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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Kids of famous people saying they are famous in their own right!

518 replies

Belledan1 · 13/10/2019 11:47

It really drives me mad. You are obviously mainly famous or successful because of connections. I know some are them are talented but surely connections of parents help. David Hasslehoff's daughter has said it. Kelly Osborne, Lilly Allen and loads more.

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RuffleCrow · 15/10/2019 19:48

Yes, @icedpurple she was privately educated but she only really made her name at Footlights because she did a one woman sketch where she ate cigarette butts and convinced everyone they were delicious. - Thereby convincing a young Mitchell and Webb she was something else. Which she is imo. Now I'd do a lot of things for fame and fortune but I wouldn't do that. Nor would i even physically be able to. Envy

100PercentThatBitch · 15/10/2019 20:09

Agree @Bouledeneige the Gallaghers were quick to become everything they once loathed.

They aren't alone there though

Didn't Olivia Colman say in her Oscar speech that she had been a cleaner. Also before she hit it big she did a lot of bottom tier jobs like the AA adverts. She has worked to become the new darling of British acting it didn't happen overnight

Potnoodledoo · 15/10/2019 20:56

Ha you think its bad now.Wait till the Youtubers and influencers have kids.Its going to be carnage.What with all the "models" going around.

TheSandman · 15/10/2019 21:48

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that being successful (without family, contacts or blowing the producer) isn't just about talent. It's got a lot to do with ambition, luck, and dealing with an endless stream of ego-driven self-obsessed (quite often talentless) narcissists. (Just the sort of thing a public school education equips you for.)

I worked as a film editor for a while, worked in LA , tried tried to get into the business in the UK - until it dawned on me that most of the people I was dealing with, or trying to impress, were pretty horrible people, only interested in themselves and their current project. In the end I decided I didn't want to become that sort of person just get ahead.

There are genuinely good kind nice people in 'the biz' and many of them happy but all the ones I've met were working well away from the limelight and doing interesting work on the fringes. (And sometimes the Fringe.)

stayathomer · 15/10/2019 21:53

Prince Louis penning his own column for Horse and Hound...
Surely any member of the royal family is in a position to contribute to horse and hound? It's a magazine brimming with privledge and the sort of shows only the extreme upper class would go to. (I used to be horsey and only got it once, it bored the crap out of me!!) It reminds me of MM being asked to guest edit Vogue and people giving out, but she's an actress who has access to the top fashion and all the celebrities-surely it makes great sense?!

stayathomer · 15/10/2019 21:55

(And I don't actually mean Prince Louis, who I know is only a childGrin)

BlackCatSleeping · 16/10/2019 01:16

But, acting isn't just about the art of acting. It's about promoting what they are in. Zoe Kravitz was recently cast as catwoman and immediately there are articles popping up all over the internet about it because people are interested in her because she has famous parents. The film hasn't even been shot yet but it's already getting publicity. That makes film studios very happy. Obviously if she sucks, she may not get another big project, but if she does ok, then she can have a good career as a film actress.

HUZZAH212 · 16/10/2019 02:23

Zoe Kravitz has already played Leta Lestrange in Fantastic Beasts the Crimes of Grindelwald though. So I don't think she's coming in as a total outsider for Catwoman.

edgeofheaven · 16/10/2019 04:03

Zoe Kravitz has been acting for years now. She was in "Mad Max: Fury Road" and in two seasons of "Big Little Lies." She is also one of the most beautiful human beings on Earth.

Iamthewombat · 16/10/2019 06:09

acting isn't just about the art of acting. It's about promoting what they are in

Christ. David Garrick is spinning in his grave.

Iamthewombat · 16/10/2019 06:14

Also, can people understand that the thread isn’t about saying ‘X [son or daughter of famous people] is no good at acting and shouldn’t be in [insert name of film or TV show]’?

It’s irrelevant that Zoe Kravitz has acted before. What is relevant is that her path to acting success was smoothed by having two parents in the business.

A bit like when Gwyneth Paltrow got her first role, in Hook, aged 15 or something. She was cast by her film director dad’s mate, Stephen Spielberg. She’s been in many things since. That doesn’t mean that nepotism didn’t get her the start denied to thousands of young actors.

edgeofheaven · 16/10/2019 07:18

The thread is about celebrity children who think they’ve earned their fame on their own when their own talents are lacking.

ZK is very unlikely at this point in her career being cast on her parents’ fame but I’d agree it would have been a massive leg up at the start.

Whereas Brooklyn Beckham is a bad and untrained photographer or Lilly Depp is too short to model, those seem like different cases.

Cacacoisfarraige · 16/10/2019 07:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Iamthewombat · 16/10/2019 08:02

The sight of Christine Lagarde elegantly brushing off Ivanka Trump was inspirational.

IcedPurple · 16/10/2019 08:41

Zoe Kravitz was recently cast as catwoman and immediately there are articles popping up all over the internet about it because people are interested in her because she has famous parents.

Certainly a major part of it because she isn't a very good actress. I cringed at her scences in 'Big Little Lies'.

shinynewapple · 16/10/2019 08:45

Does no-one else feel a bit sorry for Brooklyn Beckham? With his upbringing I can't imagine that the possibility of a job in Greggs (or any other normal down to earth role) would be considered within his family. Huge expectations to continue Brand Beckham. And I've always felt he's been overshadowed by his younger sibling since they were around 8-10.

And now the poor kid has a whole MN thread slagging him off!

Dustybun · 16/10/2019 08:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AmIThough · 16/10/2019 08:54

Well Lily Allen's brother is Theon in GoT. Who's their dad, though?

BobbyNewport · 16/10/2019 10:03

Well Lily Allen's brother is Theon in GoT. Who's their dad, though?

Keith Allen. And their mum is a (I think) casting director. And their stepdad was Harry Enfield.

Lily Allen would have you believe that she was brought up on a sink estate, getting expelled from school left, right and centre when in fact, she had a privileged upbringing and went to Bedales at one point.

MockersthefeMANist · 16/10/2019 10:09

Lilly Allen is a despicable Mockney who crashed the Grenfell aftermath to promote her own career.* I saw her as a judge on a C4 talent show for new bands. She was arrogant and rude in the extreme.

(*CDs now available in Poundland.)

dancingthroughthedark · 16/10/2019 10:19

While the likes of Brooklyn Beckham have over 11 million Instagram followers, for basically doing nothing that his parents haven't arranged for him through their wealth and connections of course he is going to see himself as famous and important. Surely some fault lies with those who choose to follow someone who really hasn't achieved anything in his own right.

awaynboilyurheid · 16/10/2019 10:23

Another one who was Theon Greyjoy is Keith Alan’s son ?.. he must get his acting skills from somewhere else in the gene pool.
In showbiz nepotism is rife. And yes totally annoying when they pretend it’s through “hard work”

EntropyRising · 16/10/2019 10:49

Harper Beckham will no doubt be a model or a designer too. As celebrity kids go the Beckham kids have to be the most ordinary looking kids ever but they will grow up thinking they are gorgeous and talented.

YES. They're perfectly normal and average looking.

Iamthewombat · 16/10/2019 11:06

I don’t feel sorry for Brooklyn Beckham either.

When he went to that expensive art college, paid for by his parents, to study photography (this was passed off as ‘talented photographer Brooklyn gets into exclusive college’, as if he’d won a maths scholarship to Stanford or something), he issued a press release saying that he was settling in well but that there were some ‘fan girls’ there who were very excited by his being at the college.

FAN GIRLS?? As if! He looks like a van driver’s apprentice.

He may be quite young, but he’s old enough to say no to having his name attached to this sort of self-regarding, ludicrous stuff.

He later dropped out of the college.

These people can always walk away from that life, even if their parents try to monetise them. They stay in the spotlight because they like the life.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 16/10/2019 11:09

It's those bloody kids of J.S.Bach that really piss me off.
You're not telling me that J.C., C.P.E., W.F., and J.C.F. would have made it without the surname? Grin.

Following in the family line of work is nothing new (think how many surnames are trades) - it's just that in our utterly vacuous society today 'fame' seems to frequently be mistaken for 'worthiness'