After spending years singing and dancing, or at least lip-synching and dancing, there seems to be one thing that no pop star can resist: movies.

They flock to them in the hopes of leaving their oh-so-hard lives of learning dance moves and rehearsing the songs that people have worked so diligently on to get the kids moving and buying records.

And then, the movies really, really stink.

I can already picture dozens of teeny-boppers running to the nearest computer to write up some letter telling me I’m an idiot and that I should just stop criticizing pop stars, or that I’m just jealous.

But the issue here is not the music. While I do think it’s horrible, evil music designed for fools, that’s just my opinion, and I don’t have to listen to it anyway. I prefer to waste my money on other things.

But I do work as a film critic. I see tons of movies, and every time some horrible film is put out, I have to watch it to tell our readers just how bad it is. And in the past year, there have been plenty of examples thanks to pop stars.

I love movies, and I love my job. But every job has its hazards, and for me nothing spells bad like “starring Mariah Carey” or “featuring Lance and Joey from ’N Sync.”

So far this year we’ve been punished by our overprivileged pop stars with three fine examples of bad movies: Carey’s “Glitter,” Lance and Joey’s and Mandy Moore’s “On the Line” and “A Walk to Remember.” And in a short time, yet another example will arrive: Teen queen Britney Spears’ “Crossroads.”

It must seem like an easy transition: people have told them what to sing, so being told what to say should be fine; you don’t even have to do it in key. Other people have also told them how to move on stage and in videos; learning to follow directions in a movie should also be a piece of cake.

Anyone upset about the last paragraph should open up their CDs and look at the credits. Sure, I’ll admit that you’ll find the stars “co-wrote” the occasional tune, and in some cases the entire song. But the majority of it is written by professionals - people who spend their entire lives learning how to craft profitable pop tunes.

Profitable is the key to that statement. The albums are geared toward selling massive numbers. Is it any wonder that for the past few years it’s always big news to find out how many copies the newest ’N Sync, Backstreet Boys or Britney album sold in the first week? And that the entertainers (note I didn’t say artists) have been quoted as saying that their next one will beat the last high mark?

So why make movies? The track record is horrible and so are the films. “Glitter” is almost becoming a new code word for funny in America. It’s also lost money at the box office like crazy.

While the other examples are not as extreme (“On the Line” was a disappointment but hardly lost as much money, “A Walk to Remember” was just released (to no fanfare) they have yet to actually make any money. So what more could they be than vanity projects designed to capitalize on the pop music fad?

I understand the desire to milk money from people desperate for entertainment. If I could sing and dance and date Britney Spears, you’d see highlights in my hair and baggy designer pants on me so fast it would make your head spin. But as we all get very, very tired of songs with the words “love,” “girl” and “heart” set to trendy beats, why try to save yourselves with movies?

Have some decency and just fade away, just like teen pop idols are supposed to. You get your moment, the 10-year-old girls convince their parents to buy all sorts of junk with your face on it, they grow up, they move onto hating their parents and listening to rock. And then you go off and do something else until VH1 calls you to be on “Where Are They Now?”

Supposedly we all get 15 minutes of fame. When that time is up, it’s up to us to cling to the spotlight like a bad stain or to fade away and learn Zen Buddhism. Rather than waste millions of dollars on a movie, why not bank it? After all, in the world of entertainment, especially teen pop, a couple of bad singles and a scandal is all that’s between being on “MTV Cribs” and sharing a small apartment with that guy who played Screech on “Saved by the Bell.” Leave the movies alone, and if any boy band has an opening for “the bitter one,” let me know. I can find some baggy pants somewhere.

Drew Harmon is the State News film reporter. He can be reached at harmondr@msu.edu