The Collegian

Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Opinion

Articles about pop stars are like a game of mad libs.

It starts off with the latest trouble they're in, then a background on albums and movies they've made, then talks about how said pop star is ruining her image and is a poor example for our children, and inserts some conclusion. Here we go.

On September 6 nude photos of pop artist and High School Musical starlet Vanessa Hudgens surfaced on the Internet. The photos were posted on Internet forums, message boards, and were reported on within mere hours of their discovery.

As we know, once anything is on the Internet it will spread like wildfire, and billions of people have access to it, though as Hudgens is 18, all the people who snatched up copies of said photos aren't doing anything illegal.

Of course, as people get older, they try outlandish things that their parents would never have expected from them when they were 10 years old. Once in college, those labels acquired from high school can be dropped so you can be "yourself," and if you don't drop those labels, you probably are in denial. Hudgens clearly doesn't have that problem.

Hudgens isn't the first of her kind, allowing for some Disney mad libbing. What Hudgens did was inappropriate, especially since the demographic of High School Musical fans consists mostly of preteens and teenagers, in other words, minors.

She's in good company though, as a few ex-Disney stars have also run into trouble. Just check out the exploits of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears: a drug addiction here, an arrest for drunk driving there, and even irresponsible parenting on Spears' part. Surely they were taught values and proper conduct while working with a family-friendly corporation such as Disney? Obviously not.

Since the photo controversy, Hudgens has apologized to Disney and her fans, showing remorse for her actions, setting her apart from Lohan and Spears who continue to struggle with their personal demons.

Lohan is still in legal limbo as of press time and plays not one, but two strippers in the thriller I Know Who Killed Me, and Spears, who was to make a "comeback" performance at the Video Music Awards, came back for mere voyeuristic attention, which prompted ridicule from the general public and even a sob-fest on YouTube by an emo Britney Spears fan.

While this is another article on messed up pop-stars, Disney's stars never fail to dish it up. Until next time.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools