At summer camp, Haley Wilcox, 9, snagged the role of a reporter covering the trial of the Big Bad Wolf. She says that she's genetically disposed to tread the boards.
Sisters Lillian and Dorothy both died childless and—unless the father who abandoned them planted his seed elsewhere—had no siblings aside from each other. Since she's only 9, I won't relentlessly mock Haley for her dubious claim, and will concede that she could be a far-removed cousin of the two actresses."I have acting in my blood because my ancestors are Lillian and Dorothy Gish," Wilcox said.
Wilcox, the daughter of Kelly and Curt Wilcox of Galesburg, said she's done plays in school before but this is her first "real performance." [Link]
Chris,
Why is it that people have such difficulty in understanding that the terms, "a descendant" and "a distant relative" do not mean the same thing?
Janice
Even worse is how often newspapers confuse "ancestor" with "descendant"—even in headlines!