The Lindsay Lohan Deal

Yes, I know the entertainment media, rags included, will be all abuzz about something or other involving Lindsay Lohan and drugs and bulimia, and so on and so forth until the next young, hot major melt down occurs.  And the serious pundits will ignore it and dismiss it as so much unworthy entertainment fodder - which it is on one level. But only on one level, really. Because while serious people will mostly ignore it, it's simply another sign of the erosion we're seeing in our culture today.

Entertainment figures tripping up over their own self indulgence isn't anything new. You only need look back to a Judy Garland or a Marilyn Monroe to confirm that. But these are basically kids today and if anything the trending is lower in age every year.

Yes, Garland was a kid when she first started working in the biz - and she may have already been showing signs of heading for trouble. But for some reason she managed to make it to adulthood until her ultimate meltdown from drugs, alcohol and some mix of psychological maladjustment. And while ultimately no less tragic, by most accounts Monroe was far from a child by the time she was done.

And while I am far from some prude, I am increasingly uncomfortable with a culture which props up some males but mostly females who aren't even old enough to be termed an ingenue by any old Hollywood standard. And then we celebrate their crashing and burning with some tabloid media free for all, every one after their own pound of flesh when there's little more than a hundred to go around.

Entertainment Tonight will ply it's ratings and all the entertainment rags will have their say, while most of the MSM will ignore it. Maybe it's simply my mood today, but for some reason it's looking more like child abuse to me right now, than the stop and gasp or guffaw story of another young star falling from grace.

I doubt she ever had much grace to begin with, having not yet really grown old or wise enough to appreciate what the word means.

Comments

[Phoenix]

This is a very thoughtful piece. I think there might be two metrics for the fallen: Those who were pushed into show business by their parents, and those who grew up in show business. The abuse you speak of probably started long before they ever signed their first contract; and I call denying a kid a childhood and experience at 'real' life a kind of abuse. I think that makes them more vulnerable to the immense stress of stardom. Crash and burn.

What would be interesting to note would be those young stars who had the sense to bail out before they crashed and what exactly gave them the courage to bail.

[splashtc]

And WTF was up with the nicolas cage movie-weatherman- teasing his daughter about camel toe? I couldn't believe what I was watching - It was just so blatantly gratuitous and ridiculous I had to turn it off. I can see all the girls getting stared at and teased in school now because of that movie. Talk about scraping the bottom of the script barrel.
(ps-wish you had spelcheck)

[dnichols]

Who would want to have money and fame and no life? Is it worth it? I think there are other ways to make a good living, and have a quality existance. It does not look like fun to me. I cannot imagine having to air my emotional problems- actually my entire existance for that matter-in public. I hope she gets herself together before she one day comes truly unglued.

[SallyVee]

Agree! Not only does it seem like child abuse, it seems like child pornography. I spent the afternoon at the hair salon and looked through every tab and US Weekly, etc. Lindsay is omnipresent, and I don't even know who she is (except I do remember the cute movie remake Parent Trap). Anyway, one of the rags has her "dating" a 35 year old guy, and noting her recent boob job. Just disgusting, and terribly terribly sad. I also could not help connecting some dots to the girls in Natalee Holloway's age group. They are being fed a steady diet of the worst messages I can think of.

As for Judy Garland. I read a bio on her a few years back. "Get Happy" I believe was the title. Her mother hooked the poor kid on a regime of uppers and downers beginning around age 10 -- so that she could perform like a machine and keep the family bank account filled. She was used like a piece of meat her entire life, by everyone she met/loved/married/worked for. How she managed to live so long is a mystery.

[tester]

What about all those spelling and sports stars too?

Kids are programmed and used at all different levels. For every one that makes the spotlight, there are countless that never do.

Is this a result of insatiable requirement for American productivity?

or an attitude that there is only value in being the best?

[Robin Tyra Drob]

Lindsey is such an intolerable bore. Extremely unnatractive and so freckly she could pass for a leopard, she makes me nauseous.

[Not a Hand Wringer]

A thread about young female party animals

Imangine my disappointment when it turned out we were discussing the likes of Lindsay Lohan, and not the Bush twins.