The Infestation and Plight of Young Hollywood

A recent CollegeCandy Poll showed that a lot of you are pretty disgusted with young Hollywood.

By CC Staff

Understandably so. It’s easy to hate them. In some cases, it is envy that fuels my hatred. In others, well…

I won’t even go there with no-talent Paris Hilton. But what is Brody Jenner famous for – being Brody Jenner? And Lauren Conrad has a clothing line because – why? Not because she’s that great of a designer, that’s for sure.

A lot of them don’t seem to work and have all of this money to go on fabulous vacations; they ‘produce’ reality shows on which they basically get followed around as they are famous and still do nothing; they go out to cool clubs while getting photographed by the paparazzi – and really, what are some of them famous for again?

So I asked myself why I hated them. Not the famous-for-nothing-people. But the Lindsey Lohan’s, the Kirsten Dunst’s and any others who have real careers but seem to be personally losing control.

Because on the surface, hating Young Hollywood in general is obvious – they are squandering their money, their fame, their careers, and their youth.

Taking away the famous-for-nothing and looking at the ones with real careers and talent, I wondered if I could say that still hated the real Young Hollwood.

Before the onslaught of the celebrity blogs, every peril in Hollywood that a young actor could face was experienced by Drew Barrymore – she went to rehab twice by the time that she had turned 14. And while her partying was well documented, I think she wouldn’t have been able to have turn her life into what it is today had she’d lived through the media scrutiny that she would have endured had she’d been born in 1993 as opposed to 1975.

In the March issue of Vogue, Drew’s advice to the seemingly endless string of young actresses entering rehab was, “If you don’t pull it together for yourself, no one else will.”

But is that something that you can do on your own? And at such a young age?

More and more young celebrities have careers that span multiple industries. The Olsen twins aren’t the norm, but between their production company, Dualstar, their clothing line and their acting careers, there are quite a few people whose livelihood is dependant on those girls. And this was before they were even 18.

That responsibility coupled with the lack of privacy – yeah, I can almost see why they’d turn to partying or whatever else in order to blow off steam. And they have the money and connections to get whatever they want. Before they have had the opportunity to discover who they are, young celebs have to fit a mold that is created by their careers and by the media.

Actress Amanda Bynes, who is 20, has a different perspective: “You have to have strong people around you.”

Between the family that depends on your career in order to support them (like Britney Spears), the LA scene (where Lindsey Lohan was often seen before she was 21), and the scores of people that these young stars employ, how can they pull themselves together when there is so much trying to pull them apart?

It seems that Hollywood has accepted the party-to-rehab cycle; but what about the more serious issues that may be lurking underneath? They almost don’t seem human to us – but their fame is so isolating and potentially dangerous.

“When someone has accelerated development, there are usually emotional and psychological deficits that become apparent later. If they grew up around adults who never recognized that they were dealing with a developing person, the result can be a sense of self that is based on what others think of them.”

And then I thought about it more…can you imagine your teens and early 20s documented? All of it? You hook up with someone and it’s splashed across the internet the next day on numerous blogs where faceless strangers comment relentlessly?

Or someone that you love dies and not only is every minute of their death reported on (inaccurately or not), but your grief is documented?

Your drunkest of antics caught by rabid photographers and fans to be streamed on TMZ within hours. A guy that you hook up with reports every detail of your body and your sex to the tabloids.

I wonder if we’ll be the first generation that is rendered incapable of turning out an actress with the chance to become the equivalent of Meryl Streep. Young actresses know that their time is so very limited. They don’t cultivate what little talent they have – they turn everything outward.

We have collective ADD when it comes to our celeb gossip – do they do what they do so that even if their body of work is lacking and forgettable that at least their actions will always keep them fresh in our minds? Or do I make it out to be more of a game than it really is?

After all of that, I can say that I think that some of these young famous people deserve whatever happens to them and the some really ought be given a second or third chance at success, but it’s entirely based on their level of talent as to whether they get my sympathy or not. If Scarlett Johanssen fell apart, then I’d silently cheer on her recovery. Tara Reid – yeah, I’m not on her team.

So I’ve posed a lot of questions because I can’t quite answer all of them myself, but after really breaking it down, I don’t know if I hate those kids as much as I initially thought.