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Editor’s Note: Former attorney Dean Obeidaler is the host of SiriusXM Radio’s daily program, The Dean Obeidaler Show. Follow @DeanObeidallah@masto.ai. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View other opinions on CNN.
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Merriam-Webster seems to have gone wrong with his recent choice for 2022’s Word of the Year. Instead of choosing the word ‘gaslighting’, I should have chosen ‘nepo baby’ – at least based on the heated debate that word has sparked over the past week.
What is a “Nepobaby”? “Nepo” stands for nepotism, and “nepo babies” refer to children of famous parents who benefit from family ties in showbiz or adjacent fields.
Nepotism in showbiz isn’t breaking news, but this week’s New York Magazine cover story proclaimed 2022 to be the “Year of the Nepo Baby.” The magazine reports that famous parents include Maya Hawke, daughter of Stranger Things co-stars Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, and Zoe Kravitz, daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet. recorded what appears to be an infinite list of descendants of . more.
The article led to a discussion about the privileges that come with being connected in showbiz. And that led to a discussion about talent and what it says about the supposedly meritocratic society we live in.
A lot of celebrities weigh in on their experiences, but it’s Friday on Instagram that summed up what it means to be a “nepobaby,” at least based on what I’ve seen working in entertainment. That was the reaction of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who has been in the industry for eight seasons as a producer, comedian, and staff member of “Saturday Night Live.”
Curtis first described herself as “OG Nepo Baby” in her post, considering she’s the daughter of Hollywood royalty Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. When the award-winning actress first started her acting career at age 19, she candidly admitted that being the daughter of two movie stars actually has its perks, stating, “I don’t pretend there aren’t any perks. ‘ to be ‘associated’ with fame.
In a 2019 interview with The New Yorker, Curtis admitted an advantage when he was auditioning for a part in the movie Halloween. she said. Clearly, I was putting my foot up.
However, she revealed on Instagram:[t]His current conversations about Nepo’s baby are meant to belittle, slander, and attempt to hurt. Curtis denounced “defamatory remarks” that suggested that the “children of Nepo” were “somehow utterly untalented” and that they were there only because of who their parents were.
Curtis is 100% correct on both counts. If your parents are famous actors and you want to work in that field, no one can deny that they have the connections and influence to help. And yes, there is some truth to Fran Leibowitz’s 1997 article in Vanity Fair magazine about nepotism in her entertainment business. It was quoted in an article in New York Magazine.
I’ve been involved in the production of projects that cast actors, and you’d be surprised how many unnamed actors are so talented. Frankly, given the situation where producers have some very good actors to choose from for visible roles, they are more likely to lean toward casting children of famous parents. Become.
But from what I’ve seen, you have to be very talented yourself. For example, New York Magazine notes that out of his three currently creating his shorts digitally for “Saturday Night Live,” he is two of the sons of an “SNL” producer. (Full disclosure: I worked with the parents of these two youngsters on “SNL.”) If these kids weren’t talented and couldn’t provide something interesting, what would the father do? Regardless of who they are, I can assure you they were gone.
On ‘SNL’ I often worked with children of very famous parents (I’m talking family names). or a combination of both.
But let’s be frank. This is not just an entertainment industry issue. There are many children who follow in their parents’ footsteps in politics, business, the arts, etc. In every competitive industry, having a successful parent in that field gives you an edge. In fact, Eve Hewson, one of the “Nepo babies” he identified as the daughter of U2 frontman Bono in an article in New York Magazine, is the owner of the magazine’s parent company, Vox Media. The president himself tweeted that he was “Nepo Baby”. Her father purchased the publication in 2004.
I appreciate my parents, but like everyone else, when I discuss Nepo Baby, I wonder how my life would have been different had my parents been famous actors and comedians. increase. From what I’ve seen, territories come with both benefits and costs. I have to admit, if my parents were Bruce Springsteen and Meryl Streep, and they were both born in my home state of New Jersey, I would happily have been their “Nepo baby.” It must have been.
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