Posted: 01/10/07

Hollywood Sleaze Can Destroy Young Lives and Young Careers

By Dr. Ted Baehr

Throughout the last 20 years, young actresses have fallen victim to the terrorism of the mass media by being swept up into the hedonism and moral decay that Hollywood and celebrity too often offers. Young actresses like Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Sara Rose Karr, Nicole Kidman, and most recently Dakota Fanning, have been lured by promises of celebrity and awards for staring in lewd, tasteless movies.

What these actresses, directors, and agents do not understand is that moviegoers tune out in increasing numbers after seeing their favorite stars disrespecting themselves on camera.

A recent Los Angeles Times poll proved this. Of a group of teenagers (age 12 to 17) asked, 58% of boys and 74% of girls were offended by material they felt was disrespectful to women and girls. Furthermore, the respondents who said they were offended often change the channel after viewing offensive material.

Caving to Hollywood pressures to take demeaning parts is career suicide for these young women. Looking at the career of Demi Moore exemplifies this. Young Demi had a very promising career, starring in successful movies like St. Elmo's Fire, Ghost and A Few Good Men. However, for whatever reason, in 1996 she decided to star in the controversial movie Striptease about a single mother who is a stripper.

The movie made her look silly, tanked at the box office, and Moore's career faded quickly. She no longer had drawing power among teenagers and the huge family audience. Not even a strong feminist role in G.I. Jane under popular director Ridley Scott could lift her career back to what it was.

However sad Demi Moore's story seems, there is an even more heartbreaking one currently involving one of Hollywood's brightest young stars.

On January 22, the movie Hounddog, staring Dakota Fanning, will premier at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie is a story of a sexually and physically abused young girl who becomes sexually promiscuous.

At the urging of her agent and parents, Dakota appeared semi-naked and filmed a simulated child rape scene. Her agent told the New York Daily News that the role in the movie challenged her as an actress, and "not just the rape scene. . . [But] in every scene she gets better and better." Her mother insists that her 'gritty performance' will win her an Oscar.

What a tragedy that this bright, young, 12-year-old girl has been sacrificed to the golden statue of the Academy Awards!

During the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Entertainment Industry understood the value of a stars reputation.  Especially young stars like Shirley Temple and Elizabeth Taylor.  Good wholesome young stars were groomed to appear that way in every movie so that they would be seen as celebrities that moviegoers would admire and want to see again and again. Now, Hollywood chews them up and spits them out like the used prostitutes on Hollywood Blvd. in L.A. or the streets of Bangkok. This is reprehensible.

The sexualization of young children like Dakota is part of the sick ideology of Freudian Marxists, radical feminists, homosexual activists, and perverts who believe in the pseudo-scientific evolutionary theory that all children are born with an innate lust for sexual fulfillment.

Most of these politically correct moral degenerates tolerate sexual promiscuity, including sometimes pedophilia. They show little or no concern for protecting the innocence of children, much less the sexual purity of teenagers and young adults.

It is truly a shame when young girls are led to evil by those who should be protecting their innocence.

By Ted Baehr Click here for bio and archived articles