Minka Kelly Dishes On Growing Up With Stripper Mom
Charlie’s Angels star Minka Kelly is on the cover of Cosmopolitan‘s October issue, in which she describes growing up with a stripper mom and rock-star dad.
“She was 5’11, legs up to her ears, gorgeous. She got along on that for as long she could,” Kelly says of her late mother, Maureen Kelly, who died of colon cancer in 2008. Maureen worked as a Vegas showgirl and stripper in the 70s and 80s and Minka describes her as being “reckless” with her health.
Minka’s father, meanwhile, is onetime Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay. Minka, who’s an only child, says Dufay wasn’t always present in her childhood, though it wasn’t always from lack of trying. “He wanted to try and do the family thing,” she says. “It was my mom who was too busy having fun.”
In the article, Minka also says that she and her mom connected during Maureen’s final days: “By the time she passed, I was holding her. I was with her until her last breath.”
When I think of Minka Kelly, who starred in Friday Night Lights, I can’t help but think of her solely as Gaby Moss, an aid to Max, who has Aspergers Syndrome, on the TV show Parenthood (you know, the ones who sleeps with the screw-up brother and then quits her job because she can’t deal with all the drama). Then I saw her last night on the Emmy Awards and noticed that she’ll be starring in the Charlie’s Angels remake debuting later this month. She’s certainly one to watch, and it’s always interesting to hear about someone’s upbringing and how it has helped shape who she is today.
(Photo: WENN.com)
