Which actor/actress were you surprised to discover is hugely connected?

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

Kate Hudson - my god i had no idea her mum is Goldie Hawn

Just finished season 2 of Running Point (really good)

Grace Gummer who played Caroline Kennedy in Love Story is Meryl Streep's daughter. There is a whole slew of Baldwins. Ditto Sheens/Estavez.

Wait until your hear about Liza Minnelli...

That will never stop being weird 😄

Also Stella (who burned Ben with a teaspoon) is the sister of Ella Thompson!!

Oh i knew that one - love her

Also the mother and daughter who died close to eachother - Debbie something 🥺

Oh i didnt realise, but i spotted another of her daughters on the show as well!

One of her daughters was Nancy crozier in The Good Wife

It's almost the thing to do especially if you are an upper middle class family that has a child, usually a boy who isn't quite as academic as you hoped them to be. Parents put them in certain schools that promote the creative side of education, they do well in America.

Gary oldman and big mo from east Enders are siblings lol

I wonder who among the current lot of British actors comes from this kind of background

I suspect Leo Wooddall - his accent in The White Lotus was off 😫, as handsome and good as he is

Lots of them, like a pp mentioned they(pr) lie or keep information about their private schooling and lifestyle hidden until they are established. Tom Hardy, Robert Pattinson, Henry Cavil.... lots more, nearly every single one of them.

One Example - Stath Lets Flats. most of the group who act/created that were all at uni together in the uni drama society.

See also the fast show.

Going all the way back to Monty python.

Same with Emma Thompson and that gang in the early 80s, French and Saunders etc.

It’s very much closed little groups of people.

Ahh yes, celebrity gobshite, Laurence Fox! I’d forgotten about him. Mind you, he peaked as Morse’s sidekick Lewis’ sidekick 😂

Tony Goldwyn - about as connected as you can get!

Nicolas Cage - although I didn’t know until today that Jason Schwartzman is also a member of the Coppola family.

Chris Pine.

Domhnall Gleeson.

Daniel Radcliffe.

That’s not true. I’m a novelist, and have no connections. I just wrote a novel and got an agent from Googling, and went on from there. I know a couple of very famous actors with zero showbiz connections. One just auditioned for local stuff and got an agent when one show was a huge hit and toured internationally. The other went to drama school from a farming background, spent years working casual jobs in London while doing small parts, then was in a big hit that let her drop the sandwich shop jobs.

It’s not the norm though. I mean, well done, but it’s not the usual way.

Sure there are loads of small time actors etc. but to hit the big time, you need the connections. And be willing to do some seriously dodgy shit.

Carrie Fisher famously did a flow chart in a stand-up she performed, showing how everyone in Hollywood is related to everyone else!

Daniel Radcliffe??!

His mum was a casting agent, omg 😄

His parents, I think.

Nepotism at its finest 😁

I think you mean Emma.

A lot of the Irish actors aren't from dynasties, Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott etc

Tom Holland’s dad is in the biz.

Very little.

There was a time when we had quite a few working class actors, but now the vast majority are either nepobabies or privately educated types who often benefit from excellent drama classes and can afford to faff around for a few years looking for roles, when others wouldn't have that luxury.

Oh i did, I must've typed too quickly

Love my iconic Emma

Yes, it's called being well-connected, aka nepotism.

It's bad enough that acting, TV, etc is such a closed shop but now we are supposed to believe they are all incredibly talented novelists or children's authors in their spare time!
I wonder if an ordinary person wrote any of the celeb books that top the charts, would they even get published?