The Same Name Game VI

Chaplins, McQueens, and the Smiths.

Kevin Smith became an indie-film legend with movies such as Clerks and Chasing Amy. His more recent film work has skewed roward horror-comedy, and he’s got several major TV credits, including production of the animated Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Here he is enjoying a podcast with his daughter. The family that laughs together…

@thatkevinsmithThis is a clip from episode 2 of the podcast that I record with Harley for #ThatKevinSmithClub called YOU CAN COUNT ON MOMILY! In the excerpt, I imagine a night in which Colonel Sanders, Ronald McDonald and the Pollo Loco chicken figure prominently in Harley’s pillow talk with boyfriend. Momily is my new favorite thing that I do because a) I get to hang out with my kid and b) I get to laugh until I almost pass out. Fair warning: I spend a lot of the show just laughing - which may not be entertaining for the audience but it’s joyfully therapeutic for me and reminds me of how early Smodcast made me feel. If you like this glimpse, join ThatKevinSmithClub to see/hear Momily every week! If you don’t like it… Look, I know it’s the Internet and so naturally people are gonna shit on it. But I’m enjoying the fuck out of putting my only begotten child through an escalating series of ridiculous #kobayashimaru tests. So please - don’t begrudge a Dad his Dad jokes. #KevinSmith #harleyquinnsmith #thatkevinsmithclub #youcancountonmomily #podcast

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The late actor Kevin Smith played Ares in Hercules and its spinoffs Xena and Young Hercules. In addition to getting confused with his namesake, he could get confused with the actor playing Hercules—Kevin Sorbo.

Oona Chaplin is a prolific actress best known for Game of Thrones, the Avatar sequels, and The Longest Ride. She is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin…

…and named for Oona Chaplin, her grandmother. The Chaplin wedding raised considerable scandal: she was 18, he was 54. Despite this, she bore him eight children in their 34 years together. This meant scrapping most of her plans to become an actress, but she did realize that dream in one role after Charlie’s death, an alcoholic mother in the film Broken English. An early screen test of her in 1942 survives below.

Actor and racing driver Steve McQueen was “the King of Cool” in the Sixties and Seventies, and became the highest-paid actor in the world for The Towering Inferno. His other big hits included Bullitt, The Great Escape, and Papillon.

Director Steve McQueen is known for Shame, Hunger, last year’s Occupied City, and especially 12 Years a Slave. (Since he’s not an onscreen presence in the clip, I’ve provided a snapshot, too.)

Will Smith needs little introduction: he’s the standout star of Independence Day, Men in Black, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as well as a chart-topping hip-hop artist. In 2022, he won a Best Actor Oscar for King Richard, but that victory was somewhat tainted when a clash between him and Chris Rock turned physical at the awards ceremony. His career has had a cold period as a result, but he’s set to come back with Bad Boys 4, I Am Legend 2, and other projects.

Will Smith is an actor, writer, and stand-up comic who won awards for his writing and production on Veep. He won another writing award for last year’s Slow Horses.

I mentioned there were a lot of semi-famous Will Smiths on Wikipedia before this (and no way to get to them all), but the continued good fortunes of Will “Slow Horses” Smith moved me to give this another look.

Next: A special giveway, following through on a promise I made last week, and a new tool for you all!

And then: Just before Valentine’s Day a defense of love languages!