The Youth Gone Wild

That significant cultural artifact, Star Magazine today comes out with a compendium of the wild and crazy antics of the daughters of President Bush, usually involving booze. And while those antics are completely normal to any red blooded American kid (please don't send the secret service on me), the twins Jenna and Barbara have their fun with the involvement of a considerably greater cash flow than you or me. David Caplan writes, "'They both really like to have fun,' says Ann Gerhart, author of The Perfect Wife, a new book about First Lady Laura Bush. 'But Laura Bush really adores their energy and spirit.'

Some of that energy and that spirit:

"In October of 2000, as a freshman at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Barbara was caught attempting to use a fake I.D. at a local watering hole, Toad's Place. "She was polite, but she definitely argued with me to get it back," said the staffer who busted her.

"In spring 2001, Barbara Bush and some pals gave the Secret Service agents the slip while driving from Yale to New York City to attend a wrestling match.
'There's been animosity between the twins and the Secret Service from the beginning,' author Gerhart tells Star. 'They wanted their freedom.'

"Cops spotted Jenna and some friends drinking during the early hours of April 27, 2001, at Cheers Shot Bar in Austin, Tex., and handed her a citation. At the time, the First Lady's spokeswoman said, 'We respect the privacy of this young woman and we're not going to comment on her personal life.'

"On May 29, 2001, Texas police charged Barbara with underage drinking, and Jenna with trying to use a false I.D at Chuy's restaurant in Austin. Both cases were dismissed after the girls each paid $100 fines and performed community service.

"While vacationing in St. Tropez, France in July 2002, Jenna and a pair of gal pals headed to the tony resort town's trendy Caves du Roy nightclub, where they reportedly polished off a $225 bottle of vodka and a bottle of tequila. While considered underage in the U.S., they were of legal drinking age in France. C'est la vie.

"On June 26, 2002, then-under-age Barbara and Jenna were seen kicking back Budweisers and chain-smoking cigarettes with a group of friends well past midnight at Stetson's, a Texas-themed bar in Washington, D.C.

"The twins met Ashton Kutcher and a pal a couple of years ago at a Nike party and headed back to Ashton's place. 'The Bushes were underage drinking at my house,' Ashton later told a reporter.

"In August 2003, Barbara kicked back shots at a birthday celebration for a fellow Yale grad at the trendy NYC haunt Capitale. The group's final tab? $1,100."

And while, of course, there is nothing wrong per se with underage drinking (legalese be damned!), the twins do it in trendy spots in DC, NY and Saint Tropez while hanging with A-List celebrities, while The Corsair did it in a bodega in Manhattan while cutting classes. And there were no $225 bottles of tequila involved here, my little pomegranates, no: I was all about the 40s of Olde English 800 at 17. I'm olde school like that.

Gee, the rich are different