I’m fully aware of the fact that sites like this one contribute to the lack of privacy, I won’t suggarcoat it, though I don’t see the point in reporting on their daily activities like some other sites do. The internet is what changed the privacy of celebrities considerably though, things are reported the very same day while in the past it went through the slower media outlets TV or even slower the tabloids. In the case of those media selections were made, things not deemed important enough were simply ignored. These days it doesn’t matter, even the small things are reported. I also think that the many websites on the internet have also caused a growth in the number of paparazzi looking for the next prize shot.

People will mainly think about people like Britney Spears and to a lesser extent Lindsay Lohan who are being followed around by an entire armada of paparazzi. I always thought it was a matter of supply and demand, the supply of Britney and Lindsay pictures must be enormous but still paparazzi get paid a lot for them. The pressure on them from the media is enormous, but you also shouldn’t forget that they didn’t have that much media pressure on them when they were younger.

Perez Hilton didn’t start his activities until 2005, X17online didn’t go online until 2006 and TMZ.com isn’t that old either. If you visited that site a couple of years ago you would get a site about a Battlebot named Frenzy. So when the likes of Lindsay and Britney were in their growing stages there was far less media coverage. When Lindsay turned 18 youtube.com didn’t even exist yet, things move quickly on the internet.

The generation of celebrities that’s in their teens now have far more media pressure on them than the “older” generation. Jamie-Lynn Spears is lucky that her sister is Britney takes a lot of pressure away from her, despite being pregnant. That and the fact that she’s in Louisiana right now, not too many (though there are a few) paparazzi out there.

Someone who probably has more to deal with the media at a young age than anyone else before is probably Miley Cyrus (yes I’m using her as an example again, I could use someone else but why if she serves as the best example). It’s quite a statement to make but unless Aliana Lohan manages to get her career of the ground (just being the sister of isn’t enough) within the year I’ll stick by that statement until the next big teen star comes along and actually becomes more popular than Miley, which seems to be close to impossible right now.

Now that Miley is back from her record breaking tour she can be spotted around Hollywood more than before (which will probably become an even more frequent thing once she gets her permit in two months), so she also gets spotted more by the paparazzi. Which is fine with me as long as they don’t get too pushy or as I mentioned before go seeking her out too much.

Last week however there was something which made me wonder, how far can you go with breaking into someones privacy and how many secrets can a celebrity like Miley actually keep? Earlier this year there was some commotion because Miley used a body double in her concert tour, the official statement was that she needed more time for a costume change. I didn’t quite understand it either because it seemed simple enough to let the Johans Brothers play an extra song (though I think that argument still stands but I’m not discussing that right now).

It was never mentioned that there’s a second reason for the body double; Miley had to go off stage to eat. Nobody outside her inner circle knew back then that Miley is hypoglycaemic. For people that don’t know it’s a medical disorder which causes low blood sugar at times. It’s very manageable and it’s treated easily enough by eating in time. Miley mentioned this in a recent radio interview, she never mentioned it before as far as I know. No idea how serious her form of hypoglycaemia is but that doesn’t matter anyway. She has been seen wearing a medical alert tag recently, people don’t wear a medical alert tag without reason. Even though we don’t actually know that’s what she’s wearing it for, I don’t even have to know to be honest. Though there’s also the rumour that it’s to support Nick Jonas who has diabetis, but a hypoglycaemic wearing a diabetes alert tag would pretty much be the dumbest thing you can do. Seeing it’s almost the exact opposite.

What worries me is that she felt the need to mention it, if she had mentioned it right way people of course might have been more understanding and they wouldn’t have made that big a fuss about the body double. I can understand why she never mentioned it before, medical conditions (doesn’t matter how serious they are) are something very private. It shouldn’t be something that has to be revealed to excuse something that doesn’t even matter. Using a body double for two minutes out of a ninety minute concert (where she actually sings live, something that can’t be said for a lot of singers) shouldn’t create such a commotion. I’m quite sure it wouldn’t have been such a big deal ten years ago.

Though Miley is a very open person as it is, she shares a lot of her personal life through her fansite (with almost daily diary and video updates as far as I know) and through her new youtube she started a couple of weeks ago (about just being a silly teen really). Seems like there isn’t really a need to go digging for more. I have no doubt that she’ll become one of the most popular paparzzi targets in the future just because she’s so popular. They all want to be there when (though I would say it’s if) she falls.

Though Miley will hardly be their only target, there are plenty of other people out in Hollywood and it’s a bit risky to put everything on one person. Looking at the development of the media over the past ten years I just wonder what will happen to the new generation of celebrities ten years from now.

So what’s the point of this editorial? None really, just an observation. There’s nothing I can change about the attention celebrities are getting.

Best known example of the year probably are the naked pictures of Vanessa Hudgens; to a lot of people it seemed to be a big deal. A lot of people seemed to think that she would get fired by Disney for no longer reflecting the Disney image. This of course didn’t happen because Disney is a business and in the long run a business won’t care about something that will only be a vague memory a year from now.

Of course the images were never supposed to see the light of day; they’re personal. So why does it make a scandal if they’re leaked? Just because she works for Disney? There probably are naked pictures of hundreds of celebrities out there we just don’t see them. It’s not like no one has never seen a naked person before.

All of a sudden two weeks ago there were pictures of Miley Cyrus pretty much just fooling around with a friend. She’s a fifteen year old teenager, goofing around with friends is what they do. These pics were leaked to the internet but didn’t really get much notice until a certain celebrity blogger named Perez Hilton saw them (just to clarify, I had seen those pics several days before he posted them I just didn’t see anything worthwhile in them).

He dubbed the photographs as a faux lesbian photo shoot. What on earth is lesbian about two girls fully clothed on the floor of a hallway? I’ve seen girls do far weirder things without them being lesbians. If they were up to anything lesbian they would make sure not to do it in a public place. Even if they were Lesbian I don’t see how that matters. After Perez posted them other media outlets seem to take it more seriously. I’m now exactly doing what Perez Hilton wants though, I’m reacting to it, that’s all he wants he wants to get a reaction out of people. That and he seems to hate Miley for a non-existing reason, though my guess is that it’s because most people do like her.

Miley has stated that she would quit her career as soon as she didn’t have fun any more, stories like this don’t help with that. Though she has stated that she’s more upset about her friend having to deal with the fall-out seeing she’s not famous and has to deal with all of this in school. She’s not quitting the business because she loves doing what she does too much. Everyone has their limits and if things like this happen too often she might actually do it, which would be a shame. All of this upset just over some pictures of two girls goofing off, it sure is a weird world we live in.

Certain media outlets just want to turn things into a scandal for publicity; they just don’t seem to care that they’re hurting the people involved. In some cases a certain amount probably is justified but not with these kind of stories. It’s just the eternal quest of people looking for bad things in celebrity lives. Yes they’re human we already know, doesn’t mean everything they do has to be dragged out and analysed to the extreme.

I even dare to say that Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy is being blown out of proportion; of course she’s only sixteen and she’s pregnant but it’s not like it never happened before. Just let her be, she doesn’t need bullshit stories about some old guy being the father. She already has enough to deal with, that’s just the disadvantage of being the sister of popwreck Britney Spears. It would have been bad enough if she just had been pregnant but being Britney’s baby sister just makes it worse. For the child itself it would probably best if it grows up without media attention.

It’s easy to say that celebrities should ignore all of this; the truth is they can’t. Every time something like this happens journalists will ask them about it which isn’t just annoying to them but also to us, because we basically get the same interviews every single time. Interviews are usually about personal lives instead of careers these days. It wouldn’t be that shocking if some of them at some point really would call it quits because they just can’t deal with all the bullshit anymore.

10. Jamie Lynn Spears
Jamie Lynn was Zoey on Zoey 101 last year, Zoey this year and Zoey next year. Nothing else at all, Zoey 101 is all she does so she’s pretty much going nowhere in Hollywood. Bad press surrounding her family isn’t exactly helping her either.

9. Hilary Duff
Last year I thought Hilary was finally going to do other roles than the sweet and nice girl. She did in War Inc.; the problem with that is that the movie still hasn’t found a distributor. Other things she has seen in 2007 is a Razzie nomination for worst actress and a new album which pretty much failed if you compare them to her previous albums.

8. Sara Paxton
Her only project for 2007 was Sydney White which pretty much flopped. In 2008 the only thing she has lined up is Superhero! Which is destined to fail, so her career really isn’t going anywhere right now.

7. Kirsten Dunst
Sure Kirsten has been in one of the most successful movies of the year but that’s all Kirsten is right now; Mary Jane Watson.

6. Kaley Cuoco
The Big Bang Theory might be halfway successful her other project for 2007 was Cougar Club a straight to DVD comedy. For 2008 the only thing she has lined up next to the Big Bang Theory is Killer Movie, another movie that’s destined to fail. Kaley is pretty much doomed to star in mediocre sitcoms.

5. Lacey Chabert
She never managed to equal the success of her Party of Five days and her role in Mean Girls. In 2007 she only did several small unnoticeable independent movie and at this time it seems to be the same thing for 2008.

4. Michelle Trachtenberg
In 2007 nothing featuring Michelle was released; she was supposed to star in a new show called the Hill but it was put on hold before they even finished filming the pilot. The show is still on hold for 2008 so it might come out after all. Another thing coming out in 2008 is Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight a movie that has been in development for decades but won’t make it past a video released; so that failed even before it was released. The only thing worthwhile for 2008 will probably be the independent movie The Possibility of Fireflies. She also landed a role in the movie 17 but that won’t be released until 2009.

3. Tina Majorino
Tina’s highlight in her career was of course Napoleon Dynamite. In 2007 her main things were her roles on the TV shows Veronica Mars and Big Love. Both shows have ended now so at this time there are no projects listed for Tina. She seems to be a talented girl to me but it’s just not working for her right now.

2. Emmy Rossum
We can be short about Emmy; there were no movie roles for her in 2007 and there are non listed in 2008. She of course released her first album but it failed miserably with a peak ranking of 199 on the Billboard Charts, she’s pretty much lucky she even made it onto the Billboard Charts.

1. Lindsay Lohan
Not really a shocker here; both movies she had coming out in 2007 flopped and for 2008 her movie roles aren’t that certain yet. The going to rehab twice in 2007 doesn’t help her either, she sure went from making 7.5million dollars a movie to someone who studios don’t want to touch quickly. She pretty much has to start her career from scratch again.