Posted on 01/09/2007 9:34:19 PM PST by pissant
Sydney - The eight-year-old daughter of late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin will star in a high-profile promotional US tour this week, but she will not be forced to perform, her manager said on Tuesday.
Bindi Irwin, whose wildlife television star father was killed by a stingray barb last September, will visit Los Angeles and New York as part of Tourism Australia's G'Day USA week to promote the country.
She is set to perform her song and dance stage show Bindi and The Crocmen and feature on TV talk shows including The Ellen Degeneres Show and The Late Show with David Letterman.
Bindi has shown remarkable resilience in the wake of her father's death, delivering a spirited eulogy during the worldwide broadcast of his funeral, but some critics have objected to her exposure to the spotlight at such an early age.
Irwin family manager and friend John Stainton said critics did not realise she had been "brought up in a different world" at the family's Australia Zoo.
"She is used to cameras and performing. Her dad taught her so much about wildlife and working to cameras," he said. "It's a part of her life, it's like ballet is to another girl."
He said Bindi would be given the chance to pull out of any engagements on the US trip.
"My criteria is if Bindi doesn't want to do it that day, if she wants to go to the zoo or the beach, then that's what we're doing," he told national radio.
"If she decides she doesn't want to do the Letterman Show, which tapes at five o'clock in the afternoon, if she's tired or she doesn't want to do it, there's no pressure on her to do anything at all."
Bindi had been set only to accompany her father on the promotional tour but will now be the star herself, with the support of her American-born mother Terri.
Steve Irwin, who won a worldwide following with his Crocodile Hunter TV series, was killed while filming a documentary off the Australian coast.
Six weeks later, Bindi resumed filming her own wildlife series, Bindi the Jungle Girl, for the American Discovery Channel.
Elvis died?
I believe this young lady is following through with what had already been planned before her father died. This is no suprise to anyone familiar with Bindi Irwin's career.
Er....I mean when he moved to france.
Bindi ping.
Young lady? she is a little kid being directed by mom.
Maybe she does have some of her father's media savvy. Hope she's not one of those children that get exploited and then left for the vultures.
Uhh. I think they are pretty loaded for life. Just a guess.
The next Macully Caulkin
Yes, it is just a guess, but even if they are, money isn't everything (at least to some people).
It's impossible to know for anyone outside the inner circle of the Irwin family. However, while I think that most of us cringe due to the lack of a "mourning period," we need to remember a couple of things. First off, here's a little girl who was raised around wild animals, and who was introduced to death at a very early age. And she knew that her father was doing the thing that he loved more than anything else when he died. I think that a part of what she's doing now is as a tribute to her father, doing what her father would have wanted her to do. Of course, this is completely my imagination here.
Mark
different set of roots.....Bindi will be fine.
She's a little girl! You ask how a widow and two children are to survive? First of all, I'm sure they have millions, so $ will not be a problem. But even if not the case, why would you expect an eight-year-old to contribute to her family's finances?
You also state that she needs a life and purpose. Sure, but at eight years old, shouldn't she just concentrate on attending school and getting through the loss of her father with the rest of the family?
Sure wish you hadn't put the gag me part in the headline. I'd been looking today for a Bindi thread, since she's due to arrive in L.A. tomorrow for the start of the US tour.
She's going to be on the Ellen DeGeneris Show tomorrow in the daytime and then on Letterman tomorrow night, according to the schedule.
I saw a preview of her little dancing show on TV today and it was cute - just a bunch of jumping around that little kids do, along with some animal stuff.
She's a precious (and precocious) little girl, doing what she has done all her life, as she will tell you. She misses her dad, but knows he's watching her and she wants to make him proud, she says.
A grownup reporter asked her what she thinks Steve might tell her before she goes on and she said "Excuse me, that's personal, if you don't mind. Sorry, rather not say."
She's got the savvy and she certainly has her father's bounciness. I don't see Terri being the pushy one at all - I think Bindi has been the one wanting to get on with it.
The circumstances of this family are quite unique.
Amen! 'nuf said, git er done!
Many people find that a good coping mechanism when they are faced with a horrible tragedy in their lives!
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