Michael Jackson’s dead. What the heck will become of his poor children? How many therapists are looking at lifetime employment right about now? Is there anyone in their lives who actually cares about them, rather than profiting off them?
OJ Simpson’s kids are adults now. As of 2007 they were reported to want nothing to do with their father. What kind of hellish growing up living with their father did they have after the murders? What kind of marks must it have left on them?
How the bejeezus does any child survive growing up with celebrity parents? Do any of them get to have something approximating a normal childhood? Do any of them emerge as more or less normal, happy, functioning adults?
I have actually been feeling more for Redmond O’Neal this week than for MJ’s kids. Whatever else they’ll have to deal with, MJ’s kids will have a large family and close friends to count on. Redmond just seems so all alone with his addiction and legal problems. He has always looked to me like alonely lost soul, and no matter how nuts his Mom was, I’m certain she could understand the pressures and pain of addiction that he was going through.
I wonder if the courts will even allow him to attend her funeral - isn’t he in jail right now?
There’s a support/advocacy group for past and present show business kids called A Minor Concern. I can’t find a website for them, but Ann Magnusson interviewed their spokesman about ten years ago. A flash of juvenile celebrity is among the worst things you can do to a kid, based on the typical results.
Well I’ve known plenty of people with F-'d up parents and they turned out OK. I don’t think it’s an automatic given that they must turn out OK. As for OJ’s kids, I can’t say either way, but again, I know kids that don’t have much to do with their parents and they aren’t famous.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, it isn’t an automatic given.
It seems from what I’ve heard, (And I’ll give you the press certainly can be wrong), Michael Jackson’s family was a huge part of his problem. It’s always tough when the child has too much power over his folks, and Joe Jackson freely admits he used the kids to get them out of Gary Indiana.
Since most people won’t recognize Jackson’s kids, hopefully he will have had a life insurance policy (if he really is broke) for each of the kids and they’ll have enough money to be raised as a normal kid is.
I don’t think kid actors necessarily turn out so bad, at least not anymore. There are just far too many examples of child actors that turned out just fine, so now it seems the few bad ones are just representative of the norm in regular society.
It’s actually A Minor Consideration, founded by Paul Peterson. Peterson was himself a child star so he’s pretty passionate on the issue of kids being thrown into the spotlight. The website is here: http://www.minorcon.org/
As for the Jackson children, I’m not sure that particular large family is that beneficial. It certainly never seemed to do Michael any favors.
I can’t think of many celebrities’ kids who didn’t have some serious problems. Mackenzie Phillips, Carrie Fisher, Drew Barrymore, Tatum O’Neal (and Redmond for that matter), Christian Brando. Of course, the ones who stay out of the limelight and out of trouble wouldn’t come to mind.
That said, Chynna Phillips seems to have done okay for herself, and she likely had a similar childhood to her half-sister. I’ve never seen anything about Bryce Dallas Howard either. Kate Hudson? I’m sure there are others that I should know, and many that I don’t know by name. There is probably increased risk, but it isn’t necessarily a given that the kids will be messed up. And even those who have problems may manage to overcome them and ultimately lead healthy and productive lives, e.g., Drew Barrymore.
When was the last time you heard about Stephen and Leslie Bogart. Candance Bergen managed to be the child, get famous, and pretty much keep her head in the right spot. Niether Julian nor Sean Lennon ever seemed too screwed up.
There is a lot of selection bias in “children of famous people are screwed up” because those are the ones we hear about.
Angelina Jolie is an even better example, since Drew Barrymore’s parents weren’t particularly famous – certainly nowhere near as well-known as John Voight. It was Drew’s grandfather John Barrymore and other members of her extended family that were the real celebrities. Drew Barrymore did of course have the additional complication of being a child star herself by the time she was six.
Todd Rundgren’s son Rex is a minor-league ballplayer, currently with the Tulsa Drillers. He’s previously played infield for the Utica Blue Sox, Kane County Cougars, Jupiter Hammerheads, Carolina Mudcats and Albuquerque Isotopes.
Bridget Fonda seems to have come out okay as daughter of Peter Fonda and granddaughter of Henry Fonda. Perhaps children who are part of show biz dynasties, for lack of a better word, are in a different category. Like Angelica Houston, daughter of John and granddaughter of Walter.