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COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
"I'm so like a Captain von Trapp," a father of seven says in "Showbiz Moms & Dads," the Bravo series about child performers and their parental handlers, whose six weekly episodes begin on April 13th. The father, a now and probably forever struggling actor named Duncan Nutter (it means "a gatherer of nuts," he helpfully tells us, but, as may or may not be relevant in this case, it's also British slang for someone who's off his rocker), is right, up to a point; like the storied Captain, he has pushed every one of his children into performing, and sometimes offers them up to casting directors as a unit, but the twist is that one day his children may well flee over the Alps to get away from him. In any event, the talent and drive of the Nutter brood, and of the four other children featured in the series, range across the spectrum, and the odds are that they are less likely to have a "Sound of Music" ending to their--or their parents'--quest for fame than they are to face the sound of one hand clapping. Childhood enthusiasms often end that way, because children have a way of moving on. You know how it is: one day your kid wakes up and announces that he doesn't want to be a crane operator anymore. But at least that kind of dream is not subject to manipulation or marketing by pushy parents. With...
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