Lineage and privilege: who are the nepo babies?

An earthquake has been shaking the foundations of Hollywood for weeks. An earthquake whose name can be summed up in two words: “nepo baby”. A term that, according to the journalist and tiktoker Marina Ortiz, “comes from ‘nepotism’ and from ‘baby’ which is a baby, with which it is the son of nepotism, son of a famous person“.

But the so-called ‘nepobebés’ are not only children, but also nephews or godchildren of big stars, with or without a last name, but with a family bond. “The ladder of privilege for famous people starts much higher than for the majority of the population”, sums up Ortiz.

The epicenter of this controversy erupts precisely in Tik Tok, a social network where generations like Z, born in the 90s, express their disagreement with the system. A fed up to which is added, for example, that in a short film directed by Steven Spielberg’s daughter, the screenwriter was the son of Stephen King and the protagonist was the son of Sean Penn.

In focus, names like lily rose depp, daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis. At just 16 years old, she worked as a model for Chanel, a firm with which her mother already worked, and the following year, she made her film debut with her father.

However, there have been ‘nepobabies’ since the cinema was in black and white. actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of artists, who has reacted to the controversy with irony, defining herself as the original ‘nepo baby’. There is also the case of dakota johnsondaughter of Melanie Griffith, who in turn is the daughter of Tippi Hedren.

Is your success or not a matter of lineage? “You grow up surrounded by such talent that the strange thing is that you don’t dedicate yourself to it,” summarizes Ortiz, who points out that “obviously a person who has it at home will enhance it more from a child than one who does not.”

But also in Spain we have our own star sagas, such as the Molina, the Flores or the Bosé. Everyone is always someone’s child, but now, they say, it seems as if everyone (in entertainment) is someone’s child.