Lets start with the bad examples of last year, it’s always best to start with the bad news. LLrocks.com, Lindsay Lohan’s official site still hasn’t received a single update. A last update on the 27th February 2005 was bad enough last year now it’s even worse, I can’t even imagine how little they care about her web presence. Yes of course she has more important things to take care off, she has to try and rebuild her career but a good web presence could be a sign to people that she really is serious about it. Though the Lohan family doesn’t take the internet serious anyway, they’re trying to launch Aliana Lohan’s career but her site is probably even worse than Lindsay’s, no information there whatsoever.

Another site that hasn’t received a single update in the past year is Abigail Breslin’s site. Just like last year it still mentions that she’s nominated for an Academy Award, this time last year we already know she didn’t win it. Looking at the website of Sofia Vassilieva who’s now Abigails co-star in My Sister’s Keeper it’s even worse. Not a single update in about seven years on a website for a girl that’s just fifteen. So her site hasn’t been updated for pretty much half her life, not the mention the very old school internet background music on the site. They don’t have to be active on the internet themselves, that might cause more trouble than it’s worth. But they should remember that they have a fanbase that does go online, they care and don’t like things like this. A good web presence shows that a celebrity cares about their fans, of course it doesn’t mean that Sofa and Abigail don’t but it’s not that big an effort.

To illustrate that I can give the example of the official websites for Kay and Danielle Panabaker. Both their sites are basically the same, a very simple design, they just have different graphics. The core design is identical, they’re sisters so why not let someone design two sites in one go. The sites aren’t overflowing with information, news or pictures but they are up to date. At least it shows that they are aware of their web presence, they’re both in college and have acting careers on the side so I can understand that they don’t waste too much time on updating a website.

The Disney people like Ashley Tisdale and Miley Cyrus still have their things in order as well. Not really sites that are overflowing with things but they’re up to date. Though in Miley’s case there of course is also Mileyworld.com where you have to pay to join (I haven’t been able to see it for myself but people that have joined seem to like the regular updates in videos and pictures, just forgetting the whole concert ticket deal for now). That site receives daily updates but Mileyworld also have a staff of people taking care of that. I’m not going to discuss all other pages again though, most of them pretty much stayed the same, some received regular updates and others less regular.

But we should also come to the positive news at some point. Emma Watson finally launched an official website last year; though she might have had one before but if she did it wasn’t noticeable. Her new site is a sleek flash design but unlike a lot of flash sites it also contains a lot of information. There is a sort of diary on there but it really doesn’t add a lot, Emma doesn’t really posts that often and if she does the messages are quite short. But the news section on the site is more up to date than any other official website linked on starletlinks.com.

Sadly Emma’s website is the only real positive change that is to be found, for the rest the sites either didn’t really change that much and just received some updates. That besides the large number of sites that didn’t receive any updates at all. Especially the lack of updates on diaries is annoying, having a diary section suggests that at some point that celebrity was planning on keeping the site up to date but at some point just lost interest or got too busy. In that case they should just shut down that section of the website, just leave static content. It’s better to give the impression of an up to date website than a website that looks like it has been left all alone on the internet and no one is taking care of it. I’m not a master web designer but I could do a better job than what has been done on some of those sites. Lets hope that there will be an improvement one year from now. I also hope that more of them will make official websites, most of them still don’t.

I’ll only be addressing the top ten this week, next week I’ll address the bottom ten; I won’t bother discussing everyone in between.

10. Megan Fox
Her performance in Transformers might not have been an acting challenge she still made a name for herself doing it. She already has the sequel to Transformers lined up for 2009 and she doesn’t seem to be out of work for 2008 so she’s pretty much working her way up in Hollywood. Of course this isn’t a guarantee for long term success, she hasn’t really proven herself in roles that are more challenging acting wise.

9. Sophia Bush
Best known for her role in the struggling the CW drama One Tree Hill but besides that she also has a steady stream of movies coming out. Though none of these movies might be gems of cinematography she still seems to be getting quite popular with the younger scene. This isn’t a guarantee for a very long career but she won’t be out of work for a while.

8. Emma Watson
Or should we call her Hermione Granger? Not anymore, she started doing other roles outside of the Harry Potter universe. She’s starting small which is a wise choice.

7. Natalie Portman
She’s getting out of the starlet age though I’m still mentioning her here. 2007 might not have been her most successful year to date but she’s still moving along. She does the roles she wants and doesn’t just go for the big paycheck. She’s slowly building towards the point where she’ll always be assured of work in Hollywood. For 2008 we of course have The Other Boleyn Girl to look forward to where she’s co-starring with Scarlett Johansson.

6. Abigail Breslin
After her success year of 2006 she only had one movie coming out this year. Because of her work in 2006 she managed to get Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations in 2007. I personally don’t look at awards that much but big movie studios do so it sure is good for a career. 2008 might very well become Abigail’s year with four movies lined up with some impressive casts.

5. Keira Knightley
Pirates of the Caribbean is her obvious success of 2007, her main failure is the movie Silk which simply flopped. However she has announced that she wouldn’t do blockbusters anymore; because of that she ranks high with me. She does she wants and puts her art before money.

4. AnnaSophia Robb
This seeding might seem strange to some people looking at some the people that are ranked lower. Her main success Bridge of Terabithia pissed off a lot of fantasy fans because it pretended to be something it isn’t it still showed that the girl can act. The Reaping is pretty similar in that regard though it wasn’t as successful; she did keep up with Oscar winner Hilary Swank. She also has a decent line-up for 2008 so I see a bright future for her.

3. America Ferrera
To be completely honest I’ve only seen her in one movie and I’ve never seen a single episode of Ugly Betty. Still 2007 is her year with the massive success of Ugly Betty in the USA and abroad, it has made her name in Hollywood. Not the mention the numerous awards she received for that role. In 2008 she will continue with Ugly Betty of course and she’ll also star in The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2; the last thing is the main reason why she only ranks number three. I can’t see that movie having major success.

2. Ellen Page
Pretty much a blank page (no pun intended) to the big audience; if people would know her it’s mainly for her roles in X-Men: The Last Stand and in Hard Candy though I doubt a lot of people could name her in that case. 2007 however brought her Juno a movie that’s loved by critics all around and is certain to win awards (it already won a couple actually). So in that regard 2007 has been her real breakthrough; 2008 will bring her a mix of smaller and bigger budget movies so her name will probably be spread even more.

1. Miley Cyrus
No shocker here; you couldn’t ignore Miley in 2007 it’s simply impossible. Even though her acting abilities are questionable at times (she’s young, she still has a lot to learn) she still manages to have the most successful show in Disney Channel history. Just a TV show doesn’t make her number one of course, the fact that she had another number one album in 2007 and the most successful concert tour of the year besides that makes her number one. She also became the youngest artist ever to have two number one albums withing one year; both of her albums are still moving strong in the Billboard charts. In 2008 we’ll see more Hannah Montana, the Hannah Montana Movie and probably one or two more albums. She still has to venture outside of the Disney family but it’s probably just a matter of time before we see her in more grown up movie productions. She has to venture into other movie productions actually, otherwise she’ll be Hannah Montana forever.

This doesn’t just happen to people on Star Trek; usually actors are used that aren’t too well known up to that point. Once they got on the Star Trek shows and the shows became popular (though in the case of the original Star Trek it was after the show ended, but the same is true for the newer shows) they weren’t known as themselves but as their characters.

There are plenty of teen actresses that have to deal with the same problem; they never get rid of a certain role in a way. People will always see them for their breakout part and not for the rest of their career and sometimes this really hurts their careers. The best example from the past in my mind doesn’t actually come from Hollywood but from Austria. Maybe not everyone is familiar with the Sissi movies but they’re about a Bavarian princess that marries her cousin to become empress of Austria, the story is based on historical figures.

The lead actress Romy Schneider played in the first Sissi movie when she was sixteen, two sequels followed and even though a lot of money was offered to her to do it again she didn’t. She felt that Sissi was hurting the rest of her career; in the end she was right. She never got rid of the part, she was always seen as Sissi up to the point she committed suicide through a combination of alcohol and pills (she was an alcoholic) when she was 43. Of course the accidental death of her son was also a major part in this but to this day more people see her as Sissi than as Romy Schneider.

These days in Hollywood there are actresses that are facing the same problem or will be facing the problem in the future. Take Hilary Duff, every second article you read about her she’s still mentioned as “the Lizzie McGuire star”. She might be young but she ended being Lizzie McGuire four years ago now, though in her case it’s also because of a lack of other successes. She’s trying to get rid of that good girl image but in all honesty I think she’s trying to overdo the whole I’m a sexy girl thing now. Overcompensating also isn’t the right way to go, it would have been better to just gradually go into that direction. She’ll probably always be known for her start on Lizzie McGuire, but I doubt it will hurt her career forever.

Someone who might have to deal with this for years to come is Emma Watson. Just now she’s only doing her first part that’s not Harry Potter and it’s for a BBC TV movie. So the big audience will still only have seen her in the five Harry Potter movies that have been released so far and the ones that are to be released in the next couple of years. Just like Daniel Radcliffe will be Harry Potter forever Emma Watson will be Hermione Granger forever. That’s something they’re already dealing with now actually, there probably are more people that recognise them as their characters than as a person. Show their pictures to ten people and ask who they are, I’m quite certain most people name their characters and not their own names.

That’s just the case if you break out with one role and never really did anything else before; Hermione Granger was Emma Watson’s first role. Someone else who will have to deal with that is Miley Cyrus; she did a couple of guest spots on TV shows and a very minor role in a movie. Then all of a sudden she went to stardom as Hannah Montana, she is Hannah Montana to a lot of kids now. When she shows up for an autograph signing half the audience yells for Hannah, not for Miley. Her coming concert tour will probably confuse people even more when she performs as both Hannah and Miley.

As an actress it’s just best if you manage to do a wide array of roles early on. The problem just is that if they get their big break on a TV show or in a series of movies they’re seen as the same character a lot. So people identify them with that character and this can haunt them for the rest of their careers.