With the inauguration of a fortysomething President, baby boomers have officially conquered the Beltway, but they're already behind the times. While Washington salutes middle age as a coming-of-age, Hollywood embraces youth — real, or surgically enhanced. In the world of entertainment, the latest leaders aren't boomers, they're babies.
And they're everywhere. They've had blockbuster movies (Boyz N the Hood, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle), signed hit bands (L.L. Cool J, the Beastie Boys), edited major authors (David Mamet, Julia Phillips), and taken over TV programming divisions (NBC, MTV). Moreover, the 29 wunderkinder profiled on the following pages are a new breed indeed. In the eyes of this generation, born after the death of John F. Kennedy, the optimistic bonhomie of postwar America represents little more than a black-and-white sitcom. Theirs is not an innocence lost; it's an absence of innocence that, for good or ill, will mark American entertainment for the next 20 years. They really are, as the politicians love to say, the future.
JOHN SINGLETON Director, 25
The youngest — and only African-American — director ever nominated
for an Academy Award (for Boyz N the Hood), John Singleton exploded
out of the University of Southern California in 1990 with an
unprecedented two Jack Nicholson Awards (for writing), the Creative
Artists Agency (CAA) agent they attracted, and the script for Boyz in
hand. His directing debut, garnered after meeting with studio chief
Frank Price, turned into one of the most profitable theatrical
releases of 1991. With a second feature — Poetic Justice, starring
Janet Jackson, directed and scripted by Singleton — set to open this
summer, he has decided to explore other fields, too. He has signed
the first act, Ruffnekk, to his recently formed record company, New
Deal Music, and he's producing an HBO series (The Champ) as well as a
television movie for NBC on Chicago housing activist Bertha Gilkey.
''I'm doing everything but selling T-shirts,'' he jokes. Give him
time. — Nisid Hajari
JAY MALONEY Agent, 28
Jay Moloney is a young buck with a pedigree. A talent agent at
the all-powerful CAA since 1987, the USC film-school graduate had
barely landed in the agency's mailroom in 1984 before latching on to
CAA chief Mike Ovitz, toiling as his assistant for three years before
earning full rank. Make no mistake, Ovitz and Moloney are still
likethis. Moloney has largely overcome the stigma of being a protégé by consummately catering to blue-chip clients — Martin Scorsese, David
Letterman, Bill Murray, Tim Burton, Uma Thurman, Ben Stiller — and by
finagling deals with industry honchos. As Columbia Pictures chairman
Mark Canton observes, ''Jay has a confidence and maturity beyond his
years.'' — Jeffrey Wells
TABITHA SOREN Journalist, 25
The daughter of an Air Force officer, Tabitha Soren moved
often as a child, and, she says, ''I have no problem pushing my way
into new situations.'' Apparently not. While getting her degree at New
York University (NYU), Soren did internships at CNN and World News
Tonight and wrote for Headbanger's Ball at MTV. Postcollege, Soren
spent a year and a half in Vermont as a statehouse correspondent for
an ABC affiliate and anchored the 11 o'clock news. She then returned
to New York to freelance for MTV, until she became chief political
correspondent for the network's Choose or Lose reports last year.
Soren, who covered the Republican convention in August, did triple
duty at the inaugural events last month, introducing President
Clinton at the MTV ball and filing stories to both MTV and NBC. And
she recently has started to contribute regular reports to the Today show. There, still on the move, she hopes ''to have the freedom to
depart from being the voting poster child.'' — Suelain Moy
