Miley Cyrus:Love her or hate her, we can't deny that she is a force to be reckoned with. Toothy pop princess
Miley Cyrus has taken her status as "the daughter of
Billy Ray Cyrus on that Disney show" to an international celebrity worthy of
being found fascinating by
Barbara Walters.
Stepping out of the shadow of her alter-ego
Hannah Montana, Miley was rocketed into
superstar status--and all while still operating a learner's permit
for most of the year. One of the
top earning teenage stars, Miley has been raking in the dough with
her TV series, her
Hannah Montana movies, and her aptly titled album that was released this year, appropriately titled
Breakout. Plus, we suspect this girl
has the potential to get herself involved in
some pretty delicious scandals.
Jonas Brothers:2008 was a good year to be a member of the Jonas Brothers.
Kevin,
Joe and
Nick Jonas may have been plagued with
dating drama (
see aforementioned 2008 Breakout Star Miley Cyrus), but while their purity rings might
need some polishing, their careers really took off this year.
The boys released their album
A Little Bit Longer this year and broke records when they became the first group to sell more than 100,000 digital downloads for three singles in a row. "Burnin' Up" the charts, they capitalized on the success of their music by
launching a clothing line,
filming a movie, announcing their plans to
write a book and
covering the August issue of
Rolling Stone.
Twilight Cast:
Whether they like it
or not,
Robert Pattinson and
Kristen Bell have secured their fates as A-list stars with the success of the first screen adaptation of
Stephanie Meyer's
Twilight book series.
With new projects lined up as a result of their higher-profile status as the leads in the franchise (Kristen's
signed on for
The Runaways biopic, to be executive-produced by
Joan Jett and Robert will possibly find himself with a new role in another
wildly successful franchise in
The Pirates of the Caribbean), they're also both slated to star in the
following two sequels to the film:
New Moon and Eclipse.
Two other books are also up for grabs,
in terms of movie rights, meaning that if they wanted to, these kids could probably retire in the next five years and still live large.
High School Musical Cast:
On the other end of the spectrum,
Zac Efron and real-life girlfriend
Vanessa Hudgens are welcoming their
international fame and fortune with open arms.
High School Musical's booming ratings as a made-for-TV Disney channel movie, spawned a sequel and this year, a
move to the big screen HSM3: Senior Year.
Touring the world
from Europe to
Australia to promote their feature film, the young cast broke
box office records. Although Vanessa has done well for herself in addition to her
HSM success with endorsements and launching
her music career, Zac is really the standout in the bunch.
His day planner is chock full of films which include the
Art Linklater pic
Me and Orson Welles,
17 Again and
a remake of the iconic 80s dance classic starring
Kevin Bacon,
Footloose. With 2009 right around the corner, Efron's career (to quote
the ever quotable Christina Aguilera) just keeps getting better.
Click any photo to view all
50+ photos of Socialite Life's Breakout Stars Of 2008 in the gallery!
