Threats of legal action in Sinéad O’Connor vs. Miley Cyrus, round 2

On Thursday, Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor penned a rather harsh letter to pop star Miley Cyrus telling her, among other things, that she shouldn’t let the music industry make her its prostitute and that being naked and licking sledgehammers (as Cyrus does in her recent ‘Wrecking Ball’ music video) isn’t cool.

Over to Cyrus, who wasn’t about to let those widely read comments slide.

Cyrus tweeted, to her 14 million followers: “Before Amanda Bynes…. There was….” Attached was a screen grab of tweets sent by O’Connor two years ago, at a time when she was experiencing mental-health issues and asked to see a psychiatrist in a series of eight disjointed tweets.

Next up, Cyrus sent out a photo of O’Connor ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II, which she did on an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1992.

#SNL pic.twitter.com/6Cq9pewEO0

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) October 3, 2013

That Pope ripping incident didn’t go over well for O’Connor. She was skewered in the media for the act and it is largely cited as the catalyst for her slide from popularity. In an interview with Time, a month later, O’Connor disclosed her own history of sexual and physical abuse as she grew up in the Irish Catholic school system.

After the Cyrus tweets, O’Connor replied to the pop star in a lengthy post on her Facebook page, part of which reads:

You have posted today tweets of mine which are two years old, which were posted by me when I was unwell and seeking help so as to make them look like they are recent. In doing so you mock myself and Amanda Bynes for having suffered with mental health issues and for having sought help.

I mean really really… who advises you? have you any idea how stupid and dangerous it is to mock people for suffering illness? You will yourself one day suffer such illness, that is without doubt. The course you have set yourself upon can only end in that, trust me.

Then, in a second Facebook post an hour later, O’Connor threatened legal action about the Cyrus tweets: “Ms Cyrus’ lawyers will be contacted by mine regarding this matter.”

Over to Cyrus who tweeted: “Sinead. I don’t have time to write you an open letter cause Im hosting & performing on SNL this week.” Followed by: “So if youd like to meet up and talk lemme know in your next letter. :)”

And, here comes the third letter to Cyrus on O’Connor’s Facebook page, part of which reads:

I have no interest whatsoever in meeting you. You had plenty of time yesterday to abuse Amanda Bynes .. an entirely innocent party.. and myself.. who also did nothing to deserve your abuse.. along with every other sufferer of mental health problems and every person who suffered abuse at the hands of priests.

In her third letter to Cyrus, O’Connor again threatens legal action:

If you cannot apologize I will have no choice but to bring legal proceedings against you since it is extremely hard to be given work when people think one is suffering from mental illness.

Cyrus appeared to be tweeting again Friday morning, but perhaps a savvy adviser has told her to lay off the O’Connor-bashing tweets for a while. She sent this out:

Your heart knows what's good for you. Let your heart show you the way. –Mulan

— Disney Words (@disneywords) October 4, 2013

Thanks, Disney, for smoothing things over. At least for now.