Avril Lavigne's home town is all set to cheer her on this weekend, but there is a whole community of people out there just as eager for her to fall. Hard.

The 18-year-old from Napanee is up for five Grammies Sunday night and will attend the ceremony in New York with her parents and sister Michelle. Meanwhile hundreds of people will gather at her old high school to watch the awards show on giant television screens.

Then maybe all this Avril mania will die down, though it's not likely to happen before the Junos and her concert hit Ottawa in early April. Still, in a world ravenous for the next big thing, Lavigne doesn't have much longer until she becomes "yesterday's news."

That might be a good thing because frankly, judging from the similarity of her latest interviews, I think Lavigne is running out of things to say. It has to happen eventually, right?

What surprises is how many people want her to crash and burn and how downright mean they can be about it.

One reader, in response to a recent Sun feature spread on the singer, called Lavigne "a self-absorbed, spoiled little girl," adding "when she performs live her voice sounds horrible and she has no connection to her audience."

VENOM

Amanda Munro, another reader, lambasted us with a letter to the editor.

"There are many great Canadian artists who deserve recognition for their talents, not some snotty 18-year-old teenager who whines about the difficulties in life," Munro wrote.

The venom in those letters, wherever it comes from, is shocking but nothing compared to what can be found on hundreds of "anti-Avril" websites.

"Hi, I'm Avril and I'm a poseur," one may be greeted upon entering.

The various sites deconstruct Lavigne's guitar abilities -- or lack thereof -- her contrived skater-punk image, live performances and tendency in interviews to take credit for writing all her own songs and getting to where she is all on her own.

There's even a "Don't Let Avril Win a Grammy" petition.

How could one tiny teen from Napanee spark such a brouhaha? What, frankly, did she ever do to you?

JEALOUS

People who've been jealous of her sudden rise are already licking their lips in anticipation of her second album -- not more than a glimmer in anyone's eye at this point -- failing.

I'm not saying anyone should cut this girl some slack, but hey, any 18-year-old with a Grade 10 education might say "famouser" and butcher David Bowie's name in the pronunciation.

And though she's now a millionaire and adored by her fans, I doubt when she used to sing in front of the mirror in her bedroom back in Napanee, she could ever envision the punishing workload, endless round of media interviews, "anti-Avril" backlash and seediness the music business also brings with it.

Clearly quite a bit of Lavigne's current "look" was crafted to help sell the album. Would we have snapped up recordings by a fluffy-haired, baby-faced girl singing new country covers of the Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill, which is what Lavigne was doing three years ago when she was "discovered" in a Kingston bookstore by her first, forgotten manager?

Lavigne, who always wanted to be famous, was quite a ways from the fast track back then.

Only time will tell what her future holds, though anyone who knew her when says she has enough determination and talent to stick around for a long time. And she clearly has the means, now, to make it happen.

But I can't help thinking a teenager who sells millions of copies of her debut CD -- whether she wrote all the songs herself or had some help, took lots of advice on how to appeal to more people or did it her own way, and even pretends sometimes to be a some things she's not -- is one astonishing accomplishment.