Disney sends child actors back to school to learn how to handle fame and fortune
HOLLYWOOD’S top child actors are being sent back to school to learn how to avoid becoming wayward stars like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus.
Britney Spears in The Mickey Mouse Club
Bosses at Disney have started on-set lessons to teach the young ones how to handle fame and fortune and protect their social media image.
Fresh-faced recruits must now attend half-day sessions called Talent 10 on how their lives will change.
Monthly “life skill” classes are overseen by a paediatrician and a doctor.
Judy Taylor, head of casting at the TV network Disney Channel, said: “We talk to them about staying in touch with friends to give them a sense of real life and to stay grounded.
“We realise these young people are in a transition in their personal lives. We try to provide resources with these classes and partner with their parents to give them support and guidance.”
Disney bosses have started on-set lessons on how to avoid becoming wayward stars like Miley Cyrus
One recent exercise was on what not to post on social media. Such wisdom was unavailable to former Disney princesses who later became real-life damsels in distress.
We realise these young people are in a transition in their personal lives
These include Lindsay Lohan, a teenage sensation in Disney films such as Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, whose career has faced problems after a string of arrests and stints in rehab.
Britney Spears, whose career began aged eight on The Mickey Mouse Club and who shocked the world in 2007 when she ended up in a psychiatric ward after shaving her head and attacking a car with an umbrella.
Britney Spears ended up in a a psychiatric ward in 2007
Miley Cyrus, whose millions of followers from her days on Hannah Montana have been stunned by her lewdness and touting of her drug use.
Demi Lovato, who became a pop star after leaving the show Sonny With A Chance and has discussed struggles with drugs, alcohol, bulimia and self-harm.
Actress Anneliese van der Pol, now 32, was 18 when she joined the cast of Disney TV show That’s So Raven.
She said: “When the show stops young people can fall into depression and turn to drinking, drugs and sex because those things make you feel good and give you the high your show once did.”