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Hollywood’s Top Packs

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22 September 2015
After Saturday’s match, we’re still a bit glum; which is why we’re distracting ourselves by watching the Team Showcase Festival on M-Net Movies Showcase.
bad neighbours

After Saturday’s match, we’re still a bit glum; which is why we’re distracting ourselves by watching the Team Showcase Festival on M-Net Movies Showcase.

Packed with side-splitting comedies and adrenaline-fuelled action, the entertainment has lifted our mood – and as American baseball player Yogi Berra said, “it ain’t over till it’s over.” The group stage is not over in the Rugby World Cup, and we’re rooting for the Boks to pull through and show the world what they’re made of.

Until Saturday with Samoa rolls around, we decided to trot back to Hollywood and tackle the packs of players show biz has produced. In Hollywood, groups of actors who regularly appear together in movies have come to be known as packs; and we’re bringing them to you for Fast Fact Tuesday.

Rat Pack
It started with Humphrey Bogart and friends in the ‘50s. According to legend, the collective term “Rat Pack” is said to have originated from Bogart’s wife, Lauren Bacall. After coming home from a heavy night in Las Vegas she told him and his friends, “you look like a goddamn rat pack.” After Bogart’s death, the press took ownership of the title, using it to refer to a group of actors who regularly appeared together on stage and screen: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.

Brat Pack
The term was revived in the ‘80s, but changed to “Brat Pack” as it commonly referred to actors who had been part of the ensembles in St. Elmo’s Fire or The Breakfast Club. This criterion made Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy the core Brat Packers. Being connected to a core member (whether personally or professionally) often meant inclusion into the group.

Brit Pack
During the same era, the press dubbed the term “Brit Pack” to refer to a group of emerging British actors in Hollywood such as Bruce Payne, Tim Roth, Paul McGann, Gary Oldman, Spencer Leigh, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Gary Oldman, Miranda Richardson and Daniel Day-Lewis. Unlike the Brat Packers, these actors did not necessarily work or socialise together. Today the term is still used, referring to rising British stars such as Idris Elba, Sophie Okonedo, Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Oyelowo, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Henry Cavill, James McAvoy, Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne and Rupert Friend.

Frat Pack
With the exception of the Rat Pack, it was always the press who came up with these monikers. In 2004, USA Today invented the term “Frat Pack” to refer to a group of comedy actors that, like the Rat and Brat Packs, often appeared in movies together. They are Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Steve Carell. Although they are still making movies together, comedic actors and filmmakers such as Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr, Jason Segel and James Franco have started taking over the tile.

Watch Seth Rogen in your #SundayNightMovie Bad Neighbours on 27 September at 20:05 on M-Net Channel 101.