RSS FEEDScene » Entertainment
‘New Moon’ rises
Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2009
'Twilight' hunks have their places in Hollywood’s heartthrob history
LOS ANGELES — Fifteen-year-old Chloe Bates is in love.
A 10th-grader at an all-girls Catholic school, she lights up when she talks about her handsome 17-year-old honey. Chloe doesn’t know too many boys, so she still gets a nervous, buzzy feeling whenever she thinks about HIM. Her friends know all about this guy — he’s a regular text and telephone topic between school, homework and dance practice.
Chloe keeps a few pictures of him on her bedroom wall, scattered among snapshots of her and her friends. She also writes about him in her journal. But she can’t really get close to him. It’s like he doesn’t know she exists.
Chloe is in love with Taylor Lautner, one of the hunky stars of the “Twilight” films. And she’s not alone.
Girls have been falling in love with movie stars since the dawn of cinema. When teenagers became Tinseltown’s prime marketing target, Hollywood delivered handsome heartthrobs any girl could love.
James Dean. Frankie Avalon. David Cassidy. Rick Springfield. Johnny Depp. There are teen icons for every generation. For Chloe and millions of girls around the world, it’s Lautner and Robert Pattinson of “New Moon,” the latest installment in the “Twilight” series.
These girls aren’t just experiencing a movie-star crush, they’re participating in a uniquely female rite of passage: The birth of romantic fantasy. And today’s technology — online fan forums, Twitter, an endless Web stream of photos and videos — lets them get closer than ever.
Before real boyfriends and first kisses, girls’ imaginary relationships with their heartthrobs provide a precursor to adult romance — a love before they know what love might be.
“They’re practicing feelings of love and attachment and attraction and romance,” said Los Angeles psychologist Wendy Walsh, whose own 11-year-old daughter also loves Lautner. “These are all new feelings, and what a safe way to play them out — in the privacy of their own room with a poster of Taylor Lautner.”
The “Twilight” series itself is about first love. “New Moon” centers on Bella Swan, an ordinary teenager in love with the mysterious Edward Cullen (Pattinson), who comes from a family of vampires. Edward is romantic and otherworldly, and though he literally hungers for her, he’s gentle and protective. But he leaves and Bella finds comfort with her loyal, longtime friend Jacob Black (Lautner), whom she later discovers belongs to a lineage of werewolves.
“It would be so fun to be Bella,” Chloe said wistfully. “I love the idea of having two super-hot mythical creatures fighting over me. I just think that would be incredible.”
Chloe hasn’t had a real boyfriend yet, but she thinks Lautner would be perfect because he’s “that fun, hang out, let’s-play-video-games kind of guy that I think would be really fun right now.”
Like practically everyone at school, Chloe has read all four novels in the “Twilight” series. She spotted Lautner when she saw the film last year and recognized him from a kids’ movie she’d seen a few years earlier.
“Now he’s hot,” she said. “He’s really hot.”
Besides his looks, Chloe loves the character he plays: A kid-next-door type who’s sweet, funny and just a tad awkward.
“I like him because I can feel like that might actually happen, like this guy could be real,” she said.
Pattinson is really hot, too, but Chloe finds his character’s infinite devotion to Bella “kind of unrealistic.”
Fans of the series fall on two sides: Team Edward and Team Jacob. Chloe aligns firmly with the latter, but “it’s pretty much half and half at my school,” she said.
Each has his charms. On screen, Pattinson plays a dashing vampire. Off-screen, the British actor is shy and soft-spoken, humbled by all the “Twilight” attention. He’s 23, lanky and pale, with thick, tousled hair he constantly runs his fingers through.
Lautner is buff and bronzed, with a gregarious personality, dark eyes and an easy smile. To reprise his character in “New Moon,” he packed on more than 20 pounds of chiseled physique.
Pattinson and Lautner may be slightly sexier than teen idols past, but they’re cut from the same teen-heartthrob cloth as their predecessors: Smooth-faced stars who seem wholesome — and just a touch away from attainable.
Heidi Hurst, executive editor of teen pinup magazine Tiger Beat, notes that since the magazine was established in 1965, the guys on its pages have been “non-threatening, more on the boyish side of good looks.” The November issue features Lautner and Pattinson on the cover.
Most Tiger Beat readers, who range in age from 8 to 16, “still aren’t dating boys in real life and this is their first exposure to boys as in ‘They’re cute. I like them,’” Hurst says.
Chloe buys Tiger Beat when it has a good Lautner spread. She’ll also Google him from time to time and, until recently, kept a “very hot, shirtless picture” of him as her computer screen-saver. But she’s not as obsessive as some of her friends, who check YouTube for him daily and follow various “Twilight” fan sites.
She and a dozen of her friends were planning to make their own Team Jacob T-shirts and see “New Moon” when it opens today.
Chloe’s mom, Jill Mullikin-Bates, approves of her daughter’s love for Lautner, calling the young actor “a wholesome, realistic role model.”
“He’s the right age and super cute,” said the 47-year-old mother of two. “It totally brings me back to when I was that age and having those fantasies.”
Mom’s teen heartthrob? Leif Garrett, a late-1970s icon adored for his feathered, Farrah Fawcett-style hair.
As if adolescent emotions weren’t enough, today’s heartthrob crushes are supported by all manner of merchandising and gadgetry.
Where Chloe’s mom had to wait for the latest Tiger Beat to get new photos of Leif Garrett, the media empires that create the latest teen idols are ready with an array of products for every Zac Efron around — albums, posters, ring tones, T-shirts, tote bags and more. Then there’s the life-sized cardboard cutout of Lautner that Chloe’s mom and dad recently bought for her.
One day the doorbell rang at Chloe’s San Fernando Valley home and cardboard Lautner was standing there, wearing a T-shirt and jeans and his trademark sweet smile.
He now stands in her bedroom, near the window and the little table where she writes in her journal — her first vision every morning and the last thing she sees each night.
LOS ANGELES — Fifteen-year-old Chloe Bates is in love.
A 10th-grader at an all-girls Catholic school, she lights up when she talks about her handsome 17-year-old honey. Chloe doesn’t know too many boys, so she still gets a nervous, buzzy feeling whenever she thinks about HIM. Her friends know all about this guy — he’s a regular text and telephone topic between school, homework and dance practice.
Chloe keeps a few pictures of him on her bedroom wall, scattered among snapshots of her and her friends. She also writes about him in her journal. But she can’t really get close to him. It’s like he doesn’t know she exists.
Chloe is in love with Taylor Lautner, one of the hunky stars of the “Twilight” films. And she’s not alone.
Girls have been falling in love with movie stars since the dawn of cinema. When teenagers became Tinseltown’s prime marketing target, Hollywood delivered handsome heartthrobs any girl could love.
James Dean. Frankie Avalon. David Cassidy. Rick Springfield. Johnny Depp. There are teen icons for every generation. For Chloe and millions of girls around the world, it’s Lautner and Robert Pattinson of “New Moon,” the latest installment in the “Twilight” series.
These girls aren’t just experiencing a movie-star crush, they’re participating in a uniquely female rite of passage: The birth of romantic fantasy. And today’s technology — online fan forums, Twitter, an endless Web stream of photos and videos — lets them get closer than ever.
Before real boyfriends and first kisses, girls’ imaginary relationships with their heartthrobs provide a precursor to adult romance — a love before they know what love might be.
“They’re practicing feelings of love and attachment and attraction and romance,” said Los Angeles psychologist Wendy Walsh, whose own 11-year-old daughter also loves Lautner. “These are all new feelings, and what a safe way to play them out — in the privacy of their own room with a poster of Taylor Lautner.”
The “Twilight” series itself is about first love. “New Moon” centers on Bella Swan, an ordinary teenager in love with the mysterious Edward Cullen (Pattinson), who comes from a family of vampires. Edward is romantic and otherworldly, and though he literally hungers for her, he’s gentle and protective. But he leaves and Bella finds comfort with her loyal, longtime friend Jacob Black (Lautner), whom she later discovers belongs to a lineage of werewolves.
“It would be so fun to be Bella,” Chloe said wistfully. “I love the idea of having two super-hot mythical creatures fighting over me. I just think that would be incredible.”
Chloe hasn’t had a real boyfriend yet, but she thinks Lautner would be perfect because he’s “that fun, hang out, let’s-play-video-games kind of guy that I think would be really fun right now.”
Like practically everyone at school, Chloe has read all four novels in the “Twilight” series. She spotted Lautner when she saw the film last year and recognized him from a kids’ movie she’d seen a few years earlier.
“Now he’s hot,” she said. “He’s really hot.”
Besides his looks, Chloe loves the character he plays: A kid-next-door type who’s sweet, funny and just a tad awkward.
“I like him because I can feel like that might actually happen, like this guy could be real,” she said.
Pattinson is really hot, too, but Chloe finds his character’s infinite devotion to Bella “kind of unrealistic.”
Fans of the series fall on two sides: Team Edward and Team Jacob. Chloe aligns firmly with the latter, but “it’s pretty much half and half at my school,” she said.
Each has his charms. On screen, Pattinson plays a dashing vampire. Off-screen, the British actor is shy and soft-spoken, humbled by all the “Twilight” attention. He’s 23, lanky and pale, with thick, tousled hair he constantly runs his fingers through.
Lautner is buff and bronzed, with a gregarious personality, dark eyes and an easy smile. To reprise his character in “New Moon,” he packed on more than 20 pounds of chiseled physique.
Pattinson and Lautner may be slightly sexier than teen idols past, but they’re cut from the same teen-heartthrob cloth as their predecessors: Smooth-faced stars who seem wholesome — and just a touch away from attainable.
Heidi Hurst, executive editor of teen pinup magazine Tiger Beat, notes that since the magazine was established in 1965, the guys on its pages have been “non-threatening, more on the boyish side of good looks.” The November issue features Lautner and Pattinson on the cover.
Most Tiger Beat readers, who range in age from 8 to 16, “still aren’t dating boys in real life and this is their first exposure to boys as in ‘They’re cute. I like them,’” Hurst says.
Chloe buys Tiger Beat when it has a good Lautner spread. She’ll also Google him from time to time and, until recently, kept a “very hot, shirtless picture” of him as her computer screen-saver. But she’s not as obsessive as some of her friends, who check YouTube for him daily and follow various “Twilight” fan sites.
She and a dozen of her friends were planning to make their own Team Jacob T-shirts and see “New Moon” when it opens today.
Chloe’s mom, Jill Mullikin-Bates, approves of her daughter’s love for Lautner, calling the young actor “a wholesome, realistic role model.”
“He’s the right age and super cute,” said the 47-year-old mother of two. “It totally brings me back to when I was that age and having those fantasies.”
Mom’s teen heartthrob? Leif Garrett, a late-1970s icon adored for his feathered, Farrah Fawcett-style hair.
As if adolescent emotions weren’t enough, today’s heartthrob crushes are supported by all manner of merchandising and gadgetry.
Where Chloe’s mom had to wait for the latest Tiger Beat to get new photos of Leif Garrett, the media empires that create the latest teen idols are ready with an array of products for every Zac Efron around — albums, posters, ring tones, T-shirts, tote bags and more. Then there’s the life-sized cardboard cutout of Lautner that Chloe’s mom and dad recently bought for her.
One day the doorbell rang at Chloe’s San Fernando Valley home and cardboard Lautner was standing there, wearing a T-shirt and jeans and his trademark sweet smile.
He now stands in her bedroom, near the window and the little table where she writes in her journal — her first vision every morning and the last thing she sees each night.
User Comments
The comments above are from users of theworldlink.com and do not necessarily represent the views of The World or Lee Enterprises
Comment Policy
The World welcomes your comments about stories, and we encourage a robust dialogue on this site. All comments must meet reasonable standards of decency and civility.
Please follow these basic rules:
Comments will be approved throughout the day during business hours. After hours and weekend comments may not appear until the following business day. It may take a couple of hours before comments are approved.
The World generally does not edit comments, but we reserve the right to edit any comment that does not meet our standards.
The World welcomes your comments about stories, and we encourage a robust dialogue on this site. All comments must meet reasonable standards of decency and civility.
Please follow these basic rules:
- No defamatory comments about individuals or businesses.
- No deliberately false information.
- No obscenity or racially offensive language.
- No harassment, verbal abuse, threats or personal attacks.
- No information that invades another person's privacy.
- No business solicitations or charitable solicitations.
Comments will be approved throughout the day during business hours. After hours and weekend comments may not appear until the following business day. It may take a couple of hours before comments are approved.
The World generally does not edit comments, but we reserve the right to edit any comment that does not meet our standards.