And now, an epistolary post. Which I am doing because it will be fun, and not just because “epistolary” makes me sound good.
Excerpted from an email from Kelly:
“I know you guys don’t give Busy Phillips a lot of coverage…But seriously: your name is an adjective so to be different you name your kid after an insect? Is the next one going to be Praying Mantis Silverstein.”
Excerpted from an exchange between Lainey and me…
Lainey:
I mean, I’ll take Cricket over Crystal
Duana:
But that’s not a thing. You don’t know any young Crystals.
Lainey:
Yeah but I bet they’re out there.
Duana:
Crystal is a mom name. The daughters are called, like, Alayna. Or Ava-Jade.
Lainey:
Are you SERIOUS. “Alayna”??? So are you going to write about this or not?
(In the interest of full disclosure, I may have originally typed the Alayna with a few extra n’s for dramatic impact.)
Cricket Pearl. Her elder sister is Birdie Leigh. First and foremost, I know Cricket was on a soap somewhere along the way – All My Children? – (Lainey: NO, Duana. Young & The Restless!) but for me, she is forever and always the awesome/creepy talking doll that I coveted as a child. Remember Cricket? Anyone? Somewhere in New York, Dean is nodding, laughing, and telling me that he saw an impeccable one for sale in Brooklyn recently.
Otherwise, though, it’s been out of use. And yes, Cricket is a twee name coming to join the twee name that is her sister Birdie. Birdie and Cricket. It’s not just that they’re both the most Etsy of names, if there were such a thing; it’s that they’re both wee woodland creatures.
But – having said all that, I have to wonder whether we’re not being punked a little bit. My rationale as follows: Busy Philipps has made an unusual name work for her for her entire career. Not since Busy Ramone has there been such a famous “Busy” who made it work for herself. I can even bet that since part of an actor’s job is to make themselves memorable, that “Busy” turned out to be an asset among all the Nicoles and Amandas she would have been up against.
So maybe Busy thinks Cricket and Birdie will be better off for having distinctive names – and you must admit, they’re not Hollywood “crazy”, a la North, but neither are they Hollywood common (I know the chosen people think they’re original but for every Harlow and Sparrow there are nine million celebrity babies named Max).
There’s a part of me that thinks we’re actually suckers in this situation. I could totally and completely be wrong, and I might be giving Philipps way too much credit, but I kind of secretly believe they have “normal” names that she’s just not announcing. I mean for some, Leigh and Pearl are those names, but I wouldn’t even be surprised if they were also packing Laura and Sarah as secret backup names. It seems like the kind of thing Philipps would do, maybe. Right?
Nah. But it helps me rationalize why someone would waste a whole name on Cricket. The only people who can be cavalier about not getting a baby name right are the Duggars (and even then).
Attached – a photo Busy posted of herself with Cricket on her Twitter.
