For those who thought the rest of town was just going to sit back and let Disney rule the High School Musical world, think again -- Variety reports Showtime, Lionsgate and Spitfire Pictures have come together and will shovel out their own flick featuring a bunch of high school kids putting on a musical. Only, instead of having Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens blow each other candy-coated kisses from across the gymnasium (is that a scene, I don't even know?), this new film will be a straight-up documentary. Written and directed by Barry Blaustein, the doc will follow students from three southern Indiana high schools as they compete musical-wise for a spot in the International Thespian Festival.

Confession time: I was one of those drama kids back in high school, and helped work on the musicals (the ones where it was grade against grade -- we called it Sing!), although I never actually, well, sang. Behind the scenes stuff mostly, but I point this out because I know the kind of drama a drama class can provide. It could get nasty. Real nasty. Apart from the in-school activities, viewers will also get a chance to see how these kids live offstage; we'll meet the parents, teachers, local politicians, what have you. And hopefully none of the kids will get caught taking nude photos of themselves. Lionsgate will throw the doc onto the festival circuit to start out with, and if folks are really digging it, we'll see a theatrical run before DVD. So, are you fans of High School Musical ready to see how it really goes down? Or are you more comfortable in the land of make believe?

I haven't watched any of the High School Musical movies (probably because I'm not a pre-teen girl, nor do I have any pre-teen girls in my household), but I have seen pictures of star Vanessa Hudgens and ... well, let's not go there. By now you're probably well aware that naked photos of Hudgens appeared online last week, prompting male teens from around the globe to buy a whole lot of printer ink and tissues (ya know, in case the ink leaks). Almost immediately, folks began to wonder whether said photos would hurt Hudgens' chances of starring in a High School Musical 3, seeing as Disney goes to great lengths to protect their family-friendly image. However, following an apology from Hudgens herself, Disney has gone on record saying they would, according to a Reuters story, "continue negotiating her appearance in the third installment of the hugely popular series, one of the most popular programs in U.S. cable TV history."

The racy photos, which I refuse to link to (sorry), were apparently taken in private for Hudgens' boyfriend Zac Efron who, coincidentally, co-stars alongside the actress in those High School Musical movies. On-set teen romance -- does it get any cuter than that? I bet it started when she passed Efron a headshot with kissy lips on it. All together now -- awwww. But as the Reuters story points out, are nude photos of actors or actresses that big a deal anymore? Is Disney trying to forget this whole thing ever happened because they've decided to chill out a bit, chalk it up as "teens being teens" and go about their business, or is Disney simply not willing to break up the duo that helped provide them with "one of the most popular programs in U.S. cable TV history" -- even if one half of that duo now comes attached to a nude photo?

Personally, I don't know why on earth these stars continue to take photos and videos of one another in the nude when they always show up online afterwards. It almost leads me to believe the girl did it on purpose in order to (possibly) rid herself of that family-friendly rep. Then again, I'm not Vanessa and I don't know what she was thinking. But the good news is that she'll most likely star in at least one more Disney movie before moving onto bigger (and more controversial?) things. As far as her and Zac go -- I give it two months.

You may think High School Musical 2 is unmitigated dreck, but enough kids (or their adults on their behalf) bought the film's CD over the weekend to push the soundtrack to the top of the pop charts, sayeth AOL News. The made-for-cable film's premiere last Friday scored 17.24 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the highest-watched basic cable telecast ever.

Meanwhile, as Disney, understandably, seeks to continue riding the remarkable wave of success it's found with the hit movie series, MSNBC reports trouble may be brewing in the talks for High School Musical 3 (working title, according to IMDb: High School Musical 3: Gradu-Dancin' -- groan). The third installment of the series -- aimed at the big screen, not cable -- may have hit a speed bump, as reports surfaced Wednesday that the series' stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens are holding out for more money. Efron, who has already moved on to bigger (and presumably higher-paying) big-screen roles with Hairspray and the upcoming Footloose, is sizzling-hot property these days, and his on-screen charisma is a huge draw for the tween set at which the film is targeted, so it wouldn't really be surprising if the kid held out for more cash.

I know at least six full-grown women who love Grease 2. I also know two women and one gay man who adore Xanadu. Hell, I know one lunatic who thinks The Wiz is better than The Wizard of Oz. And I'm certainly not immune: You know that live-action Popeye musical? I love it. So it seems that just about every movie fan has some weird taste in musicals every once in a while. Which brings us to the out-of-nowhere phenomenon hit that became a global virus a few years back when "just another" made-for-Disney Channel movie debuted ... and became that hottest kiddie sensation since, like, The Cabbage Patch Kids. (Yeah, I'm old.)

But I get "camp," I can get behind "corny," and I certainly don't see anything wrong with a family-friendly musical movie that's freshly-scrubbed and patently homogenized. Having said that, I thought the first High School Musical was a real trial to sit through. On the pain scale I'd put it somewhere between novocaine-free root canal and finding your wife in bed with your dad. So if you're one of those die-hard High School Musical pod people, you might want to stop reading this piece right now. Because if it's me you're asking, the sequel's even worse.

But first here's a recap of the saga so far, courtesy of Disney supporter and mother of five, Kim Voynar (who gave me this synopsis as part of an IM conversation and has no idea it's being used here): "Gabriela and Troy met at a New Year's bash while singing karaoke. Much like in Grease, he thought he'd never see her again, but then she miraculously ends up attending his HS when her mother gets transferred. She's a science geek who just wants to be normal, he's a jock who secretly loves to sing. When they decide to audition for the school musical, which Sharpay and Ryan have dominated since kindergarten, it sets off a chain reaction of high school clique clashes in which science geeks dare to talk to jocks, jocks reveal secret (strange) desires to sing and dance and cook. And it threatens the Entire. Social. Structure. of East High. Sharpay tries to undermine Troy and Gabriela by getting the drama teacher to schedule callbacks at the same time as the Science Competition AND the basketball Big Game. (Which is oddly scheduled at 3 in the afternoon and not at night.) So the geeks and jocks have to work together to help Gabriela and Troy audition, by rigging the clock at the game to shut down. And a science competition experiment to cause an evacuation. The Geeks and Jocks Unite! We're All in This Together... Which leads us to ... Summer! Summer!"

While most movie-watching eyes were on the theatrical box office this weekend, wondering if Superbad would surpass expectations and if The Invasion would crash, another demographic had a higher priority -- the hotly anticipated premiere of High School Musical 2 Friday night on The Disney Channel. If you don't have a tween, it might not have been on your radar, but if you, like me, have a girl between the ages of 9-12 in your house (and be honest, a lot of you high school girls were watching it too) you've been hearing of little else for weeks.

In our house, we became aware of the phenomena that is High School Musical when the first one premiered on January 20, 2006. Our daughter, then almost-nine, DVRed it and she (and we, by default) watched that movie so many times that it wasn't unusual for me or my husband to be caught absent-mindedly singing "We're All in This Together" or "Get Your Head in the Game" -- two of the shows most popular tunes -- while we bopped about the house doing chores. Then they had the karaoke version, and the version where the cast taught you the moves to the choreography for "We're All in This Together" step-by-step, and pretty soon even the two-year old was showing off his "cool moves" to company.