Will Ferrell’s Web short "The Landlord" has been online for less than a week (PopWatch linked to it on Monday), but it’s already made a breakout star out of two-year-old Pearl McKay. And no wonder: not only does she have a distinguished Hollywood pedigree (her uncle is Jeremy Piven, and her dad is Adam McKay, Ferrell’s writing/directing partner on such movies as Anchorman and Talladega Nights and the writer/director/costar of "Landlord"), but she’s also clearly talented and photogenic. During her weeklong crawl from the playpen to worldwide notoriety, Pearl has been the subject of several profiles in major newspapers and has even been interviewed (sorta) by People magazine.
Unfortunately, wee Pearl has also become the most controversial celebrity offspring since Jane Fonda. Lots of folks, including many of you who commented on Monday’s post, have accused the elder McKay of bad parenting, suggesting that by teaching Pearl some risqué lines of dialogue, he’s setting her up for years of psychotherapy and deprogramming. (C’mon, it’s not as if she were Suri Cruise.) But it’s not Pearl I’m worried about; rather, it’s the rest of us. The precocious Pearl is getting a head start that will leave her underachieving contemporaries — Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Apple and Moses Paltrow-Martin, and Cheeto and Poptart Spears-Federline — in the dust. By the time she’s as old as, say, Elle Fanning, she’ll have won an Oscar; by the time she’s Dakota’s age, she’ll be running her own studio. Soon she’ll own us all. She’ll be our landlord for real, and it’ll be our door she knocks on when she wants to get her drink on.
Comments (1-30) of 75 Add your comment
You know, I didn’t think the video was THAT bad. I mean, okay, they didn’t have any business teaching the kid that stuff, but I have a 3 year old who said “D” and “S” after hearing her G’ma say it. She’s never said them since, and G’ma has cleaned up her mouth, so I don’t think this’ll screw up the little lady too much, although being around Will Farrell and Jeremy Piven might…
Oh, please. Some people need to chill out. This kid probably forgot those words three seconds after she sent them. People need to get a sense of humor.
That kid was great! She was so funny, and I spent many years working with 2-year-olds, so I really appriciate it. One of the cool things about kids that young is they have no idea what stuff means, so as long as her parents are loving and caring I’m not worried about her.
How old do you have to be so you won’t be screwed up around Jeremy Piven and Will Farrell?
“they didn’t have any business teaching the kid that stuff”?? Says who? Says you? What business is it of YOURS what they teach their kid? We live in a messed up society where language and sex are OH SO SCARY AND FORBIDDEN (oh my god, think of the children! the children!!!!), but violence is A-OK. There are tons of worse things parents teach their children (racism/sexism/homophobia, war is supergreat, Bush deserves respect, Blake should win Idol, etc)… but they can teach whatever they want.
Ever think that maybe when a parent allows and encourages “bad language,” that the child won’t feel the need to use it rebel?
Rock it out, Pearl!
Amen Thataboy! (Or should that be, “That a boy, Thataboy!”?)
Good point Mike!!! LOL!!!
Cheeto and Poptart Spears-Federline…priceless.
Waaa Waaa Waaa…whiny bleeding hearts. It’s funny. She doesn’t know what she’s saying anyways
I need to get my drink on….
I sure didn’t have to be taught bad or risque words by my parents. I picked them up from all over as most kids do and repeated them with friends despite knowing I was in for a world of trouble if I got caught.
I’m with Thataboy, there are much more harmful things we can teach our kids. And maybe, just maybe, once people quit freaking out over particular WORDS they won’t be as offensive. It’s the intent behind what is said that defines (to me) whether it is offensive and/or harmful or not. A person can be offensive and cruel without ever using risque terms. A kid playing around with her Dad and friend for a camera is hardly teaching said kid to hurt others. Particularly when odds are they will forget what they said for the camera the next day.
I’m not even a fan of Ferrell, but that kid is too cute.
You are all a bunch of hypocrites! If you were to walk down the street and hear an ordinary run-of-the-mill child saying these words, you would probably gag. Alas, the rich and famous as usual, can do what they want. This is not cute. No wonder so many children go to school and disrespect fellow students and teachers. It should not surprise me anymore to see so many children with their fingers in their parents faces, or pulling out a gun and shooting them. This is cute, real cute. And don’t bother to talk smack to me, cause your sick minds need a lot of work. It all starts somewhere. How will she forget these words in two seconds when she hears this everyday?
Cheeto and Poptart! HA! Love it!
You know, this is by far the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. The kids won’t remember the curse words, even if they weren’t digitally manipulated (as I suspect). My niece was this age when someone taught her the “F” Bomb, and she used it repeatedly. The novelty wore off after a couple of days, and she went back to G-rated language, and didn’t swear again. They’re just words, people.
There are a thousand worse things the parents could be teaching this kid. She’s not going to remember what she said — probably has already forgotten it all. And she’s too young to understand what it meant anyway. What, a half-hour of her repeating some curse words is going to ruin her? I doubt it!!! I thought the video was the funniest thing I’ve seen in years.
Okay, call me naive for not actually knowing what Britney and Kevin’s kids names were, but I totally had to google it to see if they really WERE Cheeto and Poptart. Somehow I wouldn’t have been surprised…
Perish the thought! Curse words will give her high marks when she enters the elementary school years. This will make her the darling of her classroom, the apple of her teacher’s eye, and popular with the “in group.” When someone does what she does not like, she can curse them out. she’s cute for sure. Bleep Bleep Bleep give me that toy! Maybe they can film her first day of school.
PLEASE!!! I thought the video was a scream and little Pearl was so on. She was absolutely perfect. So what if she was Will’s partner’s daughter,too, hey, it saved them hiring an actress. It was the best I’ve seen in a long time.
Mary Jane Powell: Wow! What a powerful name. Too bad your comment stinks!
I wouldn’t mind washing her mouth out with Tide and giving her lousy parents a good caning-40 lashes.
This was one of the funniest clips I’ve seen! And Pearl most likely wasn’t even saying most of those words…it was all subtitled. Some of the words she says can’t even be understand unless you read the subtitles. I think too big of a deal is being made about these “curse” words. She’s not gonna remember any of them…and it’s hilarious.
To Danny Kay:
I believe washing a child’s mouth out with Tide constitues bad parenting (since washing detergent is poisonous) and would recommend calling child services to make sure you aren’t beating your children with “40-lashes”! What century is this? This just shows that in this day and age a simple cuss word in the name of comedy constitues “bad parenting” while violence is a-okay…
eh I don’t get it.
You are all wrong that she will “unlearn” or “forget” this behavior. Between the ages of 1 and 3, children soak up more knowledge than they do the rest of their life. Their brain is like a sponge. Both me and my hubby think this clip was pretty disturbing.
Wow, i had no idea this was controversial, i just thought it was pure hilarity. If anything, I was just amazed that she was able to memorize all of that and I thought to myself, she must be one smart little girl!
How do I put this? I believe that it was B.F. Skinner who said that children mimic vocalization at a young age. She is what,two? I think that she was just trained to say words, but is incapable of understanding what she said. It is like that toddler from Meet the Fockers who said “ash-hole”. He was trained to say it because at that age he was capable of mimicing. It did not mean that he understood what he said. I’ll tell you what though, she is going to turn out to be a very bright child.
Hunter: You need a sense of humor. I was just joking. And I am in agreement with the poster who said a child soaks up a great deal of information between one and three years of age. This has been proven and written about in many books dealing with Human Development.
How do you know she hears this everyday? You ASSUME based upon a short video less than 3 minutes long that she talks like this, or her parents do, all the time?
Assumptions about other people and their parenting based upon less than 3 minutes is way more frightening to me than a few words that a child does not understand.
Offensive to one des not equal offensive to all. Words are words.
To Nancy Walker: Why don’t you use a name? True, I should not have assumed, but it is still in poor taste. No matter if it was fixed that way, or she was trained to say it. In my opinion, which I am entitled to, I found this to be inappropriate. I do realize that there are numerous people who get off on things like this and you are obviously one of them.
Boo! Did that scare you? If someone’s opinion strikes fear in you, perhaps you should visit a counselor. Give yourself a treat, pour a bucket of milk on your head.
Lets face it:Most people in the entertainment world live in a fantasy. They can curse, sleep with just about everyone in their neighborhood, betray their best friends, and anything else they darn well please. Now someone is using their precious child to get some cheap laughs. There really is not much left for them to do except, put their mothers and children up for sale.