Issue Date: November 26, 2006
Mogul in the mix
A teen talent tycoon scouts out the girl group movie musical "Cheetah Girls 2."
By Rebecca Louie
The DVD, out Tuesday, stars the popular girl group, including Adrienne Bailon, Raven-Symone, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams.
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THE PLOT: The Cheetah Girls are a multiethnic quartet of New York City teens who juggle friendship with their quest for "international superstardom." In the sequel to the Disney Channel's original hit musical, the "Cheetahs" (Raven-Symone, Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan, Kiely Williams) enter a talent competition in Barcelona, where romance, family matters and shady competitors threaten their bond.
INSIDER'S CREDENTIALS: Music mogul Lou Pearlman is the founder and chairman of Trans Continental Records -- the Orlando-based label behind teeny-bopper megabands such as 'N Sync, O-Town and the Backstreet Boys -- which has sold 200 million-plus records. Pearlman created one of the first network reality shows, "Making the Band," for ABC and is the author of "Bands, Brands & Billions."
OVERVIEW: "It's a nice teen movie. The trials and tribulations, the ins and outs, all of the drama is stuff that goes on in real life. The Cheetahs play off of each other well. Girl groups need to have that girl power thing like the Spice Girls did. You have to make sure they don't look like they're one-upping their fans, like 'We're prettier, and we have it more together than you.' You have to make it a girlfriend thing, which they do."
Scene 7: Barcelonan Stage -- Lola (Kim Manning), the manipulative momof the Cheetahs' rival, reveals her plot to break up the group.
"It was interesting how it played out with that show mom. We interview kids and parents at the same time because some of the adults want to [vicariously] be the kids on stage. We want to make sure the kid is into it, not just the parents. As long as the parents don't act too aggressive, then we are good."
Scene 14: The Principle of the Thing -- The competition director reinstates the disqualified Cheetahs after Lola is busted for foul play.
"Usually, a lot of teen movies have happy endings. When the competition director comes in to save the day, [it reminds me] of a lot of times when I have had trouble with a band. Once, the Backstreet Boys were playing a club in Miami. It was one of their first gigs. The audience was filled with guys, and they were throwing lemons and ice on stage. We had no idea what was going on. It turns out the booking agent had booked them to open for a wet T-shirt contest. The guys were waiting to see hot girls, and they got the Backstreet Boys instead."
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