It was a high-wattage room even by Hollywood’s standards. Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain were there, dressed to the nines. So were Judd Apatow and Jeff Bridges. As hunky waiters passed out hamachi tacos and mini bottles of Champagne, Kate Beckinsale, Chris Pine, Naomie Harris and Casey Affleck breezed by.
But the guests of honour at Catch LA that night in November were three young women who are rich but not yet famous: Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet, the spawn — just to be alliterative about it — of Sylvester Stallone.
Oh, yes. The Stallone Sisters have arrived.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which bestows the Golden Globe awards, selected them — Sophia, 20, Sistine, 18, Scarlet, 14 — to serve collectively as Miss Golden Globe at this year’s ceremony, which will be broadcast live on January 8. In many ways, getting picked is the Hollywood version of being presented to society. Over the years, the role has gone to such film-world offspring as Melanie Griffith (daughter of Tippi Hedren), Laura Dern (daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd) and Rumer Willis (daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore).
“We didn’t realise the magnitude of this,” a gushing Sophia said that night at Catch, flanked by her sisters, her proud papa, and her mother, model and skincare entrepreneur Jennifer Flavin.
Let’s not get carried away. Miss Golden Globe’s duties involve holding statuettes, lurking (elegantly) in the background and shooing winners offstage. It’s a bit like the Vanna White of awards gigs. (As it happens, White approves of their selection. “I am so happy that they get to show off their beauty, inside and out,” she told me in an email. “Can’t wait to see them shine!”) Kelsey Grammer’s daughter, Greer Grammer, who did the job in 2015, advised comfortable shoes.
“You’re in them all day, from morning rehearsals until the after-parties,” she said.
The honour of Miss Golden Globe is also an openly nepotistic one. The press organisation, which is made up of 85 active members, has given the role to celebrity offspring since the 1960s. Publicists typically pitch candidates, said Lorenzo Soria, the group’s president. “They will say things like, ‘Isn’t this one cute?’ ‘As you can see, this one is interested in theatre,’” he said. They end up with a bunch of names and pick one or two.
The Stallones were an exception. They caught Soria’s eye last year, when they accompanied their father to the ceremony, where he won the supporting actor prize for the film Creed. “I remembered seeing the girls on the red carpet: elegant, smiling, fresh, happy,” Soria said. He called Stallone to float the idea. “I said, ‘Discuss it with them and let me know.’ And he said: ‘I don’t need to ask them. The answer is yes.’”
After some hemming and hawing that involved five publicists — welcome to Hollywood — the Stallone family declined my requests for interviews. I inferred that it had something to do with Flavin feeling protective and with Sistine’s handlers holding her back in advance of a publicity push surrounding her budding modelling career.
Star sister
Sistine, at least for now, is clearly the star of this sister act. Sophia, a student at the University of Southern California, has more Instagram followers (293,000 to Sistine’s 279,000), but that may change soon. Last month, Sistine hired the PR agency 42West, which represents Kylie Jenner (82 million followers), and not long ago she signed with IMG Models. Sistine has appeared in Teen Vogue and an Express ad campaign; Dolce & Gabbana flew her and a flock of other model-celebutantes to Milan Fashion Week in September, where she made a splash in a leather bustier and black lace leggings.
Town & Country magazine put Sistine on its September cover as a “modern swan,” a designation the magazine uses annually to describe “world’s most stylish — and talked-about — young women.”
Stellene Volandes, Town & Country’s editor-in-chief, said that Sistine came onto her radar about two years ago, when she arrived in the magazine’s Manhattan offices accompanied by her mother. The visit had been set up by a mutual acquaintance. “I was impressed with Sistine,” Volandes said. “She was humble. She was polite. She sent a follow-up email thanking us for our time.” Volandes added: “You could look at that cynically, but, having met her, I think it was genuine. It’s certainly not typical.”
Sistine’s Instagram account finds her in various chic spots. There she is in Venice. Now she’s in St Tropez, club hopping to platinum-card spots like La Cave and VIP Room. In one post, she does a two-handed cheer from the stairs of a private jet, while Sophia, wearing a floppy hat, looks on. (Caption: “Goodbye London, Hello Ibiza!”)
All three sisters, sometimes in possession of a Pomeranian, make frequent appearances in videos posted to Stallone’s social media accounts. To the delight of his fans, at least judging by the comments, his daughters often respond to his goofy antics with down-to-earth eye rolls.
“Let’s do a video,” Stallone, 70, can be heard saying at the start of one, as Scarlet, seated on a bed looking at her iPhone, comes into view.
“No,” she says.
“Why?” he asks, and later adds, “Don’t tell me you’re getting shy on me.”
“Daaad.”
As Sophia told Access Hollywood about her father’s video hobby in a recent interview, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a phone in my face when I wake up first thing in the morning.” (I’m with you, sister.)
Serving as Miss Golden Globe — they will most likely rotate coming on stage, although that has yet to be decided, Soria said — may come most naturally to Sophia. She does not appear to be pursuing a career in show business, but she does have experience in the spotlight. In 2012, she had an old-fashioned debut at Le Bal des Debutantes in Paris, a diamonds-and-couture affair that also drew young women like Filippa Brandolini d’Adda, a descendant of Italian nobility, in Stallone’s year.
As for the teenage Scarlet, she may have the gait to beat on Golden Globes night: As a high school track star, she apparently goes by the nickname the Flash.
At least that’s what Stallone calls her.
Daaad.
