New York Magazine did a deep dive into the children of celebrities, looking at how people on social media have started to document the vast web of Hollywood’s familial ties.
“It makes sense that zoomers, a generation steeped in pop analyses of structural oppression, would hit on the nepo baby as their particular celebrity obsession,” wrote the publication.
The magazine also made a point that "paradoxically, the nepo babies we like best are often the ones who are
most privileged" because they don't come off as "tasteless strivers."
Casting directors also share their experiences with nepo babies and lament that people don’t know what acting is anymore.
Nepo babies are not only abundant — they’re thriving. How could two little words cause so much conflict? Writes @kn8 in our (over)analysis of the phenomenon: "We love them, we hate them, we disrespect them, we’re obsessed with them." https://t.co/WA22qhdS29 pic.twitter.com/nmWXlrIMNS
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) December 19, 2022
Key points behind the cut + the magazine also
showed the exact connections some celebs have in Hollywood.-Author says the modern backlash began with “Girls” in 2012, when people pointed out the connections the cast had to famous figures (OP note: Lena Dunham is the child of artists, Zosia Mamet is the daughter of renowned playwright David Mamet, Allison Williams is the daughter of former anchor Brian Williams, and Jemima Kirke is the daughter of Simon Kirke, former drummer of Bad Company and Free). Then came the Operation Varsity Blues scandal when it was revealed there were famous parents who lied to get their kids into college.
-Author says nepo babies exist on a spectrum: there are those with their parents’ famous names and faces (Dakota Johnson, Maya Hawke, Jack Quaid). There are those who benefited from family connections, even if their family wasn’t necessarily famous-famous (Lena Dunham, Kristen Stewart). Those who are rich (Paris Hilton). And those where the parent-child connection was mutually beneficial (the Hadid sisters and their mom).
-There’s an “anti–anti-nepotism argument” that “talent will win out.” But the author of the piece quotes Fran Lebowitz, who says this argument is “ludicrous.” “Getting in the door is pretty much the entire game, especially in movie acting, which is, after all, hardly a profession notable for its rigor.”
-One talent manager says so many nepo babies start off as models because they don’t “have to open their mouth.”
-Casting directors talk about having to see nepo babies in auditions because of who they’re related to. One says: “A lot of the children of famous people are not good.”
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A couple of blind items: One person met with an aspiring actress who’s the daughter of two movie stars. She was “a lovely person” but had a sense of entitlement. That daughter got a role that made her a household name. But the casting director said one time they met with an actress with a famous family. The casting director had no idea who she was and “she won that job fair and square.” The performance was critically acclaimed and she became a major star.
-The casting director complains about how acting standards have declined. They said that people watch acting on social media or streaming, think that's good acting, and start to mimic it. "That devolution explains why it may feel as though there are so many more well-born mediocrities than ever before: The medium’s standards are merely lower," says the author of the piece.
-Article goes a bit into the history of nepo babies, saying that the original nepo baby was Douglas Fairbanks Jr, the son of Douglas Sr. and the stepson of Mary Pickford. He never reached the acclaim of his father's legacy but he had a long career.
-But by the late '60s, second-gen stars like Liza Minnelli and Jane Fonda were able to break out of their parents' shadow. Jane Fonda worked in Europe while Judy Garland had died, both creating a “natural divide.”
-Says there are some nepo babies our culture doesn't have a problem with, like Minnelli, Mariska Hargitay or Freddie Prince Jr., whose parents died in tragic circumstances. “Austrian academic Eva Maria Schörgenhuber argues that celebrity children function as living links to a shared pop-culture history, connecting us to a nostalgic vision of the past,” wrote the author.
-People don't care that Michael Douglas, Laura Dern, Dakota Johnson or Tracee Ellis have celeb parents. Dakota Johnson “reps multiple generations of Hollywood legends and is thus exempt from the tasteless striving that defines celebrity children of a more recent vintage. Paradoxically, the nepo babies we like best are often the ones who are most privileged.”
-Author concludes by saying some nepo babies clearly don't have the "It" factor, while some do, like Zoe Kravitz or Kate Hudson. “They walk in the room, and they have this thing,” says the casting director.
Source 1 + 2
https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/124915374.html
