Here's a jaw-dropping article from the Arizona Republic:
The marketing of Marissa Leigh, age 16, is a job that employs 12 people. The Scottsdale princess has a manager and a publicist, of course. She has a voice coach and a makeup artist and a hairstylist willing to jet off whenev[er], wherev[er].
Then there's the Web master. The photographer, who also shoots Lindsay Lohan. The guy who listens to Marissa humming on a tape recorder, and then puts the music on paper. And sure, she has an acting coach. Actually, two.
Her mother is the goddess of her schedule, her wardrobe, her bathroom remodel. And, of course, Daddy, whose job it is to pay.
"Marissa wants to be a star," the Republic explains. She has a Web site where you can hear her sing and link to her résumé, which is less than extensive. She has sung the National Anthem four times and appeared on stage four times, most recently playing Dorothy in a Scottsdale community theater's performance of "The Wizard of Oz."
But if she hasn't yet made it big, it's not from lack of trying. Her parents, the Dubowys (the article doesn't explain, but we guess Leigh is a stage name), just spent $150,000 giving her a "Sweet 16" birthday party:
The Dubowys flew Marissa to LA to shop for her $5,000 party dress and commissioned a $3,200 cake from local pastry artist Tammie Coe. Marissa wanted a band, and she was told to make a wish list. Hilary and Haylie Duff were busy, so her parents imported recording artist Frankie J (he's big) instead to serenade Marissa in front of her carefully vetted 150 guests.
They spent $50,000 to rent a house for the party, and gave her the gift every 16-year-old craves: a new car. And a second new car: "a red convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse 'to drive on weekends,' " as her father tells her.
MTV taped the festivities, at which Marissa sang two songs. But when they watch the program on MTV, Marissa and her mom, K.K., "are in shock":
"They didn't show her singing," says K.K. "Every single show from last season, they showed the person performing." . . .
"They spent five minutes on the poodles," K.K. says, "but didn't show a minute of the limo rides, the plane rides, all the money stuff." . . .
A few days later, after the phone has stopped ringing with congrats ("She looked so cute") or consolation ("We know Marissa's not really like that"), after Marc has endured countless comments in the vein of "will you be my daddy?" K.K. explains: "I know that over-the-top is the best description, and I know a lot of people look on it negatively.
But we knew it when we went into it, and we all had a great time. And it will be a memory Marissa will have for the rest of her life."
What a depressing thought. Oh well, it got into the paper, so at least the publicist is doing his job.
This defies comment from me. The only thing I can think of to say is "HOLY SCHNIKES!!!!!!"
I mean seriously. . . this is SO beyond spoiled. . . and for what?
Posts: 1323 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I feel sorry for that child. One day she's going to wake up and realize that there isn't always going to be someone there to give her everything she wants. The parents are doing her no favors by teaching her that she can have anything she wants without working for it.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Belle: One day she's going to wake up and realize that there isn't always going to be someone there to give her everything she wants.
Or, worse yet, she never will. If she really does get her dream of becoming a "star" . . .
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Eh. She'll never get a job unless she starts sleeping her way to the top. She's nothing special to look at and I'm sure her voice is pitch-shifted to hell and is otherwise boring and lifeless.
To summarize in one word: Average.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
If she marries a rich boy, I don't think she will ever realize that.
And Nell, you figure the parents buy each kid in those four parties a new car, that's half the cost of the party right there. And when you consider how much all those teenage stars cost per personal visit. I'd almost call it a bargain.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
I'm sorry. That's just obscene. It isn't funny. It isn't cute. It's just sick. Based on monthly income, my mother and I could live for over seven years on what they spent on that party. Yes, I said seven years - I did the math. Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: And Nell, you figure the parents buy each kid in those four parties a new car, that's half the cost of the party right there. And when you consider how much all those teenage stars cost per personal visit. I'd almost call it a bargain.
That's true. I guess my idea of "regularly extravagant" doesn't include personal seranades, or even a new car, for that matter. I was thinking more along the lines of lots of guests, catered food, and a DJ. Guess that shows I'm not really in Marissa's league.
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
...you know it's bad when she's off-key on the demo.
Have any of you seen the show? It's MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen. I have a friend who's obsessed with it; she forced me to watch an episode with her. I felt like throwing up. These girls throw tantrums when they don't get everything they think they deserve. Spoiled children should at least know how lucky they are.
Posts: 866 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Heck, my idea of a birthday party is a pizza party at a bowling alley. If I wanted to kick it up a notch I guess maybe a DJ, though that doesn't really seem worth the cost with today's easy to use at home MP3 and radio technology.
I might consider buying the kid (if I had one) a car for his/her 16th, but more than likely I'd just offer to match whatever funds they came up with for the car, and then help them out on insurance and gas. I'm not usually a fan of giving away anything major like that, it should be earned.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Yeah, that pretty much matches my definition of a "regular" birthday party. The hypothetical DJ and catering would be the "extravagant" part.
I'm trying to remember if I even had a party for my 16th...I think I had a sleepover. We went on a nice long bike ride, got ice cream, had cake and food (that my mom cooked) at my house, then stayed up all night and watched movies. That was totally adequate for me. Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Wow. Just... wow. I don't understand how parents think that spoiling a kid like that really makes them a better person. It just makes them greedy. I just don't understand the parents, let alone their daughter.
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:That was then and this is now, We all get there somehow. That was then and this is me, this is exactly where I wanna be.
Oh, I have no doubt. A completely unremarkable voice. And the angel wings made me want to kick a puppy.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I'm not sure I understand the outpouring of negative emotion here. I mean, I feel sorry for the girl and am disappointed in what appears to be her parents behavior, but I don't understand bearing her ill will. What does it take from you that they spent a lot of money on this? Why does that they spent a lot of money on something frivilous bother some people so much?
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Yeah, that sounds about right, at my current levels.
This is one of those situations where I'd love to fast-forward 10, 20, or 40 years and see the ending on. What happened to Marissa? Did daddy manage to keep his high-paying job to retirement? Any regrets? I fully realize these parents are not thinking about the future.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
At least she's old enough to want this for herself. It's better than the parents who force their 4-5 year olds to try and become stars.
I think the worst thing is that she'll most likely never amount to anything, and any true talents she might have will go undiscovered as she tries to become a star.
I haven't heard her cockney accent though, that might be a killer.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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I find myself oddly drawn to that show. It's like watching a National Geographic special on a foreign culture. What both the parents and the children consider normal is very, very strange. What I really don’t understand is why any of those girls would ever agree to be on the show after they’ve seen it. Do they not realize that the point is to mock them?
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Are you so amazed that money can buy fame? Jessica Simpson, should not be be far off from your memories either! Society sat around watching Jess and Nick all in the name of a promotional series!
Yes, there are wacky parents who will sell their kids just so they (the parents) can live vicariously through their kids. This isn't much different that the cheerleader moms and the football dads. Either way, the parents were failures and live through their kids. TV has shown us that money buys happiness and success!
Please, don't disillusion the masses by telling them otherwise. Posts: 163 | Registered: May 1999
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quote: One day she's going to wake up and realize that there isn't always going to be someone there to give her everything she wants.
Hopefully, this will happen before she's elected President.
The really pathetic thing is how true that really is. In this culture where all it takes is publicity, anything seems possible.
I saw some little show on E or something about Hulk Hogan's daughter. I think I saw something on her a year or so ago, and it was essentially the same story, but the girl is taller now and has a personal trainer. At 16, Hogan's daughter also wants to be "a star." I stuck around long enough to see her talk about how homeschooling only takes her 2 hours a day, then she gets personal training, then I guess she goes shopping.
The showed about 4 seconds of her singing, and it was less than stellar. For a half hour show about someone who wants to be a singer... 3 seconds of singing is a bit telling.
P.S. I listened to that web page.... Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by MrSquicky: [q] I'm not sure I understand the outpouring of negative emotion here. I mean, I feel sorry for the girl and am disappointed in what appears to be her parents behavior, but I don't understand bearing her ill will. What does it take from you that they spent a lot of money on this? Why does that they spent a lot of money on something frivilous bother some people so much? [/q]
That's a good question at then end there, but the first two sentences didn't make sense.
You do touch on something here, perhaps...Nah I don't want to start another thread.
This kind of touches on Ph's earlier thread about spoiled brats etc. I'm surprised he's not in this thread. Posts: 1236 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Squicky, it urks me because it represents everything that is soleless and wrong with society. I blame the girl because she is obviously inherently selfish enough to believe this crazy world view that her parents have constructed for her. If you can blame someone at the age of 16 for being a murderer and not try the parents for that crime, then you can hold a 16 diva responsible for being a complete twit. Her parents are equally dumb, but that blame can only go so far.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I'm not sure it's safe to make assumptions about the how bratty someone is based on an article that clearly intends to sell its story to the reader by spinning this girl as a stereotypical rich brat as much as possible. And while rich = selfish brat on TV, that stereotype doesn't necessarily hold true in real life in all circumstances.
Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:And while rich = selfish brat on TV, that stereotype doesn't necessarily hold true in real life in all circumstances.
Ah, but this isn't simply rich. It's rich and spoiled.
But when I think of all of the terrible things happening in this world that I should get indignant about, things like this don't even make my top 100.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Somebody's got to point this stuff out - might as well be my job. Assumptions can be dangerous things! (At least when used to justify disliking people...)
quote:But when I think of all of the terrible things happening in this world that I should get indignant about, things like this don't even make my top 100.
quote:Squicky, it urks me because it represents everything that is soleless and wrong with society.
My first reaction was pretty much like yours. However, it would be incredibly easy for most of the people on this planet to talk about how spoiled and rich any of us are, based simply on the fact that we can divert enough time away from the pursuit of survival and energy sources away from growing food or obtaining clean water to complain about this girl on an internet forum.
Even most of us with very hard childhoods got to go to school instead of having to work more than full time hours to earn money for the family. For half the world, that $150,000 is equivalent to 7 years' salary for 30 people.
Heck, just the fact that even an uninsured person (at least one who lives near a hospital) in this country can go to an emergency room and get treatment in cases of severe illness or trauma puts their acces to medical care on a whole other plane of existence than at least hundreds of millions of people in the world.
I'd wager that those of us on this forum are all susceptible to being called spoiled based on our consumption levels compared to most people in the world.
quote:But when I think of all of the terrible things happening in this world that I should get indignant about, things like this don't even make my top 100.
posted
Dag -- I agree. The difference between this family and 99.99% of us (me included) is only in degree.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I heard someone once say that money doesn't change a person, it just reveals who he is. This mother appears to be spoiling her child, but that spoiling really has nothing to do with money. It's her attitude that's spoiling her child, and that attitude would still be there whether she had a million dollars or nothing at all.
Yes, the mother could be spending all that money on much more useful investments, but so could practically everyone.
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I am so ashamed. I've seen that episode. My girlfriend made me watch it, I swear!
But I wasn't thinking about how unfair it all is, I was thinking "how do I meet her? and after I meet her, how do I woo her?" Oh yeah, I'm gonna marry that rich b*tch and I ain't sharin' jack with you.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Want to know what's funny? It sounded so much like you, Noemon, that I thought it was you. It wasn't until I went to reply to it that I noticed it wasn't.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
That is funny, Porter. It really is almost word for word (except "heck"--I don't really use "heck" much) the response I was drafting in my head as I was reading through everyone's comments.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:I'd wager that those of us on this forum are all susceptible to being called spoiled based on our consumption levels compared to most people in the world.
I agree, but I also think such claims would be wrong. Our wealth, as a society, does not inherently make us spoiled - but it could, if we allow it to.
I agree with what Camus said: if this girl is spoiled, it's not the wealth itself, but the way she has been taught to approach the wealth. I think you can give someone everything, but if they are also taught how to be responsible and generous with what they have, they won't turn out spoiled at all.
Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Although I recognise what you're saying, Dagonee (and Noemon), that we as Westerners are incredibly fortunate to have computer and cars and things, and perhaps that can be called being 'spoiled', but I don't think that's the real issue here. Lots of people in the world are splendiferously rich and although they are tremendously fortunate compared to the majority of the world, they are not spoiled.
Sure, this kid has a lot of stuff she doesn't need to survive, but so do a lot of people- so do we all, as you say- but its not just the money that makes a spoiled child, but the pandering and the creation of a child who lives in an illusory world, the complete and utter uselessness of throwing a $150 000 birthday party and buying a second car for your child. Of giving her a publicist and a manager. You can have nothing and still spoil your child.
The fact that this girl is not only spoilt but with the kind of things that most of us can't only not afford but can't even imagine at all wanting only makes it seem worse. You can make noises about degree, but there is something else at work here that is just beyond being fortunate.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Ok, here's another topic: If someone wants to be a star, why do their stylists dye their hair and dress them just like everyone else trying to be a star? The flat-ironed fake blonde with brown highlights is so unattractive, as is the fake tan and frosted lipstick. If you stuck her in a room with my high school choir kids she's blend right in. Boring. Blendy. Not even the most flattering thing for her.
posted
You know what's ironic (just as a side note out of this Very Serious Discussion)? There's a young actress (born 1986, so I'm sure a different person) who was acting up until 2002 called "Marissa Leigh".
When you search "Marissa Leigh" on google, you do not get this girl but you get a legitimately semi-successful child acress.
If I were Marissa Leigh aged sixteen and her parents, it would really bother me that this other Marissa Leigh had all the hits on google.
EDIT: Another chapter in this rather sad story is an article (well, almost and article) I found about this Marissa Leigh when she was thirteen; pretty much the same except:
quote:"By the time I'm 15, maybe 16," Marissa says, "I hope that I'm famous, that I have a record deal and that I have videos on MTV.
I think the dream isn't coming alive, and it's getting scarier and scarier.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I wouldn't complain about the money going to waste. After all did give a car salesman a very nice commission, as well as giving a good paying jig to some caterer's and who ever else worked on the party, don’t forget all the stores that benefited from her shopping spree. I mean yes it could have feed half of Africa’s staving for a week, but how many of our wealthy couldn’t give that much anytime if they were so inclined.
I agree this is about the worst way to produce a well rounded, caring and useful person, but I guess that isn't what the parents care about trying to do. I do feel sorry for her, but not that sorry.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I almost feel sorry for Tammie Coe being mentioned in this article. They're a reasonably priced bakery that can make custom shaped cakes that don't taste like styrofoam.
(EDIT: The party is) Extravagant, wasteful, what's worse than spoiled again? Yeah, must be north Scottsdale...
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote:I agree this is about the worst way to produce a well rounded, caring and useful person, but I guess that isn't what the parents care about trying to do.
They don't want a well rounded and useful person. They want a star.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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