On Monday (December 19), Vulture published an article about nepotism babies, meaning people who gained success from their relatives, friends, and associates. This particular form of nepotism is about famous people getting their kids through the door. It sparked a furious debate, with some worthy of conversation and some people being listed without parents of influence or power, arguably devaluing the word. On Instagram, Jamie Lee Curtis weighed in on the nepo baby conversation, saying it is “designed to diminish and denigrate and hurt” people.
The Halloween star was born to two movie stars, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Curtis was known for films like Spartacus and The Defiant Ones, for which he earned an Oscar nomination for his performance. Leigh had many prominent roles but was most notably in Psycho. When posting about the nepo baby conversation, Jamie Lee Curtis acknowledged her privilege by writing, “there’s not a day in my professional life that goes by without being reminded that I am the daughter of movie stars.”
“For the record, I have navigated 44 years with the advantages my associated and reflected fame brought me, I don’t pretend there aren’t any, that try to tell me that I have no value on my own.”
Jamie Lee Curtis Slams Nepo baby Conversation
The article calls out all sorts of celebrities. It can be understandable when you see the parents of Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), Maya Hawke (daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman), and more, but the parent association may not always mean they were handed their success. Still, it led to a divisive debate across social media, leading to few stars responding.
In her Instagram post, Jamie Lee Curtis ends the nepo baby conversation on a positive note. She wrote that she is “proud” of her famous family name and people like her are “dedicated to our craft.” To end, she takes a note from Everything Everywhere All at Once, which she starred in earlier this year; she hits the film’s message, “BE KIND.”