Finally, after three years of waiting, the media got what they wanted. They wanted something better, to be sure. They wanted a drug bust or a trashed hotel room, or a rock critic sent to the emergency room with a drumstick mysteriously thrust through his cornea. They wanted no less than the Betty Ford Clinic, and they didn't get it, so they took what they could. Bear witness to the phenomena you prayed you wouldn't live long enough to see: The ceremonious and symbolic deflowering of Hanson by the national press, one tabloid at a time.

You think the release of This Time Around was the big Hanson news story of the year? Ask any journalist; this one wins by a long shot.

They have girlfriends, says the New York Post, and not just any girlfriends, mind you. It's the ladies of M2M, those Norwegian muffins who've been sharing the stage (among other things, including hotel room keys) with Hanson over the past months. Says who, you ask? The Atlantic Records press office. M2M's label. With a grin on their face as the words came out of their mouth, no doubt. And that was the end of the story. The press had an official source quoting on the record. And they ran. And ran. And ran. The TV Guide gossip page. The Howard Stern Show. It's everywhere.

All of this arises amid an already sketchy media-perpetuated image of the Hanson/M2M relationship. Flashback to a few months ago, when the bands were separated by oceans, musical genres and sixteen pages of print in Sam Goody's Request magazine. M2M fawned, rather pointedly, over the brothers Hanson, using the word "love" more than once, thus giving the impression that the nature of their attraction had less to do with the music than it did with Taylor's dimples. Then they're at the Song Writer's Hall of Fame induction ceremony with Hanson. Then they're opening for Hanson. Then Atlantic Records smiles and nods happily when asked about whether they're dating. It all makes for a sordid little picture of the M2M girls wheedling their way into the Hanson camp, and if that sordidness is a misconception, it doesn’t really matter. People think it and believe it. It's true.

Then there's the other, more disturbing issue at hand. This final development absolutely smacks of a ploy by M2M's record company to publicly associate them in every way possible with Hanson, thus putting their name in the press and in the ear of the music-buying public. Think about it. An official confirmation of a private relationship between two very public people, to the New York Post? Absolutely unheard of, and completely ludicrous. Hanson is obviously incredibly careful about their privacy. Isaac had an off-and-on girlfriend for years, right through the circus that was 1997, and we only learned about it after it was over, when it came out of his own mouth. It's hard to believe that any of them, either Hanson or M2M, would have condoned or encouraged Atlantic's actions for any reason.

But maybe the record company saw dollar signs. Then all's fair.

Of course, this incident also does little to disclaim an ugly public perception: That there are no real channels of advocacy and protection for young girls in the music industry. Where were the gatekeepers? The people who were supposed to have stood up at that record company and protected those girls' privacy? There is no feasible way Atlantic Records could have misunderstood the risk involved. Hanson has zealous, protective fans who get positively riled over any mention of girlfriends. The two bands have to appear before the same crowd, on the same stage, every night. Any decision to go public about a romantic link between them wouldn't only put M2M in an emotionally vulnerable position, it would unquestionably put them in a physically vulnerable one as well. But maybe it had nothing to do with privacy. Maybe Atlantic saw a fine opportunity to stir an already boiling pot and get some publicity for their act, to the exclusion of all other concerns. It's just one more spin on a keenly familiar trend these days: the thinly veiled exploitation of young female sexuality for profit, not so different from parading Britney Spears across a stage in a flesh colored bikini.

It's baffling why Atlantic would subject the girls to that, why they'd choose to damn them to a career of questions about what it's like to date a Hanson, or why they'd so blatantly perpetuate yet another nasty stereotype: that women ride to the top on the coattails of more powerful, more successful men. Until our society sheds all of its misconceptions and double standards regarding how young, attractive women obtain positions of power, incidents like this carry all the more weight and implication. It's not hard to see how the powers balance here. Hanson is a strong enough entity to shake this off. M2M will be defined by this. They are, and will remain, The Girls who Got Hanson.

And there's another, all together unavoidable truth. All of this is so incredibly tacky. How to tell? The Hanson Yahoo! Club is up in arms. So is the Hansonline board. The teenies. Anywhere where there lurks a cesspool of brainless commentary, you will find this very conversation, in all its lurid detail. It's the biggest Hanson happening of the year, and The Hanson Hotel won't touch it with a ten-foot pole. It's cheap conversation, and the fact that it all started with an official source is all the more disconcerting. Hanson's not a cheap unit. Nor is M2M. I wish I could say the same for Atlantic Records.

Because it's not fame that creates Michael Jacksons and Gary Colemans. It's not screaming fans and queries for autographs that traumatize psyches and break up friendships. It's the betrayal that comes from the inside, when the adults don't do their jobs, when they can't live up to the pressures and responsibilities of protecting their famous charges. Beyond worrying whether or not the various members of Hanson and M2M are all madly in love with each other, maybe we should be more concerned with whether they're friends at all, and if they'll remain that way after all of this is over.