M.D.F.’s

“My Daddy’s Famous” – an initialism used to describe celebrity offspring who seem to expect the same level of adulation as their parents.

Writing in The Telegraph, Jasper Gerard compared Britain’s coterie of celebrity offspring to the “Bright Young Things” of Evelyn Waugh’s “Vile Bodies.” Only now, this disarmingly self-assured band of M.D.F.s have become the “Dim Young Things.”

A huge cast of wayward young rockocrats have now nudged aristocrats out of the gossip columns, and the only discernable difference is that the names have grown even sillier. Instead of the Mitford sisters we have the Geldof girls, ably supported by baby Jaggers, Osbournes, Stewarts, Ferrys, Bests, Woods and Le Bons – Mayfair is still a menagerie of walking, squawking trust funds, and how Waugh would recognise the breed: vapid, spoilt and not overly burdened with self-awareness.

According to Gerard:

Rock-star parents were often driven by the poverty around them. Their children, by contrast, have been educated, fed, clothed, shod and travelled at mind-boggling expense – and far from launching them, it has sucked many of them dry of any drive. Well, why work when the Cristal is flowing and daddy’s credit card is nestled safely in your Gucci clutch?

None of this would surprise Waugh. But what has changed is that nowM.D.F.s believe it is their birthright not only to inherit their parents’ wealth, but also their fame. Alas, we’re proving them right.