Chelsea Clinton dares to be hip

By Jaimee Rose
Arizona Republic

Chelsea Clinton, 22, the suddenly-glamorous daughter of former President Clinton, has traded in her college wardrobe for more fashionable outfits. Associated Press

Vanity Fair magazine calls the 22-year-old daughter of the former president the new JFK Jr. in its June issue, saying she's a sex symbol. The London tabloids revel in her escapades on the club scene with new boyfriend Ian Klaus, whom she met at Oxford University, where she is studying. And celebrity watchers' jaws dropped when a sleek-haired, fashionable Chelsea chatted up Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow at the January Versace fashion show in Paris. She's even been spotted dancing with Paul McCartney and dining with U2's Bono. Now she's on the cover of American grocery store tabloid the Star, which breathlessly reports Chelsea is busily planning a secret $1 million wedding to Klaus.

Somehow, the shy, gawky adolescent of the White House years has transformed into magazine material.

Chelsea? Really? Why now?

Because, experts say, Chelsea decided it was time.

Long noted for her silence to the news media and her parents' refusal to comment on their only child, it was Chelsea and Chelsea only who seems to have allowed this frenzy.

"She's been a celebrity waiting to happen," says professor Rini Cobbey, who studies pop culture and celebrity at Gordon College in Massachusetts. "Now, she's inviting it."

The Vanity Fair article quotes Chelsea whimsically saying "I've been very good to you" to a paparazzo, and Chelsea even wrote an essay about her post-Sept. 11 struggles at Oxford for Talk magazine.

"There's a dam that's been broken," Cobbey says. "It's the forbidden-fruit thing. We're drawn toward what we haven't been able to have."

Is she really a sex symbol, though?

Austin Burke, a Phoenix resident and Oxford student who studied with Chelsea at Stanford University, says the buzz on campus is that she's much better looking than "Saturday Night Live" and comedians would have you believe. (When Bill Clinton first took office, some snarky media types christened his daughter the "White House dog.")

At Stanford, Burke once hid in the closet of a friend that Chelsea was tutoring, trying to catch a glimpse of the famous first daughter.

At Oxford, though, her star power is somewhat dulled by other campus luminaries and powerful socialites.

"People report Chelsea sightings every now and then," says Burke, 21. "Half the hype about Chelsea has to do with the Secret Service. (She has bodyguards.) Without that, there wouldn't be much at all."

Her father told The New York Times last year that she "has her mother's character and her father's energy." She also has her parents' legacy. Previously a pre-medical student, she has changed directions. When she graduates from Oxford next year, her degree will be in international relations.

"Everyone recognizes that she has everything behind her that could launch her into a pretty massive political career," Burke says. "People definitely expect that from her."

Considering unfortunate early-teen photo ops, people haven't expected to take fashion tips from her, though she recently traded in her college wardrobe for slinky black. At the Versace show, she sported a blown-out, sleek hairstyle and smoky eyes, courtesy of Donatella Versace herself.

"She's not really someone we cover," says Sheri Lapidus, spokeswoman for trend bible In Style magazine.

But Vanity Fair says she's coverage-worthy.

"She's been in the public eye for such a long time and, recently, she has put herself in the public eye," says Vanity Fair spokeswoman Beth Kseniak. This is "different than just being 'the daughter of.'

"She's definitely out there."

Perhaps a key explanation to Chelsea's newfound popularity, says pop culture expert Cobbey, is that America is especially interested in "celebrities who have mastered their own success, not celebrities who are perceived as achieving success through a machine."

Think Britney Spears, Cobbey says. Chelsea, by contrast, has an important family name, is pursuing a top-notch education and hits the hip scene in the meantime.

"She appears to not be a celebrity for celebrity's sake," Cobbey says. "The irony is now she seems to be playing that game."