Family of twats presented for your pleasure...
serious "what the fuck?" goes out to this family:
| quote: |
Welcome to Marissa's world
Teen gets whatever she wants, and she wants stardom
Jaimee Rose
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 26, 2006 12:00 AM
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, wherev.
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.
More than anything, more than another Chanel bag or even the latest Louis Vuitton, Marissa wants to be a star. She can sing, act, do accents, even: cockney, Irish and Italian.
But to date, Marissa's biggest role was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz for Scottsdale community theater. Oh, and two weeks ago, her pink explosion of a birthday party was featured on MTV's My Super Sweet 16, which was fab exposure, her parents say. (She didn't get one car, she got two. She wanted a pink dress. She wore three, and had her poodles dyed to match.)
She has yet to get her big break, but that certainly isn't for want of trying. Making Marissa famous is practically her mom's full-time job, and why not?
In this day of manufactured reality-TV celebrity, when the country is gripped by American Idolatry and Il Divo-tion, what's the matter with trying to nudge along fame?
Marissa's parents can't buy her a movie deal or a TV pilot starring opposite Jesse McCartney, but they can make sure she's got the right outfit if anyone ever calls.
"That's how this business is," says K.K. Dubowy, Marissa's mom, who was a professional dancer at 11. "A lot of it's luck, a lot of it's talent, a lot of it is being in right place in the right time.
"Her daddy and I can't get her through that door. We can maybe introduce her to people that are going to open doors for her, but she's going to have to get through the door with her talent."
So bring on the summers in LA, the flights back and forth to auditions, the résumés, the head shots and all the costs involved. Miss Marissa - the baby of the family, the only little girl - has a dream.
"Despite how it might appear," adds Dubowy - despite the fact that they paid $50,000 to rent a house for their daughter's birthday party and let this information be broadcast on national television - "she really does know how lucky she is."
"She's spoiled," Dubowy says, "but hopefully, it's a grounded spoiled."
Singing in the suite
There is always music coming from Marissa's room, her mother says. (The bedroom? Princessville. Think suite. Jacuzzi tub, iridescent-tiled vanity, Chanel bags peppering the careful closet and drapes above the bed, Sleeping Beauty-style.)
"Even when she was little," Dubowy says, "she woke up singing, went to bed singing. Sometimes she sings her own thing; sometimes she sings to other artists. She knows every word to every song.
"Marissa's been saying this is what she wanted to do since she was 6 or 7, and it has never faltered. She has never hesitated."
(You can hear Marissa sing at www.marissaleighonline.com . Note the Victoria's Secret-esque angel wings she's wearing on her demo cover.)
Since Marissa was 13, her mom has been trying to make it happen. She's been close a couple of times: There was a producer interested in doing a record, but Marissa thought he made her music into "bubblegum songs."
Then, she was accepted to a Los Angeles acting school, and it was " 'Oh, this is what I love, I wanna do this now,' " says Dubowy. Since, she's scored some sweet auditions: the Hilary Duff role in Cheaper by the Dozen, even Hannah Montana, a buzzy new show on the Disney Channel.
Last year, Marissa set her sights on MTV's My Super Sweet 16. She was having a big party in November anyway, "a legend at my school," she says, and she saw how last season they showed all those 16-year-olds performing at their parties.
"And then, like, I thought it would be really good exposure if I was singing on TV," she says.
Totally, yeah
MTV loved Marissa, a sophomore at Desert Mountain High School, who supplied the film crew with these quotes:
"I'm a princess."
"I'm such a rock star that I can do this."
"So many people are so jealous of me because my dad owns three car dealerships and we have a lot of money."
And this:
"I always get exactly what I want."
MTV also worshipped her parents, who gave the editing room so many opportunities to use that cash machine cha-ching sound effect: 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.
(Clip from the show: "What about, like, Goth people?" a friend asks Marissa, as she ponders her guest list. "Nooooo," Marissa says. "My theme is pink!")
Frankie J, by the way, was flown in with a three-person entourage. His entire assemblage was put up in suites at the Phoenician and given roundtrip limo service to and from all airports involved. MTV paid for none of this.
"My daddy did everything perfect by getting me Frankie J," Marissa announces on the show.
She has long since figured out the best way to butter up Daddy, who is officially Marc Dubowy, owner of Mark Mitsubishi and Mark Kia car dealerships. (Marissa and car No. 2 are in the latest commercials. Hello, exposure!)
"You know, I just bat my eyes and smile and act really sweet, that's the only way I can get anything," she says. "And you know, just everyday I tell him that I love him and thanks for everything.
"I can't even believe I have these things that most people would never even dream of having, like a publicist and a manager - so cool," she says.
Showtime
Last week, on the night of Marissa's party's big TV debut, the Dubowys gathered the faithful at their home.
K.K. had a stack of Marissa's demo CDs and head shots at the ready, which she passed out as party favors, having Marissa autograph them as needed. Over a chocolate fountain and strawberries, guests pondered how they could help Marissa make it.
"I know Paula; we could get her on American Idol," one offers.
"Oh, she doesn't want to have to be under American Idol for four years," K.K. demurs.
As the show airs, the parade of pampering unfolds on-screen (the bouncers, the hired dancers, the tiara). Marissa is presented with her second car - a red convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse "to drive on weekends," Marc tells her. At this, the cha-ching sound effect goes wild, and the guests twitter and razz Marc, who just shakes his head.
"What the hell is he going to do for her wedding?" trills guest Nicole Phillips.
"She'll be eloping," Marc replies.
In the other room, Marissa and a gaggle of friends are piled on her parents' bed, promising Marissa she looks so so pretty on TV, and clutching their rhinestone-covered cellphones tightly, or tucking them under their tank top straps for easy access. The phones ring with glee - friends calling: You look soooo hot!
The buzz on the party at school, says Solena Curry, 16, one of Marissa's BFFs, is that "they think it's crazy, saying it's ridiculous and stuff. But you know they're all jealous. I'm jealous. My friends were gone on my birthday."
"I didn't have a party. I had a fiesta," moans another girlfriend. "We went out to dinner at Ajo Al's."
Ditzy, not dumb
After 30 minutes of pink and sparkles and squealing, the show is over, and Marissa and K.K. convene in the kitchen for review.
"It was really cool and I didn't sound too bratty or anything," says Marissa.
"They presented her more like the ditzy blonde than the bratty bitch," says K.K. "And Marissa is a ditzy blonde. I'm sorry, but she is. She laughs and giggles and cries and says some silly things."
(Marissa is also always an honor-roll student, notes K.K. - ditzy, not dumb.)
But Marissa and her mother are in shock.
"They didn't show her singing," says K.K. "Every single show from last season, they showed the person performing."
And wasn't having Marissa sing on TV the entire point?
Um, yeah, mouths K.K. She sang two songs at the party. They filmed it.
"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."
"It'll still put my name out there and stuff," Marissa says to her mother. "It's OK, right?"
Marissa's manager calls from California. It will, indeed, be OK. They'll get the footage from MTV, and put it on her reel. Besides, there's a producer who promised to watch the show who wants to meet with her soon.
So in the end, there's just the small matter of all that money spent.
"I know that this party cost over $150,000," Marissa says on the show. "My daddy likes to spoil me, so he thinks I'm worth it."
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."
|
source
what a bunch of arrogant twats! LOL  Oh, and chick is nothing special... Looks like younger version of Lisa Kudrow. bleh  I wuldn't hit it 4sur...
|
