Modern Family veteran Eric Stonestreet can be seen as the Mad Santa in the second season of the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses. And while Tim Allen has played Scott Calvin/Santa Claus for more than 30 years, Stonestreet tells ABC Audio he’d grab the bag if offered.
“Well, listen, I love playing in this world. And Tim Allen is Santa Claus for so many of us and will always be Santa Claus,” the actor says.
“But if [showrunner] Jack [Burditt], Disney and Tim or anyone asked if I was interested, my answer will always be yes to be in this world some way or somehow.”
Both seasons of The Santa Clauses are now streaming on Disney+, as are Allen’s three Santa Clause films.
The December 15 premiere of Apple TV+’s The Family Plan, starring Mark Wahlberg, debuted with the most views for a movie on the streaming service and now stands as the most-viewed movie in Apple TV+ history, the streamer has announced.
The film has Wahlberg playing an assassin-turned suburban dad’s past catching up with him, so he takes his wife (Mission: Impossible player Michelle Monaghan) and their kids on the run, under the guise of a family road trip to Vegas.
As Apple TV+ closes out the year, its Jennifer Aniston/Reese Witherspoon-led The Morning Show, which kicked off a third season in September, saw a 20% audience increase over season 2.
The streamer’s Godzilla-co-starring series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters debuted as the #1 first season drama on Apple TV in November, while Lessons in Chemistry, starring Brie Larson, became the #1 limited series on Apple TV+, and Oscar winner Larson recently was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work.
Robert Pattinson and Suki Waterhouse are engaged, a source tells People.
“They are engaged. They both want to be married. It’s important for them,” says the insider.
The Daisy Jones and the Six actress, 31, revealed in November that she and the 37-year-old The Batman star were expecting their first child together.
“I decided to wear something particularly sparkly today ’cause I thought it might distract you from something else that’s going on,” a fan video captured her saying at the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City, gesturing to her belly.
“I’m not sure if it’s working,” she joked.
It is the first child for both.
The pair have been together for five years, but the private couple only made their pairing official in December of 2022, at a fashion show in Egypt for Dior, for which Twilight veteran Pattinson models.
HBO has renewed The Gilded Age, the period drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, for a third season. Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski star in the series, set in “a period of immense economic change, of great conflict between the old ways and brand-new systems, and of huge fortunes made and lost,” according to the premium cable channel, which reports total premiere-night viewing for the second season grew for six consecutive weeks, culminating in a series high for the season 2 finale …
The Critics Choice Association announced on Thursday, December 21, that the location for its 29th annual Critics Choice Awards has been moved from the Fairmont Century Plaza — where it’s been held for the past two years — to The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica due to a labor dispute. Chelsea Handler will once again host the show, which will be carried live on The CW on Sunday, January 14, at 7 p.m. ET …
Sony announced on Thursday, December 21, that the Scarlett Johansson/Channing Tatum Apple Original Films production, formerly titled Project Artemis, is set for a July 12 premiere, according to Variety. Additionally, Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, also from Apple Original Films, will open September 20 in IMAX and premium large formats …
The new film American Fiction touches on an array of things — race in America, family drama, personal and professional satisfaction. Jeffrey Wright stars as an author who makes a morally compromising choice with his work, and also a man dealing with the declining health of his mother.
The Critics Choice and Golden Globe-nominated film expands into theaters nationwide December 22, and Wright tells ABC Audio he wanted to take on the role because he felt a strong connection to his character’s personal journey.
The things that “struck an emotional cord” between Wright and his character, Monk, include “his being a man who has reached that point in his life where all of a sudden his family turns to him at once and asks him to be the adult in the room,” he says.
He also finds it interesting “When [Monk] is tasked with being caretaker to she who was his caretaker.”
“I knew that well,” he adds.
Sterling K. Brown, who plays Monk’s surgeon brother, says he too, finds the film relatable.
“I think across the board in this film, I saw Black people who were allowed to be people. They did not have to be noble or they did not have to be ignoble,” Brown says. “They got a chance to be all of what humanity allows itself to be expressed as. And that’s not something that we see all the time with every character and with so many of them looking like me.”
Brown notes joining the film, which satirically explores Black stereotypes in America, was a no brainer.
“I think [comedy] was the spoonful of sugar that helped sort of, the medicine go down in terms of pointing out to Hollywood the narrowness of the stories that they’ve allowed us to tell,” he says.
A report in Vanity Fair says a former assistant to Vin Diesel is suing the star, claiming he sexually battered her in the fall of 2010.
The incident reportedly happened in Atlanta while she was working for Diesel when he was filming Fast Five, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.
According to the legal documents obtained by Vanity Fair, Asta Jonasson claims she was asked to wait in Diesel’s suite at the St. Regis Hotel while he entertained hostesses from a club he’d visited. Once they left, Diesel is accused of pulling Jonasson onto the bed. She managed to “escape,” and asked him to leave, the accusation continues.
And instead, the documents claim, he began groping and kissing her chest against her will, “and molested her body, running his hands over Ms. Jonasson’s upper legs, including her inner thighs.”
VF quoted the suit as saying, “Ms. Jonasson was afraid to more forcibly refuse her supervisor, knowing that getting him out of that room was both crucial to her personal safety and job security.”
Diesel’s camp has yet to comment about the accusations.
On Thursday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced more potential Oscar nominees.
Among them are hopefuls in the categories of Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound and Visual Effects.
Nominations voting begins on Thursday, January 11, and runs through Tuesday, January 16.
The nominations for the 96th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, with the ceremony taking place live on ABC Sunday, March 10, from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Fifteen films made the cut for the Original Score category. These include:
American Fiction American Symphony Barbie The Boy and the Heron The Color Purple Elemental The Holdovers Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Killers of the Flower Moon Oppenheimer Poor Things Saltburn Society of the Snow Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse The Zone of Interest
The shortlist for Best Original Song also includes 15 nominees with Barbie, The Color Purple, and Flora and Son represented by multiple songs:
“It Never Went Away” – American Symphony
“Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven)” – Asteroid City
“Dance The Night” – Barbie
“I’m Just Ken” – Barbie
“What Was I Made For?” – Barbie
“Keep It Movin’ – The Color Purple
“Superpower (I)” – The Color Purple
The Fire Inside” – Flamin’ Hot”
“High Life” – Flora and Son
“Meet In The Middle” – Flora and Son
“Can’t Catch Me Now” – The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” – Killers of the Flower Moon
“Quiet Eyes” – Past Lives
“Road To Freedom – Rustin
“Am I Dreaming” – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
Beau Is Afraid Ferrari Golda Killers of the Flower Moon The Last Voyage of the Demeter Maestro Napoleon Oppenheimer Poor Things Society of the Snow
Best Visual Effects:
The Creator Godzilla Minus One Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Napoleon Poor Things Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire Society of the Snow Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Rachel McAdams has sounded off on why she won’t appear in the Mean Girlsmusical movie — or those viral Walmart ads that snagged her co-stars Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert.
Regina George’s alter-ego explained to Variety of the commercial, “I didn’t know that everyone was doing it.”
She added, “I would, of course, always love to be part of a Mean Girls reunion and hang with my Plastics, but yeah, I found that out later.”
McAdams also told the trade that when she was pitched the idea of reprising her role for the ad, “I guess I wasn’t that excited about doing a commercial if I’m being totally honest. A movie sounded awesome, but I’ve never done commercials, and it just didn’t feel like my bag.”
As for the forthcoming musical version, which also stars her former co-star — and Mean Girls writer and producer — Tina Fey, McAdams said, “Tina and I sort of dabbled with a few ideas, but it was tough to make it all work in the end.”
She added, “I was really down for whatever she wanted to do.”
That said, the Doctor Strange franchise veteran will apparently be there in spirit — or at the movie theater when the film opens January 12. “I think the direction it went in will be fantastic and I cannot wait to see it,” she enthused.
When it comes to awards shows, as they say, it’s an honor just to be nominated — but it really pays off just to present, too.
That’s the takeaway from the take-away goodies nominees and presenters will be given in a gift bag reportedly worth more than $500,000.
In a statement, The Robb Report — the luxury lifestyle magazine for well-heeled people, or people who just wish they were — says it has teamed up with the annual awards show and piled a half-million dollars’ worth of goods and services for those special attendees.
The more than 35 goodies run the gamut from Le Domaine skin cream valued at $250, to “bespoke” Opie Way custom-made sneakers ($1,500), to a five-day luxury yacht charter in Indonesia aboard the Celestia Phinisi yacht valued at $83,000.
Robb Report president Luke Bahrenburg says, “While ‘The Ultimate Gift Bag’ may be the most valuable ever at over $500,000 in value, it’s also the most unique in terms of presentation, delivery, and curation of items. We are excited to have created a collection of the world’s finest luxury brands and experiences, from iconic names we all know to very limited craft brands.”
The Robb Report is also auctioning off “a select number of bags, alongside a special Golden Globes experience,” to benefit The Golden Globes Foundation.
The “immensely grateful” president of the Golden Globes, Helen Hoehne, says in the announcement, “This generous contribution not only embodies the spirit of giving but also marks a pivotal moment in our ongoing efforts to uplift underrepresented communities in the entertainment industry.”
The 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Sunday, January 7, at 8 p.m. ET.
Taking a huge family — minus one — on a Christmas trip to Paris might have been your first tip-off that the family from Home Alone was loaded, and you’d be right for assuming that.
In fact, they’re in the 1%.
That’s according to a deep dive the New York Timesdid on the McCallister family’s finances, with a little help from experts from Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
First off, there’s the stately Chicago home that Macaulay Culkin‘s Kevin vowed to defend from Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern‘s bumbling Wet Bandit robbery team.
The home itself, 671 Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, sits in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the United States, Realtor.com offers.
Back in 2022, Zillow estimated the house’s price at about $2.4 million.
The Times re-wound the clock back to 1990, when the movie was released. According to economists, Kevin’s parents — played by John Heard and Catherine O’Hara in the film — would have had to be bringing in $305,000 a year to afford that house. That translates to more than $716,000 a year today.
That’s not bad considering we never learned what Kevin’s forgetful parents actually do for a living — though a novelization of the hit film says Kevin’s mom is in the fashion industry, while Kevin’s dad is a generic businessman.
Todd Strasser, who wrote the book, offered, “I don’t know how much the McAllisters made, but it sure did a lot for my bank account.”
