More Fallout From Jamie Lynn's Pregnancy

Critics: Scrap "Zoey 101"; Publisher Puts Mom's Book On Hold; 'Tweens' Loyalty Tested

(CBS)  Teen star Jamie Lynn Spears' schoolgirl character on the hit Nickelodeon show "Zoey 101" is the essence of sweetness and sensibility.

But off screen, points out The Early Show's Maggie Rodriguez, the image of Britney Spears' younger sister is now the center of controversy, after the 16-year-old told OK! magazine she's pregnant.

"It's certainly scandalous," TV Guide's Nadine Mendoza told CBS News, "when there has been an image that's been projected on television for several seasons of this studious, intelligent ... driven young woman, who's definitely a role model."

Critics are calling for Nickelodeon to drop "Zoey 101." Some observers are decrying the parenting skills -- or lack of them -- of the Spears girls' mother, Lynne Spears. And the publisher of a parenting book Lynne Spears has been working on has put it on indefinite hold.

Dozens of cable shows compete for the 'tween market, Rodriguez observes. From "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" to "That's So Raven," "Hannah Montana" to "The Naked Brothers Band," experts say they offer positive messages.

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Photos: Britney's Little Sis

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One 12-year-old told CBS News, "They're funny. They're not like bad influences."

Because the characters are so wholesome, Rodriguez says, it's a stark contrast when the stars playing them take a negative turn.

Jamie Lynn isn't the first starlet to run into trouble this season.

"High School Musical" sensation Vanessa Hudgens created a stir - and an image problem for Disney -- when nude photos of her appeared on the Web. Another 'tween favorite, Lindsay Lohan, did time in both rehab and jail.

Ten-year-old Marissa Arriaga told CBS News, "It makes me feel kind of bad, because I look up to them, and they do something bad, and I say, 'Well, I can't believe I looked up to them, because they did that.' "

Isabella Cross, 8, said, "When they do bad things like that, and stories I hear, I just don't feel like liking them anymore."

But so far, Rodriguez says, the 'tween audiences is a devoted one. In the latest Neilsen ratings, "Hannah Montana" was among the most popular shows on cable, in the top ten, with more than 4 million viewers. Disney's fourth quarter earnings soared thanks both to that franchise and "High School Musical," which is now moving to the big screen.

And, Rodriguez concludes, with that many young eyes watching, 'tween celebrities have responsibilities well beyond their years.

And what should parents say to their inquiring 'tweens about Jamie Lynn Spears?

On The Early Show Thursday, clinical psychologist and radio talk show host Dr. Joy Browne said parents should take the opportunity to speak to their kids about sex and -- the earlier, the better.

[jack3213]

The more the media plays this story the less value the family has. The fact is, The Spears family was simply lucky, but their luck is running out. Britney is no longer talented. Her sister is not an actress. The mother is an enabler. The people are on their weay to living like they did before the moved to Hollywood. The glory and fame will not last. If they want to have more of the same ''trailer'' values they wqill continue to think of others more than they themselves, which isn''t much. A 16 year old having a baby is shameful in this century. If the girls don''t grow up and mature they will continue down the road to poverty, exactly where they came from. Common sense.

[mad_duck24]

To: One pissed off Canadian

Hmmmm.... You begin your post by stating that everyone must be on Crack. In the body of your post you refer to folks as pychopaths, and you close by berating those who post nasty comments as brainwashed idiotic...retards, who need to learn civility.

The irony is rather lovely don''t you think?

Then there is the wonderful instance of someone telling folks to grow a brain in the same post in which he uses a word like "unintelligence", spells "misinformed" incorrectly, and says "She is almost an adult".

Almost an adult is not an adult.

Then there is this train wreck of a sentence: "Here in Canada, the age of consent is 14, as it SHOULD be, as to avoid all these false accusations of "statutory rape" and that absolute nonsense"....huh?

That is gibberish worthy of "The Jabberwocky"

And "we" need to "grow a brain"...
Priceless!!

[b-easy63]

At least no one got pregnant.
Posted by Element51 at 10:09 AM : Dec 21, 2007

Since you had boys, you don''t know if anyone got pregnant of not. Just because no one came to your home and stuck you with a bill or told you about a pregnancy or took you to court for child support does not mean no one got knocked up. It just means that since you had boys--you were lucky in that the girls and their parents took care of any "problems" and YOU are none the wiser. Get that info straight. I have raised boys and girls (3 boys, 2 girls) My daughter is a virgin (age 18) she informed me she thinks she would like to start having sexxxx. I told her to do what she thinks is best--but she thinks the boys she knows are too silly and immature for what is one of the most important events of her life and she respects herself too much to give it to just anyone or become a sperm receptacle for men. On the other hand, I have 2 older boys in their 20s who are having sexxx. ONe of them has a child. He did it when he was well into his 20s. but I still felt bad that he had this child and will not marry the girl. As the parent of boys, the only way you know is if the parents or girl want you two. Remember that--far easier to raise a boy than a girl when this becomes a problem, But morals can be instilled in children. It is not about telling them NO--it is about telling them why not and ensuring that they see the wisdom of waiting. (not for marriage, but for maturity)

[b-easy63]

While India and China graduate over 900,000 enginners per year The USA grasuates about 54,00 engineers per year. Our youth are watching junk like Zoey 101 and Hana Montana instead of studying. The USA is in a downward Spiral.
Posted by stevenga777 at 09:43 PM : Dec 20, 2007

We don''t even hire many of the engineers we graduate, preferring to issue worker visas and import foreign labor that require no health benefits or OSHA dues or we outsource. Didn''t you realize that many of today''s computer grads can''t get work because companies won''t hire them? They say there is a shortage, claim they can''t hire anyone then apply for the H1 visas. Once they get them, they save thousands in fees for worker''s comp, pension plans etc. It is a win win for business and the global market, not for the newly graduated engineer. Even when the grad offers to work under the same rules, they are often not hired--the mandate to put money aside for SS and OSHA and 401K or other plans is federal and if you are an American, companies MUST do it. So who cares how many we graduate? What does it matter if we don''t hire them?

[b-easy63]

It''''s clear why Jamie Lynn Spears got knocked up for a few reasons:

1) She embraced the liberal ideology of having PREMARITAL ***. Now if she was a good, clean, conservative gal, she would''''ve waited until marriage to have ***,.
Posted by UncleanGirls at 02:00 PM : Dec 20, 2007

sorry to break it to you, but it is a well known fact that the more conservative and church oriented the family, the more likely the children are wild and rebellious. At my daughter''s school (where the avg family is upper middle class, Republican and very conservative) they routinely have girls getting caught taking ecstasy , or having sexxxx in public places. Just this year a "godly man" had to drag his 14 year old godly daughter out of a car in the parking lot and take her home...Why? Because she was putting on a show, by giving her boyfriend "head" in the parking lot while all the other hs kids looked on.
Nice morals. Scratch the surface of most Christians and you find the filth and junk that coats everyone else. They just like to ''pretend'' more. And their girls DO get pregnant and many DO let them get abortions. Ask George Bush about the one he paid for when he was younger. LOL

[b-easy63]

When I first saw Britney and took in the haunting huge baby blues and the winsome smile--the words "white trash" just screamed from her. Not to disparage Ms. Spears, but there is a certain way of growing up and looking at the world---and a certain demeanor and mindset and style that comes from that lifestyle...that no amount of money or time can erase. They say you can take a person out of the country but can''t take the country out of the person. The same goes for low class, low morals people--money can''t clean that up. Britney and Jamies roots don''t lie. Baby daddy and all, white trash to the bone.

[yoopermom]

mindpurge:
I have to say yours is one of the best posts I have seen on this subject. So many are quick to call her a sl*t, but we dont know the entire story. For all we know this may have been her first boyfriend. We just dont know.

And for him to be called a child molester is fricken nuts. Its not like he was going after a 8 year old child. He had s*x with his girlfriend of at least two years!

It is nice to see that most of the posters here have never had *** as a teenager and saved themselves for marrage though.

[tomanyt]

WISKARE...What are you, a pilgrim?

[tomanyt]

deemsnyd..."No 14 year old kid, male or female is emotionally ready for s*e*x." Neither are adults.

[realtalk5950]

for nyckate-

Steven was simply giving facts of the number of graduates per country and I told him it is dumb to compare the numbers because of the differences in population...did you even read his post?

You are missing the whole point. American companies outsoure jobs for engineers to india and china due to the fact that they will do the same job for less salary...It has nothing to do with running out of gradutaes to hire..

Can YOU say DUH??

[nyckate]

house015

I''m sorry - but did anyone actually think that Britney Spears sister wasn''t going to turn out to be all that much different than Britney??

[nyckate]

RealTalk5950

Thank you for proving Steven''s point(s) for him -- one, you aren''t too bright; and two, we are going to need to allow even more immgrants in to do the work that requires maths and sciences because we aren''t going to have enough Americans one.

Can you say ... DUH?????

[realtalk5950]

While India and China graduate over 900,000 enginners per year The USA grasuates about 54,00 engineers per year. Our youth are watching junk like Zoey 101 and Hana Montana instead of studying. The USA is in a downward Spiral.


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Posted by stevenga777



Uhhh. genius.....there are 300 million people in the US...and over a BILLION in both china and india EACH. There''s no way we are going to keep up with their numbers....

[bobnjersey]

[Have any of you wondered: "Maybe she wanted a baby?" or "Maybe the condom broke" or "Maybe the birth control didn''''t work"?]
[Posted by mindpurge at 11:37 AM : Dec 21, 2007]

four kids to two sisters in just a few years ... and you''re hanging onto ''the condom broke'' ... or ''maybe the pills didn''t work''?"

how about ''the dog did it''?

[azcagirl]

deemsnyd: Finally someone who knows what''s going on. Parents like you are going to be the hope for the future not the parents who think it is Nicalodeon''s job to teach their kids values. You should be proud of yourself and children.

[deemsnyd]

As for the "pissed off Canadian", okay, calm down, I agree that the statutory rape charge is often abused and mis-used in this country, but 14???? Come on. No 14 year old kid, male or female is emotionally ready for s*e*x.

[wiskare]

"The Hollywood of 40 years ago would NEVER have tolerated trash like the Spears girls, or glorified adolescent pre-martial s*ex, Ga-ye rights, or violence as these studio moguls, producers, agents and lawyers have."

They also would not have half the stuff on TV. The people that make our childrens clothing need to take a look at what they are producing. It is hard to find clothing for our young children that actually covers all their areas that should be coverd. When was it ok to put "victoria''s serect" fashion show on public tv! Blame the girl or society for letting their gaurd down and teaching these young girls not to respect themself.

[house015]

As a parent of a 6 yr old boy who sometimes watches this show, I''m resentful that I''m probably going to have to have a discussion about premarital *** with him. Great. Thanks, Spears family. After years of "when a mommy and daddy really, really want a baby, god puts one in the mommy''s tummy" now is going to have to be revised to...oh, geez. This plus the media''s fascination with Paris and Brittany is not making my job any easier. When your children are being watched by youth across the world, you''d think some better or more watchful parenting was going on. I wish the best for this painfully young family and their child, though. Of course this thing happens, but it should be made clear that this is an incredibly difficult path to lead in life and this young woman/child has a lot of challenges I can only hope she does better with than her mother and sister.

[deemsnyd]

My twin boys are 9 and they like The Suite life of Zach & Cody. I think it is a cute show, but I also watch for opportunities to talk about some of the things that I would want them to notice. Like they are 14 and have epidodes that show them getting ready for dates by turning down the lights and using breath freshener for kissing. In the same episode one of the female actresses was being presented as a dumb blonde, and one of the characters looked at the other and said,"she''s a keeper". IMO,there were several things wrong with this episode, so I explained the difference between the show and our values as a family, like 14 is too young to be that focused on girls/dates/making out, and the acceptable reference to the beautiful dumb blonde as "being a keeper" for those reasons was immediatly discussed! My point is that it is my responsibilty and my husband''s responsibility to be the role models, not the tv shows, or the characters or the actors. On the flip-side, if my twins were the ones on the show, I would be glad they were famous,glad they were making money,and just as much their hands-on mother as I am now. That said, I would also not expect them to be mature enough to think of themselves as role models for other kids--that job belongs to their parents.

[mindpurge-2009]

You must all be on Crack!!!!

Charge the boyfriend? For what? Loving his girlfriend? She''s 16! She''s NOT a child anymore! She''s almost an Adult... Ask your grandparents how old they were before having your parents before commenging and slathering your unintelligence all over this board.

ANYONE that condones this is a psychopath and deserves to get thrown on a slow-boat to China and have the plug pulled half way there. You are sick and mean and extremely missinformed.

Here in Canada, the age of consent is 14, the way it SHOULD be, as to avoid all these FALSE accusations of "Statutory Rape" and that absolute nonesense.

Have any of you wondered: "Maybe she wanted a baby?" or "Maybe the condom broke" or "Maybe the birth control didn''t work"?

NO YOU DIDN''T!

You automatically ASSUME that she''s a ***, and he''s a "child molester"... How do you molest a 16 year old? Only in AMERICA! Because the rest of the world has COMMON SENSE!

All of you that post nasty comments on this subject are brainwashed idiotic gun ho retards.

Grow a brain, some civility and a heart.

From: One pissed off Canadian.