Hollywood swaps bad girl look for new wave innocence

In one scene the amateur private eye holds a party at her father's Hollywood Hills home that erupts into a riot when too many local kids turn up.

"I don't like feral parties," said Roberts, who has followed the well-worn path of Bynes and Hilary Duff by starring in her own Nickelodeon TV series, Unfabulous, before moving into Hollywood films.

"I don't want to get into trouble."

Warner Bros and the Australian distributor, Village Roadshow, hope Nancy Drew will not only draw teenage girls to theatres, but also their mothers and grandmothers who over the past 70 years grew up reading the Nancy Drew books and watching the films and TV shows.

Nancy Drew opened in Queensland on June 21 and opens in NSW and Victoria on June 28 and West Australia and South Australia on July 5.

Roberts' 18-year-old co-star, Max Thieriot, does not expect the actress to be on the cover of The National Enquirer.

"She's not very Hollywood," Thieriot, who plays a lovestruck admirer of Drew's, said.

"She's not one of these actresses who is going to crash her car and get DUIs. I'm not pointing any fingers or going to say the names of the others, but Emma is not like them and is very down to earth and real.

"Especially at her age and with the success she has had, it's great to see she is so down to earth."

Breslin, the 11-year-old Oscar nominee for the black comedy Little Miss Sunshine, has signed on to star in two major upcoming films directly marketed for young girls, the fantasy film Nim's Island and Kim Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery.

Nim's Island, based on the popular children's novels by Wendy Orr, will be shot in Australia, while Kim Kittredge is based on the American Girl doll line.

Robb, also 11, starred in this year's hit for teens, Bridge to Terabithia, and has four new movies set for release in the next year, including the children's fantasy film Have Dreams, Will Travel.

The Hollywood studio behind Hairspray, New Line, is betting on Bynes, Snow and a cast of young tabloid-free actors, including High School Musical heart-throb Zac Effron, to draw audiences for the musical, set in Baltimore in the 1960s.

Snow, a 21-year-old veteran of almost 20 films and TV series, including American Dreams and Nip/Tuck, says young actors have a choice to make.

"I want to be an actor and not necessarily a celebrity," Snow said.

"I also think it comes down to how you grow up and your family, friends and the people you choose to hang out with.

"It's a little bit of luck too."

Snow also believes the paparazzi and the tabloids and TV entertainment shows that pay the paparazzi have a role in the demise of the likes of Hilton, Lohan and Spears.

With 24 hour a day teams of photographers following a celebrity's move, it creates a bizarre, superficial world.

"I think everyone needs time to themselves," Snow said.

"If people aren't willing to give them that, then they're never going to step outside the box they live in."

Bynes is the most outspoken of the new, squeaky clean Hollywood starlets.

Playing the nerdy Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, which opens in Australian cinemas September 13, Bynes said with early morning start times on film sets, actors have to be disciplined.

"I'm not that complicated," Bynes said.

"I like to perform, I like to have fun, I like to have a good meal and then go to bed.

"Last night I went to bed at 10pm.

"I had had a day of meetings and by the end of it I was pooped.

"For me, I want to stay focused.

"I want to be an actress.

"I think it dilutes your acting if you go out every night."

When young stars work all day, then party at night and then back up in the morning on the set of a film they resort to drugs, Bynes believes.

"That's where the drugs come in," she said.

It then becomes a slippery slope.

"I feel like you can't really take too many substances that will affect your brain," Bynes said.

"In the end I think it will make you crazy or a different person.

"So, who they were then might not be the same person who they are now because it affects your brainwaves.

"For me, I'm very energetic.

"If I have a few Diet Cokes I have enough caffeine in me at a club.

"I don't want any alcohol because 'A' it tastes bad and 'B', if I'm going to have the calories I'll have dessert instead."