Young Hollywood on Late Night: Then & Now

They Thought I Was You

Two weeks ago, we talked about Mary-Kate and Ashley's appearance on Jay Leno in 2002, and we noticed a pattern. Every talk show host who ever interviewed Mary-Kate and Ashley (with the exception of Rosie O'Donnell) always did a terrible job. They always ask them if they have boyfriends, they never ask them serious questions about the projects they're working on, and the conversation is almost always painfully awkward. So we decided we needed some context, and see how late night hosts talked to other young women in Hollywood around this time.
Turns out, it's not just a Mary-Kate and Ashley problem! Today, we watch interviews with Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Hayden Panettiere from the early 2000's. We also watch more recent interviews with Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink and Charli D'Amelio to see if this these problems persist today.
The most striking thing we noticed is how the hosts talk to "the scary girls" (i.e. Britney, Lindsay, and Paris) vs "the good girls" (Hilary, Miley, Hayden & MKA). The scary girls are truly punching bags that hosts take pleasure in making uncomfortable, and the good girls are constantly warned not to turn into "one of those scary girls." The pressure is always put on the young women not to succumb to the dangers of the industry-- never the media considering the problem might be themselves.
You can watch all the interviews we talk about on this podcast, and the full video version of this podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here.

The videos we watched:
THEN
Hilary Duff on Jay Leno (2003)
Paris Hilton on David Letterman (2007)
Britney Spears on Jay Leno (2003)
Miley Cyrus on 20/20 (2007)
Hayden Panettiere on The View (2006)
Hayden on Jay Leno (2007)
Lindsay Lohan on Conan O'Brien (2004)
Lindsay Lohan on Jay Leno (2006)
NOW
Sadie Sink Roundtable (2018)
Millie Bobby Brown on Jimmy Fallon (2017)
Charli D'Amelio (2020)
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