Word: idol
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There's a particularly revealing moment in the otherwise pedestrian movie Shadowlands, where a young fan, on meeting the author C.S. Lewis, whispers in hushed awe, "Are you him?" The youngster found his idol to be suitably impressive...
Aside from numerous falls -- almost a precondition of competition now that triple jumps are mandatory -- it was in general a well-skated event. And, if the public does not take its resentment of inscrutable scoring out on her, the sport may have a new idol in Baiul. Ballet fans who cross over to watch skating already adore her. They love her enormously expressive arms and the unusual flexibility of her back and hips. She is that rare athlete who is also an artist, without doubt the most musical skater to appear in a long time. Like the very best dancers...
...Odessa Baiul skates at a rink where the ice is often like spring mush. She shares a little room with her coach's younger daughter, her best friend. Her idol is Rudolf Nureyev, whose pictures adorn the walls. Zmievskaya says her prize pupil "doesn't know what a million dollars is. All she knows is that she needs 10 fantiki ((candy wrappers)) to buy an ice cream...
...knows how Baiul will handle her new celebrity? She dotes on a stuffed rabbit given to her by another idol, skater Jill Trenary. She is a fountain of emotion, weeping at good news or bad. Her American agent, Michael Rosenberg, is exultant at the gold. Asked about his strategy for his young client, he says, "I see her as the next Judy Garland." For the coming phase, Baiul will need all the determination that brought her so far so fast, because that statement is enough to make you weep...
...Kids on the Block were still teenagers when their 1986 debut album, New Kids on the Block, changed the face of prepubescent pop by putting a teen- idol spin on a black urban beat. Eight years and 60 million albums, singles and videotapes later, the group -- Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Danny Wood and Joe McIntyre -- are no longer new and no longer kids. Now in their mid-20s, they have, in show-biz terms at least, reached that other awkward age, groping for a way to reach an adult audience without alienating the screaming teenyboppers who made them...