I talked with Haylie Duff this afternoon. She has a new show on MTV called Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods. Ten young women from across the country will compete for a starring role in the hit Broadway show.

Read on to find about what Haylie said about the finalists, the judges, and her own stint on Broadway as Amber Von Tussie in Hairspray.

Kristin Sample: So tell me about the show.
Haylie Duff: It premieres tonight on MTV. And I'm excited about it. We've got a lot of really talented girls and there's a great prize at the end of the season. So, the stakes are high and we're all excited about it.

Wow. I think I just saw the worst musical performance I've ever seen on television, not counting local cable.

Hannah Montana (real name: Miley Cyrus) just "sang" her "songs" on Good Morning, America. I have "sang" in quotes because I'm pretty sure she was lip-syncing, and if that's the case and these songs were actually the recorded versions...yikes, I take back everything I've ever said about Ashlee Simpson. And the whole production was bizarre, like the dancing in that Saturday Night Fever sequel directed by Stallone. It was like a bunch of high school students who don't really know what they're doing, trying to dance. Which, actually, it was.

I understand I'm not the demographic for this sort of thing. The tweens in the audience seemed to go nuts over her (and more than a few parents, disturbingly). But I wonder why TV stars, especially young TV stars, feel they have to go into a musical career. Why isn't Hillary Duff happy with being a TV and movie actress? Why does Raven Symone have to start doing pop and rap songs? Why does Miley Cyrus have to suddenly become a pop star? You know it's going to be bad when they start wearing that dark eyeliner stuff to make themselves have that smoldering pop star look.