Twilight Star Related to Original Dracula, And So Can You!
Apparently tired of their own boring and ubiquitous banner ads, Ancestry.com decided to try a more novel approach to publicity, more in the time-honored tradition of tabloids and Perez Hilton: release interesting information about celebrities. Rather than go about peeping in windows, however, Ancestry.com used its own database to discover that Robert Pattinson, aka “that guy who plays the vampire in Twilight, the book/movie franchise designed to sexually arouse 13-year-old girls,” is in fact related to Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Bram Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula.
The funny part, of course, being that anyone who has the slightest understanding of genealogy or of how long ago ol’ Vladdie lived knows that you might be too!
Any number of blogs and TV newscasts aching for something more fun than the oil spill to talk about picked up the story, but I think the best piece was The New York Daily News’. See, they point out that Pattinson is also (slightly) related to the British royal family, whose heirs Prince William and Prince Harry have a bit of the Vlad in ’em…and then goes on to say that Twilight author Stephenie Meyers is also related to England’s family royale. Which means that not only is Stephenie meyers related to Pattinson (ZOMG NEPOTISM!) but also that the Twilight author is related to Vlad herself.
People, when we’re talking about this kind of timeline– Vlad lived in the 15th century, for pete’s sake! –there is almost nothing of interest about this. Vlad had 3 kids, who probably each had 3 kids, who probably each had at least 3 more. If we say a generation is every ~25 years (a generous estimate), and each generation had an average of– we’ll lowball it at 2.5 children –aaand 2
In other words, this is no divine province, just minor coincidence. Move along.
Gia Manry is a professional writer specializing in geek culture. She currently writes primarily for Anime News Network, but also likes being followed on Twitter. She can be contacted via her website.