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During the recording of an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers this week, actor Tom Hollander casually shared an incredible anecdote that may be considered one of the best talk show stories ever told. Initially hesitant and self-conscious while promoting his new Truman Capote series, Hollander eventually opened up and shared his story with the audience.

When asked if he was tired of being mistaken for Tom Holland, the subject shared a story about a time he was feeling very wealthy. He had gone to visit a friend at a theater and purposely did not flaunt his television earnings. However, he received an email from his agent that was meant for Tom Holland and was labeled as “box office bonus for The Avengers”. Upon opening the email, he discovered it was a significant amount of money, not just Holland’s salary but his first box office bonus, which was more money than he had ever seen before.

This is a fantastic tale full of gossip and insider information. It showcases Hollander as a determined underdog and offers a glimpse into the world of having too many well-known individuals with similar last names.

Hollander isn’t the only Tom to have found himself sucked into the gravitational pull of Spider-Man. There is another Tom Holland, the author and historian. Like Hollander, he had a perfectly decent career pre-Avengers. Say “Tom Holland” to someone a decade ago and they might have replied: “Ah yes, I enjoyed his BBC Four documentary about the impact that fossils had on global mythology.” But those days are long gone. Say “Tom Holland” now and people just whoop and make thwippy noises with their mouths.

If this was a struggle for the OG Holland, he managed to keep it largely to himself. And then, last year, the Spider-Man Tom Holland went to India, posed for a picture, and the entire population of the subcontinent reacted by mistakenly tagging historian Holland in a tweet. “Please make it stop,” he whimpered as his mentions were deluged.

This situation is not unique to me, it also occurs to others. For example, there are two individuals named Brian Cox: one is a physicist and the other is an actor. In a particularly mind-bending episode of BBC Breakfast in 2022, both Coxes appeared on the show at the same time to promote a documentary about wealth inequality and a book about black holes. During their appearance, the two Brians shared that they often end up at events where the other Brian was expected. On one occasion, the science Brian shared that they both stayed at the same hotel and the receptionist asked him to choose a different name because their system could not handle two bookings for Brian Cox simultaneously.

The concept of inheritance seems to dominate in this type of confusion. Despite my disappointment, my son’s preferred author for children’s books is Jeremy Strong, who has created a highly acclaimed series about bottoms. He should not be mistaken for the immensely popular actor on the show Succession, Jeremy Strong, but that has not prevented fans from praising book Jeremy for his performance on the beloved HBO drama. Occasionally, book Jeremy must calmly explain to admirers that he is not the American actor. “I am a British writer of books for children,” he clarifies multiple times throughout the year on social media. It must be frustrating.

There is a previous occurrence of a similar mistake happening. For many years, a calm X user named John Lewis would experience disruptions in his November and December due to widespread confusion when the department store with the same name released a new Christmas advertisement. Recognizing the positive impact of this PR move, the store reached out to the individual John Lewis and began sending him gifts as compensation for the inconvenience of sharing a name with a much more well-known entity. It is evident that this should also occur in the present situation. Every time Tom Holland stars in a new Marvel film, he should divide his salary into three portions and distribute it among the other two Toms who are overshadowed by his fame. This seems just and reasonable.

Source: theguardian.com