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" James Van Der Beek has defended Justin Bieber, following the young popstar&amp;#039;s negative publicity in recent months. Van Der Beek was a teen idol during his years on Dawson&amp;#039;s Creek, but recently insisted that he never endured the scrutiny faced by popstars like Bieber.   &amp;quot;Those kids - number-one, they&amp;#039;re so young. Number-two, they&amp;#039;re under such an intense microscope,&amp;quot; he told Vulture. &amp;quot;And there&amp;#039;s a lot more money to be made off of them than there was when I was famous.&amp;quot;  Van Der Beek continued: &amp;quot;I mean, I don&amp;#039;t know. I just don&amp;#039;t judge. It&amp;#039;s very easy. People love to judge. People love to be self-righteous. They get a lot of energy from that. Listen: Fame is not hard. Right? Being a soldier is hard, digging ditches is hard, coal mining is hard. But it&amp;#039;s tricky.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not something you can ever get any sympathy for, nor should you, and it&amp;#039;s not something you can really explain to someone who hasn&amp;#039;t gone through it. But it&amp;#039;s tricky because... you&amp;#039;re the same. You feel generally like the same person, but the behavior of everyone around you starts to change.&amp;quot;  Bieber hit out at his critics last week, insisting that he does not &amp;quot;give a f**k about what they say&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;I know who I am and what I&amp;#039;m doing in my life and what I&amp;#039;ve accomplished and continue to accomplish as a performer, as a writer, as an artist, as a person, as a human being. I&amp;#039;m happy with the man I&amp;#039;m becoming,&amp;quot; Bieber explained. Bieber recently landed on the Forbes list of highest-paid musicians alongside Madonna, Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi and Coldplay. View all of today&amp;#039;s best celebrity pictures:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a533530/james-van-der-beek-on-justin-bieber-he-has-it-harder-than-i-did/>