Oops, We Did It Again

So after much thought and reading many different posts, I am weighing in on the Miley Cyrus pictures.  I read a great post on the topic and decided to leave a comment.  Here is what I said:

           "Great Post.  It seems that at the magic age of 15, these girls (or their people)     

               feel it's time to start stepping out of the "squeaky clean" image and into the

               more sexualized adult world of entertainment and Vanity Fair seems to have

               become some sort of rite of passage.  

               

                Miley's Idol performance had me thinking this was coming.

                Unfortunately for Miley, her image was even "squeakier" than those who 

                "posed" before her.  Let's just hope that she doesn't follow down the road

                 that has been laid ahead of her by fellow "Disneyers", littered with beer

                 cans, rehab and custody hearings."

I have to admit, I thought Miley was the real deal.  Honestly, chances are, she probably still is (underneath the makeup, hair extensions and spray tan.)  My son watches the occasional Hannah Montana episode, and after consideration, that won't change.  He is seven and has no need to know anything about the Vanity Fair issue.  It doesn't change any of the entertainment or "innocence" of the HM episodes.

What is does change is Miley in the future.  She is obviously trying to shake this "clean" image before moving into more "mainstream" entertainment.  The pressure to stay on top is even more than the pressure to get there.  I would guess they have a "handler" that strategizes her every move.  I'm sure they thought this VF issue would be the start and by having Annie Leibovitz take the photos, it's immediately considered art, no matter what the content is.  

We saw it with Brittany, Christina and Lindsay... Disney Icon one day, school girl vixen the next.   

What I can't figure out is what happens... do these teen idols get to a point of success that they feel everything they touch turns to gold and they can do no wrong?  That is the only explanation I can come up with as to why her parents agreed to the photos.  Maybe so much success on such a consistent basis leads one to believe anything they do will have the same result (ie: Oprah's Beloved).  

Don't they get that our celebrity-obsessed American culture loves to build someone up only to watch them fall from the highest peaks?  That we love to see people succeed and then are relieved when they stumble because then they are really no different than us?

The Hollywood machine is crazy.  While I am not an actress, a producer or an entertainer, I do spend my summers on Mulholland Drive.... it doesn't get too much more "LA" than that.  I can tell you, that the competition for keeping up with the "Jolie-Pitts" is insane.  In Lala Land, you can be at the top of the hill one day and down being trampled on the next.  

Money doesn't buy happiness.  And neither does Celebrity.