Young Stars 'Remember' Their Pasts

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday January 18, 2002 12:10 PM EST

Comparing real high school years to reel high school was an easy assignment for the young stars of the new film "A Walk to Remember," actress-singer Mandy Moore, 17, and TV's "Once and Again" actor Shane West, 23, reports PEOPLE. Said West on the subject: "I was never that bad of a kid. I was raised really well. I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in a great, huge southern family that kept me on my toes . . . I didn't get into really any trouble. I had a very strange high school. It was a magnet school that went from like fifth to 12th grade, but I only went to it from ninth to 12th. There wasn't much peer pressure that happened to me, anyway. There really wasn't any underage drinking. I just got lucky, I guess." As for Moore, who currently has three albums, including her latest, "Mandy Moore," keeping a clean image is just part of her day-to-day existence, she says. "Image is such a huge thing. You're criticized for doing the whole sexy thing, but at the same time you're getting so much attention for it that people end up loving it, or talking about it, at least . . . So it's a lot easier to go down that path, but it's just not me." Moore had been dating "That 70s Show" star Wilmer Valderrama, 21, but hinted that they are no longer together. When asked, though, if Valderrama minded her playing love scenes with another guy, she said, "I don't think any boyfriend or girlfriend is going to be happy about seeing the person that they're in a relationship with kissing someone. . . But at the same time, I've seen him kiss girls on the show. I think he remembers at the end of the day that it's work, it's acting."