Back When Brooke Shields Was a Bad Girl
Teenage girls engage in risky behavior. This is not new news. Jamie Lynn Spears, sister to Britney and lead actress in the very recently canceled Zoey 101, is 16 and pregnant. A few months ago, photographs surfaced online of an unclothed Vanessa Hudgens, star of High School Musical. Tsk-tsk-ing all around.
The late 1970s was arguably even more permissive than the present decade with regard to onscreen sex and nudity. Brooke Shields managed to push the envelope anyway. In 1978, when she was 12-years-old, she played a child prostitute in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby. Although filmed rather chastely, she did appear topless, and her character's virginity was auctioned off in one seriously disturbing scene.
Two years later, Shields was paddling around The Blue Lagoon with Christopher Atkins. The film's original tagline was "A sensuous story of natural love," which probably made moviegoers feel better about ogling scantily-clad teens engaged in what might delicately be called self-discovery.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops gave the film an O for "morally offensive," and secular critics were not much more supportive. To say the plot strains credibility is to give it too much credit. As Emmeline, Shields speaks in a squeaky muppet voice. And Atkins' character, Richard, can remember the names of several of Santa's reindeer, but not the city they were headed for when their ship wrecked.
But what are facts in the face of beauty: Consider The Blue Lagoon as simply an excursion to a gorgeous tropical island populated by two gorgeous people, gorgeously filmed by the late Nestor Almendros, who also shot Days of Heaven and Places in the Heart. Ah, how times change.
The only controversy Brooke Shields has been involved in recently was her altercation with Tom Cruise about medicating post-partum depression. Earlier this year, she appeared in a dream sequence on Hannah Montana. She played Hannah's mom.
The Blue Lagoon airs tonight: Friday, January 4 at 10:30 p.m. | 9:30C on AMC.
I think Brooke Shields has proven thus far to be quite respectable with her adult choices motherhood, re: roles and has gained credibility while on Broadway. However, she was a minor back then and think those major role choices at ages 12 & 14 were those truly agreed upon by her parent/guardian. Not so sure they truly reflect her personal decisions. Believe she was misguided. Don't consider her a bad girl at all. Never have. However, I'm very conservative and do think it was in bad taste.
My first exposure to Brooke was her extremely risque Calvin Klein ads in magazines and on TV. I wanted to see Pretty Baby but was not permitted to (have since seen it and I can't believe her mother let her do that - I also don't know why full frontal 12 year old nudity for sexual purposes is not illegal) and yet at the same time Pretty Baby was on HBO and those dirty ads were all over the place, and then Blue Lagoon came out, the teen magazines were hyping her as some pure, virginal, good girl. It made no sense then and it makes none now. She was, on screen at least, a nymphet sex commodity. She herself says she didn't really understand much of what she was doing, so it makes for a very strange mix. When she had a sort of comeback with Suddenly Susan, TV Guide touted her again as some pure, innocent, good little girl becoming an adult good girl. As though all that sex were somehow erased from our memories. How could anyone who grew up with her forget all the sex? Who were they trying to fool?
I guess I'm not really a Brooke fan as it is, though - I might almost like it if she owned the former image and I'm not even sure I buy that she had no clue what she was doing at the time (such as claiming she didn't know what "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins" meant, etc.) If she's really that stupid, I like her even less.
By the way, I missed the Pretty Baby mention in the blog entry at first - it really wasn't chaste, and she was nude in front of Jeremy Irons after getting out of the bath, full frontal. And his character was looking at her sexually - just because she didn't have any pubic hair doesn't mean she wasn't naked, or was just topless. There was little to nothing chaste about that movie, and the bit where she was auctioned off and then flouncing on the bed recovering after being sold at 12 was quite disturbing. She was in pain, she had been deflowered by the highest bidder, and yes she was laughing...but laughing about the pain, because now she'd been initiated and they were all laughing - NOW she knows what this brothel is about. That was really gross on so many levels.
I've honestly never seen Pretty Baby--only heard about it. And really don't recall seeing the entire Blue Lagoon. Conservatively I can honestly dare to say I'd be offended. I just believe those acting choices as a minor were misguided and inappropriate. However, I applaud how she has held up and believe her adult reputation has given her more credibility. She had a lot of fame, pressure and was judged very harshly early on. It would have been easier to have continued down that path. Don't recall hearing about her being in rehab. I forgave her long ago.