We’re going to take a wild guess: the words “Hilary Duff” don’t mean a great deal to you. But, as a follower of emergent2 woman-talent, you’ll know the name. One that began with her debut in the Disney Channel’s teenage drama Lizzie Maguire3. And now, seven years later, she can count five albums and 16 films under her belt4. In the process, she’s more or less cornered the “tween5” market：a large part of the teenage girl market pop that’s worth an estimated￡3.1 billion a year in the UK alone. Not bad for the daughter of a convenience store owner.
With her role in the John Cusack’s movie War, Inc., she’s making the transition from teen queen to “older” movies. But she’s done it without going off the rails6, going to prison or getting addicted to anything powdery like many others in Los Angeles. And most importantly，she’s managed it and has grown up to be a beautiful, sexy woman who is still fun, and easy-going. No wonder you voted her the 39th sexiest women on Earth.
All of which leads us critics to conclude that she cannot be as nice as her public persona7 makes out. Somewhere there’s got to be some dirt—a contract taken out on Nicole Richie’s8 life perhaps. Or how about...
There’s a reason why Wikipedia10 lists her as an “actress, pop singer and entrepreneur11”: underneath all that beauty is a calculating12 business woman. Look how she’s managed her “tween queen” status—with a clothing range, Stuff by Hilary Duff (sensible, accessibly priced, not too naughty), a perfume with Elizabeth Arden, her own character in The Sims 2 computer game and a range of accessories all bearing her signature. The result? In three years she’s amassed13 a fortune of $25m.
Q：So what’s the one thing you’ve spent most on if you’re treating yourself?
HD: Handbags are expensive, you know. But I don’t think I would ever spend more than $1,500 on a handbag.
Q：Have you ever downloaded anything illegally?
HD: You know what? I’m so bad on computers, I can never figure out iTunes14!
Q：Okay, if a kid was being prosecuted15 of illegally downloading your album, would you leave them there to get their just punishment?
HD: I don’t think I would want them to get sent to jail, but might wanna give them a piece of my mind. It’s just not cool, because this market is for our music and for an artist to be able to tour and do what we do, you know, now it’s so scarce. We need to be able to make money to be able to have our record label16 support us and go into the studio, make records, shoot great videos. But when people are getting it illegally and not supporting it, they’ve no... It sounds greedy, but it’s not like all that money goes to us, you know.
On Nov. 3, 2006, police arrested Maksim Miakovsky, an 18-year-old Russian immigrant who had come to America purely to meet and become “romantically involved” with Duff. He went about this by threatening to kill her and anyone else who got in his way, and then told a private investigator17 about his plans. Terrifying indeed—especially as she’d only recently stopped living with her mother.
Q：So has that changed how you live?
HD: Definitely. It was hard for a while because I had someone, a security person, living with me and going everywhere with me. It’s, like, you feel so trapped, there’s no freedom, and everything scares you. It was horrible, because I like my independence.
Q：Is it different when you come to the UK?
HD: Yeah! I notice that when people recognize you in England, they’ll come up and maybe ask for a picture or an autograph or something and then they leave you alone. In the States, people want something from you and then they wanna keep staring and watch every move you make... and then video you on their phone.
Q：What’s the worst accident you’ve ever been in?
HD: I got bit on the face by a dog. I was about eight. It was a big dog that had those crooked18 teeth—it was bad, right under my eye. I was over at my friend’s house and I was playing with it... it just snapped19. We went to the hospital and they put stitches20 in one direction and they were pulling my eye down, so then they took out the stitches and put them in the other way, and it was still not working. So they pulled it out and put the skin together. I had no anaesthetic21, no anything. It was crazy.
Q：Have you ever stolen anything?
HD: No, but my friend stole something and I made her return it. I had already moved to LA. And a lot of my girlfriends got into stealing stuff. It wasn’t like they didn’t have the money. It’s a real teenage girl thing I think, like, to see if you can get away with it. I never understood that.
Q：How did you make her take it back?
HD: I was just, like, “Why did you do that? That’s horrible, that’s gonna come back on you, you know. There’s no point, you have the money to be able to go and buy that and it’s not cool.” I didn’t make her take it back to the person, but I made her put it into the store.
Album Dignity is said to be her most personal (possibly because—get this—she actually helped write the lyrics). Excitingly, they offer some comments about famous people. For instance, lyrics such as “Where’s your dignity?/I think you lost it in the Hollywood Hills/” suggest someone less than impressed by the whole Paris Hilton scandals. But the track gaining the most attention is “Gypsy”, which observers claim is a dig24 at Nicole Richie.
Q：You seem to be remarkably well adjusted, compared to some of your peers. Why do you think that is?
HD: It’s just who I am as a person. Plus, how my mom handled me. I didn’t get special privileges growing up, and I didn’t get everything that I wanted and I wasn’t the one supporting the family, so I wasn’t like the boss. I think that has a lot to do with it. And then growing up around lots of young people that were so talented, and seeing them getting involved in stuff and not really having anyone around to tell them how to handle it.
Q：Do you ever look at more high-profile25 similarities, like Britney, and think“that could have been me”?
HD: I don’t look at them and think “that could have been me” because I’m me and I’m not like that. I know that it can be really hard and there’s lots of pressure with everyone watching you. But I don’t think that excuses some behavior.
Professionalism26? Restraint? Good manners? Alarmingly, it seems like Duff actually is as nice as she makes out. We have one last try and ask about her school life. After all, by the age of six she was a ballet dancer with Columbus Ballet Met.
Q：What’s your strangest school memory?
HD: Some kid threw up on me when we were doing square dancing. I had to go home.
Q：Was it from the square dancing, or were they just over-excited?
HD: I think he was over-excited. It was third grade and we did square dancing instead of gym during February. My partner threw up on me; it was just after lunch. I had to go home because I didn’t have a change of clothes.
Q：You know he’s still saying, “I threw up on Hilary Duff” to this day, right?
HD: Oh my gosh! I hope not. It’s not the greatest claim ever. Is it?
我们来做个大胆的猜想：你并未把“希拉里·达芙”这个词很当回事。但是，你若关注横空出世的才女，就该知道这个名字。她在迪斯尼频道的青春剧《平民天后》中崭露头角，7年后的今天，她已推出5张专辑，16部电影。其间，她基本拿下了青少年市场：仅在英国，她独自占据年利润约31亿英镑少女流行市场的很大一部分份额。这对一个便利店老板的女儿来说可真不赖哦。
凭借她在约翰·库萨克的电影《战争公司》中的角色，达芙正从青春片影后向“成人”电影转型。然而她却没出格，不像洛杉矶的其他明星那样进监狱或染上毒瘾。更重要的是，她已成功转型，成长为一位美丽、性感且依然趣味十足、轻松随和的成熟女子。难怪你会选她为全球第39位最性感的女人呢。
所有这一切都会导致我们这些评论者得出这样的结论：她的真实生活绝不会像她的公众形象表现得那样好。某个地方总该藏有不可告人之处吧——比如也许发誓要整死妮可·里奇。或关于……
维基百科把达芙称为“演员、流行歌手和企业家”有其道理。美丽的外表之下她是个精明的女商人。看看她怎样利用她的“少女天后”地位——推出系列品牌“希拉里·达芙制作”（实用，价格适中，不太出格），与伊丽莎白·雅顿联合推出一款香水，在电脑游戏《模拟人生2》中加入以自身为蓝本的虚拟形象，以及设计一系列带有她签名的饰品。结果？三年之内她已赚了2,500万美元。
问：如果想犒劳一下自己，你会在哪样东西上花最多的钱？
答：手袋，但是手袋很贵。所以我想，如果一个手袋超过1,500美元我就不会去买了。
问：你非法下载过什么东西吗？
答：你知道吗，我对电脑一窍不通，我甚至搞不清什么是iTunes！
问：那么，如果有个孩子被起诉非法下载你的专辑，你会任他们接受应有的惩罚吗？
答：我可不想让他们因此而进监狱，但也许我愿意给他们一点建议。这样下载并不酷，因为这个市场是为我们的音乐，是为艺人能巡回演出、能搞音乐而存在的。你知道，现在市场非常小。我们需要赚钱去获得唱片公司的支持，才能进录音棚灌唱片、拍录像。但如果人们通过非法途径获取音乐而不花钱，他们就没有支持……听起来似乎我很贪心，但你知道，赚的钱并不都进我们的腰包。
2006年11月3日，警方逮捕了18岁的俄罗斯移民马克西姆·麦尔科夫斯基，他来美国仅仅是为了见到达芙并和她建立“浪漫关系”。他这样追求达芙：威胁说要杀她以及任何碍事的人，还把他的计划告诉了一个私人侦探。的确很可怕呀——特别是达芙最近才刚刚离开母亲独居。
问：这件事影响到你的生活了吗？
答：当然。有段日子很难过，因为我雇了个保镖，和我待在一起，我到哪儿他就跟到哪儿。那感觉就像是被困住了，没有自由，什么都会吓你一跳。太可怕了，因为我喜欢我行我素。
问：当你来到英国情况有没有改变？
答：有！我注意到在英国，人们认出你，他们会走上前来，可能要张照片或签名什么的就走开了。在美国，人们找你要了东西，然后就不停地回头注视着你的一举一动……还用手机把你拍下来。
问：你所经历的最糟意外是什么？
答：我的脸被狗咬了，当时我大概8岁。那狗挺大，长着一口弯牙——咬得很厉害，正好在眼睛下面。当时我在朋友家玩，正逗它……它忽然一口咬下来。我们去了医院，医生先朝一个方向缝针，这样针线就把我的眼睛往下拉，所以他们又拆了线从另一个方向缝，还是不行。于是他们又拆了线把皮肤挤拢。我没打麻药，什么药都没用。真是不可思议。
问：你偷过东西吗？
答：没有，但我的朋友偷过，我让她还回去了。那时我已搬到洛杉矶。我的很多女朋友开始偷东西，她们并不是因为买不起。那只是十几岁女孩子的冲动，我想，比如，就想看看自己能不能侥幸成功。我无法理解这种行为。
问：你怎么让她还回去的？
答：我只是说：“你为什么要这么做呢？这糟透了，要知道，你会遭报应的。你没理由偷东西，你有钱去买，这种行为并不酷。”我没让她还给店主，而是让她把东西放回商店。
据说《尊严》是达芙最个人化的一张专辑（可能因为——这么说——实际上她参与了撰写歌词）。有意思的是，歌词中有些对名人的批评。比如，像“你的尊严在哪里？/我想你把它丢在了好莱坞/”暗指某些不为帕里斯·希尔顿丑闻所动的人。但专辑中最引人注意的是单曲《吉普赛女郎》，好事者认为这首歌是对妮可·里奇的讥讽。
问：比起同龄人，你似乎特别能调整好自己。你觉得这是为什么呢？
答：那只是我的为人本色，还加上妈妈对我的教导。成长过程中我没享受什么特殊待遇，我不是想要啥就有啥，我也不是养家糊口的人，所以家里不是我说了算，我想这些有很大关系。之后我在一群才华横溢的年轻人中成长，看着他们遇到问题，周围却没人告诉他们到底该怎样处理。
问：你会不会看着那些比你更受瞩目的明星，比如布兰妮，想着“我也许会和她一样”？
答：我不会看着她们想着“我也许会和她们一样”，因为我就是我，我不是她们。我知道做明星不容易，每个人都在注视着你，会给你压力。但我认为，这不能成为替某些行为开脱的借口。
炉火纯青？谈吐节制？彬彬有礼？令人惊讶的是，看来达芙的真实形象与她表现出来的确实相符。我们最后试一下，来问问她的学生生活。毕竟，6岁时她已是哥伦布芭蕾舞团的芭蕾舞演员了。
问：关于学校你最特别的回忆是什么？
答：当我们跳方块舞时，一个孩子吐在我身上。我不得不回家。
问：他是因为跳方块舞跳得吐了，还是仅仅兴奋过头？
答：我想他是兴奋过头了。那时我上三年级，二月我们不做体操而是跳方块舞。我们刚吃过午饭，我的搭档就吐在我身上。因为没有衣服换我不得不回家。
问：你知道直到今天他还在说：“我曾吐在了希拉里·达芙身上”，对吗？
答：哦，天哪！但愿别这样。这可没什么值得吹嘘的，不是吗？
1. make out 声称
2. emergent adj. 突然出现的
3. Lizzie Maguire 美国青春剧《平民天后》（2001）
4. under one’s belt 获得
5. tween 此处指8-12岁年龄段的孩子
6. go off the rails 出格
7. persona n. 角色，形象
8. 传闻达芙与前男友分手是由于妮可·里奇横刀夺爱。
9. hard-nosed 精明的；实际的
10. Wikipedia 维基百科，著名的免费百科全书网站
11. entrepreneur n. 企业家
12. calculating adj. 精明的
13. amass v. 积聚(财富)
14. iTunes 苹果公司发布的热门音乐播放软件
15. prosecute v. 起诉
16. record label 唱片公司
17. private investigator 私家侦探
18. crooked adj. 弯曲的
19. snap v. 猛咬
20. stitch n. 缝线
21. anaesthetic n. 麻醉药
22. grass n. 告密者，此处诙谐地表示达芙把朋友年少偷东西的故事透露给读者。
23. unsympathetic adj. 不同情的
24. dig n. 讥讽
25. high-profile 倍受瞩目的
26. professionalism n. 精湛的技艺