Can Zac Efron escape High School or will he be 17 Again and forever?
Lanky and lank-haired Zac Efron may be the embodiment of eternally-recurring youth in his new movie, “17 Again,” but if the teen heartthrobs of earlier generations were to time-travel to 2009 to offer him advice, the “High School Musical” alum might fear growing up – and getting thrown over. Efron, 21, is Hollywood’s newest Peter Pan, a boy who won’t grow up, at least not as long as there’s Netflix, cable TV and the memories of teenage girls whose parents likely wouldn’t let him Twitter with them. What those parents need to remember is that (a) they, too, probably had posters of pant-heave-ohmygawwwd movie stars on their bedroom walls once and (b), if history is any barometer, chances are Efron’s box office clout will cool down as his age goes up. If Frank Sinatra, as they say, invented the American teenager, James Dean brought them to the screen, at least in their modern incarnation. But a few caveats, of course, for the great method martyr: When “Rebel Without a Cause was released, i
