More Hollywoood offspring

UP-AND-COMERS

The Max Factor

Actor Max Minghella reveals what it's like to make your way as the son of a famous movie director.

AT JUST 20, Max Minghella is one well-connected guy. Yes, as the son of Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient"), he has grown up on movie sets. But it takes more than a flashy pedigree to become the buddy of Jake Gyllenhaal, the protégé of Matt Damon and the guy Natalie Portman would date -- if she were into "younger men." (She's all of 24.) As the charismatic, curly-haired Minghella plays George Clooney's son in "Syriana," which opens Wednesday in select cities, we catch him on a break from classes in theater and sociology at New York's Columbia University. He offers this take on what's ina name.

MAKING HIS OWN WAY. Before this year, Minghella's on-screen career was limited to seconds as an extra in his dad's movies. "In 'Cold Mountain,'" he says, "I shot a gun for one of the sides of the Civil War, I think." He breaks that mold this month, playing Richard Gere's malcontent son in "Bee Season," about a family shaken when the daughter becomes a spelling bee champ. But Minghella has been trying for larger gigs for several years. "With a famous name," he says, "you have to work that much harder to get the part."

WHY CLOONEY IS A GEEK. In "Syriana," an ensemble "Traffic"-style drama about the global oil industry, Minghella plays another neglected offspring, this time of Clooney, a CIA informant. "He's not the kind of actor who's in his trailer all day. He hangs and jokes," Minghella says. "And we're both movie geeks. We talked camera techniques over dinner."

HAVING THAT DAD. An only child (he has an older half-sister), Minghella grew up in North London's posh Hampstead with his dad, who often was away on movie shoots, and his mom, Chinese choreographer Carolyn Choa. "I was alone more than most kids," he says. When Dad was home, "we would sit together at the piano, and he would play Cat Stevens and the Talking Heads."

BEST ACTOR GIFT. When Minghella was 13, Matt Damon, then 28, gave him a Super 8 video camera on the Italian set of his father's "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Minghella used it to mimic scenes his father was filming. "Matt is someone I learned from," he says. "He tries to live an ordinary life." Minghella is wary of celebrity. "If you're with Jude [Law] in London, you get chased by 20 photographers. I'll never be that kind of actor."

COLLEGE DAYS. Instead of partying to make the "New York Daily News" gossip pages, Minghella stays low-key. "I'm living in the dorms," he says resignedly. "It's depressing -- I'm older than my RA." He admits acting takes priority: "If ['Boogie Nights' director] P.T. Anderson calls tomorrow, I'm not going to say, 'Sorry, buddy, but I've got sociology class.' "

THE INNER POSSE. Minghella is close with Gyllenhaal and Portman, and he's friendly with tabloid favorite Law. But the young actor hopes to keep his personal life quiet. "I am a healthy young man. I'll leave it at that," he says when asked about his relationship status. Of course, if he wants a girlfriend, there's always Portman. "Max is extraordinarily handsome," the actress tells us. "If I ever go Demi, I'd beg him to be my younger man."

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Hollywood kids

Sure, they've got a foot in the door. But that doesn't guarantee stardom. Here are three more kids from showbiz families who are out to prove their worth in new movies:
1 Owen Kline -- The baby-faced son of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates gives a startling performance in this month's "The Squid and the Whale," one of his first movies. Kline, 14, plays a son ripped apart by his parents' divorce. In real life, his parents have been happily married for 16 years. The young actor got a jump-start on Dad: Kevin didn't start racking up movie credits until he was 35.
2 Colin Hanks -- You can't miss Tom Hanks' son in HBO's "Band of Brothers" or the raucous "Orange County:" He looks just like his dad, circa Big. (Just add glasses.) The eldest of Hanks' four children (his mother, Samantha Lewes, was the Oscar winner's first wife), the actor, 27, plays Jack Black's assistant in next month's "King Kong."
3 Schuyler Fisk -- She plays guitar, is covered in freckles and left home at 17 -- just like mom Sissy Spacek. Fisk, 23, the elder of Spacek's two daughters with director/production designer Jack Fisk, was last seen as Colin Hanks' girlfriend in "Orange County." Early next year, she stars in the indie comedy "I'm Reed Fish."