Miley is just the latest in a string of raunchy products from his stable after Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson
Take a pretty young girl with a clean image, turn her into a showbiz sex goddess and watch the money roll in.
That is what has happened to Miley Cyrus. And her steamy interviews plus semi-naked “twerking” routine are looking like a deliberate career switch under the guidance of a calculating manager, reports the Sunday People.
Step forward Larry Rudolph. For Miley, the former Hannah Montana child actress turned queen of sleaze, is just the latest in a string of raunchy products from his stable.
Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson are all his creations as well.
The multi-millionaire businessman and former lawyer specialises in helping performers make the transition from child star to adult entertainer.
Middle America was outraged by the sight of former Disney princess Miley, 21, wearing a flesh-coloured latex bikini and gyrating suggestively against singer Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards in August.
How could the sweet little thing who played children’s TV favourite Hannah for eight years sink so low, asked disgusted parents’ groups. But her televised performance was seen by 50 million people. And cheering her on were Rudolph and her mum and co-manager, Tish Finley.
Rudolph, 50, a talent manager for 15 years, has been working with the singer since last spring.
And he told the Hollywood Reporter magazine he thought that Miley’s performance at the VMAs was an absolute corker.
He declared: “We were all cheering from the side of the stage. It could not have gone better. The fans got it. The rest eventually will.”
Rudolph’s skills have made him worth an estimated £13million but he came from humble beginnings in the Bronx area of New York.
He spent the first part of his career as an entertainment lawyer and in 1992 founded the New York firm Rudolph &Beer, which represented artists including Jessica Simpson, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears’ teenage sweetheart Justin Timberlake.
His own transformation came in 1998, when family friend Lynne Spears asked him to listen to her 15-year-old daughter Britney singing and help secure her a record contract. Rudolph masterminded Britney’s career, turning her into a sexy superstar with a £60million fortune.
Like Miley and Christina Aguilera, Britney had spent her childhood years appearing as a Mousketeer on America’s Disney TV channel.
But as Britney neared adulthood it was clear there was more money to be made by appealing to a global adult audience.
After meeting her, Rudolph set up his management firm Reign Deer and negotiated a contract with Jive Records.
A year later, in 1998, Britney exploded on to the pop scene with her debut album and single Baby One More Time. The single topped the charts worldwide. Its accompanying video featured Britney dressed as a schoolgirl with her hair in pigtails.
But more was to come. At the MTV VMAs in 2000, Britney performed a cover of The Rolling Stones hit Satisfaction and walked on looking demure and staid in a black tuxedo.
Within minutes the tux was stripped off to reveal a flesh-coloured bodysuit covered in silver sequins. Millions were shocked, but photospreads and headlines were triggered around the world.
A year later Britney sang Slave 4 U at the event, wearing a green bikini and carrying a python. At the 2003 VMAs she kissed Madonna in a legendary image. In May 2002 Britney split from singer Justin Timberlake – another Rudolph protégé who she dated since she was 15.
It all helped to project an image as a sexually liberated and available young woman. Other young female artists were quick to copy her. In 1999 singer Jessica Simpson, then 19, had publicly vowed to remain a virgin until marriage.
But a year later, and with Rudolph on board as her manager, she had ditched her pure image and, in her words, aimed for a “sexier style”.
In 2005 she starred as blonde bombshell Daisy in the movie version of The Dukes of Hazzard.
Also under the guidance of Rudolph, Christina Aguilera, then 22, released a video for her 2002 single Dirrty in which she simulated a sex act while wearing little more than a pair of leather chaps.
And so when Miley, daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, signed for Rudolph last year, she was treading a well-worn path.
Project Miley had begun. It was uncannily like Project Britney, Project Christina and Project Jessica. Within weeks her long hair had gone, to be replaced with a blonde crop as she launched her new album Bangerz.
Her debut single We Can’t Stop came with a video of Miley grinding with female dancers. Photographer Terry Richardson, renowned for his sexy portraits, was hired to direct her next video, Wrecking Ball.
It featured a naked Miley straddling a massive concrete sphere. The video had eight million hits on YouTube, the highest number ever in a day.
Then in August came that famous twerking at the MTV VMAs – not to mention a provocatively used giant foam finger and a troupe of dwarf dancers. Then Miley dumped her long-term fiancé, actor Liam Hemsworth, a scenario spookily like Britney and Justin Timberlake.
Miley was at pains to emphasise that she was the one behind her new image and it merely reflected her new maturity. But Britney had also insisted that her sexy new persona was her own idea, explaining that her material became “much funkier and edgier” as she matured.
And Rudolph denies sexualising his girl clients, claiming they make the transition to adult singer themselves and he is merely an adviser.
He said: “There’s no such thing as, ‘OK, let’s figure out the plan for growing up.’ It doesn’t work. The public sees through it in two seconds, and every artist who’s tried to do it has failed.”
Rudolph says Britney masterminded her transition without any influence from him.
He said: “First it was Baby One More Time, then Oops! I Did It Again, all super bubblegum pop records. Third album, she wanted to make edgier music. She’s the one who insisted Slave 4 U be the first single and she was right. She came up with the video concept.
“It was not some record-company executive and a manager sitting in a room plotting this out.
“Same thing with Miley. What you see now, this is her. Some artists have it, some don’t have the ability to make that transition. Most don’t. You can’t plan for it. You hope it happens.”
But industry insiders say a string of young female singers using their sexuality to make it big while managed by Rudolph cannot be a coincidence.
Rudolph and Britney split in 2005. But he was back at her side in 2007 after she had a mental breakdown. At the time it was suggested that her mum Lynne begged him to come back because without him Britney had no confidence.
He agreed, provided she agreed to shun drink and drugs. It was Rudolph who reportedly talked her into rehab in 2008. Now he is masterminding the 32-year-old’s current two-year residence in Las Vegas, estimated to be worth £25million.
As for Miley, some dubbed her a “disgusting little pig” after her twerking exploit.
Other celebrities, including Brooke Shields and Kate Winslet, warned she had lost her way.
But could it be that, like other Rudolph girls before her, she had seen a route to fortune?
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