SPIELBERG IN A ‘JAWS’ DROPPER
Legend ‘embarrassed’ by daughter’s porn-star aspirations
THIS week brought a Steven Spielberg blockbuster no one saw coming.
On Wednesday, the director’s daughter Mikaela announced to the world that she is embarking on a film career of her own — as a porn star.
The 23-year-old told The Sun about making solo sex videos that she posted on PornHub.com and how she is working to get licensed to become an exotic dancer in Nashville.
The self-proclaimed “sexual creature” said she “got really tired of not being able to capitalize on my body.”
She has now launched an account on the OnlyFans app, on which viewers can pay a $15 monthly subscription fee to watch her.
Despite this, Mikaela said her parents, Steven and his actress-wife of 29 years, Kate Capshaw are “not upset” and even “intrigued” by her life choices.
A Spielberg source told The Post, “As Mikaela said, Steven and Kate are nothing but supportive of her, as they are with all their children.”
But, according to a friend of the family, there’s more to it.
“Outwardly, Steven and Kate — who are the most evolved parents in the world and love their kids beyond all measure — have always been supportive of Mikaela and try to understand her,” said the family friend. “Obviously, though, they’re embarrassed by her sudden public admission of entry into the sex-worker world.”
Kate, 66, and Steven, 73, met on the set of his 1984 film "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” in which she co-starred, and she converted to Judaism to marry him. The couple have seven children between them.
Jessica Capshaw, who has acted on “Grey’s Anatomy” since 2005, is Kate’s 43-year-old daughter from her marriage to Robert Capshaw, a marketing manager. Max, 34, is from Steven’s marriage to actress Amy Irving. Kate had an adopted son, Theo, now 31, and Steven adopted him, too. The couple went on to have daughters Sasha, 29, and Destry, 23, and son Sawyer, 27, as well as adopting Mikaela.
“Nothing can hurt Steven Spielberg’s immaculate reputation, nor Kate’s, but they’re worried about how [Mikaela’s revelation] looks for their other kids, who are trying to be supportive but who are also embarrassed,” said the family friend. “This certainly isn’t how they were raised.”
RECENTLY, Mikaela posted on Instagram a photo of herself as a toddler and wrote: “I was such a determined child, here’s a photo of me marching away from Bill Clinton at a family gathering. I’ve always been this strong and bold . . . I yield to nobody.”
She attended the exclusive Crossroads school in Santa Monica, Calif., which counts Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel and Jonah Hill as alumni.
Like her siblings, Mikaela was on the front lines for her dad’s career: going to the Oscars, attending movie premieres and joining him on film sets.
But Mikaela has said she struggled with bipolar disorder and anxiety. She told The Sun she was bullied for her weight and famous last name. Being sent to a boarding school for troubled teens, she said, didn’t help:
“I came out of there . . . with more anxiety and more attachment issues, more depression and more hatred from my body.”
She also claimed that, as a child, she was groomed and abused by “predators” who were not in her family or their circle of friends.
Mikaela told The Sun how she had struggled with alcoholism, saying that as recently as two years ago she was drinking every day and came close to dying from it.
She now lives in Nashville with her fiancé, Chuck Pankow, 50, a darts player who is more than twice
Mikaela’s age. He has said they met at a bar.
Mikaela has said that she won’t make porn with another person because “it would be a violation of my boundaries and my relationship with my significant other.”
Chris Marsicano, 33, a friend of Mikaela’s in Nashville, told The Post: “Mikaela and I met at a cafe. I was discussing the differences in Reformed, Orthodox, Hasidic and Kabbalistic Judaic practices with a friend who was studying to become a rabbi when she walked up and joined right into the conversation.
He added: “She’s a very bubbly and jovial person and has a deep knowledge and understanding of Judaism . . . as well as a vast knowledge of other religions,” he said. “It wasn’t until the aftermath of [the] Charlottesville [massacre], when we went for proper drinks to calm our nerves at the idea of what it meant to be
Jewish in this country now, that I found out she was a Spielberg.”
Marsicano says he makes candles and oils “catered to the occult.”
Recently, Mikaela posted a topless photo on her now-private Instagram account and wrote: “I just launched my self produced adult entertainment career . . . I owe not a single person my autonomy or virtue just because of a name.”
But, of course, the Spielberg name comes with an enormous legacy. Her father's net worth is valued at $3.7 billion by Forbes. Among Steven’s best loved films are “Saving Private Ryan” and “Schindler’s List,” both of which won Best Picture Oscars, as well as “E.T.,” “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park,” “The Color Purple,” the Indiana Jones films and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“[Steven and Kate] are friends with many artistic people, and those people are complicated and some have complicated kids.
Everybody gets it. Some kids, no matter what advantages — or even because of them — are just lost,” said the family friend. “Maybe Mikaela felt unworthy of her folks, of her name, that she could never live up to it. It’s hard to be the product of parents who are so successful.”
MIKAELA is not the only Spielberg child who has felt the weight of that famous name.
Destry has modeled in the past, for brands like Dolce & Gabbana, and is now trying to make it as an actress using the name Destry Allyn — her middle name.
“I want to do this on my own terms,” she told Town & Country in 2018.
Sawyer is an aspiring actor making his big-screen debut in “Honeydew,” a horror film set to debut at a Berlin film festival this month.
Sasha is a singer and also in a band, Wardell, with her DJ brother Theo. The two signed with Jay Z’s Roc Nation entertainment management company and have both worked with their dad: Sasha had small roles in “Munich,” “The Terminal” and “The Post,” while Theo was as a camera assistant on “Munich.” He was also a talent associate at “Saturday Night Live” from 2014 to 2016.
Jessica and her husband, Christopher Gavigan, have four young children to whom Kate and Steven are said to be very close.
And Max, who is married, is a video-game designer.
“It’s completely unfair to put Mikaela up against her brothers and sisters — they’re all different,” said the Spielberg source.
Mikaela is a talented artist who sometimes posts her work on social media — including a bird with its head exploded into smithereens, which she captioned, “A digital water color expression of pain.”
After her announcement this week, she posted a follow-up on Instagram: “In the past 24 hours I’ve learned that a vast majority of people are more loving than you give them credit for and unfortunately, some have enough boredom and vicious nature to flavor an entire sour candy factory.”
“I think Kate and Steven begged [Mikaela] to take her Instagram down,” said the family friend.
Still, as someone who has worked with Spielberg told The Post: “He is kind beyond belief. He’s never lost his patience on a film set. That’s why he’s so loved. Everyone recognizes this had nothing to do with how Steven and Kate raised Mikaela. She’s 23 and can do what she wants. [Her parents] only want the best for her. But they’re also concerned that this path might not end up being the best.”