17 Images Of Brooke Shields' Evolution Since The Blue Lagoon
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Model and actress Brooke Shields has had a career unlike most in Hollywood. It all started when she was just five days old, and her mom Teri (also an actress and model) said that she wanted her daughter to be active in show business.
"She's the most beautiful child, and I'm going to help her with her career," Teri said.
What followed for Shields was a childhood full of showbiz exploitation. She booked her first job in the industry at the age of 11 months as a model for Ivory Soap, and that led to agent Eileen Ford – founder of the Ford Modeling Agency – creating a children’s division so she could sign Shields and help her launch a successful career as a child model.
At the age of 12, Shields gained critical acclaim for playing a New Orleans child at the turn of the 20th century in the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby, and that role led to widespread notoriety for the pre-teen.
Just two years later, she was the youngest model ever to be on the cover of Vogue, she appeared in controversial print ads for Calvin Klein, and she starred in her best-known film The Blue Lagoon.
But, instead of becoming a child star statistic, Shields grew up to have a successful career as an adult, earn her college degree, and become a wife and mother. Things could have easily gone the other way, but Shields was determined not to let that happen.
20. The Show Business Fast Track
In the 1978 movie Pretty Baby, 12-year-old Shields played the role of Violet, a child who lived in a brothel with her mother. The film featured questionable scenes, and it sparked controversy.
This move in Shields’ young career was the result of her mom, Teri, a stage mother who was willing to do anything to make her daughter famous. She mapped out her daughter’s show business path to stardom with jobs that included being photographed in the nude at the age of ten and then allowing her prepubescent daughter to play questionable roles.
Shields' early exposure to Hollywood ended up affecting her personal life as she got older.
18. Box Office Jackpot
Even though critics panned The Blue Lagoon, it was Shields’ first box office hit. Pretty Baby never made its way out of the art circuit, but this time her movie drew an audience in mainstream theaters and that earned her a lucrative pay check. Shields made $300,000 plus a percentage, and the movie’s success resulted in Teri hiking up Shields’ price for future films to $500,000.
Teri was so anxious for her daughter and Atkins to hit it off (they didn’t meet until they were both on set), that she suggested the 19-year-old move from his beachfront tent during the first few nights of filming to the extra cot in Shields’ bungalow.
17. Me And My Calvins
In 1980, Shields caused a sensation once again when she began modeling jeans for Calvin Klein and told the world, "Do you know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing." The ad catapulted Klein into super-designer status, but in her 2014 book There Was A Little Girl, Shields wrote that she had no idea there was a double meaning in what she was saying in the commercial.
“In no way did I think I was saying anything controversial... I was once again perceived as both a Lolita and an abused daughter,” wrote Shields.
At the time, Shields didn’t have any problem doing the ad, because compared to what she had done before, she felt like she was wearing winter gear.
16. Cover Girl
By the age of 16 Shields had become one of the most recognizable faces in the United States, and her modeling rate had skyrocketed to $10,000. In 1983, she appeared on the cover of the September issue of Paris Vogue, the October and November issues of American Vogue, and the December issue of Italian Vogue.
Shields said that she never felt she could live up to what people were saying about her because how could you live up to being called “the look of the ‘80s?”
“I wasn’t skin and bones, and I didn’t have boobs, and I didn’t have all the things that people get celebrated for, and yet I was also considered and talked about as this beauty. It made me think of, ‘Gosh, how can they possibly think that’s true?’ I truly didn’t buy into it. I didn’t think I was the most beautiful thing in the world. I thought Rene Russo was,” explained Shields.
15. Lost Childhood
Since the age of 11 months, Shields was in front of a camera with approval and applause from her mother Teri, and for her modeling and films just weren’t enough. As soon as filming for The Blue Lagoon ended, Teri negotiated deals to put her daughter on The Muppet Show – the youngest person ever – and a Circus of the Stars TV special.
However, she restricted Shields to a $10-a-day allowance and gave her a 10 p.m. curfew, even though she was the most famous teenager on the planet.
In 1981 alone, she appeared on the cover of over 30 magazines, and she says that she lost herself in her work. She explains that if it weren’t for the entertainment industry, she would have been a train wreck. The movie business kept her sane, and on a set, her mother had to behave.
14. Unaffected By Her Fame Since Childhood
Considering everything she went through as a child, director Louis Malle said that Shields should have been a monster or a little robot. But, appeared surprisingly unaffected – managing to stay very natural and very close to her childhood.
When talking about her controversial movie roles, Shields said that they were only parts in movies. She found the idea to be dumb, saying that if she would have been in Disney movies, no one would have ever asked her if the parts would affect her life.
And, even though she started to hang out at Studio 54 with the likes of Andy Warhol and Grace Jones, she remained drug-free and was always in bed by curfew.
13. Princeton Bound
By 1983 her movies roles started to dry up, and Shields decided to take a break and attend college at Princeton. But, deciding to become a student when you are one of the world’s biggest celebrities can cause some problems because of other people’s curiosity.
During her freshman year, she had to leave her dorm because of obnoxious “Brooke-Seekers,” and she always had to have a bodyguard with her on campus. But, that didn’t stop her from becoming an honors graduate with a degree in romance languages.
Princeton did their best to protect Shields from the photographers and reporters who would try to invade the campus. But, their special treatment did receive some criticism, because some believed it extended beyond safety and into her degree program. Shields made A’s and B’s in all the classes she took. But, since she didn’t take any math, science, history, economics, or geography, people questioned just how she was able to score a degree at an Ivy League institution.
12. Instant Friends
Shields first met Michael Jackson when he was 21, and she was 13, and she says the two instantly became friends. Even though pictures of the two of them together would have the caption of “odd couple” or “unlikely pair,” their friendship was natural and easy.
She found herself gravitating towards other child stars, and with Jackson, she developed a bond and knew they could have fun together no matter where they were. Jackson knew he could always count on Shields to support him when he needed and to be his date.
Shields said that both of them had to be adults very early in their lives, but when they were together, they acted like little kids having fun.
When Jackson died in 2009, Shields delivered a tearful eulogy and shared anecdotes about their deep friendship.
11. Her First Book Called "On Her Own"
At the age of 20, Shields wrote her first book On Your Own, where she combined health and beauty advice with very personal information. She aimed the book at college-bound teenage girls with a message of “caution, organization, planning, and being responsible.”
Even though she wasn’t a typical teen, the book did appeal to typical teenage girls with its glossy pics, black-and-white photos, make-up tips, exercises, and diet advice.
However, Shields later revealed that her publishers weren’t thrilled with many of her chapters and instead hired a ghostwriter.
"When I started seeing the pages the ghostwriter was producing, I was appalled. All the deeper feelings and observations I made about this period of my life were overlooked... The result, sadly, was a very silly book..." said Shields.
8. Success Of Suddenly Susan
In the late 1990s, Shields starred in her first regular TV series Suddenly Susan on NBC where she played a glamorous San Francisco magazine writer who adjusts to being single and independent after being taken care of all her life.
For Shields, getting into comedy was a form of therapy that brought happiness into her life and freed her from being a chaste teenager whose innocence was a national institution.
“I’ve got zero censorship. There’s something that takes me over physically, and I don’t remember a lot of it...” Shields says. “I love making people laugh. It gives me such joy.”
Shields received two Golden Globe nominations for her performance on the show that lasted four seasons.
7. Eventually Tied The Knot And Became Mrs. Agassi
In 1993, Shields put a safe distance between her and her possessive, alcoholic mother by starting to date superstar tennis player Andre Agassi. In 1997 the couple said, “I do,” but the marriage lasted only two years because of his addiction problem.
She said it was a classic co-dependent move – marrying a man who reminded her of her alcoholic and out-of-control parent.
When Shields played the role of Joey’s stalker on an episode of Friends, she had to maniacally lick Matt LeBlanc’s hands and passionately kiss him. This apparently upset Agassi so much that he smashed up his trophies.
Agassi later said that he shouldn’t have been married to anyone during that time of his life because he didn’t understand himself.
6. Down Came The Rain
After divorcing Agassi in 1999, Shields moved on and later married television writer Chris Henchy in 2001. Two years later, she gave birth to the couple’s first daughter, Rowan, and suffered severe postpartum depression.
She wrote about her experience in the book Down Came the Rain to raise awareness about the issue, and she also spoke to magazines and appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to publicize her battle. Shields shared that she dealt with thoughts of suicide, delayed maternal bonding, and an inability to respond to her baby’s needs.
After telling her story, Tom Cruise – whose Scientology beliefs frown upon psychiatry – went after Shields both personally and professionally because she spoke in favor of the antidepressant drug Paxil.
"Here is a woman and I care about Brooke Shields, because I think she is an incredibly talented woman, you look at [and think], where has her career gone?" said Cruise.
Shields responded by saying that Cruise’s comments were irresponsible, and he should “stick to fighting aliens.”
5. Being Normal
Shields now has two daughters – Rowan, 14, and Grier, 11 – and she is painfully aware that her daughters are now at the age that she was when she started playing teen Lolitas. She says she wants to put chastity belts on them, and things are particularly difficult with her oldest because she goes “psychotic” when men look at her.
But, Shields is happy with the fact that her relationship with her daughters is completely different from the one she had with her mother. She’s taken aback by how independent and healthy her girls are and can’t believe she raised them to be that way.
Shields says she sometimes finds herself jealous of them because they are so normal.
4. Breaking The Internet
After decades of being known for her enviable eyebrows and dedication to Calvin Klein, at the age of 52, Shields gave her fans serious Blue Lagoon vibes when she posted pictures and videos on Instagram of herself enjoying life on a tropical island. In the posts, she looks completely blissful as she and her husband enjoy the beach and she soaks up the sun in a black-and-white bikini.
Fans immediately filled her Instagram with comments.
"Excuse, me, but I think your confidence is showing ??," one user commented on a bikini pic. Another wrote that Shields has still got it, while a third complimented her on her “ageless, smart beauty.”
Shields unapologetically takes center stage in her bikini, even though she is over 50, and she is absolutely glowing in the pics.
3. Aging In The Public Eye
Shields says that since she turned 50, there has been more focus on her body than ever before. When she was younger, it was all about her face. And, in the movies, she always had a body double, so there was no stress about how her body looked.
She says she has never been skinny, but athletic, and she never walked down a runway because she didn’t have the body type the industry wanted. Instead, she would model the clothes for magazines with the items cut and open in the back, so the sample sizes would “fit” her.
Now, Shields says that staying healthy and fit is a matter of checks and balances, and she has finally found a way to set herself up for success.
2. There Was A Little Girl
In her 2014 memoir, There Was A Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me Shields revealed all the secrets about her career and her relationship with her mother – a troubled woman who drank heavily.
Shields was the only person who knew the truth about her complicated mother, and some of the choices and sacrifices they made while she was growing up and how it affected their relationship forever. But, despite their ups and downs, Shields was at her mother’s side when she died in 2012 from complications with Alzheimer’s.
Until the end, Shields remained a loving daughter, even though their relationship throughout her life rotated between estrangement and reconciliation.
1. Timeless Beauty
After decades of modeling shoots, interviews, and countless film, TV, and stage performances, the six-foot-tall beauty introduced her latest project to fans last month when she announced her new Timeless clothing label for QVC.
After transitioning from wide-eyed innocent child to self-mocking fashionista, she has become the kind of personality that the home-shopping network loves to feature. She is a survivor of Hollywood exploitation, co-dependent relationships, and postpartum depression, who is paradoxically tough and alluring but approachable.
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