Hollywood has always had a place for the children of famous people — but this year, the internet developed some new nomenclature to describe the phenomenon: the nepo baby. This week's issue features a taxonomy of the nepo-baby universe from film and television to modeling and athletics. What's the big deal, anyway? To the anti-anti-nepotism crowd, early advantages aren't that important; eventually, talent wins out. “This is ludicrous,” Fran Lebowitz wrote in a 1997 issue of Vanity Fair. “Getting in the door is pretty much the entire game, especially in movie acting, which is, after all, hardly a profession notable for its rigor.” Yet, interestingly enough, the nepo babies we seem to love the most are the ones with long Hollywood lineages — it's as if they're exempt from the tasteless striving of more recent would-be dynasties. But it's always a complicated, delicate alchemy. We investigate the history of the nepo baby and why we love them, hate them, love to hate them, and remain obsessed. |
