Child Stars

So Michael Jackson died yesterday. I haven't yet read the paper, but the television and online media are celebrating his music, dissecting his life. Celebrities are commenting (some, like John Mayer, suspiciously - what does John Mayer know?). As a "child of the 80s," I remember when my sister got the Thriller album in the mail from Columbia House (probably one of eight that she bought for JUST A PENNY!). We listened to it again and again. We even dusted off Off the Wall and still found we liked that album, too. I begged my mom to buy me his poster at the drugstore (she wouldn't). I even remember where I was when I heard he'd caught on fire filming that Pepsi commercial. In high school, the Jackson 5's Greatest Hits CD was among the first I bought (again, thank you, Columbia House). In other words, I liked his music.

But then he brought Webster to the Grammys. Adopted a chimp and named it Bubbles. Built Neverland Ranch and befriended Macaulay Culkin. And started his physical transformation. Got a more obvious nose job. Straightened his hair. Recorded Bad. Suddenly I was more entertained by Weird Al Yankovick's parodies of his songs that I was by him. (Okay, I do have a weak spot for "The Way You Make Me Feel.") I stopped listening to Top 40 radio and became more interested in artists' the generation before me liked (Paul Simon, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix). Then grunge music went mainstream and I never looked back on pop music. I lost track of Michael Jackson, except for the occasional news story about him marrying Lisa Marie Presley, or dangling his baby over a balcony in Berlin. Every piece of news I heard about him made me wonder what happened? How did he go from being so cool to being so weird? Why do some celebrities - especially child stars - survive fame and others succumb to it?

He is often quoted as saying he didn't have a childhood. Well, did Jodie Foster, who had her first national ad campaign for Coppertone at age 2, have a childhood? Brooke Shields seems to have turned out alright despite her stage mom managing her career. Justin Timberlake survived Lou Pearlman's creepy ways and, so far, he seems to have come out ahead. Leonardo DiCaprio is not only alright, he's one of the better actors out there today.

But for every Jodie Foster, there's a Lindsay Lohan, or a Tatum O'Neil, or, of course, a Britney Spears. There are Gary Colemans and Dana Platos and the kid who played Bud on "Married With Children." Let's not forget Judy Garland, whose own mother started her on diet pills and Valium when she was, what, 13?

So are the parents to blame? Are some children just stronger than others? Or more chemically balanced? Is it the type of education they get? Notice how many child actresses - Reese Witherspoon, Shields, Foster, Natalie Portman - went to top tier universities. Are they just naturally driven as people and as performers, and some child stars are just driven in the wrong direction? Joe Jackson, it has been said, would have done anything to get his family out of their crappy 2-bedroom home in Gary, Ind. Are the parents of the ones who turned out okay the same parents who weren't so desperate for the money and fame themselves? It seems for every example there's one to counter it. And some stage mom in Texas putting lipstick on her five year old and telling her to suck in her stomach.

Anyway, I bet Mark Sanford is the most grateful politician since Gary Condit to have this trifecta of celebrity deaths overshadow his affair.