When Britney Spears' first video debuted in 1998, she was dressed as a Catholic schoolgirl singing "Baby One More Time." When Avril Lavigne stepped to the forefront in 2002, she was all punked out for "Complicated."

While Britney confessed to her "naughty-nice" act recently in "In Style" magazine, she can afford to do so three years deep into her fame. On the other hand, Avril, who grew up singing gospel in church, cannot.

After being duped by innocent Britney, even fans have begun to wonder if Avril is pulling a fast one on them and if they are, in fact, being fed another Britney who just happens to be the anti-Britney.

"How do you know Avril isn't faking to be a normal person?" Katrillion reader chyanne007 posted on our message boards. "The record company told her to act like that because they know that kids want something different. When you first saw Britney Spears, everybody was like, 'I like her.' Once she gets money and stuff and the record company feels they got Avril fans around their finger like old Britney fans, she's going to change to put up her sex appeal. You never know -- your idols may turn on you. "

Maybe fans like chyanne007 are being harsh, but they have reason to be cynical after being fed countless pop sensations.

According to the biography released by her record label and various press reports, Avril is one with the rocker-girl persona she exudes. Dropping out of school at 16, skateboarding instead of schmoozing at the 2001 Grammys and getting into bar fights are incidents that tell us this small-town Canadian girl is every bit the rebel she seems.

But is it all an act? Time will tell if Avril sheds her bad-girl image.

For example, Britney certainly is not as innocent as she was in the beginning. Her second album, "Oops! ... I Did It Again," issued in 2000, helped her grow her into her late teens with the line "I'm not that innocent." But around this time, she began to float her "virginity till marriage" stance to the press. Flash forward to press conferences for her 2001 album "Britney" and her 2002 flick "Crossroads," and such questions were off limits.

In 2000, a sample of Britney's onstage rants made its way around the world via Napster. The songbird was caught on tape swearing about her costume, among other things.

More recently, Britney was caught smoking in a photo published in the New York Post. In Mexico, she gave photographers the middle finger.

Avril and Britney aren't the only superstars who have images to uphold; most pop stars do.

O-Town, whose new release, "O2," will hit stores this fall, recently spoke out about their "look."

"We're not what people usually think we are, " Ashley Angel told Rolling Stone. "We're artists."

Willa Ford, dubbed a "bad" girl thanks to her signature single "I Wanna Be Bad," talked to Katrillion about the way she was presented.

"My new album will be out in January," she said. "It will be a lot more 'me.'"

Being "me" is a definite issue for hopefuls when they go into showbiz. Just ask Daniel Bedingfield, whose tune "Gotta Get Thru This" is pumping on the radio.

"I went through a very phenomenal experience," Daniel said. "The contract I signed said I could write and produce an album -- and be presented as "me" -- the real me, onstage, which is the boy next door, a bloke who is passionate about music. I don't have to live a huge lie, an image that's not me. I'm lucky I can answer that way, because many artists don't have that luxury."

The same doesn't hold true for upcoming pop star Amanda Latona, who was part of Innosense, the girl group that once counted Britney as a member.

Amanda, who dated Backstreet Boys' A.J. McLean, has been fashioned to be everything from the next Britney to the next Shania Twain to the next Pink to the next Gwen Stefani to the next Pat Benatar, by those in charge at her record company.

Image is everything, they attest.

"I've been waiting for this a long time," Amanda told the New York Times magazine. "If that means six different looks that look nothing like me, I'll give it a shot."

"I want to be a household word in every household."

Hopefully those in charge will know exactly what Amanda is by the time her tune "Can't Take It Back" is featured in Piper Perabo's next movie, "Slap Her, She's French," in theaters Aug. 30.






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