Celebrities Gone Wild: the Fame and Shame of Young Hollywood Starlets

It seems like just yesterday when little Lindsay Lohan was charming the world with her performance on The Parent Trap. Fresh-faced and freckled, the twelve-year-old Lindsay is a reminder of what Hollywood can do to young talent. Fast forward a few years, and the same Lindsay is all grown up, stick thin, and spinning on the rehab merry-go-round. Bayou beauty, Britney Spears, was the Mickey Mouse Girl once. These days, the former teen idol is touring rehabilitation spas, after a year of indecent exposures, Child Protection Services reports, and "the head shaving incident."

There was an innocent time, not so long ago, when Paris was just the name of a city in France, and the Hilton was just a hotel chain. These days, the name Paris brings to mind an heiress with a sex tape and the "Simple Life." Lionel Richie was the only famous Richie in Hollywood a few years back. Today, his daughter, Nicole is the paparazzi favorite.

The Revolving Door of Rehab

Young Hollywood celebrities have glamorized the prospect of entering a rehabilitation center for thirty days. Entering rehab can actually give a celebrity a new career boost, in some cases. Just look at how the media cheered when Britney finally stayed at rehab for more than three hours. Typical rehabilitation treatment for addiction is far from glamourous. Most addictions are life-long struggles, and though the newly sobered celebrity may give good press after surviving a rehab stint, addiction just doesn't "go away."

Most of the celebrities who enter and exit rehab for an addiction will re-enter at some point in their lives. Hollywood isn't the best environment for celebrities who want to stay sober. Drew Barrymore entered before she could drive a car legally, and seems to have overcome early Hollywood pressures and addictions, but she is in the minority. The problem with publicizing celebrity rehabbing is that there are everyday people out there who come to believe that addictions might be solved with a trip to a luxury rehab spa. One that most people will never afford, leaving the general public disenchanted with the reality of AA meetings three times a week in their hometown.

The Camera Adds Five Pounds

There are an estimated 10 million women in the United States with an eating disorder, and at least another 1 million men. In Hollywood, the skinny celebrity is applauded. Eating disorders are shared between friends, with the best tips and tricks to staying super thin shared only with best celebrity friends. The first season of The Simple Life, shows a naturally lean Paris Hilton and a much fuller, Nicole Richie. It's unlikely that the paparazzi takes the time to airbrush protruding ribs on bikini-clad celebrities, and more likely that the new skinny in Hollywood is being defined by the number of ribs that can be counted while sunbathing. Thankfully, model Tyra Banks is putting on a few pounds and backhanding the media for pointing out her recent weight gain to a normal weight range. Unfortunately, the aspiring models on America's Next Top Model are still counting carrot sticks at dinner.

For the average adolescent girl, celebrity standards of the ideal weight, will take an eating disorder to achieve. Startling statistics that show how many girls are dieting before they hit middle school, are just warning of what will become a life long pattern of "perfect weight" struggles.

Stars Gone Wild

Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson have sex tapes, Britney has panty-less photos of her on the internet, and the late Anna Nicole Smith has the "sad clown face video." Today's stars aren't considered worthy of the "gone wild" title until they cross the fine line between good publicity and outrageously insane. Anyone who watched the "Tara Reid Show" should go to confession. The public seems to ask young Hollywood for more though, and today's young starlets keep delivering the $50,000 paparazzi shots.

The Future of Young Hollywood

It's easy to imagine where today's young Hollywood celebrities might be in twenty years. There are still people who remember a time when Michael Jackson was invincible, the innocent time before "Jesus Juice" and sleepovers with children. Anna Nicole Smith was once an aspiring Guess model. You have to wonder what happened to the years in between Guess and methadone.

Young Hollywood starlets have tremendous pressure, and a burnout rate to match. From catty celebrity feuds, to A Night in Paris sex tapes, the paparazzi has plenty to publicize. Behind all the glamour, however, there are just young women with addictions, eating disorders, and the spectrum of mental health issues to contend with. That doesn't sound so glamourous after all.