The Three Little Pigs

I don't usually pay attention to the well-publicized antics of Girls Gone Wild (henceforth GGWs) like Spears, Hilton and Lohan, the spoiled little brats. But the TV screens over the treadmill and recumbent bike at the gym have a captive audience in me (I can't read while I work out, too confusing), and so I have been brought willy-nilly (which I use in the correct sense of "will or nill", not in the bogus one of "every which way") up to speed on their recent Stupid Human Tricks.

I am amazed, I tell you, AMAZED. Lindsay back in rehab after, what, seventeen minutes of sobriety and release, and with cocaine in her pockets, it seems. Goodness me! And Britney flouncing off a photo shoot, pretty much stealing clothes and diamond jewelry, allowing her little dog to poop on a pricey dress and not cleaning it up, and oh all sorts of other out-of-control GGW activities.

And let's not even talk about Paris, because you know that's only what she's longing for.

What gets me is how brats like this GET like this, when so many other, and usually more talented, young men and women manage just fine. But we don't hear about them, no, because Kidstarz Behaving Well is so much less interesting, apparently, than Kidstarz Behaving Badly.

It doesn't seem to be upbringing, either. We all saw Paris crying for her mommy when being carted off to the slammer, so, however ineffective a parent Ma Hilton may be, at least her daughter loves her, so that's saying something.
Lindsay (amazing how much one can learn from TV gossip shows while pedaling the recumbent bike at 8mph for half an hour) has a more problematic parentage, what with her dad being tossed in jail and all, but the Lohans all do seem to care about her in some way, and not just because she's got the bucks in the family.
Britney's growing-up sitch I don't really know about, just the appalling take she seems to have on motherhood.

So it comes down to addiction, plain and not so simple. Which you would think could be dealt with, given a sufficient dedication and ethic.
But no. Because nobody SAYS "No" to the GGW. Their managers, handlers, minders, babysitters, hangers-on, sycophants, parasites...all depend on the GGW for their livelihood, so they're not gonna put a stop to the behavior that puts food on their table.
Which is stupid and short-sighted, besides being uncaring and cynical, since if the GGW ends up dead, or in jail, or in longterm rehab or a psych ward, they're out of a job and will have to look elsewhere for a new GGW to batten on.

We had addictive disorders in the 60's, of course, and I think we all know who I mean. But the problem was so less clearly understood then. People thought a few weeks spent drying out in Palm Springs could sort it out, and they were so very wrong to think so.
But even the public acting-out, and there was a fair bit of it, was on a far lesser scale than today's. Janis or Jimi or Jim may have done some dodgy things---gross public intoxication, pissing in parking lots---but stomping off a photo shoot taking thousands of dollars of somebody else's diamonds with them and letting their dog poop on clothing that didn't belong to them was never gonna happen. There were standards even among indulged and self-indulgent rockers that the GGW just don't seem to think they need to observe.

Maybe because said rockers were more grown-up? But Spears has two very young children, whom she doesn't seem to be all too maternally protective towards, so it's not that.
And the sad part is, we haven't seen the last of it. Not with Nicole Richie's trial for DUI coming up. We'll know how "serious" she is when she starts ostentatiously toting a Bible around like her BFF Paris.
God help them (Really. God! Help them!) and gods help us all.