Role Models For Girls

When I came into the office this morning, all the young guys were gathered around a computer watching the Internet's latest rage, a subscription based website called parisexposed.com. And I have to tell you that between that and the new Dakota Fanning movie featuring a child rape, what's a dad to do? The Paris website begins, "you've seen Paris Hilton the way she wants you to see her. You may have even seen Paris Hilton the way her boyfriends have seen her. But nobody has seen Paris the way she sees herself."

The twisted tale of how some of Paris Hilton's most intimate moments came to be for sale has to do with a Los Angeles storage facility, an unpaid $208 bill, the entrance into the drama of the so-called Sultan of Sleaze, an auction, and now, the publication of more sex tapes featuring the 25-year old celebutante, her in the bubble bath, her apparently smoking weed, love notes, diaries, credit card bills, emails, medical records, bank statements and tons of saucy photos and home movies.

And while Paris' embattled spokesman Elliot Mintz promises to take any and all legal action against the purveyors of her homemade porn, it is unlikely they'll have any more success than they did fighting her DUI arrest for which she's been sentenced to 36 months probation and probable community service.

And speaking of role models, did we really need a movie featuring little Dakota Fanning being raped? The writer/director of 'Hounddog' Deborah Kampmeier insists the film honored at the Sundance Festival is about more than rape.

"Well I think it is so much more than that, I mean just in talking in terms of Dakota Fanning and her performance is so extraordinary not just in the rape scene but throughout."

Maybe so, and Dakota is a fine actress, cut in the mold of a young Jody Foster, who in 1976 brilliantly played a 12 year old prostitute in 'Taxi Driver'. And the performance is also reminiscent of beautiful Brooke Shields' haunting portrayal of a 12-year-old New Orleans prostitute in training in the 1978 classic 'Pretty Baby'. But despite the historic precedent, the New York-based Catholic League earlier this month called for a federal probe to determine whether child pornography laws were violated because Dakota really is just 12 years old.

And while Dakota herself has said the controversy has been blown out of proportion, and that it is only acting. And it is only acting. And I'm against banning the film or arresting the director. But again, as the father of three girls, don't blame me for wanting to raise them on a remote island far from 'Hounddog' and even further from Paris who among other gems is heard on the website saying, "I get f@#*ed n the b#@t for coke! Do I look nasty? Broke, poor bitch from Compton."

Oy Vey.

Remember-- Friday, January 26th is the last broadcast of 'Geraldo at Large' on the Fox Broadcast stations, like Channel 5 in New York and Channel 11 in Los Angles. After a two week hiatus, the program goes live on the Fox News Channel, Saturday and Sunday nights at 8pm EST and PST. Be there or be square.