Twilight Barbies

Starting today, you can buy the Twilight fanatic in your house an Edward Cullen or Bella Swan Barbie doll. The dolls are modeled after Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart -- the actors who play the on-screen lovers -- and cost $25 each.

The release of the dolls coincides with the release of the movie New Moon on Nov. 20.

Walmart and Barbiecollector.com are selling the dolls...

No surprise there.

Slaying Miley...making room for the next Chosen One

Click on title above to link to original posting.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Miley Cyrus, one of Disney's hottest stars of the past three years with hit records and hit films, has been voted the worst celebrity influence of 2009 by the very people who made her a star, tweens and teens, according to an online poll on Wednesday.

Cyrus, 16, took 42 percent of votes in the poll for AOL's JSYK.com (Just So You Know) website aimed at 9-15 year-olds, pushing Britney Spears and rapper Kanye West into second and third places, respectively, in a section on worst celebrity influences of the year.

No reasons were given for the poor showing of the singer-actress and the popular star of Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana" television series.

But the ranking follows a year which has seen Cyrus controversially dating a 20 year-old model, making "slant eyes" in an informal snapshot criticized as mocking Asians, and being accused of pole-dancing on a teen awards show.

Cyrus also came in No. 4 in the category of favorite female artist, behind 19-year-old country sensation Taylor Swift, "I Kissed a Girl" singer Katy Perry and R&B star Beyonce. The poll attracted almost 50,000 votes.

"I think Miley is in an interesting space where she is trying to graduate from being 'Hannah Montana' and a Disney channel celebrity and coming into her own and having a career beyond Disney," said Stephanie Cohen, editor of JSYK.com.

"I think her fans still want her to be the sweet Hannah Montana and she is trying to age up...Parents are definitely resisting it," Cohen told Reuters.

Cyrus has been one of the biggest teen idols in the world since 2006, selling more than 7 million albums, starting her own fashion line, and taking $154 million at the worldwide box-office for "Hannah Montana: The Movie" in 2009.

West, whose interruption of Swift's acceptance speech at a music award show in September was deemed the most shocking moment of 2009, took 19 percent of votes in the worst celebrity influence section.

Swift, the best-selling U.S. artist of 2008, has risen again in popularity this year.

"I think Taylor Swift has done a great job of showing her true self and coming across as very sweet and down to earth. A lot of her songs are about the underdog and teens can really relate to her," said Cohen.

Elsewhere, the stars of vampire movies "Twilight" and its forthcoming sequel "New Moon" dominated the JSYK.com poll. Kristen Stewart was voted favorite female movie actress and Taylor Lautner surged past Robert Pattinson in both the favorite male movie star and "cool guy you'd like to hang out with" categories.

Tween Dora - Coming Your Way

Parents upset over tween Dora the Explorer

If you have young children, there's no doubt you're aware of Dora the Explorer.

Kids love her cartoons and moms and dads love the character's bilingual lessons.

But toy-maker Mattel is upsetting some parents, who say Dora is growing up too fast.

Mattel plans to unveil a new, more grown-up Dora "tween" doll this fall. The toymaker gave parents a hint at what she'll look like in a press release, which featured a silhouette with long flowing hair and long legs.

Mattel also says the tweenaged Dora doll has "moved to the big city" and "has a...new fashionable look."

That worries some bloggers who say Dora will soon be "bratzed" out, sexualized like the Bratz dolls and become "obsessed with boys" like Barbie.

Others are organizing petition drives urging "no makeover for Dora."

The St. Petersburg Times' parenting blog, whoamomma, is demanding Mattel listen to their concerns. They they want a doll that isn't concerned about physical beauty. Some of the concerns folks have always had about Barbie.

Mattel and Nickelodeon are listening and want to assure parents that tween Dora does not remotely resemble Barbie. Instead, Mattel and Nickelodeon say she's the anti-Barbie.

Gina Sirard with Mattel says, "The reason we did this is to offer an alternative doll to moms who want their little girls to stay younger longer."

Mattel says tween Dora will still use her brains, but as an older girl. She'll use her adventurous spirit to solve mysteries with her new friends.

Sirard says, "It's not about the fashionista Dora, instead it's about Dora being able to go incognito so she can solve mysteries."

Mattel say children can hook up the Dora tween doll to a computer and take her into a virtual world where she can change her appearance to solve those mysteries.

The doll will be unveiled this fall.

Hannah's So Over...It's iCarly now...same idea...another package.

After my shoot with my tween experts (five amazing girls ages 9-12) a few weeks back it was brought to my attention that Hannah's popularity with tween girls is lessening quickly (it seems her Jonas Bros. fling didn't help any). Apparently Miley Cyrus is being replaced by Miranda Cosgrove from the show iCarly as the coolest of the tween tv girls. Who knew? Well, not me.

Unfortunately iCarly doesn't come out on DVD until Sept. so for now im having to use youtube to research. I was relieved to see that Im not completely out of the loop though. Turns out Miranda Cosgrove played Summer in School of Rock so Ive at least seen this kid.

Finally, two more quick notes:

1) Carly Shay's being raised by her 26-year-old brother Spencer. Dad is an absent Navy Seal. Mom...died maybe? No one seems to be quite sure on the message boards. No matter..as usual the shows lead has no mom.

2) Miranda Cosgrove is also a singer releasing songs now.