On January 26, a woman in Bellflower, California, gave birth to octuplets "“ six boys and two girls. This bunch of babies is only the second set of live-born octuplets in the U.S. In celebration of Xeroxed siblings everywhere, this week's TVHolic salutes multiples (and their media-savvy parents).
From NICU to SAG
Being a "Happy Baby" Pays Off
The Truth About Carrie Ingalls
The role of Carrie on Little House on the Prairie was credited to twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush, but those weren't the girls' names in real life and "Greenbush" isn't even their true surname. Billy "Green" Bush was a character actor who specialized in playing rough "˜n rugged types (M*A*S*H fans may remember him as the helicopter pilot called Cowboy who tried to kill Henry Blake in mid-air). In 1970, his wife gave birth to twin girls named Rachel Lindsay Rene and Sidney Robin Danae. Rachel and Robin, as they were known, got their first acting job at age 2, when they were cast in the made-for-TV film Sunshine. One year later Michael Landon was casting actors for Little House on the Prairie, and a producer who'd worked on Sunshine recommended the Bush twins. Once they landed the role, their mother decided to protect their privacy by using stage names for the girls. That way, she surmised, the twins could discern TV viewers from relatives or friends "“ if they were spotted in public and addressed as "Lindsay" or "Sidney," it automatically signaled a Little House fan.
Cute But Canceled
Quadrophenia
Allison Mathias is used to total strangers stopping her and asking "Are they for real?" No, they're not referring to her bosom, but to her identical quadruplets: Grace, Anna, Mary Claire and Emily. The Mathias quads were born in 2000 and are unusual because they were not the result of fertility drugs "“ they all started out as the same egg that kept dividing"¦and dividing. When they were but a few months old they earned a cool quarter-million dollars from America's Funniest Home Videos just for laughing in unison. The photogenic foursome have since starred in their own Discovery Health Channel special, made appearances on Oprah> and The Tonight Show and modeled clothes in Target commercials.
Bent Fork Babes
I Love Lucy fans will recognize Roz and Marilyn Borden "“ they played Teensy and Weensy in the episode entitled "Tennessee Bound." The Borden twins already had an impressive list of acting credits by the time Lucille Ball tapped them to play potential suitors for Cousin Ernie, but such was the power of I Love Lucy that 30 years later, when the twins were entertaining on cruise ships, they could always count on someone in the audience requesting "Ricochet Romance."
We're giving away five $10,000 scholarships. All you have to do is tell us, in 750 words or less, why you should win. But you have to tell us by January 31st. We look forward to reading your entries!