Granted, I have this decade-long thing against him for giving “Achy-Breaky Heart” to the world.  But his reaction to the whole Miley Little Nepotizz Cyrus brouhaha over the Annie Leibovitz photos is disturbing.

Today he finally broke his silence on the Today show (or went slightly beyond his “I didn’t know” bullshit, at least).

“I didn’t know they were going to strip her down and wrap her in a blanket,” Cyrus, appearing to promote his NBC show Nashville Star, told show anchor Meredith Vieira. Of the seemingly topless shot of his daughter, he said, “I was surprised when I saw it … but, hey, that’s life. Stuff happens.”

Yeah, okay, whatev.  But I take it he did know he was posing this way with his daughter:

and this:

“That’s just a daddy who loves his daughter a whole lot,” he said.

I never did get why the world was so disturbed when Miley appeared “topless,” and yet remained pretty much mute over the above pictures (especially the first one).  In fact, the only place I did see eyebrows raised over these photos is on the feminist websites I frequent.

Leibovitz is known for photographing her subjects in iconographic poses and settings.  That’s her shtick.  These poses look like they’re right out of the typical high-fashion (and highly sexual) photo shoots for a magazine ads.

Those are not poses of “a daddy who loves his little girl a whole lot,” (or maybe they are, but not in the happy happy joy joy way…).  I would not pose with my own father that way.  Ever.  It would be way too creepy.

Also?  He kind of left his daughter out to dry by saying that he had nothing to do with the photo shoot, while she had to apologize for the photos.

If that’s not skeezy, I don’t know what is.