Brooke Shields the Most Abused/ Exploited Child Star Ever?

I really can’t choose.

Funny how if brooke's mother had done that today she would be in the slammer

I listened to Brooke’s autobiography and it was one of the least introspective celebrity memoirs I have ever read.

Her adult career never took off because she grew up to be a really, really bad actress. Nothing to do with her looks, which were fine.

She did alright for herself with Suddenly Susan. Was she a member of NBC's "Must She TV"?

Brooke really peaked as a teenager and her looks went gradually downhill after that

Wait, can someone please clarify her posing for Playboy at age 10? Was she naked? How the hell was this allowed??

I think what people fail to realize that in the ‘60s and ‘70s, EVERYTHING was on the table, nothing was off the table. Everything was super liberal sexually. Even pedophiles were a group that LGBT people allied with for awhile.

R8, most would be shocked about what was allowed back in the 70s.

Yes and that goddamned NAMBLA group even marched in gay pride parades!

R9, Without the internet few knew what flagrant child sexual abuse was occurring in various cults, among the children of hippies and aging flower children, and alcohol and drug abusers.

I don't care if Louis Malle directed Pretty Baby or that it has a great cast, it was really gross and made me uncomfortable.

I disagree that Brooke is a bad actress. She was very funny when she guest-starred on Friends (which led her to getting Suddenly Susan) and she was a riot on The Middle.

Dined next to Brooke Shields at a Beverly Hills Restaurant back in the day.

The then teenager was very beautiful with striking features (thick, dark eyebrows weren't yet in vogue.) She was very polite to the wait staff who brought her a special dessert of strawberries in chocolate sauce.

However she spoke in a consistently bland voice and her facial expression never changed. Not like an actress but appropriate for a model.

Don't forget Baby Peggy.

Yeah, Cecil B. DeMille threw 2 or 3 year old Baby Peggy into an actual burning building for the climax of one of his epics. But, back to Brooke, Pretty Baby was about child prostitution, wasn’t it? And it was erotica, hardly porn. Topless Brooke played along with the similar Calvin Klein jeans. Unfortunately, we did need to crack down even on things as relatively harmless as Pretty Baby because the 1970s proved that the world was rife with child sexual predators.

This thread prompted me to read about the photo shoot from when she was 10, and now I feel sick. The article I read had the censored photos, and I wish I could remove the images from my mind. What the fuck were they thinking?

I can't believe that was "on the table" in the 70s, but am grateful that's no longer the case.

(That said, I do wish we lightened up on sex for consenting adults and wish I could have enjoyed some of the free days from back then.)

Brooke claims she was never actually molested because her mother would be like a guard dog around her even as she was pimping her out for photoshoots. Brooke seems very down to earth and normal, and managed to not go off the rails like every other child star.

So exploited yes, but not seriously sexually/physically abused like say Michael Jackson was. He probably wins for worst childhood - and that's evident in how he turned out.

She was sexually objectified and exploited but the thing that was key in Brooke being sane and down-to-earth was her pimp mama was also very protective. She would let Brooke be photographed naked at 10 years old, do softcore porn art house movies like Blue Lagoon, Pretty Baby and Endless Love before she was 18 and those suggestive Calvin Klein ads. Yet she made sure Brooke was not molested or violated in any way.

Also this poll is small. You could also include Shirley Temple, The Olsen twins, Corey Haim, Brad Renfro, River Phoenix, Aaron Carter, Britney Spears, Aaliyah and others.

Here’s info on the photos and the lawsuit that Brooke and her mom ultimately lost in 1983.

I saw the photos on display at Limelight (I think 1984 or 1985) and they were disturbing and creepy. Nothing sexual except to a pedophile. But not sweet and innocent either.

One of the pictures was featured in an exhibit at the Guggenheim as recently as 2007. The photographer did the photos for Whitney’s debut album .

Also at this point I wonder why it’s not illegal to own a copy of a publication that published the photos. For example the issue of penthouse that had photos that cost Vanessa Williams the Miss America crown is illegal to own unless the photos of 15 year old traci lords are removed.

Traci Lords was probably posing in a sexualized way, she was porn star hence they were classed as child porn. I believe Brooke's photos were cleared legally because the photographer argued they were not sexual in nature (despite they fact they appeared in Playboy).

[quote] Yet she [Mom] made sure Brooke was not molested or violated in any way.

Nobody really knows whether BS's mother "made sure" Brooke was not molested. Her mother was an alcoholic and made some very questionable choices, even for that time.

Brooke probably came out OK in spite of her mother, not because of her mother.

Brooke did graduate from Princeton. Jodie Foster graduated from Yale and I'm guessing Brooke saw that and was influenced.

Kathy Griffin did a funny bit about Brook's mother and her alcoholism.

OP She had a show on NBC for half a decade. That's 93 episodes. I would argue that is plenty of adult success.

I think something bad happened to Amanda Bynes which made her wig out.

Back in the days of Blockbuster, I paused by a section of family movies.

There were fresh faced Lindsay Lohan, the Olsen twins, and a few others from that era all lined up in a row. All looked youthful and full of promise. Each one faced demons as adults.

I suppose one can argue the Olsen twins are successful now, but I suspect there's been a lot of turmoil to overcome.

It's not a developmentally appropriate way to grow up, and who knows what they've been exposed to along the way.

Where was brookes dad during this time? I mean why didn’t he intervene?

R26 you mean like working for Dan Schneider?

Brooke's parents divorced when she was a baby. There are photos of her with her dad - she looked far more like her father than her mother - but it seems he wasn't a present parent.

Interestingly, Frank Shields' mother was an Italian princess, Princess Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi.

It wasn't Playboy that published the photos, it was another magazine owned by Playboy that wasn't considered porn.

The Olsen twins were overworked like crazy. They were slaves to their parents. From the time they were infants to 18 years old. It was one thing to do a sitcom like Full House but they were also doing theatrical movies, direct to video movies, other sitcoms, nonstop promotions, touring malls and cruise ships, etc. They were the most heavily franchised child actors of all time. It's not surprising they became drug addicts and developed an eating disorder. It's a reaction to trauma. Their sister Elizabeth is healthier looking (she looks like her sisters did in their teens) in comparison.

R23 We know because Brooke herself said so, numerous times. Her mother was an insane addict, but that doesn’t make it impossible she was the one stopped Brooke from getting molested. And she publicly doesn’t have a good relationship with her mom (I think they even had a legal battle some years back), so there’s no reason for her to lie.

Macaulay Culkin. He had a stage father from hell and a spineless mother who abused him emotionally and physically. He was such a good child star because he was too scared to mess up on camera. His parents also thought it was good for Mac to hang out with Michael Jackson. Mac looked like hell in the late 90s and throughout the 2000s. But he looks to have recovered a lot.

R23 It's very difficult to have a publicly good relationship with someone who has been dead for 9 years.

[quote]Yet she made sure Brooke was not molested or violated in any way.

Sure, Jan. Alcoholics are very reliable that way.

I'm glad Macaulay Culkin has come out on the other side, R34. Even though the last American Horror story sucked, it was such a joy to see him again. He was the best part of that season.

I hope he gets more offers. He's still got that magic.

Somehow, Brooke turned out to be rather sane and a competent actress, especially in comedy. I, too, was surprised by how funny she was as Joey's stalker on Friends and she ended up doing a lot of theatre, which isn't for the weak hearted. You have to really want to be better at your craft to go off and do theatre for much less money than TV or movies and Brooke did. I've seen her in a few shows and she came across very well.

Brooke blowed up real good.

R35 Even more reason I think her mom may have actually protected her for all her many faults- if the mom is dead, why keep lying? And I meant while Brooke's mom was alive they didn't have a good relationship.

Brooke's mom may have been a crazy drunken whore who made questionable decisions but I don't think she hated her daughter enough to allow grown men to fuck her. She was just a morally bankrupt pageant mother. I don't think Brooke would lie either. If Brooke didn't say anything then it would make more sense to assume.

R8, and yet tons of people still managed to be arrested for offenses against children back then. Huh. Imagine that.

In the 70s homosexuality was considered a mental illness and most states had sodomy laws. Citizens of ultra-liberal Eugene, OR voted to repeal a gay rights ordinance.

Leif Garrett wrote a memoir about his life as a child and teen star in The 70s. He talked about how the culture at time was, there were little qualms about sexualizing minors. He appeared on some dating show as a young kid and was being flirted with by much older women. He mentioned how inappropriate that was looking back. He was also generally uncomfortable with his marketing as a pinup and all the objectification that came with it. All of this was before he turned 18. Bieber is probably his closest analogy in terms of being a sexually objectified young male teen star.

Fuck you, Bob. Fuck you and your skipper wife.

Brooke seemed parentified due to mother’s alcoholism. She skipped childhood in some ways; looked out for her mother, and self..ACOA issues. worked since childhood, of course, and supported the family. it’s odd how quickly her face became masculinized..quite feminine as girl. also, she doesn’t seem that bright, so A student at Princeton..is that celeb As or real ones? She seems happy in her marriage and family...her husband Chris Henchy sp? is successful in the business. She’s doing well these days. seems like a good mom.

I never saw Pretty Baby as pornographic and I was in college when it came out. Posing naked in Playboy at 10 is something else and inappropriate as that magazine carried clear intentions. Kids naked in personal photos were not that unusual. You typically didn't see boys' penises, but remember the Coppertone ad with the little girl's butt showing as a dog or something was pulling her swimsuit bottoms off.

Louis Malle's movies are satire. He was never scared to explore sexuality and taboo topics. I don't think he intended for Pretty Baby to glorify pedophilia. More he was exposing the climate back then and added subjectivity to child prostitutes who were objectified. The French are not Puritanical. Now, Blue Lagoon that was just softcore porn, beautifully shot and filmed but clearly made for titilation.

Hefner was lauded as a feminist because he mouthed the right words and occasionally CUT a check to the N.O.W.

Look at all the powerful men who have abused women and gotten away with it because the "stood up for women", when what they were really doing was just saying what the progressives wanted to hear.

[quote] Kathy Griffin did a funny bit about Brook's mother and her alcoholism.

She must have done in in the 1980s, because that's the last time she was funny.

Hefner was no feminist. He deserves praise for being a vocal supporter for Civil Rights and providing a platform for Black and gay rights activists. But Playboy was a misogynistic publication at the end of the day. People are capable of good and bad.

The only thing Brooke got from her father was her eyebrows. She was her mother's meal ticket. No was was Teri gonna let that little girl out of her sight much less let anyone disrupt the money train.

Sorry, I can’t get past those brows.

[quote] Leif Garrett wrote a memoir about his life as a child and teen star in The 70s. He talked about how the culture at time was, there were little qualms about sexualizing minors. He appeared on some dating show as a young kid and was being flirted with by much older women. He mentioned how inappropriate that was looking back. He was also generally uncomfortable with his marketing as a pinup and all the objectification that came with it. All of this was before he turned 18. Bieber is probably his closest analogy in terms of being a sexually objectified young male teen star.

There's no shortage of teen entertainers who were sexualized and objectified. Teen Beat, Tiger Beat and the other teen magazines, like them specialized in sexualizing teens.

[quote] (despite they fact they appeared in Playboy).

Her pictures weren’t in Playboy but in a Playboy owned/adjacent magazine aimed at guys who were into teens.

The photos that Noah Hathaway took in the mid 80s were sexualized. It's not the fact he wearing short shorts or is shirtless. It's the fact he is wearing clothing that is way too small for him, is posed in ways that emphasis his ass and crotch and laying around in a passive position. I doubt young teen girls would be into that. I don't think shirtless photos are sexual in nature but it's rather the way the model is posed that implies sensuality. Noah was taking shots that fit better in a gay porn magazine rather than a magazine for young teens. I really doubt gay teen boys were a market back then. So chickenhawks were the audience.

He is now a drug addicted mental case now with a million tattoos and piercings. Who can't get over his Neverending Story glory days.

Gary Coleman's showbiz money was all stolen he ended up working security.

On-topic: Considering that Brooke held on to her virginity until she was in her 20s, she was not the most exploited child star ever since plenty of kids were pimped out on casting couches by their parents.

She was a stunning beauty and she would always be objectified no matter what. Men worshipped her beauty. If she were ugly and dowdy and were passed around like a cheap whore, and men would use her like she was a public restroom just to get off, then that would destroy her.

Now you, old fat farts, can understand why ugly women experience sexual abuse differently from beautiful women.

Brooke, Dominique Swain and Natalie Portman got a lot of attention because they did sexualized roles but they didn't seem thrown to the wolves like others. Hence they grew up well adjusted.

R58 I agree to an extent. Girls like Brooke who are stunning are guarded like crazy. Like property. Their purity is valued and Brooke's mom wasn't a moron. That girl was her cash cow and she wasn't going to let anyone damage her career. Still a selfish mother though.

Goodlooking boys though will get sexually abused but nobody cares to the same extent because it's assumed boys can fight back and they are more sexual in nature. Some adult women will even prey on an underage boy if he's goodlooking and get away because of the double standard. Corey Haim and Brad Renfro were goodlooking and sexualized by both adult men and women.

R58 A whole bunch of models say they were treated like that though. I've always thought being plan would protect girls (and boys!) from abuse.

Plain, not plan!

Attractive women are more protected. Notice as soon as a pretty girl goes missing, everyone stops what they are doing and go on the hunt to find her. A lot of men also assume that if a girl is pretty that she either partnered with someone or has connections which would causes them to be wary because of the consequences. Being average to ugly in general makes you more a victim of abuse because less people care. Given the patriarchal structure of society. It doesn't nearly affect boys to the same extent as girls as most people assume boys can fight back and boys are not put on a pedestal for their beauty to the same extent as girls are. Parents would not be worried about their goodlooking son running around unsupervised to the same extent as their goodlooking daughter.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R64 The Basketball Diaries written by Jim Carroll was about a young promising basketball star by day and bisexual teen hustler heroin junkie by night. Set during the late 60s and early 70s NYC. He mentioned a lot of adults having sex with teens, straight and gay sex and how nonchalant everyone was about it. Jim himself didn't mind fucking for money. The film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio sanitized a lot of it especially Jim's nonchalant bisexuality and willingness to whore himself for drugs and money. It was more of an anti-drug PSA morality play than anything close to the book.

We must not have seen the same movie, if you ever have seen it OP. Louis Malle gives free rein to the satirical comedy as well as denouncing the pedophilia practiced by the "Madam" who puts this little girl on the menu of these gentlemen, one of whom will pay a lot of money to remove the virginity of this girl. The goal in Pretty Baby is not to make pedophilia but to denounce it!

R65, I was about to say, I"m sure the movie toned down the gay aspects, being the 90s and all. Yes, the 70s and late 60s seem like a far more permissible time. I guess the attitude was if people were willing to sex, they were mature enough to have it. Sadly, that included some young kids too.

I think the thing is. People didn't likely perceive teens as actual children back then. That very idea of a "teenager" was a post-WW2 invention. Prior it was "young adult" or "youth". Like if they were sexually developed, it was natural they were going to fuck. Hence also, why parents were eager to marry their daughter off young to an older wealthy man. I think was Boomers who started treating adolescents like literal kids, sheltering them and restricting their freedoms. Keeping them in suburbia to be "safe". The rise of Evangelical conservatism that pushed purity rings and abstinence. High schools becoming more strict too. Less teens were pushed to enter the work force and expected to go to college instead. All of this delayed childhood. But to be fair, perhaps Boomers regretted what they did in their youth with all the "Free Love" and didn't want their kids to be sexually exploited.

Fortunately, as others have noted, Shields seems to have turned out okay, with a stable marriage and later success as a legit TV actor

R66 Malle is a genius. He makes films about uncomfortable truths in society. He also isn't going to make things black-or-white thus easily digestible for the audience. I think a lot of people miss the point of his satire. It's like if they watched Malle's Lacombe, Lucien and think that it's glorifying Nazism.

[quote] I really doubt gay teen boys were a market back then. So chickenhawks were the audience.

R55, Have you seen "An Open Secret"? There were chickenhawks in the production, not just the audience.

R71 I did see it and it was revolting. Can't watch it again. The most disturbing part is the parents who were willing to threw these kids to the wolves. My only criticism is it focused mainly on young male victims of older men. Most victims in the industry are young girls. Plus there are female predators who go after girls and boys alike.

I saw a Brooke Shields adult diaper movie when I visited Russia.

R70 Exactly!

On the DL, ignorant people say completely absurd things all the time. Pretty Baby has nothing to do with what they say. It's the opposite that is explained in the movie. Besides, the last scene is explicit enough. Only ignorant assholes who have never seen the movie can say that. Louis Malle at that time made two disturbing films. One about child prostitution and another about incest. The most shocking scenes are not at all pedo pornographic. Because there is not one. Malle wanted to shock those old pervert pedos who go to prostitutes' hotels where there were also kids. The movie does not apologize for pedophilia, it shows the monstrosity of child prostitution.

Can you believe Brooke and MJ never fucked on their date?

Can you believe MJ and Lisa Marie never fucked even after getting married?

MJ never touched a woman

When she was young she was a thousand times more beautiful than Angelina Jolie. Her face was a dream. Sumptuously beautiful. But it did not last long. A very rare but meteoric beauty.

I remember a thread - I think here - where someone was going on and on about how bad the Shirley Temple films were. From the number of the posts and the rabidity of them, I kind of assumed the poster was a bit off-kilter, then I saw a film short on one of the vintage antenna channels. It was a bunch toddlers in oversized diapers playing the role of adults in a bar during WWI with the boys playing soldiers and a little girl I realized playing Shirley Temple playing some sort of bar maid. The dialog between her and two of the boys was pretty adult and in a pre-Code way. I am guessing the kids were about 2.5 to 4. It was pretty creepy. Shirley seems to have been pretty normal, but am guessing once she broke through as a big star a year or two later she was pretty protected.

I just did a little search -- I think the film might have been War Babies.

When I was a kid I was mesmerized by her face on the back page of one of my mom’s magazines for this Colgate ad.

R58 r60 I'll admit there is some degree of truth to both posts. All of this supposed strident advocacy for victims that seems to have taken over mainstream and social media is really about advocating for attractive and well connected upper middle class women. The male victims and not so " hot" women never seem to provoke the same degree of outrage. The media will get on their high horses for a Hollywood actress who is mistreated. A plain jane or a young boy not so much. There is an added racial element as well, where even very attractive non white abuse victims, both male and female, are ignored too unless it involves police violence ( and let me be clear I'm not saying that sort of violence should not be discussed). It's just hard to take journalists and the twitteratis sanctimony about the subject seriously given their own dismissal of many victims who don't fit the gold standard.

Edward Furlong and Brad Renfro both had adult girlfriends despite being in their early teens. Eddie Furlong was groomed by his tutor who was 13 years older than him. California laws did not recognize the statutory rape perpetrated by adult women at the time of their relationship. Brad Renfro was an early bloomer, as in he looked and sounded older than his actual age, and was sexualized a lot in photo shoots. Bryan Singer objectified the hell out of him in Apt Pupil. Crazy to think he also just turned 18 before filming Bully, he looked 25 in that.

Britney Spears was hella exploited as a teenager. Look at her early photoshoots: Jailbait was her entire schtick, the overripe babysitter or girl-next-door all the fathers on the block wanted to bang. It was sick.

Britney's early marketing was completely based on shock value. She's essentially a nymphet. In ...Baby One More Time, there's still tiny teen girl with pigtails strutting around in a sexualized Catholic school uniform and sports bra. She takes magazine photoshoots dressed up as an hypersexual little girl holding Teletubbies and posing with tricycles. "Hit me" is even slang for call me up for casual sex.

Her performances at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards were even provocative. I believe her mother pushed Britney to say she was a "virgin" to avoid controversy from parents. She was marketed to young girls, elementary school to high school aged, after all with merchandise. The media's obsession with her purity was disturbing to say the least.

Unlike Madonna, Janet, Shania, TLC, Mariah and The Spice Girls who were grown women owning their sexuality as a statement against misogyny. Britney's image was molded and shaped by record execs who saw the market for it. R&B and dance music always had a sensuality to it. Music videos were becoming more sexualized because of hip-hop. Britney's sound and videos were a repackaging of those genres for a white suburban teen audience similar to Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

The two Corys should probably be an option. Aaron Carter as well.

R72 I know a straight couple who are former actors who went into other aspects of the business and they both swore that male-on-male abuse is the most common in Hollywood. I was shocked because I too assumed that it was male-on-female.

I missed so much as a teen. The Tiger Beat type photos went right over my head when I was a kid. Of course as an adult and with DL lens It all looks like kiddie porn. The boys marketing is where it is clearest now. Do you think it all went under the radar for adults back then? A naive parent could easily be told this is what the kids do now, you don’t know show business. Their kid is getting attention and seems unfazed, maybe it’s okay, or what’s the harm?

Britney was sexualized early in her own life...sexually active with that bit older neighbor in a recent interview. Her schtick was virginal for a long time even through JT days.

Absolutely it went under the radar r86. It was completely and totally normalized. That’s the thing the younger generations struggle to understand — this WAS the culture. People didn’t think it was wrong because this was all they knew. When you know better, you do better. People change, society changes.

I feel like intent was also the key. Nudity in film that isn't meant to be sexual but to add realism or play a role in the plot isn't pornographic. Prepubescent Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby should not have been seen as sexy to anyone but a pedo. So many small children appeared nude but nobody cares about that because it's not sexual.

Now, a teen boy being shirtless or a girl in a bikini isn't necessarily sexual. We all go to the beach or pools. But if the camera is staged in a way that lingers on their body and the actor is posed in positions that are meant to be seductive then it's designed to titillation. A lot of the teen magazine photoshoots were borderline softcore porn. You'd wonder if the demographic really was teens and not just pervy old dudes.

Brad Renfro in Apt Pupil was sexualized. The camera was gazing at his nude body for long periods of the time. That locker room shower scene showed his butt. The bedroom scene had his shirtless body squirming around in bed and sweating. It was softcore gay porn. A lot of people thought he was over 18. He looked older and his character he was supposed to be around 17. But he himself was only 14 or 15 at the time it was shot. The fact it wasn't a bit controversial showed the double standard. Dominique Swain in Lolita, which came out the same time, was extremely controversial and had a public outrage.

It's so hard to reconcile the images of the stunning young Brooke with the man-faced, wrinkled reality of her today.

I always have the same reaction seeing pictures of grown-up Shirley Temple. Her child self was such an icon, it's strange to see the adult woman.

I still find Brooke striking, but in a different way than when she was in her youth. She almost looked like an angel as a child, but she's grown into a handsome and striking woman. I suppose that's why she was such a good fit in the Rosalind Russell role in Wonderful Town. Russell had a similarly striking face and presence.

Jerry Van Dyke whored his daughter out for acquaintances after starting to rape her himself when she was 12.

She ended up in porn and with drugs and killed herself.

The information about her experiences came from her.

Brooke's issue was she always looked older. Her appeal was she looked womanly as a little girl. Like a painted porcelain doll or a Renaissance painting. A miniature adult. Of course as she entered adulthood, she started looking middle aged too early. I find Angelina Jolie and Mila Kunis both had the same issues. Stunning and almost folk-like when young girls but aged quickly especially once they hit 30..

*doll-like

r93, i’m glad you mentioned that I had read it but I wouldn’t have proof if I mentioned it here. Always made me wonder but his brother Dick Van Dyke? I’m not going to Witch House but seriously sick brother Dick Van Dyke always seems exact opposite.

Now I love uncle Bill from family affair. It was Brian Keith the actor. I always thought it was strange that when his daughter died that he killed himself a week later. I had a very strong feeling that something was wrong of course with no proof and I don’t know what was wrong if anything and have no proof whatsoever of anything…Do you ever sometimes get a really cold feeling almost primal feeling that something is really off? There are some really twisted boundaries and behaviors in show business culture.

Sorry dictation..meant witch-hunt.

Brooke's late mother was a drunk and a total piece of shit. It's a miracle Brooke never got involved in drugs or became a pass-around slut like so many Hollyweird actresses.

R92 I agree. I always find it funny when I see comments along the lines of " she's not as beautiful now as she was when young". No one is as good-looking as a 50 something as they are in their youth. Shields is still a very attractive woman.

She is still good-looking. To be honest, I feel had she not have been put on a pedestal for beauty at such a young age. Then people would not be so harsh on how she looks nowadays. She's aged better than most. She was very well-cast on That 70s Show as mother of Mila Kunis' Jackie. Brooke played Jackie's mom as an aged, spoiled and vapid beauty who is stuck on her glory days. Basically what Jackie would evolve into it.

[quote] Unlike Madonna, Janet, Shania, TLC, Mariah and The Spice Girls who were grown women owning their sexuality as a statement against misogyny. Britney's image was molded and shaped by record execs who saw the market for it. R&B and dance music always had a sensuality to it. Music videos were becoming more sexualized because of hip-hop. Britney's sound and videos were a repackaging of those genres for a white suburban teen audience similar to Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

Reasons # 10,000, 10,001 and 10,002 why Britney Spears was THE turning point in pop music. For the worse. I remember hating all those shitty 90s power ballads. But when I think about it now, I almost WANT to listen to Celine Dion.

That nymphet aesthetic probably goes back to Sue Lyon in Lolita or Alice in Alice in Wonderland. Also many of the animated Disney princesses were weirdly sexualized despite being young teens like Ariel in The Little Mermaid and Jasmine in Aladdin. Kpop, Jpop and anime has this weird sexualization of young girls who act super angelic with childlike voices and dress in schoolgirl outfits.

There's a male equivalent to this: faunlet. That is associated with Bjorn Andresson and Leonardo DiCaprio. It goes back even further to Ancient Greece and all the Renaissance painters where the young male was the subject of beauty. I think that's also part of Chamalet's appeal.

If the person is over 18 and just looks young then it is not an issue though borderline weird because it sexualizes acting and looking childlike.

Does anyone have any good Teri Shields horror stories?

The premise is stupid. Hell, off the top of my head, Judy Garland who was hooked on pills when she was what...7?

I've never seen Apt Pupil, but looking at the stills, it does look like he was sexualized.

Also, Jerry Van Dyke. He does seem like a creep, just based on episodes of MTM Show.

R105 Apt Pupil was an alright movie, it moved too fast and too slow. Singer is such a hack of a director. The movie needed to be longer and more faithful to the short story. It felt very amateurish and Singer clearly cared more about objectifying Brad's beauty than writing a coherent script. Brad Renfro and Ian McKellen we're phenomenal in their roles though. I appreciate the fact Brad's character is obviously gay-coded though they could fave explored that more. Brad did well playing this Dorian Gray or Laura Palmer type of role. Starting out sweet and innocent, a golden boy athlete to unleashing his inner-evil after being corrupted.

Joshua Jackson and David Schwimmer were in this too. But barely contributed much.

IIRC, Teri Shields was a lesbian.

[quote]Also, Jerry Van Dyke. He does seem like a creep, just based on episodes of MTM Show.

And his characters were never funny whether he was on MTM, Dick Van Dyke or Coach. We were always supposed to feel bad for him and recognize his inner goodness, but he just came across needy and annoying at best, manipulative at worst. Guilting you to feel bad for him and ignore the stupid thing he had just done like he was some kid who did not know better rather than a grown man. That kind of character get more painful to watch as the actor gets older. No one should be doing a variation of Gilligan or Barney Fife or Jethro when they are in their 40s or older.

He made Coach completely unwatchable. Not that it was great tv either way. It’s amazing how long some of these shows lasted.

R96 Not me, but my sister told me something like this once. She had a really big crush on DL fave Brad Renfro in her youth, and said that she read an interview with him in Seventeen magazine in the late 90s that killed her crush. She said that it wasn't anything he said, but just that he seemed "off."

R109 There was actually a revival of Coach that was shut down in the middle of production.

R110 He was pretty blunt. In interviews he never hid he had a troubled life and dealings with depression and feelings of loneliness. Given his shitty drug addict parents who both abandoned Brad at a young age to get raised by his grandmother in a trailer. I couldn't blame him. He's popular in the gay crowd because he was an ally. There's even a story by Bruce LaBruce about hanging out with Brad. Apt Pupil and Bully both had gay subtext. It's a shame Heath Ledger's death overshadowed his. Heath was also talented but like Brad, he was also a junkie and died no different.

It's funny that people like to blame "Hollyweird", but Brad Renfro had an upbringing out of a Dickensian novel. He was messed up long before he made it to LA.

I think it's the combo of a Dickensian childhood (or any family history that is dysfunctional) and Hollywood that creates the bad synergy. Weinstein tried it with Gwyneth Paltrow, who is 2nd generation and was not destitute.

Hollywood does seem to be particularly set up for sexual exploitation.

R114 but do you think he would've had a healthy life if he hadn't been discovered?

Acting, singing and dancing were historically working-class professions and were likened to prostitution. Also, it was a safe haven for gays, minorities and the mentally ill.

R115, I don't know that much about Brad Renfro, but yes, he may have had problems (addiction), anyway. He may have died relatively young, anyway. Extreme poverty is something I never had to experience and it must be extra-hard on children.

[quote]Brooke's mom may have been a crazy drunken whore who made questionable decisions but I don't think she hated her daughter enough to allow grown men to fuck her. She was just a morally bankrupt pageant mother.

OK, now that's enough. And when I say enough, you know I'm not just whistling Dixie. With a baton.

[quote] Hence also, why parents were eager to marry their daughter off young to an older wealthy man.

I had a psychology professor decades ago tell us that his when his grandmother in the old country got her first menstrual period, a man and a woman from another town appeared about 2 weeks later. She as told to go sit on the porch outside the house while the couple talked to her parents. It turned out they were bargaining. They made a deal and she was basically sold for a dowry to their son for marriage. She was marred a month later.

When a girl got her period, it meant she could become pregnant. Any man of means, or passing soldier or tramp could rape & impregnate her. If she was impregnated without being married, she and her family were ruined. Better to get her married ASAP and let that be her husband’s problem. People had a lot of kids in those days. If one of the girls was pregnant, the other kids — especially the other girls in the family — had their futures destroyed.

I enjoyed Brad’s interview, thanks for posting. He was smart, I like hearing about the backstory, preparation, and creative process. So much better than a celeb selling miscarriage or some gossip to get attention to a project.

[Quote] Weinstein tried it with Gwyneth Paltrow

Hmm yes, he tried it with her many times.

Brooke loves the film Pretty Baby and says she’s very proud of it.

She also wrote her college thesis on Louis Malle

Brooke did a cover for playboy in December 1986, but never did a layout for them. She was pretty brave putting out there how bad her postpartum depression got then having to deal with Tom cruises shit. Her and Jodie foster both became the adults in their relationships with their mothers.

Pedo was wrong in the 60s and 70s too. Hence the many lawsuits and charges against those who once held sway over a number of youngsters.

Right on the money about Jerry Van Dyke. I always felt guilty disliking him and his shtick so much when I loved Dick Van Dyke.

How do we know that Jerry Van Dyke molested his daughter? I know she was a mess but where do the allegations of abuse come from?

Listening is not the same as Reading R3. I thought her autobiography about her mother and herself was very good. I wish her the best. She is one child star who did not turn out whacko.

Brooke's film career started suffering because she wasn't working with brilliant directors anymore. She was an it girl of the late 70s and early 80s. I mean Louis Malle and Franco Zeffirelli were amazing directors with big visions and critically acclaimed work. She cast alongside George Burns and Peter Fonda too as a kid. Brooke retiring to go to college and then returning was very smart for her mental health and not a mistake but the public moved on too to new "lolita" it girls like Winona Ryder, Heather Graham, Juliette Lewis by time Brooke went back to acting. Brooke still had a comeback on TV though.

Will we ever get to see Brenda Starr? It must’ve been stinky bad for the studio to refuse to release it.

I'm watching "Once Upon a Time in america", discussing Jennifer Connelly with my partner. I actually thought nude, 14 year old Connelly was Brooke Shields.

Was Jennifer the poor man's Brooke in the 80s? Did she take roles Brooke wouldn't? She seems to have done nudity very young too, and has a similar look.

Jennifer is a better actress than Brooke and she kept getting meaty roles even as she aged like Dark City and Requiem for a Dream. So poor man's version doesn't quite fit. She's another on that list of breathtaking young beauties. She was gorgeous in Labyrinth.

Phoebe Cates would be better as a poor man's Brooke. She starred in a Blue Lagoon rip-off, Paradise and appeared nude barely legal in Fast Times. Gorgeous girl too.

R132, thank you!

Christina Applegate was pretty much a walking dumb blonde slut joke on Married... with Children. She was around 15 when she started that role too. From what I recall, she had a big role in getting the writers to reimagine Kelly Bundy as an idiot savant, later episodes had Kelly being good at memorization of trivia, playing pool and misquoting old proverbs (which would be normally out of her vocabulary). There was a Married... with Children rip-off from the 90s called Unhappily Ever After, which featured the heavily sexualized 16-year-old Nikki Cox playing a Kelly Bundy clone, though this time the character was highly smart not a ditz and was bidding her virginity off to a rich man.

R96, Brian Keith had lung cancer and emphysema at the time and was going through chemotherapy. In the 70s chemo was very harsh and the likelihood of success was much lower. Depression can be a side effect of chemotherapy. I wouldn't automatically assume something inappropriate was going on with the daughter.

Brooke was paired with really hot dudes. Christopher Atkins in Blue Lagoon and Martin Hewitt in Endless Love. But she claims that Dean Cain (at the peak of his hotness) took her V-card though. Martin Hewitt retired from acting and pulled a Michael Schoeffling.

[quote]the photographer argued they were not sexual in nature (despite they fact they appeared in Playboy)

They appeared in a supplement called "Sugar 'n' Spice" and not in Playboy proper, and the supplement was advertised as being focused on artistic nudes and not sexual nudes, which apparently was a consideration in the court case.

The photos were definitely intended to be titillating, and apparently there was a caption under at least some of the other younger girls' photos calling them "sexually mature."

Jennifer Connelly and Phoebe Cates are two of the only young beauties who became beautiful adults. Too many, got hard-faced as they got older like Brooke Shields.

R96, you’re right on the details. I probably shouldn’t have brought it up...just a weird feeling I got. It must be hell to see a loved one suffer.

As a model, Phoebe did really well in Asian markets.

That's because she's part Asian (her grandfather was Chinese/Filipino) but with large, round eyes. That will always be a winner in Asia.

[quote] Christina Applegate was pretty much a walking dumb blonde slut joke on Married... with Children.

That character (Kelly Bundy) was old and tired, even for that time ('80s). I don't care if they made her some kind of idiot savant. That character was shitty.

Gary Coleman’s parents did him dirty by spending every penny of his money on themselves when they were supposedly putting it away for him. I totally understand why he had an attitude problem. His parents were cunts.

Elizabeth McGovern was also in Once Upon a Time in America (as the older Jennifer Connelly). She's a few years than BS, but they remind me of each other.

Bjorn Andressen says he felt exploited by Visconti. It was creepy how Bjorn was marketed as "the most beautiful boy" by Visconti. Visconti took him to gay clubs underage, paraded him around like a piece of meat and he grew very critical towards Bjorn as he was getting taller and older, claiming Bjorn's beauty was fading. The whole thing made Bjorn uncomfortable because he was objectified and his youthful image as Tadzio became iconic for decades. He can never escape that movie nor the expectation of being beautiful. I imagine had Visconti not had been so manipulative and emotionally abusive that Bjorn would have had less harsh feelings.

Milla Jovovich was around 13 or 14 when she guest starred in this episode of Married...with Children.

Milla was basically the "90s Brooke Shields" she was even in the Blue Lagoon sequel. She played Christian Slater's underage teenage girlfriend in Kuffs.

Jovovich was also part of Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" campaign when she was 12.

Brooke was really awful as Jade in Endless Love. I was laughing at her pained attempts to show any type of feeling especially the ending where she's crying and it looked so fake. But goodness she was so gorgeous I can see why David (played by the beautiful Martin Hewitt) was obsessed.

But I didn't understand that movie at all. It started out in the first half to be a typical teen drama about the trials and tribulations of relationship and the consequences of being so young and having sex. Then David burned down Jade's house and it becomes a batshit crazy soap opera where anything goes.

James Spader's character, Jade's brother Keith, and Jade's father were the only ones with any common sense. They are written as assholes but they are the most sympathetic characters. They sensed David was mentally ill and overstepping boundaries. Jade's mom played by Shirley Knight was probably the bigger sociopath and she have been in jail as she enabled David's behavior and even tried to seduce him. She even at the end tells Jade to go to David who is in the mental hospital because it's true love. Jade is only 15 too, so still young and stupid. Zeffirelli apparently missed the point of the novel by Scott Spencer.

Of course young girls who watched Endless Love think this is real love and not some crazy violent infatuation and that the main character is not a borderline and a narcissist.

The title song and cinematography was sure pretty though.

[quote]She was just a morally bankrupt pageant mother.

You say that like it's a bad thing, R41.

R17 Maybe MJ wins, but he certainly tried hard to put his little "friends" in the competition for his throne.

In that scene at R149 , Zeffirelli seems heavily influenced by the party scene of his Romeo and Juliet. They don't necessarily look alike, but Brooke reminds me of Olivia Hussey as she was in that movie.

I am a few years younger than Brooke, so at the time I did not necessarily think she looked that young, but seeing it now - wow she looks young. Although, she looks too old to be sitting on her father's lap and held like that. Any subtext of him having being a bit too attached to his daughter in the movie?

[quote]Of course young girls who watched Endless Love think this is real love and not some crazy violent infatuation and that the main character is not a borderline and a narcissist.

The YouTube comments highlight this. The YouTube rabbit hole led me to the final scene, where that seems even more apparent. The mother does seem a little off and disconnected as she tells basically tells Brooke, who looks her 15 years of age, "well you are a woman now -- you will figure it out in time" and reinforces that what she had was a true love and not an obsession.

I definitely think the movie was portraying the dangers of bad parenting but the message was not clearly expressed. David was mentally ill and had neglectful and self obsessed parents who didn't support him emotionally. He became obsessed with Jade's family because he felt they were a real loving family and he wanted to be part of that. Jade's mother was clearly attracted to David. She kissed him right before the death of husband and she led David to finding Jade. It seemed the mom was living her dream through Jade in having a hot stud be passionately obsessed with her. I wonder if she was based on Teri Shields

Jennifer Connelly got a boob reduction and lost a lot of weight to be taken seriously as an actress. Giant boobs do not win any golden awards.

Brooke is a wonderful stage actress. Not the greatest singer but she makes it work. Yes, she was exploited but she always seemed like a smart kid and at least understood what her mom was doing. Judy was the real tragedy.

Has anyone mentioned Judy Garland exploiting the hell out of her three children?

Given all the crap she must have gone through, she's turned out seemingly extremely normal and well-adjusted.

My brush with greatness was sitting across the aisle from her on an overnight flight to London. She was very plesant and gracious to all the flight attendants.

Judy's biggest abuse of her daughters was expecting them to be her caretakers. Teenage Liza saved Judy from overdosing on more than one occasion, and Lorna got stuck running the household and looking after her brother while her mom was zonked on pills all the time. Liza eventually escaped through her talent, working as an actress and living on her own when she was barely 18. Lorna took off for her father's house at age 16 after suffering a breakdown due to the pressures.

Judy always favored her son the most, but even Joey got a butcher knife thrown at him once when Judy was in a drug-induced psychosis.

She did pull her children onstage with her at various times in her career, but I'd argue that the major exploitation happened offstage and was centered on Liza and Lorna.

Endless Love was an infuriating movie to watch. I hated the ending. I'm glad the remake wasn't a blatant copy, but it was still boring.

The remakes of Blue Lagoon and Endless Love were both panned compared to the originals. Though the originals were far from being good movies. So Brooke can at least brag about that. The young actresses chosen did not match her natural beauty and innocence in those remakes.

Wasn't the Blue Lagoon remake a Lifetime movie?? Anyway Indiana was cute enough. And it stars DL fave Brenton lol.

I actually liked her performances in "The Middle" as Rita Glossner.

"That's not my hose. My hose is arange, hose thief. If my hose isn't back in my yard by tonight I'm gonna rain fire down on this place. One percenters.

She's definitely better at comedy than drama. I can't blame her for her performances as a child though. She was more of a cipher for directors and positioned in those roles as an object of beauty rather than a real character. It really actually set her up for failure as she could not be the ingenue forever. It's good she does have a sense of humor and found a niche in theatre and comedy.

I didn’t remember the scene in the link posted in r149 but was that a wedding scene? She’s dressed like a bride and he is in a tux

R164 No. It was at a party. I think Zeffirelli staged it in a way to emphasize David's fantasy about Jade as his future bride. Then it shows the father's angry look back at David and protective embrace of his daughter. A lot of it is foreshadowing actually.

I feel like for all her faults and craziness her mother must have done something right. For all her stage mothery-ness, she was very overprotective, accompanied her everywhere, even as a teenager/young adult, which no doubt was embarrassing at the time but very well may have saved her.

Shes also well mannered - almost exceedingly so. That’s something that also typically comes from teaching of parents.

She was very well-spoken for her age. Classy and poised and seemed mature and cultured. Her speaking voice is so pleasant. She chooses her words carefully.

Brooke and Zeffirelli both handled their own against the prudish schoolmarm interviewer. Poor Martin Hewitt felt slighted.

OP = crazy, right wing, Trump supporting, QAnon following, Pizzagate nutcase.

Go away, scum.

[quote]I actually liked her performances in "The Middle" as Rita Glossner.

The biggest failure of her sitcom Suddenly Susan was that it didn't lean hard into her comedic talents. She's hilarious when allowed to run with it like with Rita Glossner.

[quote]Gary Coleman’s parents did him dirty by spending every penny of his money on themselves when they were supposedly putting it away for him.

Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester of The Addams Family, and the kid from Chaplin's The Kid) also had his fortune stolen, r143, by his mother and stepfather.

A law was passed as a result, the Child Actor’s Bill, also known as Coogan's Law.

If you look at very young, or baby photos of Brooke, she looks a little like Warren Beatty...especially the eyes.

She always looked mature and was tall. If she wasn't an actress. She would have been a high fashion model regardless. Warren Beatty is a good male counterpart, so is Alain Delon.

It's possible she did fool around with Christopher Atkins. She was 14 and he was 18. Close enough in age and raging hormones. Seeing each other naked all day long for an extended period of time. I'm sure he found ways to sneak her away from drunken Teri

[quote]She always looked mature and was tall. If she wasn't an actress. She would have been a high fashion model regardless.

Seriously?

She was an extremely successful model long before she ever acted. Do you mean that irrespective of her acting career, she was still a very successful high fashion model?

R175 Child modeling is different. And she did still do magazine covers and ad campaigns as a teen. But what I'm saying is she could have been part of the supermodel era of runway models had she not pursued acting and then temporarily retired for college.