Hollywood Lolita

Hollywood Lolita is a portrait gallery of the cinema’s most famous nymphettes, relating the phenomenon to our contemporary culture and its obsession with youth. Divided into two sections, the first is a history of the on-screen image of the alluring child-woman, the enticing object of male sexual fantasy based on the eroticism associated with illicit or taboo relationships. The second section is an exploration of the off-screen, and off-the-record world of the movie capital, an expose of the public and private lives of the Hollywood Lolitas, of whom only a handful blossomed into nymphs. Throughout the history of cinema, the western male has been encouraged to indulge vicariously in this powerful symbolism. The careers of many child-stars, most notably Shirley Temple, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Natalie Wood, Jodie Foster and Brooke Shields, bear out this syndrome perfectly. But the less official stories and the scandals which have rocked Hollywood make fascinating and revealing su