Another Disney Starlet Shows Up (and Out)

For today's entertainers, everyone's out to create a buzz by any means necessary. For adult personalities, creating media headlines by acting outlandishly is irresponsible and sets a horrible example. Even though Paris and LiLo's antics are reprehensible, these two work independently and make their own choices as to how they are perceived by the public (but it is important to note that Lohan's market value to studios has dropped dramatically since her history of embarrassing antics have been made public). For child stars, whose images are closely guarded by the sponsor brands they represent, acting out to draw attention to themselves presents a much bigger problem: they disparage themselves along with their parent brand and put their well-crafted image on the chopping block.

Time and time again, fresh young starlets, always branded with a wholesome image, are being caught baring all in a pic or video that circulates the web at light speed. The paparazzi scramble to get new shots. Headlines fill up with the latest shocking scandal. And, parents roll their eyes in disgust as yet another child "role model" disproves their clean cut image and disappoints young followers. I've watched this occur repeatedly, thinking it will eventually die down, but the issue always seems to escalate and pop up again and again. Last week, yet another round of naughty photos floated out into the web cloud, this time of former 3LW member and current Disney Cheetah Girl Adrienne Bailon.

What is it that these girls think they will benefit from this exposure? Maybe they're attempting to sabotage their current business deals and create a more "mature" image; or maybe they are caving to overwhelming pressure to keep their name in the spotlight at any cost. In any event, neither strategy works. A year ago, Vanessa Hudgens, another Disney dynamo, had her own scandal, but Disney chose to continue the relationship. And while Adrienne could just be seeking attention after seeing her star fade, this will likely just see her story sink lower in entertainment lore. It's a lose-lose for both her and Disney, but what is Disney going to do about it?

Instead of allowing the behavior to continue, often in violation of a behavioral clause in their contracts, Disney has to take a stand. They have a responsibility to speak out against such lewd behavior by the leaders of their brand. Because they directly target children and market almost exclusively to them, Disney has to start enforcing their rules and setting parameters. Instead, by turning the other cheek, they passively condone the behavior and continue to try to profit off the "buzz". They are failing in their responsibility to keep their brand wholesome and choose brand icons who can cleanly portray a positive image for millions of child fans. There are, however, a small handful of child stars who have the wherewithal to stay clean. It looks like Raven got the memo.... at least for now.

Comments

[mookiemail]

One thing to remember: "Teen" stars often are not even close to being teens, which brings its own set of problems when real teens try to measure up to adults on TV presented as teens. Adrienne Bailon, for instance, is 25. It would be difficult to tell her to be in teen mode all the time. She's a grown woman. Blame Disney (and others) for deciding teens are not good enough to portray teens.

[budalla]

Let's call these "children" what they are, Talent, with a veneer of contrived personality. They make mistakes, behave like teenagers & embarrass the studios they work for. Contracts can't change that.. If you think they can, you are living in a delusional world where teenagers are never moody and are ignorant of sex or devoid of hormones.

The answer will never be that a tighter leash on the Talent. Their stars will have sex, do stupid things or just be kids.

The only real answer is to raise your kids to be able to make good, intelligent decisions about life choices. Even more important is to for parents to live according to the ideals they expect from their kids. Kids have unerring hypocrisy detectors. If you expect kids to do as you say, not as you do, you are a fool.

My daughter is 10. I try to teach her how to answer life's difficult questions. When she asks me a question I try to answer honestly... and that includes telling her I don't know sometimes. I have been rewarded with an intelligent, knowledgeable person who, when she stumbled across the nude photos of Vanessa H. (High School Musical), just shook her head & told me that she wasn't very smart. Ain't that the truth.

Unlike many adults, she is capable of separating the actor from the role. She knows that fame/money has never equated with good sense & the opinions of actors are no more important than anyone else.

[topkatnc]

MTV is one of the problems .

[MadOzbo]

along with most of the "young adult" dramas (many produced by the WB)...

[Candyland]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned these girls' parents. When your kid starts acting like an attention-obsessed diva and misbehaving in ways that can be detrimental to their health (both physical and mental), maybe it's time to pull the plug on the star thing. They only get one childhood, but they can always go back to acting later in life.

Dina Lohan and Lynn Spears are perfect examples of women unable to say no and set boundaries for their kids.

[rjmiller]

I would prefer if Disney portrayed a realistic image instead of a wholesome one. They essentially push their stars to take vows of celibacy and then act surprised when none of them live up to it. Get a clue guys, teenagers have sex. They've been doing it for millions of years and nothing you can do will ever stop it from happening, not even the Disney equivalent of abstinence education.

[argyle]

Why are pictures of people as they naturally look inherently bad?

[LMPE]

Part of the problem: we as a society devote so much attention to these starlets. If we focus exclusively on famous people, then we need to think seriously about which famous people on whom to focus.
It seems to me that part of the idea behind fawning over Britney and Paris is that they're doing lots of things. Yes, they're doing lots of things, but lots of self-serving things merely to get attention. We only hear about people like Jonathan Winters if he wins an award or something such.
There are two women whom I wish to discuss: Connie Hines and Dorothy Provine. While you probably don't recognize their names, you may have seen them. Connie Hines played Wilbur's wife Carol on "Mister Ed", and Dorothy Provine played the non-greedy Emmaline Finch in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Provine retired from acting in 1969, Hines in 1970 (although she occasionally appears at book signings with Alan Young, who played Wilbur). So for the most part, we haven't heard from either woman in almost forty years. In other words, neither woman felt the need to make a spectacle of herself to get attention. For that alone I think very highly of both these fine actresses (not to mention that they're both quite beautiful).
There should be a TV show to focus on the famous people who haven't misused their celebrity. I would far rather hear about Carroll Baker, Barbara Eden and Elke Sommer, than about Disney starlets.