Good Girls Gone Bad

There's a dirty, unspoken rule in Hollywood.

If you're a kiddie actress, the only road to a legitimate career is spreading your legs. On film. White powder and booze are encouraged bonuses.

The latest victims of this sentiment are, of course, Disney princesses Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez in the cringe-worthy movie Spring Breakers.

 

 

Vanessa, the once spotless role model of High School Musical fame, plays a sociopathic nympho with an alarming thirst for violence.

 

 

Selena, the former Disney Channel darling, plays a hopelessly confused Christian who cannot for the life of her understand why doing drugs and dancing naked with STD-soaked penises is BAD.

("But we were just having fun!")

 

 

This film is basically the quickest and easiest way for both Vanessa and Selena to tell the world they've grown up, tossed out the Disney halos, and want to be taken seriously as actresses. It is also a hall pass to audition for more serious roles in serious films.

Like, seriously.

"I was getting kind of repetitive in terms of the roles I was picking,” Selena Gomez told Interview Magazine, “and I really wanted to do something that was completely different. It was a mark thing for me — like, ‘This is what I want to be doing.' I want to be taking myself seriously as an actress, and this was definitely a stretch. I mean, I'd never smoked a cigarette before in my entire life. It was really funny — they had to show me how to do it."

I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that these young actresses are so willing to play these sex-fueled roles to prove they're grown up, or if Hollywood is simply not offering any other solutions.

Why does a girl who is famous for being a princess have to act like a slut to change the tone of her career? I'm not saying these girls have to remain innocent their entire lives, but is going from one extreme to the next really the only way to grab attention?

It worked for Anne Hathaway. She has admitted that during her Princess Diaries fame, it was nearly impossible for her to snag serious roles.

That's the reason she made Havoc in 2005. In the indie film, she plays a sexually confused rich girl who cures boredom by hanging out with gang members. Nudity, sex, drugs. No tiara in sight.

 

And guess what? Her next film was the award-winning sensation Brokeback Mountain.

 

Child star Dakota Fanning raised eyebrows in 2010 by starring as vixen rocker Cherie Currie in The Runaways. It was the first film to really showcase the then-17-year-old as an adult.

 

In the edgy film, she wore fishnet thigh-highs and corsets, showed partial nudity, and had a sex scene with Kristen Stewart.

Her career hasn't slowed down since.

And even 20 years ago, Drew Barrymore used the technique to star in Poison Ivy, in which she played the ultimate sex-crazed bad girl.

Today, she's already a Hollywood legend.

But, the good-girl-gone-bad trick doesn't always work.

Remember Elizabeth Berkley?

If not, that's the reason. In the midst of her squeaky clean Saved by the Bell fame (she was the feminist nerd, Jessie Spano) she jumped right into the film role of a shameless stripper who will do anything to get ahead. The movie was called Showgirls.

 

Despite the glorified nudity, sex, and blatantly R-rated content, the 1995 movie was a cheesy, disastrous, and unintentionally hilarious flop. Her career never recovered.

These days, you'll be lucky if you catch her in a handful of CSI: Miami reruns.

So, where lies the fate of Vanessa and Selena?

Who knows.

Both acted pretty well in Spring Breakers, with Selena being more notable.

Vanessa does have some interesting films lined up, especially Gimme Shelter, which centers around her playing a street-wise teen desperately seeking her wealthy father. If all goes well, it could earn some awards for the 24-year-old.

Selena has a few less-interesting films lined up, but her shinier celeb status as Justin Bieber's ex-or-not-ex may help strengthen her showbiz career.

 

It's a toss up.

Both girls are talented and deserve to be carefully considered for more serious films.

I just wish it didn't take sex to make it happen.