She moved to L.A. to pursue the Hollywood dream, but it seems Landon Starbuck was really just trying to escape herself.
The belief that she was never good enough was the teenage malady plaguing the young, talented music artist from the Lone Star State. At age 18, she moved from Dallas, thinking Hollywood would be her cure. Ms. Starbuck had apparently been so naïve.
Somehow, she thought, if she became an even better singer, even prettier, even skinnier, and if she could find that right person who would believe in her talents, nothing else would matter.
How quickly she found out otherwise.
Instead, she witnessed how Hollywood exploits children on an industrial scale, and she became disillusioned. More recently, she has taken the fight to the predators themselves who target young stars—as they had targeted her.
She told of her experiences that opened her eyes to the sexual quid pro quo culture that is Hollywood, of what was expected, the favors, the denigration needed to become a star.
“I had a manager who asked me to star in a music video for a very well-known band and I agreed to do it, and I showed up,” she told The Epoch Times, adding that this was implicitly “the next step in my career,” for she would tour with the band.
“There was a wardrobe rack and there was lingerie on it,” she said. “It was very clear that you have to take your clothes off to be in this.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not comfortable wearing that,” she told the manager.
“That’s okay,” they replied. “We’ll find somebody who will.”
And like that, Ms. Starbuck lost her tour, leaving her feeling rejected.
The ways this same old story played out time and time again for Ms. Starbuck were manifold.
She was asked to toast her own record-signing celebration, where she announced she would be a role model for girls by keeping her clothes on. “The very next day, I was pretty much toasted,” she said. “My label deal fell through, my—everything just fell through.”
You have to mingle, go to the parties, wine and dine and rub elbows with the right people, Ms. Starbuck’s friends and peers had said.
By Michael Wing
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