If you’ve scrolled through TikTok in the last week, you’d be hard-pressed not to stumble across a Cameo message (or 12) from Nikki Blonsky, the star of the 2007 musical hit Hairspray.
Using a handbook of references to the beloved musical, Blonsky has been seen singing bars of her most notable tracks and calling her recipient the nicest kid in town over and over again.
As a result of her newfound popularity on TikTok, the 36-year-old has raised the price per Cameo video from $20 USD ($31.50 AUD) to $100 USD ($157.59 AUD). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the video below and then imagine watching a dozen more and you’re all caught up.
Although it’s kind of iconic that Blosnky is making bank from a role she had 17 years ago, I think many of the Gen Z angels in the chat don’t know the full story of why Blonsky — who was plucked out of obscurity for the triple-threat role of a lifetime — suddenly fell out of the public eye.
In short: Blonsky and her family got into a physical brawl at the airport with a contestant on America’s Next Top Model and her family.
After that, as Blonsky would discover years after the incident, you can’t stop the (news) beat.
Before we get into the downfall, let’s start at the beginning.
After realising that there were no overweight teenage stars in Hollywood in 2007, Hairspray casting director David Rubin made an open casting call all around the country.
“It was a tremendous opportunity for talented, young actresses to be seen. Particularly actresses of a type that are often marginalised,” he said.
“This was a role that required her to share the screen with John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. She really had to be a triple threat.”
After eight months of searching, they landed on then-18-year-old Blonsky, who was working in an ice cream shop at the time.
Once Hairspray came out, it was clear how much talent Blonsky had. The film was acclaimed, with Blonsky taking home Critics’ Choice awards for her acting chops and the Young Hollywood Award for ‘One To Watch’.
By 2008, she was living the dream. Within a year she’d gone from scooping ice cream to acting alongside some of the world’s biggest celebrities in the world. But instead of seeing the talented star go from role to role, there was one incident that changed the course of Blonsky’s career forever.
The airport incident
Blonsky, her father Carl and her mother Karen were waiting in the airport in Turks and Caicos on July 30, 2008 when they got into a fight with America’s Next Top Model season nine contestant Bianca Golden and her family over saved seats in the airport departure lounge.
While both families have a different take on the events, at the time it was reported that it all kicked off when Carl made racist comments towards Golden, who is Black.
The exchange turned into a physical fight, with Golden’s mother Elaine being hurt so badly that she needed to be taken to hospital. Meanwhile, Golden, Blonsky and Carl were arrested.
While Golden and Blonsky were charged with actual bodily harm and granted bail, Carl was charged with grievous bodily harm and denied bail. Eventually, the charges against Golden and Blonsky were dropped.
However, according to Golden, the Blonsky family were very rude before the fight turned physical.
Speaking on The Tyra Banks Show, Golden alleged that Carl punched her mother Elaine.
“[Nikki’s father] punched my mum,” she told Banks.
“He knocked her out. He hit my mum with such force she stumbled back, and when she stumbled back, the whole [Blonsky] family got up and attacked my mum,” she claimed.
“[Nikki] takes her foot and kicks my mum in her vagina, and that’s when my mum fell out completely. When Nikki kicked my mum, I went and grabbed her arm, and she grabbed my earring.”
You can hear Golden’s side of the story at around the three-minute mark in the video below.
As you can expect from such a doozy of an altercation, this story became headline fodder. Not only was Blonsky known for getting in a punch in an airport — which is not a very demure act for a rising star — she was accused of being a racist.
After this, Blonsky’s high-profile roles fizzled. Although it wasn’t said explicitly, one can deduce that her brawl might have had something to do with it.
In an interview with Out in 2017, Blonsky confirmed that her disappearance from the public eye wasn’t by choice.
“I did not take a conscious step out of Hollywood. Singing and acting has been my dream since I was three. It kind of feels like the industry left me,” she said.
“I’ve never quite done anything again that’s been at the level of Hairspray. At a certain point I just have to throw my hands up and say, ‘It is what it is.'”
Although her career hasn’t been as fruitful as Blonsky had hoped, she has still been acting and performing. However, reports of her airport tussle have always followed her like a bad smell.
In 2020, Blonsky announced that she was gay on TikTok. While it was a joyful announcement, messages about the 2008 altercation flooded her page. She disabled comments and released a statement on Instagram.
“I am deeply saddened and hurt to hear I have been wrongly accused of ever having anything other than love in my heart for someone of a different race when that couldn’t be further from the truth,” she wrote.
“I am finally in a good place in my life living my true self I do not feel the need to rehash the trauma we all experienced that day or point fingers at anyone else to try to tarnish their reputation.”
Although Blonsky acknowledges the fight took place, she denies that race was an involving factor.
“I wish Bianca nothing but the best,” she wrote, noting how damaging the ongoing rehashing of the incident has been.
In some ways, today, Blonsky is doing incredibly well. In 2023, she tied the knot with her partner Hailey Jo Jenson, is now making absolute bank from Cameo and introducing a whole new generation of people to the magic of Hairspray — one of the best musical movies of all time.
Ultimately, Blonksy’s rise and fall is a cautionary tale. As a child, I was obsessed with Blonsky’s rise to fame. Like me, she was this bubbly, brunette, overweight kid who loved to sing and perform. Despite not fitting the typical 2007 mould of a star, she was chosen and put into the spotlight.
Along with living a collective dream I’m sure many of us shared, Blonsky did a damn good job playing Tracy Turnblad and seemed to have the world at her feet. But the escalation of a petty squabble saw her essentially say goodbye to the potential rise to stardom she had waiting for her.
Moral of the story? Don’t be a dick. Especially if you got your celebrity status from singing a song about the “nicest kids in town”.
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