They'll like what I tell them to like

I've occasionally thought I'd like to do an entry on stupid magazine covers and headlines that I see in the grocery store checkout lane, but not only has that been covered by lots of other people, but I can never really remember them after I leave the store. And I'm not QUITE dorky enough to bring a notepad and jot down particular headlines. Still, I do want to mention that seeing Hilary Duff on a magazine brought to mind how odd the Disney child star factory is. Of course, there are a lot of manufactured celebrities, and not all of them are bad. But Disney in particular has a way of promoting the crap out of kids with no apparent talent. First they'll cast one of them in a Disney Channel original series, then a few more TV shows and movies, and eventually give them recording contracts. Hilary Duff is a case in point here. She seems to have won her initial fame by overacting on Lizzie McGuire. Of course, EVERYONE on that show overacted, probably because the writers didn't have much respect for kids and thought that's how they actually acted. Still, it's not like I've seen Ms. Duff in other things that made me think, "Hey, she's actually a good actress after all, and it was just the lousy direction that was keeping her down!" When she cut her first song (for the soundtrack of The Santa Clause 2, natch), her voice was so heavily digitized that it might as well have been credited to "ProTools, with special guest Hilary Duff." Then, when she recorded an album, people actually bought it. And now the magazines are apparently trying to sell her as a sex symbol. I saw her on the cover of Maxim a few months ago. So do people just assume that, because she's famous, she has to be good? I can't say I get it. Of course, Disney is now successfully selling Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, who has the added advantage of a dad whose hit song has been danced to by old people for the past fifteen years.

And to fill out this entry, here are some quiz results:
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