2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Miley Cyrus was fired from Adam Sandler's ‘Hotel Transylvania' for a wild reason
Miley Cyrus hasn't forgotten about the penis cake that cost her a job.
While appearing on Monica Lewinsky's podcast this week, the 32-year-old singer spoke about being fired from the 'Hotel Transylvania' franchise when she was 18 after a photo emerged of her with a penis cake for her then-boyfriend and now-ex-husband Liam Hemsworth's birthday.
12 Miley Cyrus at the Chateau Marmont on May 27, 2025 in Los Angeles.
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'I, as a joke, got my boyfriend a penis cake for his birthday and I got fired,' she recalled. 'I was the lead actress in 'Hotel Transylvania' and they fired me and replaced me because I had made an inappropriate adult joke. But I was 18.'
'So yes I was fine to work in a kids movie, but I'm not a kid,' Cyrus added.
12 Miley Cyrus on Monica Lewinsky's podcast.
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12 Miley Cyrus and Monica Lewinsky.
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12 Dracula (voice: Adam Sandler), Mavis (voice: Selena Gomez) in 'Hotel Transylvania.'
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The 'Hannah Montana' star was initially cast as Mavis Dracula in Sony Pictures' first 'Hotel Transylvania' film that came out in 2012.
But after the penis cake photo made headlines, she was replaced by fellow Disney Channel alum Selena Gomez, who starred alongside Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Kevin James and more.
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12 Selena Gomez doing voice recording for 'Hotel Transylvania 2.'
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12 Adam Sandler at the 'Adam Sandler: Love You' premiere in New York in Aug. 2024.
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'What felt ridiculous to me about getting fired for a penis cake was that they sell penis cakes for all bachelorettes,' Cyrus pointed out. 'In Nashville, Tennessee, you can get penis cakes. It's not that big of a deal.'
'So I thought this is a very simple, not vulgar joke. This is silly,' she continued. 'You can do this for all bachelorette parties. They make necklaces and cups and straws and all kinds of stuff. It felt ridiculous.'
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12 Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party 2019.
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Cyrus went on, 'But to be fired for regular things that girls my age, they go to bachelorette parties and they do this. They go to Magic Mike shows. But at that time, I wasn't someone that was appropriate for kids, even though that was in my personal life.'
The Grammy winner also noted that the photo leaked because her backpack and her camera were stolen at a party.
'[It was] nothing I posted,' she said. 'I was at a private event at a private party and I got robbed. It's not cool.'
12 Johnnystein (voice: Andy Samberg), Dracula (voice: Adam Sandler), Mavis (voice: Selena Gomez) in 'Hotel Transylvania.'
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Cyrus first revealed the nature behind her 'Hotel Transylvania' firing on Twitter in 2019. At the time, a Sony source told The Hollywood Reporter that Cyrus indeed lost her job because of the penis cake photo and that studio bosses were allegedly nervous about her leading a family-film franchise when she was breaking away from her Disney Channel persona.
12 Miley Cyrus at a 'Hannah Montana' press conference in Beverly Hills in 2007.
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12 Miley Cyrus performs in Sydney, Australia in 2014.
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On the podcast, Cyrus opened up about how she reacted to losing the job.
'At the time, I remember I jumped in the pool and said, 'I'm not gonna come up until you guys get me my job back,'' she recalled. 'It was really upsetting me. I was with my lawyer and my manager at the time and they were freaking out because they didn't realize how much it was hurting me until that moment when they realized I had said what I said.'
The 'Flowers' singer added that she started seeing a therapist that same year who helped her 'work through' moments like the penis cake controversy.
12 Miley Cyrus at the 'Something Beautiful' premiere during the 2025 Tribeca Festival in NYC on June 6.
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'I didn't want to go underwater and not come up,' she said. 'Those moments are real for me. Now they're funny, but they definitely weren't funny then.'
When asked if she thinks a similar situation could happen today, Cyrus responded, 'I don't know if we put our Disney kids on the pedestal the way that we used to, our teen stars But I think that still movies can have consequences for their lead actor or actress doing things that don't align with the audience that the movie is made for.'
12 Miley Cyrus attends Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women's Filmmaker Program in NYC on June 6.
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Earlier in the podcast, Cyrus revealed she lost a deal with Walmart as a teen because of a video of her with a bong.
'I had to email the Walmart CEO and apologize for being 16 and smoking weed, which most 16-year-olds do,' she said.
