Who's your daddy?

In Saturday's Herald magazine, there was a 4-page spread (it might have been more - I didn't linger) featuring a model who looked like the usual stick insect and seemed to have only two claims to fame. She went to Glenalmond College and her father is called Fish. So, a private education - that's a big tick in the jotter of life for a start. Having a daddy called Fish? Well, it seems he's a 'rock star'. Something to do with a group - from the 80s maybe? - called Marillion. He's certainly a big hero of reporters on Scottish newspapers and is mentioned regularly, though I confess I've never heard of him. His real name is Derek Dick. Much less fun than being called Fish. But another tick in his daughter's jotter all the same.

What's interesting about this model? Nothing at all, I would say, except that she has joined the ranks of the people doing well not because they are talented but because of who they are related to.

There's Stella McCartney for one. I've looked at her designs and doubt if even one of them will be remembered ten years from now. Then there's Sam West, son of Timothy West and Prunella Scales. He's done well, though whether he would have got the parts he's had if he'd been descended from unknown parents is a different matter. Chrissie Hynde's teenage daughter got her kit off a few years back for a Channel 4 film but has never been seen or heard of since.

There are exceptions, of course. Victoria Coren is the daughter of Alan Coren and she is a very bright woman who is just as quick-witted as her father was. Her brother Giles, though, I have my doubts about.

I can see how the children of entertainment people get drawn into that world. It's what they grow up with and may be all they know. But it must be absolutely maddening to slog away as an unknown, thinking you're doing well in the world of entertainment only to find yourself up against someone whose main attribute is their name. And it's probably pretty annoying too if you are talented and have famous parents and are judged suspect because of your name. There is a way round that, of course. You can do what Duncan Jones did. Born Zowie Bowie, he changed his name and has made himself a reputation as a film-maker without any backing from daddy Dave.