Re: Mr. Hannah Montana's Achy Broken Heart

No, I don't think of Shirley Temple as a troubled child star.  Coogan I 
would tend to think of troubled - the getting ripped off by parents is 
somewhat of a theme for child stars.  Gary Coleman comes to mind as a more 
recent example.

But I guess I was thinking more of tv child stars, which admittedly would be 
of more recent history.   The common perception is that more child actors 
are troubled than not.

FWIW, I don't think of Miley Cyrus as that troubled, there are plenty of us 
who are just lucky we weren't photographed with a bong to our mouths.  I 
took from the article that Billy Ray is worried she may get into deeper 
trouble because she had no family with her now, and isn't accountable to 
anyone, except the the vultures who make a buck off her.  That "friend" who 
took the picture of her with the bong is a serious ratf*ck.  It is a 
different surreal life where all the people around you stand to gain from 
you being in embarrassing, inappropriate situations.

There is a difference between excusing Billy Ray, which I don't think anyone 
is doing, and being sympathetic towards him, especially in light of the 
things he expressed in the article.  I'm guessing that none of us will do a 
better job of beating him up over it than he will himself.

Mike F.



-----Original Message----- 
From: Peter T. Chattaway
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 5:26 PM
To: DADL (off topic)
Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] Mr. Hannah Montana's Achy Broken Heart

On Tue, 15 Feb 2011, Mike Findlay wrote:
> That's pretty much the long history of child stars in general isn't it?
> The term "child star" itself has a connotation of trouble.

Possibly.  Though I don't know how many there were before Driscoll.  There
was Shirley Temple, obviously, but she didn't turn out too bad; yes, she
filed for divorce from her first husband when she was only 21, but she met
and married another man a year later and they stayed together until his
death nearly 55 years later.  And that was about it, no?

Oh, and Jackie Coogan (born 1914) became a big star after co-starring with
Charlie Chaplin in The Kid (1921), but the biggest scandal around *him*, I
believe, was the way his parents exploited his earnings -- which led to
the California Child Actor's Bill or "Coogan Bill" which specified that at
least part of a child's earnings be put in a trust, etc., etc.  And his
bio at Wikipedia indicates that he became known for his humanitarian work,
for enlisting during World War II, and then returning to acting, where he
found fame again as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family (1964-1966).

So, I suspect Driscoll might have been the first true "cautionary tale"
among child stars, but I could be wrong about that.





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