Daddy's Little Girls

It is a truth universally acknowledged that children in want of embarrassment need only turn to their parents. We've all been there, we all have horror stories from our childhoods, and one day we will all undoubtedly embarrass the living daylights out of our own progeny. It's an endless cycle.

Like with everything else, celebs take parental humiliation to the next level. Parents of celebrities, particularly young stars that have grown up in the spotlight, tend to make our own embarrassing parental incidents pale in comparison.

Take Hayden Panettiere's parents for example. The young Heroes star's father, Alan, was accused of hitting her mother last night. Both were apparently drunk at the time of the dispute, which arose because Alan felt his wife was 'disrespecting' him by flirting with another guy. Alan has been arrested and is currently in jail. We feel so bad for Hayden. She's used her fame to promote good causes, such as saving dolphins in Japan, and then this happens. Now the poor whales and other creatures of the sea are overshadowed by spousal abuse.

Hayden's pops isn't the only one throwing punches these days. Let's not forget Nikki Blonksy's dad and the incident at the airport. While Nikki was also involved in this brawl, it was her father who put the beat down on a woman's skull, sent her to the hospital, and is stuck in jail for the foreseeable future. How embarrassing is that? Your father beat up a woman. He shouldn't be getting in fights at all, and ESPECIALLY not with girls. What happened to parents being role models for their kids?

Many people blast Lindsay Lohan for her drinking, DUIs and incessant clubbing; and yes, she is guilty of all those things. But we shouldn't forget that Lindsay's dad spent a couple of years in jail for his own DUI and has repeatedly been to court with his ex-wife Dina because of his failure to pay child support. Aren't little girls supposed to look up to their fathers? It looks like Lindsay is doing just that.

Drinking and fights are bad enough, but sadly, there have been several parents who've taken disfunction to the next level and have actually STOLEN MONEY from their own children.

Take country superstar LeAnn Rimes for example. At age 13, she burst onto the music scene with her first single "Blue," and only three years later, at the age of 16, she took her father to court. She accused him of stealing upwards of $7 million dollars from her, and she asked the court to legally emancipate her from her parents and declare her an adult. What must this do to your psyche?

Even when parents might be trying to "help," it can totally backfire. The most notorious of all those cases would definitely be that of Joe Simpson, father to Jessica and Ashlee. While some might interpret his actions as "involved" and "caring," most people categorize him as pushy, overinvolved and creepy. It's the truth... he always seems to be around Jessica hardly giving her space. Joe is also reportedly the underlying cause of Jessica's divorce from Nick Lachey and her subsequent problems with new boyfriend Tony Romo.

From time to time we might think our parents can get annoying, naggy and intrusive, but they are nothing compared to some of these celebrity parents. Sure our moms might have yelled at us for not cleaning our rooms from time to time, but we can honestly say our mothers never stole money from us and our dads never hit women. Sometimes you can't blame celebrities for acting a little crazy (*cough*Lindsay Lohan*) when it's almost genetically undeniable they have to be!