Does Disney's Princess really hold Bob Iger's purse strings ?

Oh, to be in Bob Iger's shoes right now. As CEO of Disney he is sat on one of the most lucrative franchises that the company has seen in recent years, only to be faced with the prospect that one of its stars may bring the franchise crashing to the floor. High School Musical was a film shot on a fairly low budget (about $2m) and shown only on the Disney cable channel. It is the modern equivalent of Grease or Fame, but for the clean-cut tweenie generation. However, the film became a phenomenon, watched by over 200 million viewers worldwide and spawning sequel soon to appear on UK television. The franchise is alleged to be worth over $1bn.

So why all the fuss ? Well, simply because the male star of the film shot a topless photo of his girlfriend, the female star of the film, which has now found its way into the internet badlands. All fairly innocent, if not a little naive, you may think. Well, not if you're Bob Iger. Taking the very squeaky clean approach he did with HSM (there's none of the swearing, smoking or teen pregnancies of Grease, or youth angst of Fame), he has built a franchise that requires its participants to mirror such high morals in their own real-world lives. Or does it ?

I'm going to be very interested to see this one play out. It is clear that the target audience for HSM find it harder than mature adults to delineate between fact and fiction, hence the need to ensure that they are not exposed to potential bubble-bursting if their stars' crowns start publicly slipping. This protectionism has tended to be the preserve of the pop industry for the past decade, but would equally apply to the media-driven film franchise. But what I find most interesting is that this hysteria is being whipped up by the (adult) media who understand such issues, with scant reference to the viewers themselves.

Reputation, as I am often prone to saying, is based on perception, not fact. Fact adds credibility but often too late in the day, when perception has done the damage. But whose perception matters here ? The under-14 target audience or the adult media ? I would be amazed if the audience of HSM would find a picture of its lead star topless at all interesting, or indeed controversial, unless their adult informers advised them that it was so. Sure, if Vanessa Hudgens (the unclad one) had engaged in something far more explicit or illegal, then I think there would be just cause to take swift action and for Iger to take the moral high ground. (The Richard Bacon / Blue Peter scandal springs to mind.)

Bob, I think your franchise is safe, at least for now...