What kind of message do these young Hollywood stars send to young women when they get arrested for DUI and make going to rehab look like a trip to the day spa?  Kids are impressionable and they tend to impersonate their favorite stars are doing.  When they see their favorite stars are using drugs and alcohol, and making it look like fun, that's what they want to do too.  Young fans see celebrities drinking and using drugs with little or no consequences, so they believe they can do it too  Unfortunately, the reality of addiction is never as glamorous as the media leads us to believe. 

For a while, it was like nonstop celebrity mess ups, but I've noticed that lately Entertainment Tonight and such are talking about how these girls are miserable and paying the price for their addictions.  Lindsay lohan is being ridiculed for spending over $300,000 on rehab and she's still drinking/doing drugs.  I think the way they're being seen in the recent news, is not glorifying them, but exposing how stupid they are.  Hopefully girls are now seeing the right message....

GreatSuccess said:     What kind of message do these young Hollywood stars send to young women when they get arrested for DUI and make going to rehab look like a trip to the day spa?  Kids are impressionable and they tend to impersonate their favorite stars are doing.  When they see their favorite stars are using drugs and alcohol, and making it look like fun, that's what they want to do too.  Young fans see celebrities drinking and using drugs with little or no consequences, so they believe they can do it too  Unfortunately, the reality of addiction is never as glamorous as the media leads us to believe. 

As sad and tragic it may be, they are also seeing celebrities dying young from this lifestyle. I would hope that would open not only their fans eyes, but other celebrities as well.

Sadly, most young people - and I was like this myself, of course - don't think anything bad is going to happen to them, that they're too smart, too cute, too hip for disaster to strike when drugs or alcohol are in their lives.

Indeed, it's a vicious cycle...we help create the whole celebrity by anointing so-and-so as a "star," then we want to emulate that "star's" lifestyle, and then, when all is said and done, we then help tear that "star" down when he or she proves to be just a very frail and vulnerable human being surrounded by wanna bes, hangers on and enablers who want to take advantage of the now fallen idol....

leighdu said:

GreatSuccess said:     What kind of message do these young Hollywood stars send to young women when they get arrested for DUI and make going to rehab look like a trip to the day spa?  Kids are impressionable and they tend to impersonate their favorite stars are doing.  When they see their favorite stars are using drugs and alcohol, and making it look like fun, that's what they want to do too.  Young fans see celebrities drinking and using drugs with little or no consequences, so they believe they can do it too  Unfortunately, the reality of addiction is never as glamorous as the media leads us to believe. 

As sad and tragic it may be, they are also seeing celebrities dying young from this lifestyle. I would hope that would open not only their fans eyes, but other celebrities as well.

Have you noticed, though. how bizarre and contradictory the role of the media has gotten?

On the one hand, in the Op/Ed pages of even celebrity-oriented publications the pundits criticize the stars for all sorts of misbehavior, yet on the other hand the publishers pay handsomely for photos and videos of those same misbehaving stars in order to sell more copies or get more ad revenue.

Sickening.

Its sad when many impressionable adolescents look up to the Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohans and see them shown in ways that seem like partying is fun. Just about anyone here knows the ramifications of excess, and although the press may show it in a negative light, its not outright condoned. Its really a sad state of affairs.

I think it's about time the media sets some standards on what they're going to air and in which way they're going to market.  There's so many stars that are out doing good things and are positive role models, they need to weed out all the bad ones and portray them in a realistic way. 

jaslena said: I think it's about time the media sets some standards on what they're going to air and in which way they're going to market.  There's so many stars that are out doing good things and are positive role models, they need to weed out all the bad ones and portray them in a realistic way. 

They won't do it though. The media knows very well that tragedy and drama brings in more ratings as opposed to covering the good deeds that celebrities do.

I really dont think we should be blaming these stars because the media only foccuses on the few that mess up. Just like teenagers have some bad friends that mess up and get into a lot of trouble so do these stars, and its just the media the glorifies their bad traits and make them look a million times worse than they are. We dont know any of the good things these stars do and their difficulties in quitting their addiction. They dont understand addiction and they use the term so lightly as if these starts can easily just say "Im going to stop" and not go through all the difficulties of quitting. And the media just makes it a million times worse on them which makes it even harder for them to quit.

When I was a teenager, I always heard the saying, "Kids are resilient."  It's so true, although kids can be really impressionable, they are resilient.  They can go around thinking about and focused on this trend or celeb. and then they move on, they're able to adjust easily.  And in the media, celebs eventually get what's coming to them. There will always be celebs that are messed up, but they come and go.  The good celebs that stay out of trouble are long-lasting and ultimately make the best impression.