How a single magazine profile accidentally dismantled a generation of rising Hollywood stars

Cultures · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1985, a New York magazine feature intended to profile Emilio Estevez morphed into a career-defining, friendship-ending label. By grouping young actors as a privileged, party-loving clique, the article created the Brat Pack—a moniker that stuck, despite many of the accused actors never having met or wanting the association.

The term originated from writer David Blum, who traveled to Los Angeles to interview Estevez. During their time together, Estevez introduced Blum to his friends, including Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson. Blum’s resulting cover story, titled “Hollywood’s Brat Pack,” drew a direct comparison to the 1960s Rat Pack. He portrayed these young performers as a haughty, exclusive group obsessed with success and social status, famously claiming that for them, failure was a mortal sin.

The fallout was immediate and destructive. Actors like Lowe, Estevez, and Nelson felt deeply betrayed by the unflattering depiction. The label proved so toxic that it discouraged the group from appearing in public together, effectively fracturing the friendships that had formed on sets like St. Elmo’s Fire. Ally Sheedy later remarked that the article destroyed the group, while others, such as Anthony Michael Hall and Andrew McCarthy, insisted the pack was a fabrication, noting they had not even met one another.

Despite the backlash, the name became a permanent fixture of 1980s pop culture. It was applied broadly to young actors appearing in coming-of-age films, regardless of whether they were featured in Blum’s original piece. While some stars, such as Tom Cruise and Sean Penn, managed to distance themselves from the tag, others remained permanently linked to the brand. By 2024, McCarthy reflected that the label marked a seismic cultural shift, signaling a moment when Hollywood films began to focus intensely on the lives of teenagers and young adults.

The definition of a Brat Pack film remains contested. While Blum initially pointed to the military drama Taps as the first entry, many critics argue that a true Brat Pack movie requires multiple members of the core group to appear together in a coming-of-age narrative. By this stricter standard, there are 12 films released between 1983 and 1990 that define the era.

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