Toddler to the Stars

April 6, 2004 8:17 PM

Who Is That With Jeremy?Bill Clinton, Puff Daddy (or is that P. Diddy?), Kirsten Dunst, Spike Lee, the entire cast of Oz... Jeremy's dad has an obscene talent for getting his kid into famous arms for a snapshot.
posted by headspace (28 comments total)

That was a really great link. Thanks ;)
posted by The God Complex at 8:28 PM on April 6, 2004

Not a double post, as it wasn't a FPP.

Jeremy's dad is also an actor, as mentioned in the above linked thread. Some of these will be memorable later on, other celebrities will have faded out.
posted by Gyan at 8:33 PM on April 6, 2004

ahhh...he didn't like Bloomberg or Giuliani! : >
posted by amberglow at 8:39 PM on April 6, 2004

It's only your toe in there, evstar.

Fun site, although I generally loathe the practice of composing first person narrative on behalf of a toddler. It's like a parental press release.
posted by ulotrichous at 8:44 PM on April 6, 2004

Yeah, I was careless enough not to click the first link because I was sure it was the same as this. I apologize.

On Topic: I agree with ulotrichous. That practice is just horrid. It's bad enough I have to read it on all my relatives' christmas cards yearly. Still, the site has its appeal
posted by Evstar at 8:54 PM on April 6, 2004

I can't decide if that was good or scary. I mean, the photos were really cute, but at what point is dad just an egomaniacal jerk who uses his cute baby to meet people? Accosting people in the street with a baby seems like not entirely right 'parent' behaviour.

Still, I'm insanely jealous of Jeremy, *I* want to meet Ringo Starr!
posted by livii at 8:57 PM on April 6, 2004

Ah it's cute. Though the G. Gordon Liddy one scares me a bit.
posted by bobo123 at 9:20 PM on April 6, 2004

As somewhat creepy as this is, if we assume Jeremy doesn't end up in foster care far away from his crazy crazy dad, he's gonna look back on this in twenty years and find it pretty damn cool
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 9:21 PM on April 6, 2004

Pierce Brosnan!

Okay, this is officially cool now.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 9:23 PM on April 6, 2004

This is daddy
posted by benh57 at 9:24 PM on April 6, 2004

This is daddy now

And it looks the photo album is just a very cute business card for little Jeremy's modelling career.
posted by bubbatrip at 9:42 PM on April 6, 2004

Of course what I meant was:

This is daddy now
posted by bubbatrip at 9:45 PM on April 6, 2004

Damn that cute kid! Those baby-talk captions didn't help either...
posted by bitpart at 9:53 PM on April 6, 2004

al franken does not know how to hold a baby
posted by bob sarabia at 10:01 PM on April 6, 2004

A lot of those photos were taken at the same events and/or on the same days, so it's not as bad as I thought at first. I can't imagine taking my son around and forcing him on these people who probably just want to be left alone (Kirsten Dunst looking like a prime example), but when he sees three or four at a single book signing, it's not as horrible as it could be.

He must spend a fortune on crappy books, though, to get these photo ops. And it would be good networking for Jeremy's fledging career, I suppose. Ick.
posted by tracicle at 10:20 PM on April 6, 2004

The Google ads on this thread seem kind of odd...
posted by spilon at 9:08 AM on April 7, 2004

It's no secret that a good baby is a kickass prop.
posted by chicobangs at 9:42 AM on April 7, 2004

I'm no expert, but I have a sneaking suspicion those pictures with the kid are photoshopped. Look at the outline of the kids head and compare it with the outline of the actors head in the pictures. I noticed a couple of instances where the outline of the kids head is pixelated where the outline of the actors is not.

The fathers talents might be much more subtle than first realized.
posted by Wong Fei-hung at 10:45 AM on April 7, 2004

Kinda reminds me of this book.
posted by MsVader at 12:10 PM on April 7, 2004

I too feel that a bit of hornswoggling has occurred here. Every single one of those photographs bear telltale photoshopping hallmarks. Not to mention the kid is wearing the exact same outfit/expression in many of the pictures. Other instances clearly had the celebrities head pasted onto another person's body.

Booo!!!!
posted by piedrasyluz at 12:12 PM on April 7, 2004

Particularly the one with Ringo Starr - the size of the kid compared to Ringo is way off - it makes the kid's head look almost as big as Ringo's....
posted by piedrasyluz at 12:18 PM on April 7, 2004

Exactly,

The one with Ms. H. Berry and Michael J. Fox jumped out at me too for some reason. MJF because of just how often I've seen pictures of him out with his kids (which is what tripped the alarm in my head about how easy it would be to find a picture of him holding his kid and photoshop my kids head over it.)

The one with Ringo is the most egregious though. Another spot to look for is size of the kids neck. It seems to change in some pictures.

It's an interesting hoax. I'm still trying to figure out why s/he would have done it.

Wong
posted by Wong Fei-hung at 12:33 PM on April 7, 2004

Yikes. Major creep factor on this one, regardless of whether the pics are genuine.

I mean, the parent cannot be doing this becauase he wants his child to have these experiences, so the only other option is he (the parent) wants to meet these people, and uses his young son as the outlet to do so.

Just reeks of vicarious parental striving through their child. Ugh.

Also, ditto on earlier comments, I can't stand the first-person voice the father uses to "narrate" his son's thoughts. To me, further illustrates his manipulation of events through his son.
posted by bullitt 5 at 2:14 PM on April 7, 2004

I always thought Ringo had a huge head, especially compared to the rest of his body.

Not first hand info, but still.

And if the pics are real, this merely creepy-cute. But if he's P-Shopping the little munchkin into existing baby-with-celeb shots, that's -- that's just wrong.
posted by chicobangs at 2:54 PM on April 7, 2004

All hail Rich.
posted by davebush at 3:08 PM on April 7, 2004

For all of the doubters out there, I got this e-mail from Jeremy's dad this morning:

I am Jeremy's dad and someone sent me the link to metafilter (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/32260)

I tried to sign up as to comment on some of the posts bit was unable to as the site is undergoing "growing pains"

All of the pictures are real and I have the pix and negative to prove it! as for Ringo, it ws shot at a signing at FYE on 52nd and sixth avenue in NYC

Please let folks know that the pix are real and I even have more, but I ran out of room on my site.

Thanks for enjoying the site and posting it to Metafilter!

Michael Zorek

posted by headspace at 6:27 AM on April 8, 2004

The Ringo one looks fake only because of the perspective. The kid is sitting at the far edge of the table; Ringo is sitting in a chair at the other end.

Also, the pixellation is occurring because the HTML is resizing each picture. Right click to "view image" and they will become clearer.
posted by PrinceValium at 10:18 AM on April 8, 2004

Hello-

I am Jeremy's Dad, Michael Zorek. Matt let me sign up so I could answer some of the comments here. First of all, NONE of the pictures are faked. They were taken at signings, public appearances or encounters on the street. I think that this will be fun for Jeremy when he gets older, and for now, it is not hurting him. He models, is very outgoing and enjoys people. It certainly is doing him no harm.

Sorry about writing in his voice, but it seemed original at the time- if you don't like it- well, that's what we did. As for a few comments: Ringo was shot at FYE record store on 52nd and sixth. I put Jeremy on the table and was able to get two shots (and an autographed cd!), Michael J. Fox was at a charity event that we attend every year. If you look at my bio (check the imdb) you will see I worked with him. Getting that picture was no problem! Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan were at a window opening at Bloomingdales for the James Bond movie they were in. That is how I got them both (we saw Steven Weber the same day- I knew him from LA as well)

As to people who don't like the site or what I do with my son, sorry if it offends you- you don't have to look.

For those who do like it- I will be buying more pages to add more pix that I have! Keep passing the link around to your friends!

Many thanks-

Michael
posted by HomeWithKid at 4:50 PM on April 8, 2004