Gwyneth Paltrow's nepotism pedigree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does Angelina never come up in the nepobaby discourse?

Because her beauty helped her more than being a Voight.

Eh, maybe. The Voight connection was huge. But because she is also exceptionally beautiful, she doesn’t come up in conversations about people like Gwyneth, Jennifer Anniston, Cindy Crawford’s daughter, etc - people who are perfectly nice looking but not special and thus “needed” the parental connections. Jolie seems like she would have at least stood a chance at making it without dad.

Angelina Jolie has major charisma and definitely had a shot without her dad. She took her first major movie role in an ensemble cast where she was not the star and wiped the floor with Winona Ryder, Elisabeth Moss, Brittany Murphy, Clea Duvall, and Whoopi Goldberg.

I want to agree, but I think there was an element of playing yourself or an easy role here, kind of like Kate Hudson in Almost Famous. I don't think it was a huge departure for either of them in those Oscar nominated roles and I haven't seen any evidence they have been able to recreate that magic since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Besides just her parents, Steven Spielberg is her godfather who first started casting her in his films.

This. I think OP is hung up on the idea that Gwyneth's parents aren't big movie stars the way Kate Hudson's are. But in terms of getting a start in Hollywood, Gwyneth's connections are as good or better because her family is/was very well connected at every level. Actors don't always have that much power in Hollywood, even when they are a relatively big name (I mean, Kurt and Goldie did, bu this is not universally true and I still think they had less power than a major producer or director).

Not only was Bruce Paltrow crazy connected in both film and TV, but this is balanced by the fact that Blythe Danner has a more artistic actor pedigree, which gave Gwyneth this air of legitimacy very early on. Danner worked plenty in Hollywood but she also did a ton of stage work. She was a Broadway regular in the 60s and before that she was a summer stock regular. As a result, between the two of them, Blythe and Bruce knew EVERYONE. Directors, producers, costumers, actors, you name it. Gwyneth wound up getting a lot of reflected glow from Blythe's very stage-heavy career, even though Gwyneth has never once done stage work (and in fact would be bad at it because she has zero classical training and weak vocal skills, and her acting style is designed for the camera with more subtle facial work and body language than stage requires).

So when Gwyneth started actually pursuing an acting career, she had the aura of someone with a lot more acting experience than she actually had. She basically imputed her mom's career while also getting the advantage of all of Bruce's Hollywood connections at the peak of his career.

Gwyneth's parents provided a lot more in the way of reputation and connections than anyone who simply had to parents who acted in movies. I don't even think Gwyneth likes acting very much, and she has an enviable resume and an Oscar. She really did not hustle at all in her career until she decided to branch out with Goop and her influencer career. Her acting career was pretty much handed to her.

+1 Big plus one to all of this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You always hear about how she's show-biz royalty, but wasn't her dad just a producer of some mid-level TV shows in the early 80s?

I think St Elsewhere was more than mid-level, and The White Shadow was pretty groundbreaking, but even if you discount her father, her mother is a well-known award-winning actress (Tony/Emmy no Oscar (yet))

It is hard to overstate how massive St. Elsewhere was. Mark Harmon, Denzel Washington, Howie Mendel, Ed Begley Jr., and David Morse all got their start on St. E. It was the grand-daddy of ER and Grey's. For some bizarre reason, it was never really syundicated so people don't remember it as much now, but it was definitely appointment TV in the 80's for teenagers up through old geezers.

White Shadow was also awesome.

I think she called Paul Newman Uncle Paul, so that definitely counts as Hollywood royalty.

When the Weinstein story broke, I was really surprised by how her family connections did NOT play into the story. First, most predators will avoid someone with that kind of connections --- they are looking for someone that doesn't have the connections to fight back. Second, why did she run to Brad Pitt for help, instead of Uncle Paul? I feel like one of her dad's friends would have been well situated to *really* threaten HW. Brad threatened to beat him up. Paul could have threatened to ruin him. I was also surprised that Mira Sorvino was not better able to leverage her dad's connections when threatened by HW. I don't think her dad was as well connnected, though.

Interesting because I read an interview with Nicole Kidman after Me Too had broken, and she said that she believed that she was "off limits" to the predatory behavior in Hollywood because she was married to Tom Cruise. I guess he was a powerful enough name to keep her protected.

Scientology takes care of / messes up its own

This is true. For those that don’t know Scientologist are usually super conservative and they also don’t believe in doing drugs or alcohol. They run their own rehab program. They would allow one of their own to ever go topless in a movie. There’s a joke in Hollywood that there are no republicans just Scientologists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You always hear about how she's show-biz royalty, but wasn't her dad just a producer of some mid-level TV shows in the early 80s?

I think St Elsewhere was more than mid-level, and The White Shadow was pretty groundbreaking, but even if you discount her father, her mother is a well-known award-winning actress (Tony/Emmy no Oscar (yet))

It is hard to overstate how massive St. Elsewhere was. Mark Harmon, Denzel Washington, Howie Mendel, Ed Begley Jr., and David Morse all got their start on St. E. It was the grand-daddy of ER and Grey's. For some bizarre reason, it was never really syundicated so people don't remember it as much now, but it was definitely appointment TV in the 80's for teenagers up through old geezers.

White Shadow was also awesome.

I think she called Paul Newman Uncle Paul, so that definitely counts as Hollywood royalty.

When the Weinstein story broke, I was really surprised by how her family connections did NOT play into the story. First, most predators will avoid someone with that kind of connections --- they are looking for someone that doesn't have the connections to fight back. Second, why did she run to Brad Pitt for help, instead of Uncle Paul? I feel like one of her dad's friends would have been well situated to *really* threaten HW. Brad threatened to beat him up. Paul could have threatened to ruin him. I was also surprised that Mira Sorvino was not better able to leverage her dad's connections when threatened by HW. I don't think her dad was as well connnected, though.

Interesting because I read an interview with Nicole Kidman after Me Too had broken, and she said that she believed that she was "off limits" to the predatory behavior in Hollywood because she was married to Tom Cruise. I guess he was a powerful enough name to keep her protected.

Scientology takes care of / messes up its own

This is true. For those that don’t know Scientologist are usually super conservative and they also don’t believe in doing drugs or alcohol. They run their own rehab program. They would allow one of their own to ever go topless in a movie. There’s a joke in Hollywood that there are no republicans just Scientologists.

***would never allow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Besides just her parents, Steven Spielberg is her godfather who first started casting her in his films.

This. I think OP is hung up on the idea that Gwyneth's parents aren't big movie stars the way Kate Hudson's are. But in terms of getting a start in Hollywood, Gwyneth's connections are as good or better because her family is/was very well connected at every level. Actors don't always have that much power in Hollywood, even when they are a relatively big name (I mean, Kurt and Goldie did, bu this is not universally true and I still think they had less power than a major producer or director).

Not only was Bruce Paltrow crazy connected in both film and TV, but this is balanced by the fact that Blythe Danner has a more artistic actor pedigree, which gave Gwyneth this air of legitimacy very early on. Danner worked plenty in Hollywood but she also did a ton of stage work. She was a Broadway regular in the 60s and before that she was a summer stock regular. As a result, between the two of them, Blythe and Bruce knew EVERYONE. Directors, producers, costumers, actors, you name it. Gwyneth wound up getting a lot of reflected glow from Blythe's very stage-heavy career, even though Gwyneth has never once done stage work (and in fact would be bad at it because she has zero classical training and weak vocal skills, and her acting style is designed for the camera with more subtle facial work and body language than stage requires).

So when Gwyneth started actually pursuing an acting career, she had the aura of someone with a lot more acting experience than she actually had. She basically imputed her mom's career while also getting the advantage of all of Bruce's Hollywood connections at the peak of his career.

Gwyneth's parents provided a lot more in the way of reputation and connections than anyone who simply had to parents who acted in movies. I don't even think Gwyneth likes acting very much, and she has an enviable resume and an Oscar. She really did not hustle at all in her career until she decided to branch out with Goop and her influencer career. Her acting career was pretty much handed to her.

Yes she has done stage work. She was in a handful of productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, some alongside her mother.