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I was kind of stunned when I read something recently that quoted Gisele Bündchen’s twin. I immediately wondered if they swap out photo shoots, like if Gisele is too tired or feels like vacationing with Tom Brady, she just sends in Patricia to do the work. But no, turns out they are fraternal twins and don’t look that much alike. And then I wondered how much it would suck to be Gisele Bündchen’s twin and look nothing like her. Or maybe just enough where people say, “Hey, you kind of look like that model…” and the twin says, “Yeah, she’s my twin,” and people reply, “oh… really??”
I’ve probably put too much thought into this. My point is, after reading that quote, I wondered what other celebrities have twins out there who aren’t famous. There are a lot, but I’ve just picked the ones I found most interesting. Feel free to share yours in the comments.
1. Aldo Andretti used to race, just like his famous brother Mario. He had a few bad accidents, ending with one that caused severe damage to his face and left him in a coma. He quit after that and opened his own business, Aldo Andretti Machine and Engineering Co. His son, John, inherited the Andretti racing gene and still races.
2. Roberta Clift (AKA Ethel Clift) was born just before her famous brother Montgomery.
3. Patricia Bundchen, is, of course, Gisele’s fraternal twin sister, younger by five minutes. They have four other sisters – Raquel, Rafaela, Graziela and Gabriela. Gisele has always insisted that between the two of them, her twin is hotter.
4. Wade, Alanis Morissette’s twin, probably knows who “You Oughta Know” is about. He’s 12 minutes older and Alanis says the two of them share that cool twin telepathy. She wrote the song “No Pressure Over Cappuccino” for him.
5. Loretta Williams grew up in Harlem with her twin brother, William December Williams. That’s Billy Dee, to you and me. Or Lando if you prefer, I guess.
6. Isotta Ingrid Frieda Giuliana Rossellini didn’t follow in the footsteps of her famous family – her sister Isabella is a famous actress, her mother was actress Ingrid Bergman, her father was Roberto Rossellini and her half-sister is broadcaster Pia Lindstrom. Isotta went the academic route and has a doctorate in Italian Literature from Columbia University. She’s now an adjunct professor at New York University. She has also taught at Princeton and Harvard. That’s one talented family!
7. I wonder if Hunter Johansson and Ryan Reynolds get along? Hunter is younger than Scarlett by three minutes and worked as a campaign organizer for Barack Obama. People named him one of their “Single and Sexy Men of 2008,” so apparently he shares Scarlett’s good looks.
8. Jana Elway was John Elway’s twin sister, younger by 11 minutes. Sadly, she died of lung cancer in 2002.
9. Harriet Davis was studying acting while her sister Ann was pre-med at the University of Michigan. Then Ann saw her brother in Oklahoma and decided acting would be fun and switched her major. Who knows, maybe Harriet Davis would have been better suited to play Alice on The Brady Bunch!
10. Corey Howard works for AT&T, but unless he’s CEO, his Philadelphia Phillies brother Ryan Howard has probably got him bested in salary. Speaking of which, Jose and Ozzie Canseco were twins that played baseball, although Ozzie only played 24 games. But back to the Howards – here’s a little video about the two of them. How cute were they?!
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Comments (16)
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It’s strange that Ryan Reynolds dated both Alanis and Scarlett and they both have twin brothers….
posted by Meghan on 1-21-2009 at 4:32 pm
I can’t believe you didn’t mention Ashton Kutcher and his twin Michael, who was born with cerebral palsy.
posted by Kelly J on 1-21-2009 at 4:38 pm
You know, if Gisele’s sister was all done up I would thinks she’d be hotter, but Gisele does nothing for me to begin with.
posted by Amanda on 1-21-2009 at 5:23 pm
Kelly, I second your disbelief. When I first read about Michael Kutcher – who lives in Iowa and works in a bank – I had the same reaction Stacy did to the existence of Gisele’s twin, i.e., wow, how much does that suck?
Talk about coming in second on the genetic lottery. (and that is not to say Patricia isn’t beautiful. she’s just not Gisele).
posted by Chelsea on 1-21-2009 at 5:25 pm
Jill Hennessey has an identical twin sister who sometimes works as a stand-in for Jill. Her name is, unfortunately, Jacqueline, making them Jac and Jill.
posted by Jenn on 1-21-2009 at 5:35 pm
i hope Wade Morrisette knows who “you oughta know” is about…everybody else does. It’s about Full House’s own funny man Joey…aka Dave Couiler
posted by Andy on 1-21-2009 at 6:00 pm
Are you sure Ashton isn’t the one with cerebral palsy??
posted by Billy on 1-21-2009 at 6:33 pm
Jenn… wonder if that was on purpose or not, hah.
I have some relatives who named their kids in specific ways like my aunt and uncle who named all their kids “D” names (Dennis, Debbie, Doug and Darcy). Strangely, Dennis ended up marring Denise who then had two “D” name kids of their own, Dustin and Dawn.
I had an ex-bf who’s family tradition was to name the first born son with the initials BBB.
Actually… that would make an interesting column… the way (and reason) people name kids like that.
posted by Sarah in CA (formerly just Sarah) on 1-21-2009 at 7:28 pm
Before Ashton was “discovered” he was going to be a biochemical engineer so that he could help his brother. And I thought his brother had a heart condition, not cerebral palsy…
posted by Lindsay F on 1-21-2009 at 8:24 pm
Aww. I’m so glad your list included Jana Elway. She was a tennis pro who taught for my juniors’ program and she was a total sweetheart. She didn’t talk about John a lot, but it was really fun to hear about when she did. (I only vaguely knew who he was then– I started following his career because of her.) Thanks for mentioning a really wonderful lady. :-)
posted by DB on 1-22-2009 at 12:58 am
Didn’t anybody see Terminator 2? Linda Hamilton’s twin sister, Leslie, made an appearance there.
posted by jmchez on 1-22-2009 at 1:15 am
Linda Hamilton’s twin sister acted as her body double in one scene in T2. The filmmakers were struggling to find someone who looked enough like her for the ‘fixing T1 in front of the mirror’ scene, never realizing she had an identical twin.
posted by Mary on 1-22-2009 at 10:12 am
Actually, I think Patricia is better looking than Giselle. Probably because I’m an ‘average girl’ kinda guy. And I don’t exactly see why people think Scarlet is hot. I just don’t see it.
posted by crocostimpy on 1-22-2009 at 1:11 pm
I dunno, Croco.
I can see why people find certain other people attractive, even in cases where that person does nothing for me.
John Cleese did a BBC series called The Human Face. It’s available on DVD and very interesting. Check it out.
posted by Bassman on 1-22-2009 at 6:45 pm
no vin diesel?
posted by mike on 1-23-2009 at 12:01 am
What about Ethel Clift? You don’t say much about her. I’m a twin, too! Fraternal, though. No, we’re not psycic.
posted by Sara from Alabama on 2-6-2009 at 12:28 pm