Lily Collins comes from music royalty as the daughter of Phil Collins – but at 33 years old she’s snatched plenty of headlines of her own, and not always for the right reasons.
The brunette beauty returns to screens with the third season of the Netflix smash hit Emily In Paris, in which she plays the titular character, Emily Cooper.
While popular with fans, the show has attracted some controversy among critics, with some saying Emily is “bland” or that the series negatively stereotypes the French.
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And as it turns out, it isn’t the first time Lily’s Netflix projects have been slammed, while a cyber firm once even advised against searching Lily’s name online.
Famous father
(Image: Getty Images North America)
Lily’s dad is Genesis drummer and lead singer Phil Collins, 71.
He shares Lily with his second wife Jill Tavelman, to whom he was married between 1984 and 1996.
Phil is also father to four others, including actress and producer Joely, 50, and rockstar Simon, 46, from his first marriage to Andrea Bertorelli (1975 to 1980).
Lily also has two younger brothers from Phil’s third marriage to Orianne Cevey, to whom he was married between 1999 and 2006.
(Image: Instagram)
Phil has enjoyed a solo career as well as with Genesisi, and has appeared in a number of films and television series over the years, including Hook, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Miami Vice.
He’s won countless awards, including eight Grammys, an Oscar, two Golden Globes, was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, and was became a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1994 for his contribution to The Prince’s Trust.
Princess Diana blunder
(Image: CBS)
Coming from a famous family, there’s no surprise that Lily was around well known faces from a very young age.
But she previously revealed that when she was just two years old, she had an awkward encounter with none other than Princess Diana.
Speaking on The Late Late Show With James Cordon, she was asked about a photo in which Princess Diana could be seen handing her some flowers.
James asked if she had any memory of the moment and while Lily didn’t, she explained she’d been told what happened.
She said: “That’s my mum and my dad and I at a Prince’s Trust event and I’m giving Diana flowers, but the second she went to take them, I then tried to pull them back.”
Lily laughed: “As you can imagine, all the air was sucked out of the room.”
But the People’s Princess took it in her stride, and Lily said: “I was wearing a cute dress, so who’s going to really punish me there.”
Online danger
(Image: Getty Images)
Back in 2013, Lily was named as the most dangerous celebrity to search for online at the time.
Technology bigwigs McAfee, known for the anti-virus software, discovered that those searching for Lily Collins online were most at risk of ending up on a malicious website.
She was in good company though – or bad, depending on how you look at it – with Avril Lavigne in second place and Sandra Bullock in third.
Mad Men star Jon Hamm was the only man to make the top 10.
Harry Potter favourite Emma Watson had been named the most dangerous celebrity to search for the year before, in 2012.
Netflix backlash
(Image: To the Bone Productions LLC)
Lily was the leading role in Netflix film To The Bone in 2017, which followed a young woman with a dangerous eating disorder.
It did fairly well with critics, however was met with serious backlash with some noting that screengrabs and quotes from it were quickly appearing on “pro-anorexia thinspiration” blogs within hours of its release.
The National British eating disorder charity Beat released a statement in which they “strongly urged anyone that might be at risk of an eating disorder to think very carefully before watching the film”.
In response, the film’s director Marti Noxon said: “My goal with the film was not to glamourise EDs [eating disorders], but to serve as a conversation starter about an issue that is too often clouded by secrecy and misconceptions.
“I hope that by casting a little light into the darkness of this disease we can achieve greater understanding and guide people to help if they need it.”
While Lily faced backlash, she revealed that she herself had suffered from an eating disorder as a teenager too.
Culture clash
(Image: CAROLE BETHUEL/NETFLIX)
Three years later, Lily landed the lead role in Emily In Paris, which follows an American graduate who moves from Chicago to the French capital for a job opportunity.
While popular among viewers, some critics slammed it, describing it as bland, with Emily “showing zero personal growth” and being “vapid”.
Meanwhile, French critics said that it showed negative stereotypes of Parisians and the French, showing them as “lazy”, “flirtatious”, “sexist and backward” and with a “questionable relationship with showering”.
When the second season was released, it was met with backlash in Ukraine over a Ukrainian character, Petra, who was shows as a shoplifter.
A hashtag which translated to “We are not Petras” trended within a matter of hours of release, and Ukrainian Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko said: “In Emily in Paris, we have a caricature image of a Ukrainian woman that is unacceptable. It is also insulting.”
He complained to Netflix, who promised that Petra would be shown in a different context going forward.
Emily In Paris is available to stream on Netflix
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
