I apologize to Zac Efron.

After multiple (two) of you readers pointed out that Mr. Efron may not have leaked Ms. Hudgens's pictures on the internet, I will no longer label Zac guilty until proven innocent. Until the IP addresses are checked, Mr. Efron is just an unfortunate bystander. I'm sorry, sir.

My apology was also sparked by this developing situation, which I discovered on People via Defamer: High School Musical nudity update.

In a shocking--just shocking!--development in the Vanessa Hudgens Nudie Photos Scandal, a "source close to the situation" says that the High School Musical libertine sent the racy images to Drake Bell...star of Nickelodeon's Josh and Drake. We know! Already-enraged Disney Channel execs will be additionally livid about Hudgens' disloyal decision to show her body to a direct competitor's horny talent.

However, Mr. Bell's rep reports, "Drake says he never received those photos."

I feel like I'm in an episode of Law and Order where Sam Waterston and his supermodel Assistant DA keep arresting the wrong suspects.

The best part? The comments.

From Ben:

What about Malcolm? Was he in the middle?

And from El SmrtMnky:

ironically, zac efron emailed naked photos of himself to drake bell, too.

So wrong, yet so funny.

Also, since Stephanie is into the younger men, I wonder which one she would choose:

Drake?


Or Zac?


What about a Jonas brother?


Not the middle one, readers. Nick's not legal yet.

For readers like my Mummy who could never tell the difference between Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, there are five separate people in these photos. However, Drake is featured in two of them: the picture at the top of the post with the birds, and the picture right below his name and the question mark.

What She Said.

Remember, kids: just because you put someone on a pedestal, it doesn’t mean you get to keep them there if they want off, by zuzu on Feministe.

...Mind you, the person [Vanessa Hudgens] sent this picture to was not only her boyfriend, but her co-star, Zac Efron (who looks not at all like a real person). And yet where is the outrage over this squeaky-clean teen looking at dirty pictures (or, for that matter, his role in it getting onto the internet from his email)? For that matter, does anyone remember that the person who actually ripped off Janet Jackson’s bodice was Justin Timberlake? About the only guy I can remember anyone getting all het up about doing something naughty was Daniel Radcliffe, and that probably had more to do with him being so closely associated with Harry Potter than with “Daniel Radcliffe is a role model.”...

I do remember how JT left Janet hanging in the breeze when that wardrobe malfunction happened. I was well angry when she apologized, because she had no need to. It was a fake boob that was on the screen for maybe three seconds. During that same Super Bowl broadcast, there were at least two commercials for two separate erectile dysfunction medications. There was also a football game, where big sweaty men throw each other to the ground, then pat each other on the behind. Janet should not have apologize for anything. It was Justin's fault, and even so, it was an accident. The people who called into CBS were mad because Justin is white and Janet is black, and interracial sex still scares certain people. You know who those certain people are, I don't need to name names. As some comic said at some point in time, the wardrobe malfunction wouldn't have been such a big deal if it had been Britney's boob.

Onto Daniel Radcliffe and Vanessa Hudgens. Daniel chose to get naked on stage at 17 in Equus. In that role, he also simulated gouging out the eyes of horses. He now wants to inflict his nude, animal-abusing self on American theater-goers and movie audiences. Everyone knew about those choices from the preproduction of the fifth Harry Potter movie till the moment it opened in theaters this summer. I'd heard nary a word about whether the individual portraying the title character in a ubiquitous franchise aimed at children should make such controversial choices; he's a role model for kids all around the world. I mean, horse gouging? Really?

But let one unauthorized image come out of "that girl from High School Musical"--no, not that one--and American parents are up in arms. Technically, it's only two LA mothers, who have so much more to worry about considering they're raising their kids in Los Angeles: the mecca for the superficial and self-absorbed. Vanessa is 18 years old. She is not a "wonderful, pure innocent person;" she is an actor playing a part in two Disney movies. She sent a photo of herself, sans clothes, to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend then leaked the private photo onto the internet, without her consent. Who is the actual poor role model in this situation? Hint: this guy!

"Bet On It"

If you didn't see this coming, you shouldn't be working in television.

High School Musical 2 Big 2 B Ignored, by Joal Ryan, E! Online. Emphases mine.

...Disney Channel's HSM2 was simply huge, averaging 17.2 million Zac Efron-worshipping viewers, preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings showed, per the network Saturday.

The TV movie set records for all-time biggest basic cable audience (besting a 2006 ESPN Monday Night Football telecast) and all-time biggest made-for-basic-cable telepic (besting TNT's 2001 western, Crossfire Trail), the Disney Channel said.

Overall, HSM was easily TV's most watched show, on broadcast or cable, since the final week of 2006-07 season, topping the summertime likes of The Sopranos finale on HBO (11.9 million) and the season premiere of NBC's America's Got Talent (12.9 million). And according to the Disney Channel, it was the most-watched TV-movie anywhere since the 2005 premiere of the Keri Russell-Skeet Ulrich period drama, The Magic of Ordinary Days (18.7 million), on CBS...

...It was not clear what impact the mobilization of such large numbers of children had on the greater society on Friday night. Historically, or at least anecdotally, big TV events, such as the Beatles' debut on Ed Sullivan, have been linked to drops in crime. There was no word if HSM2 could be credited with bringing calm to the nation's pizza parlors and summer camps.

Also, according to the Disney Channel, there was no way of gauging exactly how many youngsters watched HSM2 owing to an untold number of HSM2 viewing parties. (Nielsen doesn't count heads at such events. Ditto for slumber parties.)...

...The new movie starred Hairspray's Efron and duet partner Vanessa Hudgens, both of the old movie, in a tale seemingly borrowed from the third season of Saved by the Bell, i.e., high-school friends take summer jobs, en masse, at a country club.

In its review, the New York Times said there was "much to admire" in the sequel, but also "so much to hate," including, for its taste, too much cast use of bronzer...

For more commentary on into this cultural phenomenon, read High School Musical 2: What Time Is It? on Ducky Does TV, as well as Miss Alli's review of the first High School Musical on TWoP.