Heidi Parker, Editor: Teen Movieline

Heidi Parker, Editor: Teen Movieline

Yet another victim of the Maxim-ization—more cleavage! more smarmy "attitude"! less intelligence!—of the magazine world, Movieline long ago ceased to be smart and irreverent, and is now merely smug and insufferably insiderish. It took it a long time to devolve into unreadability, but its new spin-off, Teen Movieline (what's next, Details For Boys? Loaded For Kids?), achieves that level of uselessness in its first issue. Like most magazines with the word "teen" in their title, Teen Movieline is a publication no self-respecting teen would be caught dead reading. Instead, it seems aimed at bubble-headed pre-teens who think cover-boy Joshua Jackson is dreamy, yet somehow feel above reading Bop!, Tiger Beat, and their ilk. What's remarkable about Teen Movieline is how little it needs to stray from the Movieline formula to appeal to the Backstreet Boys demographic: In between pages advertising hot-pink Teen Movieline T-shirts (free with a paid subscription!) and the latest teen-targeted piece of Hollywood product are featherweight puff pieces on the latest dreamboat and a dumbed-down take on the 20 most talented actors under 25 (a Movieline fixture) that spotlights such colossal talents as Drew Barrymore and Rachael Leigh Cook. Fashion, clothes, and make-up are addressed thoroughly, as are the day-to-day lives of movie stars who, Teen Movieline seems to suggest, are just like you, only hotter, richer, and exponentially more interesting. Sadly, Teen Movieline does not come with hot-pink stickers of the latest teen dream, but the magazine still has time to fix that oversight in future issues.

 
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