Whatever Happened to Chastity Chic?

Madonna sang about feeling like a virgin, but she never claimed to be one. Things are different for today's pop princesses Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Jessica Simpson. Back in July of 2000, just six months after the release of her first album "Baby One More Time," Britney told a German fashion magazine, ""I have very high morals. I don't believe in sex before marriage. I don't believe in drugs or smoking. I believe in God."

Three years and change later, the tabloids have acquainted us with Britney's married "boyfriend" and Esquire is featuring her nearly naked, sumptuously lit in their November issue. Bette Midler, no schoolmarm herself, called Britney and Madonna's slobbery televised kiss "tacky and irresponsible," since they both "knew 11-year-olds were watching." More recently, Kendel Ehrlich, wife of Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich, offered that if she had a daughter instead of a son, she'd take Britney out and shoot her. Oh, and Britney smokes.

But back in 2000, Britney, and her 2 million units sold in less than two months, was the pacesetter for the record industry. Other teen stars soon were championing chastity too, either by their own choice or by order of their management. Jessica Simpson, the daughter of a Baptist youth minister who got her start touring Christian youth conferences performing tunes like "True Love Waits," broke onto the scene five months later, proudly proclaiming herself a virgin. A month later, on her debut "So Real," Mandy Moore sang about boys being as sweet as candy, but in her stage shows her outfits didn't rise to expose her navel, much less anything else. Christina Aguilera, always the most blatantly sexual of the inescapable ingenues, never addressed chastity directly. But about the time of Britney's virgin talk, Christina got some press for her spirituality in teen magazines and she reportedly toned down the sex in her hit "Genie in a Bottle."

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