6 Degrees – Our New Column
The notion that anyone is connected by six degrees (or connections) to anyone else was first mentioned in the 1929 short story “Chain-Links” found in an anthology called Everything Is Different, by the Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy.
A game is proposed in the story whereby the theory is put forward that everyone is connected within six individuals. This theory actually led to a number of academic research projects involving mathematicians, psychologists, and computer science researchers, all out to prove the theory with varying results from 1961 until 2003. While it’s popular name is “6 Degrees of Separation”, the academic name for it was “The Small World Problem”.
Bacon’s Law
Based on that theory, there was a game created many years later using the very famous actor, Kevin Bacon, based on this concept. The game, “Bacon’s Law”, proves that everyone in Hollywood is linked through their movie roles to Kevin Bacon within only 6 steps.
Kevin Bacon has been around for a really long time and before he starred in some of the biggest movies like 1984’s Footloose, he was on a number of really popular soap operas. It was discovered that Kevin Bacon, is in fact, separated by no more than 6 people to almost everyone in Hollywood.
An example of this, is the connection between him and the King of Rock, Elvis Presley. The two of them never met, but Kevin starred with actor Edward Asner in 1991’s JFK, and Edward Asner starred alongside Elvis Presley in 1969’s Change Of Habit.
Therefore, Asner has a “Bacon number” 1 and Elvis Presley has a “Bacon number” 2. So, what we are going to be doing here every week is have a “Bacon’s Law” column that connects two random celebrities whether they are related by blood, or by connection through the industry.
Every week, we will highlight two stars who you think have no connection at all, and will prove that they are in fact somehow related or connected. So let’s begin!.
Celine Dion & Madonna
Celine Dion is a French-Canadian who has always maintained a solid reputation and is regarded highly within the industry. Madonna has been in many movies and dozens of music videos. She was married to bad boy Sean Penn, as well as Guy Ritchie. The two are so different from each other, so how are they connected?
Well, it so happens that Madonna contributed the theme song for 2002’s James Bond film Die Another Day starring Pierce Brosnan as 007, who contributed his voice alongside Celine Dion for 1998’s animated movie Quest For Camelot.
It also happens that both Celine Dion and Madonna are distant cousins of Jean Guyon, one of Quebec’s original settlers. We all know that Madonna has Italian blood from her father’s side, but her mother (who passed away when Madonna was very young) was French-Canadian. Both singers are 10th cousins twice removed through Jean Guyon. They are friendly with each other and Madonna has admitted that Celine Dion is her father’s favorite singer.
Up next week on “6 Degrees”….You’ll never guess what the connection is between Scarlett Johannson and Naomi Campbell!
