Welcome to ‘Showtime with Emily Maddick’, through which GLAMOUR’S Assistant Editor and Leisure Director brings a singular perspective to the month’s most hyped movie or TV present. For January’s instalment, Emily evaluations the Channel 4 documentary Born within the Limelight: Nepo Infants UNTOLD. The present sees DJ and presenter, Phoenix Brown, daughter of Spice Lady, Melanie Brown, discover the rampant and rabid rise of the time period ‘nepo child’ to explain the equally rampant rise of the youngsters of celebrities within the leisure business, seemingly purely right down to their privilege and fogeys’ connections. Emily, who has labored with Phoenix up to now, shares her view that whereas that is clerly nepotism at play, it appears nepo infants are being blamed for society’s inequalities and hating on them will not be the reply.
I not too long ago learn Lisa Marie Presley’s stunning memoir, From Right here to The Nice Unknown, which her daughter, actor and author, Riley Keough, accomplished as co-author following her mom’s loss of life aged 54 in 2023. The guide affords an enchanting perception into the lifetime of Elvis’ solely little one, each the highs and the lows, however my overwhelming takeaway after ending it was one among disappointment for Lisa Marie, who’s arguably the OG of nepo infants. After all she was born into unimaginable privilege and universally feted as American royalty, however the burden she carried because the daughter of the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ was one which she battled together with her complete life, together with habit, failed relationships and the devastating affect of the lack of her son, Benjamin, to suicide in 2020. Certainly, she herself mentioned: “Being Elvis Presley’s daughter is a complete lot of stress. It’s been a relentless burden in my life. I don’t deal properly with admiration if it’s for one thing I haven’t finished.”
It will be straightforward to dismiss this as, “oh boo hoo, cry me a river poor little wealthy woman” However not often is it useful to make a prejudiced opinion on somebody earlier than studying extra about them, particularly if the judgement is predicated on one thing they haven’t any management over, such because the circumstances of their beginning. It’s not progressive. And for that cause, there’s a big a part of me that feels sorry for nepo infants enduring the present spate of nepo child hate that has consumed our cultural discourse in recent times.
Look, I don’t wish to be accused of being a “privilege apologist” right here and I wholeheartedly perceive the frustrations and inequality at play when these genetic lottery winners appear to be utilizing their platform of privilege to leapfrog up the profession ladder, attaining the identical standing as their megastar mother and father – typically with out the expertise or laborious graft required of lesser mortals. And by that, I imply lesser socio-economicly lucky people. It’s shit. It’s laborious, quick proof of society’s gross inequality, obtrusive for all to see within the shiny world of showbiz – and in most of your favorite TV reveals. However it’s the poisonous ranges of nepo-baby bating that has blown up on-line and within the media in recent times, that I take situation with.
Which is why I applaud DJ and presenter, Phoenix Brown, 25-year-old daughter of Mel ‘Scary Spice’ Brown for her new documentary: Born within the Limelight: Nepo Infants UNTOLD, which airs Thursday 16 January on Channel 4.