Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, a two-part documentary about the actor and model, premieres on Hulu on Monday, April 3. ABC News Studios is behind the film, which it calls “a galvanizing look at actor, model and icon Brooke Shields as she transforms from a sexualized young girl to a woman discovering her power. Holding a mirror up to a society that objectifies women and girls, her story shows the perils and triumphs of gaining agency in a hostile world.”
Matador Content and BedBy8 produced as well. BedBy8 counts Ali Wentworth, her husband George Stephanopoulos and Alyssa Mastromonaco among its principals. Stephanopoulos is a co-anchor on Good Morning America and hosts Sunday public affairs show This Week, both on ABC.
Each of the two episodes runs about an hour and 10 minutes. Lana Wilson is director and executive producer.
The film follows Shields, 57, through her childhood and complex relationship with her mother and manager, Teri Shields. Shields’s professional career began at only 11 months old, working as a model before starring in Louis Malle’s controversial film Pretty Baby at the age of 12. She made Calvin Klein jeans ads in the ‘80s, and had leading roles in The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love. After she attended Princeton University, Shields re-enters the entertainment industry, “but it isn’t until she begins to trust herself and her instincts that she’s able to find her identity and voice,” ABC News said.
Christine O’Malley and Jack Turner are producers. Matador Content’s Jay Peterson and Todd Lubin and Bedby8’s Wentworth, Stephanopoulos and Mastromonaco are executive producers. Jacqueline Glover and Jennifer Joseph executive produce for ABC News Studios.
A review in The Hollywood Reporter said: “Pretty Baby has issues with structure and focus, as well as a featured subject who isn’t always angry about the same things its storyteller is worked up about. But there’s enough candor and introspection here for the documentary to be worth watching, both for its distinctive sense of soured ’80s nostalgia and some of the potent steps in Shields’ journey of personal growth.”
