Honesty as Hilary Duff’s Policy

Friday, March 23, 2007

In the promotion of new album, “Dignity,” 19-year-old Hilary Duff has confessed she wasn’t completely honest two years ago when she lost a notable amount of weight while growing into her adult appearance.  At the time, she’d chalked it up to diet and exercise.

The true cause was pressure from the media.  She didn’t much like headlines referring to the “Duff Puff” and asking if she’d gained umpteen pounds; she reacted as any normal person would and sought the unhealthy overthin look the media parades.  With female celebrities’ bodies photographed and hacked with overeager red pens, Duff might be onto something with her frank confession.  If more celebs candidly pressured the media to cut it out, maybe they’d start promoting healthy figures for a change.

Hilary doesn’t like being tossed into a typecast bag, so she had decided to avoid pop star roles in movies.  Despite her intention and her booked schedule promoting her album “Dignity” and film “Material Girls” (which has her sister Haylie, too), Hilary found herself in love with another pop star role once others convinced her to read the script.  A conversation with the writer, John Cusack, convinced Hilary to take the role, which he’d written with her in mind.

Despite her desire to stay with her mother, her mother Susan moved down the street from the sisters.  Ms. Duff insisted on her idea to give the girls more freedom, while Hilary protested she preferred having her mom around.  In compromise, Hilary calls her mother daily and asks her advice before making large decisions.  Maybe this desire for Mom’s advice will help Hilary avoid the tendency of youth celebrities to make a mess of their lives.