The Childhood Fame Monster

Three years ago, my wife and I were vacationing at Walt Disney World when we ran across the High School Musical Show at Hollywood Studios.  This was after Vanessa Hudgens was exposed (literally) to the world when she thought she was sending private picture messages to boyfriend Zac Efron.  After watching the performance, I famously said to my wife that “Today’s Disney Stars become Tomorrow’s Tabloid Stars” and that I predicted Miley Cyrus would be next on the Tabloid list.  Three years later, and darn if I didn’t nail that prediction.

Of course, Disney is not the only place that has brought up young talent only to see that wholesome talent fall into sex, drugs, and crime and they are not the first.  Exploiting childhood actors has gone on for years, and it seems that for every success story (see Shirley Temple, Ron Howard, and Leonardo DiCaprio) there are train wrecks (see Dana Plato, Wil Wheaton, and Todd Bridges) and others who have been to hell and back (see Drew Barrymore).  But the list of Disney talent that has gone through the tabloid ringer over the last 15 years is incredible.  Christina Agulara, Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, and The Olson twins are just some of the Disney talent to experience trouble as young adults.  Add in Nickelodeon’s Jamie Lynn Spears plus if you consider Michael Jackson was a kid prodigy that turned into tabloid fodder and you have an incredible list of casualties in my lifetime.

Amazingly, some of the childhood talent has either escaped the trappings of the fame monster.  I think it has more to do with the people they surround themselves with more than anything else.  If you have a parent or advisor that will lay the law down, you tend to survive childhood stardom and go on to have a successful life.  It doesn’t matter if you continue in Hollywood (like Ron Howard or Jennifer Love Hewitt), go on to Broadway (like Keri Russell) or leave Hollywood for a different life (like “Winnie” from the Wonder Years).  As long as your advisors or parents can make sure you stick to acting, do your schoolwork, and not fall into the trappings of fame, your childhood fame can carry you to whatever your dreams desire.

The problem is that the parents in many instances drive the kids to embrace the fame in order to fatten their own bank accounts.  The most obvious example is Joe Simpson, who pushed his girls, Jessica and Ashley, into the musical spotlight.  Both have since fallen off the landscape, with Ashley now a mom, and Jessica a Cowboy-wrecker.  Another example is the Lohan parents, who basically allowed Lindsey to rise up to stardom and whose fall may be one of the most tragic.  And you have to put Billy Ray Cyrus in that mix as well.  Billy knew about the problems of stardom, and he still let Miley get caught up in it.  Sorry Billy, but you can’t blame Disney for your Achy-Breaky Heart with regards to Miley and your soon-to-be ex-wife.  You knew better.

Even those manage to dodge the trappings of fame as youngsters are forever changed from dealing with the stress.  For example, consider the New Kids on the Block, the dominant boy band of the late 1980s and early 1990s.  During that time, the band members were inundated by young girls and their moms who basically wanted to “meet” the band.  It was even known that Jonathan Knight was dating pop star, Tiffany.  Now, we come to find out that Jonathan Knight no longer likes girls, but has instead come out of the closet, joining such past music heartthrobs as George Michael from Wham, Ricky Martin, and Lance Bass from N’ Sync. 

That brings me to the current flavor of the moment, Justin Beiber.  Does anybody really believe that Justin and his driving parents can manage the wave that is the fame monster any better than past victims?  No chance.  The question is not if Justin’s star will crash but when as far as I’m concerned.  I give him five years at most before he enters the dark side of the fame monster.  And even he can survive and dodge the fame monster, how much do you want to bet that Justin’s overexposure to young girls and their moms will lead him to come out of the closet at some point later in life?

The sad part is that as long as Hollywood exist, there will always be childhood stars that will become superstars and young sex symbols.  And we will continue to see the childhood fame monster chew up and spit out some of these stars.  Who's next?  Selena Gomez?  Demi Lovato?  Maybe one of these young children doing casting calls for Disney and Nickelodeon?  Enjoy riding the wave, but always beware of the fall.

A Chink in the Armor

In my bio, I have this quote:  “To this day, I am still an enigma to many who know me.  Perhaps one day, I will sit down and tell the full story to all.”  It is not meant to be a insult to anyone.  It actually is something that exists in all of us.  We wear different masks to different people.  For example, I’m sure some people from my past life are shocked to see me with a little bit of an attitude (primarily when it comes to sports).  But, to be fair, the attitude has always been there as some who really know me can attest seeing me in private moments.  I have kept up more of armor when it comes to things such as the attitude—not because of any embarrassing reasons, but just because it would be difficult to explain why I have my attitude.

Having lived in three different areas (Atlanta, Chicago, and Baltimore), it’s easy to keep that armor on and guard the different phases of my life—something that is perfect for my job.  Still, I have often wandered what would happen if some of my friends in one area met friends in another area and shared some of the stories about me.  What would happen if Brian Lenz met Justin Ellis?  Or if Beth Smith would happen to meet either of the Baltimore Michelles (Simpson or Yeager)?  What if cousin Brian met brother-in-law Mike?  Or how about some of the Band of Stars members meeting my Sinfonian brothers?  I’m sure some interesting stories would be exchanged.  But for now, the two people who have the closest complete read on me are my wife Liz and the friend I consider my brother, Brian Lenz.  And even they don’t know the full story on me.

Recently, Liz asked me a question about why I don’t discuss certain aspects of my high school days in Snellville, GA.  For whatever reason, I opened one of the windows to my past and told a story to her, exposing a chink in the armor.  Now, Liz knows very little about my Snellville life and what she knows, she’s learned from my parents, old neighbors, and a precious few old friends.  I haven’t spoken much about the past (she doesn’t even know much about my academic history in high school).  It isn’t because I want to distance myself from the Snellville days.  I will always go to bat for the friends I grew up with in Snellville, particularly my ‘92 classmates. 

Still, the side I exposed to Liz was a humbling experience of the Snellville days from about 20 years ago.  She understood why I don’t speak of that subject much.  It’s a shame I cannot not explain the story to all, but bringing up the subject again could re-open some old scars and wounds that appear closed.  At the end of the day, it’s one story I may eventually tell.

Until then, hope you enjoy my sports attitude, particularly when it comes to all professional sports and Valparaiso Crusaders College Basketball.

The NFL’s REAL nastiest rivalry…

A lot of people who have followed the NFL in recent years seem to under a incorrect assumption.  When asked about what the NFL’s biggest rivalry, they will say it’s Patriots-Colts, Jets-Patriots, Cowboys-Redskins, or Cowboys-Eagles.  In recent years, the Ravens-Steelers has become the marquee NFL rivalry in many people’s eyes and certainly as a Baltimore resident, you would get no argument from me.  But let’s be honest:  the NFL’s biggest and nastiest rivalry will be played out at the NFC Championship Game this Sunday in Soldier Field when the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears will meet. 

The stakes have never been higher in this rivalry.  These are two of the oldest franchises in the NFL.  Although these two teams have played over 180 times in their history, it marks only the second time the two teams have met in the playoffs (and the only other time it happened was 70 years ago).  This isn’t a rivalry like Yankees-Red Sox where Yankees have dominated winning 27 titles, while the Red Sox only have 7.  Both the Packers and Bears are close to each other in NFL Titles (The Packers are #1 with 12 World Championships and the Bears are #2 with 9).  The Bears lead the series 92-83-6.  Both teams have more Hall of Famers than any other team.  The names of these franchises are iconic.  Lambeau.  Halas.  Lombardi.  Ditka.  Hourning.  Grange.  Taylor.  Sayers.  Starr.  Butkus.  White.  Singletary.  Favre.  Payton.

And while the players may respect each other, the fans despise each other.  The battle lines of this rivalry run somewhere in the northern Chicago suburbs.  There have been stories of Packers’ fans being beaten up and duct taped to Chicago Stop Signs.  “The Bears Still Suck” being played on Chicago radio stations.  Wayne Larrivee being the voice of the Chicago Bears until he defected to Green Bay.  Yeah, the fans take it personally.  You either rock Green and Gold or Blue and Orange.  There is NO in-between.

Sunday will pretty much be life-and-death as the stakes have never been higher in this rivalry.  If the Bears win, yeah Wisconsin will be in deep mourning while Chicago fans won’t need a plane to fly to Dallas and the Super Bowl.  But if the Packers win at Chicago, Packer fans will go on a 2-week tailgating binge and Chicago fans will be under suicide watch, meaning the Sears Tower and Hancock Tower observation decks will have to be closed indefinitely.  In short, this game means more to the fans than the players and it could be a matter of life and death.  The real-life drama begins at 2pm CT Sunday.

The larger points from the Tucson shootings and its aftermath…

It has been a week since a lone gunman went to a Tucson Safeway with murder in mind and shot 6 people to death as well as leaving a U.S. congresswoman critically injured.  A lot of misinformation was observed in the initial moments of the tragedy (was Rep. Gabrielle Giffords dead or alive), so I figured it would be timely after a week of finding additional information out some conclusions can now be drawn.

1)  Jared Loughner’s shootings had nothing to do with popular political movements of the day.  We have found out that Jared Loughner was an atheist and pothead who prayed to a skull in a tent.  We have seen his mugshot and drawn our conclusions about his insanity.  We have even heard (regrettably) that he posed with a Glock in nothing but a G-String.  But, according to people with intimate knowledge of the guy, Jared was not liberal nor conservative.  He didn’t listen to political radio or watch the news.  His hatred of Rep. Giffords was for his own reasons.  Which leads to point #2…

2)  The shootings were NOT motivated by heated political rhetoric.  A recent Rasmussen poll confirms what most of us already knew.  58% of the people responded saying Loughner acted on his own accord.  Only 15% say the shootings were politically motivated and only 9% say the guns were responsible for the killings.  So any attempts to link the killings to the tone of political speech have failed.  This leads to points #3, #4, #5, and #6…

3) Paul Krugman should be disciplined by the New York Times… and probably won’t.  Listen, I don’t care if you won the Nobel Prize, that does NOT give you the right to blame political opponents for a shooting just moments after it occurred.  This kind of inflammatory slander would get most people fired from their job.  In Krugman’s case, he will probably get a raise and an award for this accusation.

4)  The liberals’ latest attempt to link the shooting to the Tea Party have backfired… badly.  The fact that the left was in such a hurry to try and blame Sarah Palin for this tragedy was disgusting.  I can’t believe that just 24 hours after the shooting, I was in a heated exchange with someone who wanted to throw Sarah Palin in jail and who made the even more ridiculous argument that liberals would never use this kind of rhetoric.  It didn’t take me long to find a counterexample (even though for the record, President Obama made his infamous “If they bring a knife to a fight, we bring a gun” remark in Philadelphia during the 2008 campaign, not the 2010 midterms), but that didn’t stop people from continuing their tirade.  However, if you believe the same Rasmussen poll, the left’s attempt to link the Tea Party to this tragedy has actually caused a backlash.  In the Rasmussen poll by a 36%-32% margin, the population believes that the liberals are more responsible than conservatives for the vitriolic political language in our society today.

5)  Sarah Palin is NOT fit to be a political leader.  You would think that after two and a half years in the political spotlight, Sarah Palin would know how to act on the National Stage.  You could almost discount her initial missteps as being a novice.  Her speech on Wednesday should have shown that she was ready to show how much of a leader she has become, in spite of the left’s slanders.  Yet, with 2 simple words, Sarah Palin destroyed her chance to be President or any further relevant top figure.  In the end, Sarah will be just a footnote to history.

6) Sheriff Dupnik should actually try to do his job instead of looking for soapboxes to stand on.  Sheriff Dupnik of Pima County made no bones about who he blamed for this tragic circumstance.  He also made no bones about his like of Rachel Maddow.  However, he and his office let it slip that they investigated Jared Loughner for death threats he made on two separate occasions.  Not only that, but Pima Community College had multiple incidents where Jared was acting in an aggressive manner.  Yet, nobody at the police department ever put 2 and 2 together?  If Sheriff Dupnik is not careful, he will become the next Mike Nifong.  At least some people are starting to get it, which leads to…

7)  President Obama (and the Republican House leadership) has reacted responsibly to this tragedy as responsible adults… even if it is sometimes a little over the top.  Credit to Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor for saying and doing the right things early.  But it is the President who has turned a serious corner in crisis management.  He took his time, and delivered a measured response.  When the Memorial service was starting to get out of hand and turn more into a pep rally, he was able to use his speech to calm the audience down a little, even if some of his rhetoric was a little too much.  The call for civility was much needed from the top and it did two things for the President:  (1) It showed he is serious about moving to the center (similar to how Bill Clinton did his triangulation) and (2) he left his far left supported out to dry.  It was the correct thing to do, but it risks a challenge from the left in the 2012 Democratic Primary that could weaken the President in the General Election.

8)  Finally, the calls for civility are nice, but following through is the most difficult part.  Every one can talk about how civil we need to be with each other, but what many basically interpret it as is that you be civil to me and maybe I’ll be civil to you.  At the end of the day, civility exists for a few weeks after a national tragedy, but then we go back to heated rhetoric soon afterwards.  What needs to happen is a real soul-searching by all parties, a real look in the mirror about what they are doing to cause the problem and what they can do to stop it.  And people must find common ground (non-politically if they must) to begin working on being more civil.  Otherwise, these calls for civility will fall flat in a couple of weeks, and I can already see signs that this will happen again after this shooting.  I pray that I’m wrong.

The Big Ten Football Follies

It has been so easy to pick on the Big Ten recently.  The regular season of the conference that has been exposed as a fraud, the addition of Nebraska to form “Leaders” and “Legends” divisions, the missteps of Jim Delaney, and the fact that some of its Presidents can’t help putting their feet in their mouths.  That was before New Years Day’s debacle and the fact that Ohio State won, but lost all integrity by playing 5 players who broke rules but who got passes from the Sugar Bowl and the normally notorious NCAA.

In short, most Big Ten fans aren’t jerks, but the ones who always state that they are the best conference in the land ruin it for everyone else.  So, it’s time to set the record straight with some hard football facts.

Fact #1:  The Big Ten has only won 2 Outright or shares of National Titles over the last 40 seasons (Ohio State in 2002 and Michigan in 1997).  No, you can’t count Penn State’s 2 National Titles or Nebraska’s 4 over the last 40 seasons as they won them outside of the Big Ten.  In terms of ranking with other conferences, the Big Ten trails the SEC (12), Big 8/Big 12 (10), Independents (9 - 3 by Notre Dame and Miami each, 2 by Penn State, 1 by Pittsburgh), Pac 8/Pac 10 (6 or 5 if you don’t count USC’s 2004 season), and the ACC (4).  The Big Ten is even with the Big East (2 – Both by Miami), and since Miami’s departure for the ACC, the Big East conference is the laughingstock of the BCS.

Now, you may complain that I deliberately avoided the 1970 season, which Ohio State won a share of the title (despite losing the Rose Bowl to Stanford).  But there is a good reason:  in 1970, segregation still dominated SEC Football Programs.  It wasn’t until USC’s demolition of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to start the 1970 season (led by African-American backup RB Sam Cunningham), that SEC integration finally began to take place.  From that point forward, the SEC has dominated, thanks to utilizing the High School talent from ALL corners of the South.

Fact #2:  The famed Michigan program may boast 9 Football National Titles, but only 2 titles have been won since WWII.  That’s one fewer than in-state rival Michigan State has won during the same period.  They’re not the only Big Ten School to win most of their National Titles before the end of WWII.  Minnesota boasts 6 National Titles, but only one has been won since WWII.

Fact #3:  Forget winning National Titles, the Big Ten has trouble winning the Rose Bowl.  It’s been a problem since the 1960s.  The most blatent example of this occurred in the 1980s when the Big Ten would regularly send a 10-1 or 9-2 Conference Champion to Pasadena and would get knocked off by an unranked Pac-10 squad.

Fact #4:  Even with Ohio State’s Victory against Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, OSU is still 1-9 against SEC schools in Bowl Games.  The Buckeyes also have issues against USC, both in the Regular Season and Bowl Games.  Their best hopes of winning a National Title hinge on avoiding the speed of the best programs in Football.  If they don’t have to face an Alabama or Florida or USC, they’ve got a chance.  Otherwise, they’re screwed and they are the only team in the Big Ten that could possibly come close to matching the speed of the best teams in College Football.

Until the Big Ten (specifically Ohio State) can win a couple of titles in a row, the Big Ten fans would be wise to lay low and not draw any attention to themselves.  The SEC, Big 12, and USC are all ready to once again bury their hapless conference rivals whenever they open their mouths.

Rutgers women’s basketball lost chance

Recently, the UConn women achieved an unprecedented milestone in College Basketball as they won their 89th straight game.  Much of this streak can be attributed to UConn’s great coach, Geno Auriemma, and the ability to recruit great players, such as Maya Moore from Gwinnett County, Georgia.  Maya Moore also represents how far UConn’s program has distanced itself from rivals such as Tennessee.  In fact, Pat Summit is likely so scared of facing a Maya Moore-led UConn team, that she stopped the annual game between UConn and Tennessee.  Summit can always use the argument that Geno used illegal recruiting of Maya, but she’s really jealous that UConn raided territory that Tennessee was already robbing from Andy Landers of Georgia for years, so Summit’s argument falls flat.

In addition to distancing from national rivals such as Tennessee, UConn has also distanced itself from the rest of the Big East conference, such as Rutgers.  In fact, since UConn began its winning streak, Rutgers has been not much more than a speed bump.  This is sad considering four seasons ago Rutgers came within one game of winning a National Championship losing to Tennessee.  C. Vivian Stringer was the toast of Women’s College Basketball and could have used the game and the rise of the Rutgers program to recruit players like Moore to push Rutgers over the hump, supplant UConn as the Big Dog of the Big East, and finally win a title.

Instead, we all know what happened… Radio shock jock Don Imus made a stupid remark and Stringer wanted Imus’s head.  Joined by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (both of whom were running away from the Duke Lacrosse rape story that was imploding in their faces), Stringer won the battle to get Don Imus fired from MSNBC and his national radio program.  But has Stringer been able to recruit National 5-star recruits to her program?  Not really, in part because Stringer thought more of her ego more to fire Imus than trying to use the 2007 season to bring more top-rated players to compete with UConn.  Rutgers is further away from a National Championship program that it has ever been.  In fact, now they are more of middle-of-the-road team in the improving Big East—check the current standings.  Stringer is slowly becoming the new Andy Landers—great coach, occasionally making a deep run every once in a while, but not able to win the Big One or build a consistent National program.

Imus ultimately got back on the radio and Cable TV (now on Fox Business), so all the efforts Stringer made to get Imus fired from radio eventually came to naught, although Imus’s audience is much smaller than the minute audience he had at MSNBC.

If Stringer had made more of a push to get Maya Moore and had won the Maya Moore recruiting sweepstakes, UConn would not have won all those games in a row and back-to-back titles.  In fact, we might be doing HBO Real Sports features on how Stringer is a great coach and how she was able to finally overcome the UConn juggernaut and National Title hurdles.  Instead, Geno is the toast of Women’s College BB, and Maya Moore is turning out to be a women who can do anything she wants after college.  I suspect she will go into politics and become an amazing congresswoman some day.  It’s clear she has a huge fan in the Oval Office.  There’s no guarantee UConn’s winning streak will continue or UConn can win three in a row, but Geno and Maya have raised the standard of Women’s BB to a point that even Rutgers can’t follow.

On Thursday (12/30), Rutgers will play at Tennessee in a re-match of the 2007 Title Game.  But even that game will be overshadowed by a bigger women’s college game taking place later in the evening – UConn putting their streak on the line at Stanford, the last team to beat UConn.  I am sure C. Vivian Stringer is not happy to have such a significant game dwarfed by UConn.  But you had a chance, Coach Stringer, to step up to even bigger national prominence and you blew it on a stupid shock jock.

The Graying Democratic Party

Now that the midterm elections have ended, analysis has been pouring in as to what happened, what should happen next, and what it all means.  But there is an underlying current in this election that has not been exposed on a massive level:  age.  Once upon a time, the Democrats used age as a issue to try and vote out Republicans who were “old and out of touch”.  However, when you look at the age issue now, the Democrats appear to be the geriatric party. 

To be fair, the two oldest House members of the 111th Congress are Republicans, but then look at composition of House members above the age of 70.  36 are Democrats, compared with just 18 Republicans.  And it’s not just the fact that the 36 Democrats are old; these Democratic members compromise most of the House leadership and committee chairmanships.  Nationally recognized Democratic figures like John Dingle, John Conyers, Charlie Rangel, Pete Stark, Ike Skelton, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, departing David Obey, Barney Frank, John Lewis, and the three biggest Democratic leaders (Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn) are all 70 or older.  What’s worse is that some of the youngest members of the Democratic caucus were defeated in the mid-term election (most notable locally, one Frank Kratovil from Maryland).  Compare to the younger Republicans leaders:  Dave Camp (future Ways and Means Chairman) is 57, Darrell Issa (future Oversight Committee Chairman) is 57, Paul Ryan (future Budget Committee Chairman) is 40, likely Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is 45, and incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor is 47.  Even Speaker of the House, John Boehner is relatively young at 60.  Only Jerry Lewis appears to be the oldest of the possible incoming Republican leadership at 76, but there’s no guarantee he will get back a committee chairmanship he once held because of Republican rules.

And it’s not just the House when the Republican youth movement is being seen.  Look at the U.S. Senate.  The three oldest senators who survived the midterm elections are Democratic (and that doesn’t include Arlen Spector who was voted out or Robert Byrd who died in office at the age of 92).  Then look at the Republicans who are incoming to the US Senate.  Marco Rubio from Florida is 39.  Mark Kirk from Illinois is 51.  Rand Paul from Kentucky is relatively young as well.  Now, the Democratic Party may still be overall younger in the Senate, but if they are, it’s not by much.

And then there is the Governor’s mansions.   Perhaps the biggest turnover of the night from Republican governor to Democratic governor was in California and it was accomplished by 70+ year old Jerry Brown, who once upon a time was the youngest Governor in the State’s history.  Of course, the White House is occupied by a young President Obama, but if something happens to him, old Joe Biden is waiting in the wings.

But it’s not just Democrats in Washington.  One of the staunchest allies to the party is the NAACP.  And although their leader is young, the Executive Board (most notably one Julian Bond) is comprised of some of Dr. King’s lieutenants in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  Jesse Jackson is now at least in his late 60s as well.

And it appears to be a worldwide movement to go to younger leaders.  In Great Britain, the leaders of the three main parties are all in their 40s, including the defeated Labor Party who jettisoned 59-year old Gordon Brown after their losses.  Even the repressive North Korean regime is looking at a 29-year old successor to the man I mockingly refer to as “Lil’ Kim”. 

The Democratic caucus, particularly in the House, will need to get younger leaders soon.  Heath Shuler is making an attempt to take the top leadership away from Nancy Pelosi.  But for now, perhaps the Democratic caucus will not refer to Republicans as “old white dudes”.  Maybe just “white dudes” at least until younger leaders like Chris Van Hollen and Heath Shuler are ready to take over.