The selling of cute

At the risk of drawing your ire, let me just say this:

The little girl on the left is cuter than the little girl on the right.


Now when I say cuter, I mean conventionally prettier. The little girl on the left has a heart-shaped face, a wide smile with even teeth, sparkling eyes and long hair. The little girl on the right does not.

The little girl on the left captured millions of hearts around the world during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics when she appeared to sing Ode to the Motherland. The little girl on the right actually did the singing. And now both of them are at the centre of a media firestorm over a decision by Chinese officials to replace the original singer with a more aesthetically-pleasing ringer.

"It was for the national interest," said the ceremony's musical director. "The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings and expression."

Are you shocked? You shouldn't be. It was the type of decision people in North America make every day, no every hour, on your behalf, in an effort to provide you with maximum bang for your entertainment bucks.

I work in the film and television business. I work to help produce the shows that you and your family enjoy in your living room and at your neighborhood multiplex. My husband does too and he works closely with actors, both children and adults.

Oh, the stories we could tell you.

People constantly lament the emphasis on one's physical appearance as it specifically applies to young women, but in the entertainment business physical appearance is everything, no matter what your age or gender.

If a character is written as a frail old man, the actor will be chosen and stylized to exactly match the director's vision of what type of frail old man will best resonate with audiences and make the project a success. If the character is an awkward teenager, the actor will be chosen and stylized based on the same criteria. And if the character is a young woman, well... same thing. And that's what everyone writes about, isn't it?

Show business is a business. It is a business where vast sums of money depend on whether an audience warms to a character. In the family friendly films many of us watch regularly, millions and millions of dollars ride on the audience identifying with a character often portrayed by a child actor.

Make no mistake: before that child is cast, countless others are subject to a painstakingly thorough and rigorous scrutiny of their physical appearance and everything else. The "winner" is the one best able to project exactly in the fashion in which producers have calculated will maximize profits.

It is no secret that the opening ceremonies in Beijing were largely designed to impress Western audiences and to demonstrate to the Chinese people that their country was capable of pulling off an extravaganza that met or surpassed the standards set by North American entertainment producers.

Instead of being upset over the decision to showcase the cuter child, perhaps we should ask ourselves why Chinese officials thought it was necessary.