The trouble with a media so young that it hasn’t run out of diapers yet is that it can be too naive. The latest outrage that has gripped our feeds is a big hoo-haa about “baby babies,” and the fact that a lot of Hollywood is home to famous kids.
“She has her mother’s eyes. And the agent,” published a cover story published by New York magazine last month, providing detailed granules showing just how connected Hollywood residents are. Did you know that young star Maya Hawke is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman? And not only is Dakota Johnson the daughter of ex-couple Melanie Griffiths and Don Johnson, but so is her grandmother Tippi Hedren?!
Oh yes.
The New York story itself is an attempt to shed light on the social media platforms on which interest in “infant babies” has been born. In particular, TikTok recently discovered that the habit of confusing filial piety with merit once remarked by Confucius is still widespread, and the platform has an active forum for infant content, where users make time-lapse compilations of famous actor groups. However, the element of shock diminishes a bit when one looks back in time. Larry Hagman was an infant, as my father used to point out every time we watched dalas (or South Pacific, starring his mother Mary Martin). Vanessa Redgrave, 85 years old, is an infant. Even Buster Keaton was an infant, for God’s sake.
Dakota Johnson with her parents Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson © Lars Niki/Corbis/Getty Images
Nepo babies have been a fundamental part of our existence ever since. . . forever, and whoever tells you otherwise is probably someone else’s son. Working at British Vogue in the 2010s, I was so used to cramming the pages with the attractive, semi-talented children of celebrities – “Little Minnie Jnr is now pursuing her career. pastry chef, photographer, filmmaker and sometimes supermodel” — that another colleague and I joked about launching a magazine titled My Dad Is. . . It’s even more relevant today that social media has allowed nepo babies a larger platform to monetize their DNA. Where in the past they might have had to hone some proven talent to make a career, today’s nepos can just create an influencer stream and post it on the TikTok feed their.
I’m not bitter. I am just as fascinated by nepo kids as anyone else. But I tend to be more angry about the sons and daughters of the editors who land the big book deals than the selection room operators.
And nepo babies are everywhere. Certainly, in my career, some of my colleagues are the children of journalists and editors, and their lifelong immersion in the world of media has given them a wide-ranging vision, a rich list of relationships and an advantage in knowing how things should go. accomplished. As singer Lily Allen (daughter of actors Keith Allen and Alison Owen, a successful film producer) pointed out in a series of tweets: “The babies you should be worried about are the babies who work. jobs for law firms, people who work for banks, and people who work in politics. If we’re talking about real-world consequences and robbing people of opportunities.” And she is absolutely right. It would probably be much more constructive to draw up a big chart showing who was born to whom in the British law chambers or the House of Commons, but lawyers and politicians tend to not look as attractive as Dakota Johnson when was photographed in a Gucci frock.
Lily Allen and Dad Keith © Dave Hogan/Getty Images
Besides, it’s not simply career advantages that have fueled the nepo trend. It is an almost primal impulse that drives our interest. We search their faces for signs of similarity and dissimilarity, praising those who have become the image of their parents, shaming those who inherited their father’s concave hairline or pre-surgery nose. In a world without much enthusiasm for anything other than a mirror, baby nepo is the embodiment of #blessed. And just as we resent Lily-Rose Depp for the advantages she can enjoy as the daughter of Johnny (her father) and Vanessa Paradis, we still honor the striking resemblance her to her parents: like some little icon of our time.
Sadly, my nepotism advantage only opened one door into my mother’s elementary school classroom: I sometimes helped her as a teaching assistant during the holidays. And I wouldn’t want to be a nepo baby. Yes, not much. Who wants the whispers of privilege that surround all of your accomplishments, the nagging doubts that you’re not quite as great, the constant scrutiny of your face? Surely you can’t bear to be constantly compared to your gorgeous, dazzling, one-of-a-kind mother, or your wonderful, multi-Oscar-winning father. For every success highlighted by the New York encyclopedia of successful children are generations of nepo children who have tried and failed.
Or maybe we should do a research on selected children Not follow their parents’ footsteps: it probably started with Charles Shaffer, son of Anna Wintour, studying as a psychologist at Weill Cornell in New York City (see picture). Or, my favorite character, Sam Springsteen, a firefighter, happens to be Bruce Springsteen’s youngest son.
