The problem with media that is young and still barely out of diapers is that it can be very naive. The latest anger has gripped our feed big hoo-haa about “nepo baby”, and the fact that it is becoming more than Hollywood is populated by the children of the famous.
“He has his mother’s eyes. And an agent,” announced a cover story published by New York magazine last month that offered a detailed chart showing his relationship with Hollywood residents. Did you know that young starlet Maya Hawke is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman? And Dakota Johnson is not only the daughter of the former couple Melanie Griffiths and Don Johnson, but her grandmother is also Tippi Hedren?!
Uh, yes.
The New York story itself is an attempt to create a social media platform that appeals to “nepo babies”. TikTok in particular has recently discovered that the habit of confusing children’s piety with the merits spoken by Confucius is still endemic, and the platform has an active forum for nepo baby content where users create long-term compilations of clans of famous actors. The shock factor is somewhat reduced, however, when you look back in time. Larry Hagman is a nepo baby, as my dad tells me every time he watches it Dallas (or South Pacific, which stars Mary Martin’s mother). Vanessa Redgrave, 85, baby nepo. Even Buster Keaton’s baby nepo, for Christ’s sake.
Dakota Johnson with her parents Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson © Lars Niki/Corbis/Getty Images
Bayi Nepo has been a fundamental part of our existence since . . . forever, and whoever tells you otherwise must be someone else’s son. Working for British Vogue in the 2010s, I became accustomed to being around the page with their semi-talented and attractive children – “Little Minnie Jnr is now pursuing a career as a pastry chef, photographer, filmmaker and sometimes a supermodel” – that Me and my friends -another friend would joke about launching a magazine titled My Dad. . . Today it seems even more important because social media has allowed nepo babies to become a bigger platform for DNA monetization. If it is necessary to hone the talent that can be shown to carve out a profession, nepos can now only create a stream of influencers and post it on the TikTok feed.
I’m not bitter. I’m like nepo kids who are attracted to other people. But I tend to be more riled up about the sons and daughters of editors scoring big books than I am about exploiting the casting room.
And nepo babies are everywhere. Of course, in my profession, some of my colleagues are children of journalists and editors, and the immersion of life in the media world probably gives me a lot of insight, a rich list of contacts and the advantage of knowing how things are going. finished. As the singer Lily Allen (daughter of the actor Keith Allen and Alison Owen, a successful film producer) stated in several tweets: “Nepo babies you have to worry about are those who work in law firms, those who work. for banks, and those who work in politics. If we’re talking about real-world consequences and robbing people of opportunities. And he’s right. It would be more constructive to make a big graph showing who’s in the English law room or the House of Commons, but lawyers and politicians tend not to look as good as Dakota Johnson when pictured in a Gucci skirt.
Lily Allen and her father Keith © Dave Hogan / Getty Images
Moreover, it is more than just a professional advantage that drives the nepo trend. It is an almost primal impulse that compels our interest. We search the face for signs of similarities and differences, praising those who are the image of their parents, shaming those who inherited their father’s receding hairline or pre-op nose. In a world without passion for anything other than a mirror, baby nepo is the embodiment of #rahayu. And as much as we are angry with Lily-Rose Depp because of the advantages that can be felt as the son of Johnny (her father) and Vanessa Paradis, we still appreciate her amazing appearance with her parents: like some small icons of our time.
Unfortunately, the benefits of my nepotism only opened the door to my mother’s elementary school classroom: I often helped her as a teacher’s assistant during the holidays. And I don’t want to be a nepo baby. Well, not much. Who wants the whispers of privilege to surround your every achievement, doubts about the not-so-good, constant scrutiny in your face? It’s certainly not possible to be constantly compared to a gorgeous, stunning, incomparable mother, or a multi-Oscar winning father. For every success highlighted by the New York encyclopedia of successful offspring is a generation of nepo children who tried and failed.
Or maybe we should learn about children who choose not to walk the path of parents: can start with the son of Anna Wintour Charles Shaffer, attending a psychiatrist at Weill Cornell in New York City (go figure). Or, my favorite, Sam Springsteen, the fireman, who happens to be Bruce Springsteen’s youngest son.
jo.ellison@ft.com