The Oscars are this weekend! Do we smell…babies?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Mark Hauber, from the University of Auckland, New Zealand did a curious study. He tallied up the biological children—and Oscars—for some 100 famous actors. The upper echelon, with annual salaries in the tens of millions.
And he found that Academy Award winners, in addition to OUTLIVING their peers, produced more offspring than their equally famous, but Award-challenged, colleagues.
Hauber believes winning an Oscar may shoot stars up in status and salary JUST enough…so they can work less. And make more babies.
For the record, Marlon Brando topped the list with 15 children. 15. The laundry alone! I MYSELF don’t need an Oscar to say, “The horror, the horror.”
Reference: Hauber, M. E. (2007). Fame, fortune, and fitness at the academy awards. Journal of ethology, 25, 201-204.