Vanessa the Undresser

The fetching young lady at left is Vanessa Hudgens. If you don't know who she is, then you haven't seen "High School Musical," Disney's phenomenally popular TV movie-musical.

I've cropped the photo a little, which I'm sure disappoints you, especially if you've seen "High School Musical" and have a penis (or a vagina and the right inclination, now that I think about it).

The fact is that the lovely Miss Hudgens is nude in the photo, which she took privately and has somehow (no one knows exactly how) found its way online.

People were shocked -- shocked! -- that a hot 18-year-old would want to show off her body for a camera. And it would seems that her career (at least with Disney) was imperiled by the existence of this photograph.

Miss Hudgens apologized profusely for the incident:

"I want to apologize to my fans, whose support and trust means the world to me. I am embarrassed over this situation and regret having ever taken these photos."

Disney Channel spokesperson Patti McTeague stated that Miss Hudgens' career with Disney would not be terminated, saying:

"Vanessa has apologized for what was obviously a lapse in judgment. We hope she's learned a valuable lesson."

I can only add one statement to this situation: Are you people fucking kidding me?

Seriously -- just how stupid have we gotten in this country? Just look at the look on that young woman's face as she shows off her gorgeous body. When was the last time you were that happy? Admit it, if you were 18 and had a body like that you would show it to anyone who wanted to look at it --no matter who they were.

Admittedly, we live in a culture where no young woman can feel comfortable posing nude because some asshole is going to get their hands on the photo and post it on the internet. So you can argue that, for someone whose fan base is predominantly teenage girls (and gay boys who maybe don't know that they're gay quite yet) , Miss Hudgens showed poor judgment.

But come on -- look at that face! Look at the rest of her -- which you can easily find on the internet if you look hard enough. Doesn't that make you renew your faith in humanity? I mean, really.

I can tell you what I would have liked Miss Hudgens to have said when the photo became public:

"Yes, I posed for that photo. I'm young and I'm hot and I like being naked and I posed for a nude photo while I still have a smokin' body. And if anyone doesn't like it, they can just fuck off."

But Miss Hudgens, being an ambitious young actress, knows, as Hugh Grant knew before her when he had a similarly awkward situation (which was not captured on camera, unfortunately), that a mea culpa was in order. So she did what she had to do to save her shapely young ass.

Wouldn't it be nice, though, if she didn't have to? And wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a society that didn't, in effect, punish young women for flaunting their beauty and their sexuality?

Tom Moran