favourite name change
had nothing to do with fixing bad parental choices (seriously, Destiny Hope?),
sounding cooler, or avoiding confusion with similarly named actors. Those of
you who sent their little ones back to school this morning may wish your
children were as excited about education as pop chanteuse Shakira (yes, that’s
her real name) is. The Latin sensation has been known to go by her middle name, Isabel, so that she can enjoy university classes incognito,
something she likes to do when she’s on break from tour. A few years ago she
told UK’s The Guardian, “The universe is so broad, I cannot be at the centre of
it. So I decided to go to the university and study history for a summer course,
just to kind of switch gears, taste the student life.”
If only all of Hollywood’s
starlets would choose education, instead of say, clubbing, as their relaxation
of choice, then I could run headlines like “LiLo and Paris Just Can’t Agree
on the Best Postmodern Novel” instead of “Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan Gets
Arrested Again." Wouldn’t that be nice?
