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Child Stars Play Tough Role

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By MIREYA NAVARRO, The New York Times

Published: September 30, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Emily Osment said she held on to trying to be 'normal' as much as she could. But this year, she left the school she had attended until ninth grade for private tutoring on the set of the Disney Channel's hit show 'Hannah Montana,' where she plays Lilly, the lead character's goofy best friend.

'The publicity is huge and so much more work comes along with it, like photo shoots,' Emily, 15, said over an early ravioli dinner at a restaurant in Burbank, Calif., fresh from a shoot for the teen magazine M. 'It's hard to manage.'

Emily is among the teenage performers trying to adjust to a new Hollywood, the one that caters to the tween and teenage market and is enjoying extraordinary attention thanks to the success of shows such as 'Hannah Montana' and movies including 'High School Musical 2.'

In this Hollywood, young couples such as Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens of 'High School Musical' are bestowed with tabloid nicknames ('Zanessa') on the one hand, while on the other they are courted by top talent agents who once ignored them but now see viable careers into adulthood.

The higher profiles of the stars are leading to new adultlike pressures, from more demands on their time to more news media scrutiny, safety concerns and, as shown by a nude photo of the 18-year-old Hudgens making the rounds on the Internet, increased vulnerability to criticism and invasions of privacy.

Up until very recently, news coverage usually came from tween magazines that offered uniformly positive, mostly wholesome coverage.

'We never use the word 'sex,'' said Molly MacDermot, editor in chief of the magazines Twist and M.

But it is not unusual for stars who have not yet had their sweet 16 to be scrutinized by the fashion police on the red carpet.

Tween fans can be just as merciless as they blog away.

'Someone can blog about how terrible your outfit is or somebody can post a rumor, and, whether it's true or not, it's out there,' said Leesa Coble, editor in chief of Tiger Beat and Bop magazines, which cater to the 10-to-14 set.

'When you're 13 or 14, that's hurtful. You're trying to figure out who you are at this stage. You may have money and fame, but you're still 13.'

Variety Of Privacy Concerns

Cindy Osbrink, a talent agent who represents Dakota Fanning and other young talent, says she tells her clients to accept paparazzi as part of their lives.

'You smile and you just keep on walking,' she said she tells them.

But ambushes by shutterbugs, professional or the cell phone-toting type, are only part of the landscape for these children. They get maximum exposure through deals that may include not only performing on television shows, movies and albums, but also lending their name to clothing lines and other merchandise.

Anne Henry, a founder of Biz Parentz, an advocacy group for parents and children in the entertainment industry, said that many parents worry about how the Internet facilitates the passing around of personal information. She said that she has dealt with complaints from parents about fans showing up at homes and schools and about names and pictures appearing on pedophile sites.

When she Googles her own daughter, an 11-year-old who has had roles on television series and in movies, she has ended up in portals to pornographic sites, she said.

'The Internet and anonymity really allow the crazies to flourish,' she said.

Emily, whose brother is Oscar-nominated actor Haley Joel Osment, the child star of 'The Sixth Sense,' has had to deal with all of it to one degree or another.

She said she was dismayed to discover 'hundreds' of blogs that purport to be written in her name, and she is not thrilled when fans take her picture on the street when she's wearing her gym clothes.

For this year's Emmy Awards, designers offered her dresses. (She had no time for daylong fittings so she went to a mall with her mother and bought an off-the-rack black number instead.) And she and her manager - her father, Michael Eugene Osment - are weighing whether to do an advertising campaign for a jeans company. 'I don't want her to be too sexy' in the ads, Osment said.

Emily had done guest appearances on shows such as 'Friends' and played Gerti Giggles in two of the 'Spy Kids' movies, but none of it has brought her as much attention as the role of Lilly on 'Hannah Montana.'

Her association with Disney is proving golden (she is to start work this fall on a Disney television movie in which she stars), and she is fully aware of the benefits of fame at a young age.

'Disney definitely sets up a fan base for you,' she said. 'That's the biggest thing.'

Chores Await At Home

But her father said he works hard to keep his daughter grounded as she pursues her ambitions.

'We do our best to try to be an average American family,' he said of his children and wife, Theresa, a teacher. 'When we come home from work, we do everything from doing the dishes after dinner to cleaning up dog poop in the yard.'

Many young actors are embracing the limelight with gusto, some children's television producers say, already calculating how to parlay their child performances into film careers, their own record labels and more, not just the cover of People.

'Kids before were focused on the moment,' said Dan Schneider, an executive producer and the creator of some of Nickelodeon's most popular shows, including 'Drake & Josh.'

'Now the kids and their parents are looking at their work with Nickelodeon as more as Step 1. Most want to have movie careers, and the path has been paved.'

It is smoothed thanks to the remarkable stardom that children's cable television has afforded. Last month, 'High School Musical 2' drew some of the largest ratings ever for a basic-cable television show, and its albums, along with those of 'Hannah Montana,' are best sellers.

Nickelodeon, the other powerhouse in children's programming, has been trying to keep up with Disney's cross-pollination abilities by teaming up with Sony Music Label Group and starting to produce original movies as a staple of its programming.

But now that these kids are expected to be earning machines from age 8 or 9, up through their 20s, how do you prevent them from crashing and burning, Lindsay Lohan style?

Many parents, television executives and others who work with young performers see cases such as hers (Lohan, 21, has been to rehab three times this year) as the exception. It's more attributable to family dynamics, they say.

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