What Ever Happened to Mr. and Miss Golden Globe?

For decades leading up to the 2026 Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association entrusted famous actors’ offspring to escort the award winners on and off the stage. At their height, the Golden Globes were considered one of the highest-profile awards shows, second only to the Oscars—making the role of that year’s Miss or Mr. Golden Globe a coveted job for nepo babies in search of their big break.

The tradition dates back to 1963, when the HFPA chose Beverly Hillbillies star Donna Douglas and Hungarian actor Eva Six as the first two Miss Golden Globes. Anne Archer, daughter of actors John Archer and Marjorie Lord, became the first celebrity kid named Miss Golden Globe in 1971. She went on to receive Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for her role in 1987’s Fatal Attraction. The role also catapulted future Oscar winner and 1982 honoree Laura Dern, the daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd; 10 years later, she earned a Golden Globe nomination for 1991’s Rambling Rose.

The first Mr. Golden Globe was named in 1995, and the title would take on a new gender-neutral name in 2018: the philanthropically focused Golden Globe ambassador. “Now it’s gender-neutral, and the ambassador could be a woman, a man, a transgender,” Anke Hofmann, then the vice president of the organization, told The New York Times. “We are keeping the tradition of a next-generation actor, who is also very involved with social media.”

But by 2021, the Golden Globes and the HFPA were embroiled in a major scandal when they were criticized for diversity failures among their votership and allegations of problematic behavior. NBC pulled the plug on the broadcast for the following year, and in 2023 the newly reformed Golden Globes returned with additional ethics standards, but sans the 60-year tradition of anointing the next nepo baby du jour.

The awards show’s alumni include children of six-time Globe recipient Carol Burnett, Kevin Costner, Jack Nicholson, Whoopi Goldberg, Andie MacDowell, and Idris Elba, as well as Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s daughter, Sosie. And the HFPA liked to keep honorees in the family. Melanie Griffith, daughter of Tippi Hedren, was named Miss Golden Globe 1975 and later won a Globe for her role in 1988’s Working Girl. In 2006, Griffiths’s eldest daughter, Dakota Johnson, became the first daughter of a former Miss Golden Globe to be selected for the role. When she was 19, Francesca Eastwood became Clint Eastwood’s second daughter to serve as Miss Golden Globe, following Kathryn Eastwood’s 2005 appearance.

Miss Golden Globe 2017 Scarlet Stallone, actress Jennifer Flavin, actor Sylvester Stallone, Miss Golden Globe 2017 Scarlet Stallone and Miss Golden Globe 2017 Sophia Stallone attend the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards.Steve Granitz

The gig opened even more doors for the already privileged. Corinne Foxx, daughter of Jamie Foxx, told The Hollywood Reporter that following her 2016 stint as Miss Golden Globe, she snagged a campaign for Wet n Wild cosmetics. “This being Hollywood, there is fierce competition and campaigning by proud A-list parents for the role,” The New York Times reported in 2018, noting that the HFPA board “votes on which candidates are presented to the president, who makes the final pick.” Greer Grammer, daughter of Kelsey Grammer, reportedly interviewed for the gig three years before being selected as Miss Golden Globe 2015. Not that any of that year’s celebrity attendees seemed aware of this off-screen lobbying. “I was like, ‘Okay, now you’re going to exit this way, Prince,’” she recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. “He just gave me this look like, ‘Who are you?’ and exited in the opposite direction.”

The tradition shifted with the times. Born four months after his father, Clark Gable, died, John Clark Gable was the first-ever Mr. Golden Globe in 1995 and one of the oldest Miss or Mr. Globes, serving when he was 34. The youngest was Sylvester Stallone’s then 14-year-old, Scarlet, who served with her two older sisters as the final Miss Golden Globes in 2017.

Dwayne Johnson’s daughter Simone Garcia-Johnson became the first Golden Globe ambassador to partner with a philanthropic cause in addition to conducting her onstage duties. The final ambassadors were Jackson and Satchel Lee, Spike Lee’s son and daughter, in 2021. They were the first Black siblings to serve together, and Jackson was the only Black male to hold the title.

When the Globes returned in January 2023—only a month after New York magazine’s viral nepo baby cover—every famous son or daughter was being put on notice in the press. (Anyone else remember Hailey Bieber’s nepo baby shirt?) The Golden Globe ambassador program felt a bit out of touch for that moment, but consider this our pitch for the honor’s return. It feels cool to care about celebrity kids and their lives again, be it Francesca Scorsese’s TikTokification of her father, Martin Scorsese, or Paul Thomas Anderson’s inclusion of Pearl, his eldest daughter with Maya Rudolph, in this year’s nine-time-nominated One Battle After Another. And who better to bestow two-time nominee Jacob Elordi with an award than Romy Mars, one of his most well-connected admirers and the daughter of Sofia Coppola?

Unleash the nepo babies upon The Beverly Hilton if only for uniquely Hollywood moments like this one. Actor and future Dancing With the Stars victor Rumer Willis spent much of her childhood on the film sets of her father and mother, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, before appearing as Miss Golden Globe 2009. “I feel so old,” Alec Baldwin cracked that year as he accepted his Globe for best actor in a TV comedy, which he won for 30 Rock. “I remember when I used to bring Rumer Willis a juice box on the set of the movie.”