Gwyneth Discovers Her Moses |
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Baby Love. It's way more than a retro Motown hit by The Supremes. It's the new Celebrity Anthem. From The Donald and Melania, to Brad and Angelina, everybody's doing it, doing it, doing it: Having a baby, that is. And you needn't be married to participate in the Box Office Baby Boom. Let's take a look at the players.
I trace the current wave of box office Baby Love back to 2004. That's when Oscar-winning Gwyneth Paltrow, and her husband Chris Martin, lead man of Coldplay, announced the birth of their daughter, Apple Martin. Mr. & Mrs. Martin's second bundle of joy, Moses, was born April 8.
Circa 2006, box office stars don't get much bigger than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Their MR. & MRS. SMITH nuked last summer's otherwise torpid box office. Their adulterous love affair rocked the tabloid world. The couple's love fetus, due any moment, may be the world's most highly anticipated infant since Jesus. Already referred to as Infangelina, the baby is expected to come into this world in Africa.
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline must be wishing and hoping that celebrity parenthood is easier the second time around. It had better be. This year, their infant, Sean Preston, grabbed more headlines than his chart-busting mother. First Baby K-Fed fell from his high chair, bruising his head. Then, after Mr. & Mrs. Spears took Sean to Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center for treatment, an automatic report by the hospital was generated to the Department of Children and Family Services. Earlier this year, the Paparazzi snapped pictures of Mother Spears joyriding with Baby Sean, unprotected in her lap.
Last week's events must have evoked Britney's vintage hit "Oops!...I did it again!" for the K-Feds. First, pictures surfaced of Britney driving again, this time with her son facing the wrong way in his car seat.
And, if that weren't enough, on May 18, troubling photos appeared of Britney nearly dropping Sean when she slipped on the streets of New York City. It's anyone's bet on what will be more miraculous: Sean surviving to adulthood, or his mother having a box office smash.
This year's most publicized already-born box office baby is undoubtedly Suri Cruise, the 7 lb., 7 oz, girl born to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on April 18. Of course, in one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" happenings, Brooke Shields, Cruise's media sparing partner, gave birth to her own baby girl, Grier Hammond, in the 
Their Suri has fringe on top, but no photos! |
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same hospital as the Cruise-Holmes baby, and on the same day. Neither child has yet to earn her Screen Actors Guild card, although I met a beautiful five-month-old at a graduation party on May 12, who is already Screen Extras Guild qualified.
Among the first of this year's box office babies was True Harlow Duddy, born on February 2 to actress Joely Fisher and her cinematographer spouse Christopher Duddy. Unlike this year's other box office babies, True Harlow was born at home, and not in a hospital. She debuted to a small, but appreciative, audience: A dozen friends and family members watched her delivery. Joely claims to have been unfettered by the onlookers. "I didn't feel at all self-conscious," she recently told People magazine.
Will the current Box Office Baby Boom spawn a second generation of Hollywood Royalty? Is there a Liza Minnelli, Jane Fonda, Charlie Sheen, or Jeff Bridges, among the youngsters? Time will tell. Some day, we might just see Moses Martin starring in THE CHARLTON HESTON STORY: LET MY PEOPLE FIRE AT WILL. Or maybe it will be Suri Cruise in OKLAHOMA 2: THE SURI WITH THE FRINGE ON TOP. Then, again, True Harlow Duddy may someday come to a multiplex near you in HARLOW: THE TRUE STORY.
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| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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