Paris and Lindsay: Can They Beat Their Bad Habits?

Guaranteeing Artistic Success: The Boom-Bust Cycle of Success and Failure:
Capturing the zeitgeist, the proverbial spirit of the times, is a difficult thing. When anyone is close to being able to guarantee that the next singer or actor, song or movie will be a guaranteed smash, he becomes a rich person. Look at Simon Cowell and why the producers of 'American Idol' paid so dearly to continue his success with the show. Knowing what the public wants on a moment-by-moment basis is difficult to divine. Given the quantity of artistic output created by the mass of pop culture, remarkably little of it becomes mainstream mega-selling success. Reaching that pinnacle one time is difficult. Reaching it repeatedly is even more so.

And even if you have that ability, there is another side of the story which is equally, if not more, alluring to tell -- what goes up must come down. As easy as it is to praise a new artistic piece of work, it's easier to criticize. Dealing with success is tough (see Lohan, Lindsay in 'Parent Trap' and 'Mean Girls' when she partied in celebration of her success). Dealing with failure is even tougher (see much of her work, and life, after that).

Up and Coming: The Next Big Thing:
Along the last lines, even if you are able to prolong your cachet as the talented young starlet or musician, you still have to compete with the hot new thing.

If Madonna was the mother of image re-invention, Lady Gaga is her daughter. Sorry Lourdes. Quibble all you want about her talent, although she does have pipes and the ability to craft catchy hooks, but Gaga is an unquestioned master of manipulating the mass media for even greater exposure, whether it's her outrageous Monster Ball tour, outfits or lack of clothing time at a Yankees game.

In the relentless 24-hour news cycle, having one new look per year, which reflected the slower album cycles of the past, feels slow. Gaga has successfully ridden the wave of her colossal fame. But will the need for image reinvention exhaust a less able artist, reducing Andy Warhol's prediction of "15 minutes of fame" to something shorter?

Hurry Up and Wait: Life in the Arts:
There is an old TV/movie maxim -- hurry up and wait. More specifically, let's hurry up and mount all the lighting and equipment and then have you wait to act on set. There is a lot of down time behind the scenes of film and television shows. While waiting, there is a lot of time to get into trouble.

But something not spoken about is that there is also a lot of time to wallow in self-doubt. Let's say an A-List Hollywood star acts in two major films a year. That is only two successful offers over 365 days. If you primarily wanted to act in movies like Lindsay appears to these days, you could sit around for most of the year waiting for your next big break. These long fallow periods play into the insecurities of young stars and make the escape promised by drugs and alcohol more irresistible.

Gender Inequality and the Fickle Fates of Being a Young Female Star: Difficulties with Abstinence:
Female stars command a constant barrage of paparazzi from the instant they become hot. Every move is recorded, magnified and multiplied exponentially. Private moments disappear. Putting on some pounds, wearing the wrong dress at a premiere or forgetting to put on makeup to go to the corner store can become, instantaneously, worldwide news. Although 'Twilight' star Taylor Lautner has grumbled about the diet and workout regime which has given him the most famous six-pack in movies, the beauty ideals for women are even more daunting. And if you have a beauty franchise like Paris Hilton, your personal look becomes equated with your product. The pressure to look flawless becomes perpetual, all-encompassing and another pressure necessitating illicit release.

Coda:
There are no guaranteed rules for pop success. Walking around New York or Los Angeles reveals a babe parade of incredibly good looking, talented people who would do whatever it takes to scale fame mountain. And once you reach the pinnacle of success, the gale force winds make staying on top challenging. Try and hold on ladies.

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• Gut Reactions
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• Highbrow
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• CelebRehab
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• Health Issues
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• Celebrity Scandal
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• Lindsay Lohan