What would your reaction be if you discovered that you were a distant cousin to your spouse? Kyra Sedgwick appears to not be terribly bothered by the revelation that she and her husband Kevin Bacon are distant cousins to each other. I guess when you are married to the man that the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” is named for, perhaps this type of news isn’t entirely unexpected.
Have you ever played the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” before? It has very simple rules, but can still be a challenging game. First, pick a celebrity that has been in at least one movie. Next, pick out one of the other actors or actresses that was in the same movie as the first celebrity you picked.
The idea is to create a “chain” of celebrities that are connected to each other through the movies they were in. It has been said that no matter who you pick, you will be able to link to the actor Kevin Bacon within six “degrees”.
For example, let’s say you start with the actor Johnny Depp. He was in the movie “Alice in Wonderland” with Crispin Glover. Crispin Glover was in the movie “Back to the Future” with Michael J. Fox. Michael J. Fox was in the movie “Mars Attacks” with Sarah Jessica Parker. Sarah Jessica Parker was in the movie “Footloose” with Kevin Bacon. There are only four degrees of seperation between Johnny Depp and Kevin Bacon. Playing this game is sort of like doing a family tree that connects relationships between movies, (instead of between people).
Recently, Kyra Sedgwick was on the “Late Show with David Letterman”. She mentioned that she learned that she has several famous cousins. This news came to her from Henry Louis Gates’ PBS series called “Faces of America”. Gates did a genealogical exploration of Kyra Sedgwick’s family, going back 200 years on her mother’s side, and also going back 200 years on her father’s side.
It turns out that Kyra Sedgwick is related to the actress Marilyn Monroe. She is also related to former United States President Richard Nixon, and former United States President Jimmy Carter.
Kyra Sedgwick is also related to Kevin Bacon, but not just because the two are married to each other. It turns out that Kevin Bacon is a 10th cousin once removed to Kyra Sedgwick. This means that the couple is actually distant cousins to each other.
It might seem strange to discover that you have unwittingly married a person who is your 10th cousin, (once removed). None of the states in America have any laws on the books that forbid two people who are 10th cousins from marrying each other. In other words, this celebrity couple will not be facing any legal issues due to this discovery.
Image by Jack Samuels on Flickr