They have been called the ‘Brit Pack’ and at one time over the winter Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan were all photographed together in the wee hours of the morning driving to Malibu from Los Angeles.  Paris and Lindsay were still upright, but Britney appeared to be taking a quick nap in the passenger seat as they headed north to take Britney home.

Since then, Britney and Paris have broken up with one report claiming Paris called Britney ‘an animal.’  It depends on what day of the week it is but Paris and Lindsay may or may not be friends.

Newsweek Bad Girls: Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan

The gals basically make news for their extra-curricular activities instead of their singing or acting talents.  That’s probably why Newsweek takes the cover this week and asks are we raising a generation of what one L.A. mom calls "prosti-tots," young girls who dress like tarts, live for Dolce & Gabbana purses and can neither spell nor define such words as "adequate"?

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Who knows how much influence they have on young girls.  A poll that accompanies the article found that 77 percent of Americans believe that Britney, Paris and Lindsay have too much influence. 

The article gives a snip of just a day in the life and one can see why parents are a bit worried. 

One of the authors explains that she didn’t want explain to her 6-year old daughter that Lindsay, who, like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, sometimes parties pantyless, was taking pole-dancing lessons to prepare for a movie role. Or that her two hours of research left her bruised "everywhere."

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The article notes that then again, Lindsay’s professional trials are easy to explain compared with Nicole Richie’s recent decision to stop her car in the car-pool lane of an L.A. freeway (while drivi8ng the wrong way).

Or Britney Spears’s "collapse" during a New Year’s Eve party in Las Vegas. Or the more recent report that Lindsay had checked into rehab after passing out in a hotel hallway, an item that ran on the Post’s Page Six opposite a photo of Kate Moss falling down a stairway while dressed in little more than a fur jacket and a pack of cigarettes.

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Yep, that’s it - a day in the life.  Of course, parents can stop the influence on the girls, but with the barrage of ‘bad girls’ behavior and the attention it gets it may be tough.

The full Newsweek article is well done and is here.