It seems to be a ritual for tough guys to decamp for kiddie territory after they have kids of their own. Cube and his fellow xXx star Vin Diesel did it within months of each other with Are We There Yet? and The Pacifier, just as Arnold Schwarzenegger had done in the past with Kindergarten Cop, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson did a couple of weeks ago with The Kid.
It softens them up for the transition from thug to family-friendly beefcake, and opens up the fan base for maximum exploitation. For the most part, the thugs don't linger in the arid, family-friendly cultural desert for long, but Gooding actually lives in this zone of infantilism full-time now; this permanent childhood of the soul where dignity is death. If only he'd grow up.
But on his latest movie, Daddy Day Camp, he had near at hand a prime example of someone all washed up who put his life back together. It was directed by Fred Savage, famous in the 1980s as the child star of The Wonder Years. Then he disappeared, sensibly, into college studies supplemented by voiceover work.
Like many former child stars he retains the kind of youthful appearance that means he still gets recognised in the streets. No twilight zone of neverending adolescence for Fred, though, just a steady paycheck directing movies and TV shows. Gooding still makes money, but his career is effectively dead.
Why doesn't he just follow the legions of sensible ex-actors who grew up one day and said, "that's it: acting is officially stupid, and I don't want to play dress-up any more!" Betty Thomas from Hill Street Blues, Peter Bonerz from 1970s TV, LeVar Burton, even Jennie Garth and David Hasselhoff have all stepped behind the camera. It would be good for Gooding, because the self-inflicted scars on his rep might start to heal, and good for the rest of us, because we couldn't have to see Cuba Gooding any more.
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