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Looking back at your childhood usually means thinking about the things that made it amazing. Maybe it was going to Disney World every year until you were 12 or something simple like getting off the bus every Friday and just knowing that you wouldn’t have to go back to school for two whole days. For a lot of kids, it was catching the next episode of a favorite show on Saturday morning or listening to a favorite artist’s new album. That is why growing up watching shows like “Lizzie McGuire” and movies like “The Parent Trap,” kids tend to idolize certain celebrities. Some of them remain golden while others tend to veer off the beaten path. It’s always hard when a person’s idol is the one to go a little overboard but that’s why when they do get their act back together, it is so much better. But some celebs never seem to be able to get back on track.
Lindsay
Lindsay Lohan used to be one of America’s sweethearts. She played a fearsome double role as twins Hallie and Annie in the movie “The Parent Trap” in 1998; in 2003, she played Anna Coleman in the movie “Freaky Friday.”
The year after that, she starred as Cady Heron in the movie “Mean Girls.” Lohan had originally auditioned for the role as Regina, the Queen Bee of the high school. According to Complex.com, a pop culture information website, when she learned she got the role, she dropped out and re-auditioned for Cady because she didn’t want the role of Regina to make her fans think that she was stuck up and vain.
Recently, Lohan seems to have her good days and her bad months. Every time a person opens a tabloid it seems her face is front and center with a headline reading something like “LOHAN BACK IN JAIL” or “LINDSAY CRASHED ANOTHER CAR.”
According to the popular celebrity news website E!online, Lohan’s behavior started becoming a problem in late 2006 when she began dating popular nightclub DJ Samantha Ronson. Lohan stopped focusing on her acting career and started focusing on her partying. In 2006-2007, Lohan started getting into trouble for drug use and drinking while driving.
In 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lohan stole a $2,500 necklace from a jewelry store after being turned down a $3,600 ring that she offered to pay only $3,000 for. She was eventually jailed for the crime but was released on a $40,000 bail.
“Lindsay is crazy and should really try harder to get her life back together. This amount of years is too long to do nothing about drug problems. She needs to turn her life around,” said senior Krista Erlandson, who grew up watching Lohan on the big screen.
Once stars get a taste of roaring fans, movie premieres, and award shows, it’s hard to suddenly have a withdrawal from that. With the “no publicity is bad publicity” attitude, a lot of celebs purposely break the law and get into trouble just so the common man doesn’t forget about them. That being said, sometimes they take their publicity stunts a little too far.
“I think that one thing that is challenging when celebrities are in the spotlight is that they have a whole set of pressures that probably the average Joe and Jane don’t, which probably brings a lot of good things and probably a lot of negative things as well. Specifically in the cases of actors and actresses getting involved in substances which start to play a negative role in their life and in their life as a celebrity, it becomes evident in cases like Lindsay Lohan and other celebrities that have addiction problems which cause them not only a lot of headlines, which I guess could be positive or negative, but also things like jail time and a lot of publicity that maybe wasn’t their intention in the beginning,” said A-F LST social worker Mr. Greg Loika when asked why he thinks some celebrities tend to fall out of sync.
Lohan refuses to give up her acting career but can’t seem to land on her feet again. She has been losing her tenacity in Hollywood because of her negative reputation.
In 2008, Yahoo! Movies reported that she was considered for the role in “The Hangover” as Jade (Stu’s impromptu wife and mother of Carlos the baby) but was eventually turned down because the director, Todd Phillips, thought that she was too young for the part. Lohan also reportedly had a last-minute audition as Lois Lane from “Superman” according to E!online. But, she was eventually beaten out by Amy Adams.
But recently Lohan has been appearing as a guest star in sitcoms such as Charlie Sheen’s “Anger Management” and starring in a few TV movies such as “Liz and Dick,” which is a TV documentary about Elizabeth Taylor’s life.
Lohan still has a long way to go before she is truly back on track. But there’s still time.
Britney
Another celeb that people grew up looking up to would be the famous pop singer Britney Spears.
Spears got her start as a Mouseketeer in the TV show “The All-New Mickey Mouse Club” back in 1989 alongside stars like Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake. Her big break, however, came when she was signed as a Jive Recording Artist in the late 1990s. With the release of her debut album, “Baby One More Time” in early 1999, Britney became an international success, selling 13 million copies of “Baby” and 9 million copies of her second album, “Oops!…I Did It Again,” released in May of 2000. In November of the following year, she hit the top 10 with “I’m a Slave 4 U,” which took a completely different turn in musical direction from her previous singles.
In the same month, her performance of “Slave” at the 2001 MTV VMA’s caused animal rights activists to be outraged because of Spears’s performance with a live giant snake, named Banana, while also wearing so little clothing herself. She had changed a lot in the three years since she first started and many would say this is when she started to go downhill.
Sales of her third album, while still impressive, were not nearly as high as her two previous albums, perhaps due to the increase of new pop female singers like Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Beyonce flooding the market, but Spears, still popular, kept on. Eventually, it seemed it was all getting too much for her.
Spears’s four-year relationship with Mouseketeer co-star and NSYNC singer Justin Timberlake ended suddenly and very publicly, and she then stated she was going to take six months off of her career.
Very soon after that, she was named “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrity of 2002” by Forbes magazine.
Although she was never truly out of the public eye, Spears stopped focusing her attention on her career and started focusing on her partying. A big episode that occurred in February 2007 was Spears shaving all of her hair off. According to IMDb.com, a media information site, she was rumored to do this to avoid a drug test that her ex-husband Kevin Federline tried to force upon her.
After that escapade, Spears’s family became very concerned for her mental health and as a result, she spent the next month in a rehabilitation center where Spears finally got the help she needed.
“Well some people have to first go to dark places to find themselves,” said senior and actor Christian Klepac who is an avid follower of Britney Spears.
Although her time as an “X-Factor” judge has come to an end, the 31-year-old superstar still has a few more tricks up her sleeve. As announced on “Good Morning America,” Spears recently took a gig working at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. She has a two-year and 50-show contract within the famous Sin City and is planning on releasing an album in December 2013.
“I think she has done really well and I think she has done great, better then ever really. I think now that she has cleaned up her life, she is going to continue to be really successful,” exclaimed senior Tori Salzwedel, who is a longtime fan of Britney Spears.
Spears has come a long way with her career. She has been in the public eye her entire life and won’t be out of the limelight any time soon.
Hilary
Most people remember Hilary Duff as that awkward middle school girl trying to find her way in life on the popular Disney Channel show, “Lizzie McGuire.” Or maybe they remember her as their favorite singer. Either way, people seem to give their props to Duff for not becoming a troubled child star.
At a young age Duff got a small taste of the spotlight. Her sister Haylie Duff had been touring with The Cecchetti Ballet and the girls’ parents, Bob and Susan Duff, dragged Hilary along to every show. Seeing her sister up on the stage dazzling the crowd made Hilary want to try out for a few roles. So, her mother started signing her up for auditions. Duff got her big break in acting when she became Wendy in the real-life version of “Casper meets Wendy.”
Not long after that, Duff got the part as Elizabeth “Lizzie” Brooke McGuire. She played the beloved Disney character from 2001-2004. During that time, she dated the “I Want Candy” pop singer Aaron Carter and “Malcolm in the Middle” star Frankie Muniz.
But that wasn’t all she did in those three years. During that time, she also released her debut album “Metamorphosis” in late 2003.
Duff starred as Kelly in the 2002 Disney Channel original movie “Cadet Kelly;” she also played Natalie Connors in the popular 2003 movie “Agent Cody Banks” alongside her then-boyfriend Muniz. She played Lorraine Baker, who was one of a dozen children in the movie “Cheaper by a Dozen.” She once again picked up her role as Lizzie McGuire in the the popular “Lizzie McGuire Movie” in theaters 2003. She was also named “Teenager of the Year 2003” by Rolling Stone magazine.
When Lizzie McGuire ended in early 2004, Duff did not quit her career. She very soon after starred as Sam alongside Chad Michael Murphy in the movie “A Cinderella Story.”
Duff did a number of other movies after that and released three more albums including “Hilary Duff,” “Most Wanted,” and “Dignity.” She starred as a guest star in a number of shows including “Gossip Girl” and “Two and a Half Men.”
In 2010, the 26-year-old star said “I do” to the former NHL star Mike Comrie after being engaged for about half a year. On March 20, 2012, Duff gave birth to her first child, a boy named Luca Cruz Comrie.
Although she has been off the public radar for the most part, Hilary Duff is not done with her career. Duff is said to be working on a new album, according to perezhilton.com, a celebrity news website. There is no news yet on what it will be called but there have been a few photos of her recording in the studio.
The album probably won’t be released until next year but that gives everyone some time to read her young adult books. Her first novel Elixir was released on October 12, 2010, and is co-written by author Elise Allen. It is the first in a series of books that Duff has committed to. When is was published, it ranked No. 10 on The New York Times bestseller list for one week.
