Entertainment

Just in time for Christmas, Airbnb is offering the perfect getaway for the holidays: the very Chicago home seen in the movie Home Alone. 

This time, just don’t forget to take the kids — all of them.

While the interiors of the McCallister home that Macaulay Culkin‘s Kevin McCallister vowed to protect were shot on a set, the exterior looks as it did in the 1990 hit. 

“During the stay, guests will enjoy a cozy holiday scene with twinkling lights and a perfectly trimmed tree in celebration of the season, booby traps galore, all the ’90s junk food their hearts desire (including Chicago’s finest pizza and a candlelit dinner of highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese), a meet and greet with a real-life tarantula, and more!” a press release teases.

The release clarifies that you’ll be setting the booby traps, not tripping them. Oh, and lodgers can also enjoy “Surprisingly searing splashes of aftershave and ample opportunity to scream into the mirror.”

You won’t even have to break the piggy bank to book it: Stays start at $25. 

What’s more, Kevin’s big brother Buzz himself, actor Devin Ratray, will welcome you there. “You may not remember me as particularly accommodating,” Buzz says in the release in character, “but I’ve grown up, and I’d be happy to share my family home — my pizza, even — with you this holiday season.”

He adds in Airbnb’s announcement, “Just try not to let my tarantula, Axl, loose this time.”

Bookings for an overnight stay on December 12 will open on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 12 p.m. ET at airbnb/homealone.

The offering is timed to the recent release of Home Sweet Home Alone on Disney+, which will screen the night of your stay.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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There’s nothing bad about this — Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul and wife Lauren are expecting baby number two, and they couldn’t be more excited. 

Lauren shared the joyful news to Instagram on Wednesday. Alongside an adorable photo of the couple’s three-year-old daughter Story Annabelle rubbing her baby bump, she wrote, “We can’t wait to meet you baby! We love you so much already.”

The due date or sex of the child was not mentioned.

Aaron, 42, and his actress wife Lauren, 34, married in 2013 and previously opened up about their desires to expand their family. 

“I can’t wait to have another baby, and I’m so excited to see what 40 has to offer,” the Westworld actor told Haute Living last year. “I’m just excited to be around, to be alive. I’m just happy to be here. Life is good.”

Aaron also enthused about being a parent and admitted that “fatherhood has definitely changed me.”

“Having a child is the closest thing to magic that anyone can have,” he said. “I see why people rush home to be there when they get home from school. You don’t want to miss any of it.”

 

 

 

 

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It could turn out to be a very merry Christmas for movie theaters across the country, that is if advance ticket sales for Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home are any indication.

The online ticketing service Fandango is reporting Spider-Man: No Way Home has shattered the pre-sale records for 2021, beating out Marvel’s Black Widow. It’s even keeping pace with films that premiered prior to COVID-19, including 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. 

In fact, when tickets for the Tom Holland-led film went on sale on Monday, some online sites crashed due to the demand. Additionally, theater owners had to hastily add screenings, according to Variety.

A co-production of Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, Spider-Man: No Way Home, co-starring Zendaya as MJ and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, hits theaters on Dec. 17.

Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Wendy Williams appears to be doing well amid her on-going health issues. 

In a video clip published by The Shade Room on Wednesday, the talk show host is barefoot and wearing a red Versace robe as she exits a Miami wellness facility and makes her way to a black SUV with the help of her driver. 

Although Williams, 57, stays mum about the status of The Wendy Williams Show and if it’s cancelled, she does say “thank you,” when the paparazzi says “everyone does hope you feel better.”

When asked about her recovery, she responds in third person stating, “Wendy is doing fabulous” and adds that fans can look forward to “lots more Wendy stuff.”

As previously reported, Williams has been absent from her show since it was originally expected to return on September 20 for the start of its 13th season. Her return was delayed due to ongoing health issues, which included testing positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19.

Since then, numerous guest hosts have filled in for her, including Sherri Shepherd, Leah Remini, Michael Rapaport and Jerry Springer.

Williams previously addressed her absence from the show in a statement shared on November 8. 

“HOW YOU DOIN’? I MISS YOU ALL! As everyone knows, my health has been a hot topic,” the statement reads. “I’m making progress but it’s just one of those things that’s taking longer than we expected.”

She continues, “I’m a woman of a certain age, and I know enough to listen to my doctors and will return to my purple chair as soon as we all agree I’m ready. I want to thank all of my staff and our guest hosts for stepping up and stepping in while I can’t be there.”

 

 

 

 

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) In Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan‘s battle-scarred alter-ego Erik Stevens/Killmonger famously faces off with Chadwick Boseman‘s T’Challa, saying, “I’ve lived my entire life, waiting for this moment!” In real life, Jordan is saying the same thing, in a feature piece with The Hollywood Reporter. 

The actor, producer and director of the upcoming Creed III isn’t letting his moment pass, either.

“My ambition has intersected at this moment where I have the experience and knowledge to direct…and [the ability] to maximize it by having a production company,” Jordan says. “It’s my turn to make my impact while I have the energy and strength.”

The 34-year-old adds, “It’s the moment I’ve waited for my entire life. This is it.”

Jordan, whose Outlier Society production company is backing the third Creed film, in addition to other projects, notes, “To be young, Black and successful — and disruptive — in this industry, there’s a certain navigation to get to the place I need to get to.” 

He adds, “This is the most open that things have been for somebody who’s in favor right now, and you try to…stay in it for as long as you can.”

Jordan explains that taking a leading role for director Denzel Washington in the December 25 release A Journal for Jordan was a chance to get a master class in both acting and directing before Creed III started shooting.

“Denzel perfected ‘leading man,'” he says. “He was like, ‘I’m going to f***ing dominate this one thing and master it.” 

The actor also has another role model in Will Smith. “He says all the time that he doesn’t feel like he’s the most talented, but he works the hardest,” Michael says.

Creed III opens November 23, 2022.

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Fresh off her role in the hit Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Awkwafina has reportedly taken a role in the monster movie Renfield, opposite Nicolas Cage, who will portray Dracula. 

Deadline, which broke the news of Cage’s casting, also revealed the rapper-turned-Crazy Rich Asians scene-stealer’s participation.

The movie, directed by The Tomorrow War‘s Chris McCay, centers on the titular henchman of the classic Dracula tales. X-Men movie veteran Nicholas Hoult will play the title character, a “zoophagic maniac,” obsessed with eating living creatures to absorb their life force.

Based on the classic Universal monster movies, the story for Renfield was written by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, whose Skybound Entertainment company is producing. Rick and Morty veteran Ryan Ridley penned the script.

Incidentally, Renfield was first announced two years ago; at that point, actor-turned-Bohemian Rhapsody director Dexter Fletcher was set to direct. 

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Record breaking gymnast Simone Biles is one of the People of the Year! The seven-time Olympic medal winner joins Dolly Parton, Sandra Oh from Grey’s Anatomy, and National Teacher of the Year Juliana Urtubey, on the list of People Magazine’s 2021 People Of the Year

At the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, Simone withdrew from several events. citing mental health issues. She still won a silver medal and a bronze medal. “Now [people] view me as human, which makes me so happy,” she tells People. “I fought hard. I survived. I’m proud of myself.”

In the other news, there will be a remake of the 1992 film White Men Can’t Jump starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. Deadline reports that Calmatic, who recently wrapped production directing the House Party reboot, will direct. Kenya Barris is producing and co-writing the script.

Finally, Gabrielle Union is joining the cast of the live reenactment of the 80s sitcom, The Facts of Life, according to Variety. Gabrielle will play Tootie, originally portrayed by Kim Fields. The Facts of Life live will air with a live reenactment of Diff’rent Strokes.

As previous reported, Kevin Hart will star as Gary Coleman‘s character, Arnold Drummond, and Damon Wayans will play his brother Willis, originally portrayed by Todd Bridges. Live in Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes will air live Tuesday, December 7 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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Actor Alec Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that he had “no idea” how a live bullet got onto the set of his film Rust, but that he “didn’t pull the trigger” on the firearm that killed one person and wounded another.

“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never,” Baldwin told Stephanopoulos in a first-look segment from the upcoming interview, which is produced by George Stephanopoulos Productions. 

Alec Baldwin Unscripted will air this Thursday, December 2, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and will begin streaming on Hulu later that evening.

“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” the actor added.

On October 21, Baldwin was holding an antique revolver during a dress rehearsal for the Western film at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico, when it discharged, killing the movie’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounding its director, Joel Souza.

In the exclusive ABC News interview, Baldwin, who was starring in and co-produced the film, talked about what happened on set that fateful day, saying he had no reason to suspect a live bullet could be in the prop gun.

He also talked with Stephanopoulos about Hutchins, 42, who was struck in the chest and died after being airlifted to a hospital.

“I think back and I think of what could I have done?” Baldwin said.

“She was someone who was loved by everyone who worked with [her] and liked by everyone who worked with [her], and admired,” Alec noted. “I mean, even now I find it hard to believe that [she’s gone]. It doesn’t seem real to me.”

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Batgirl has taken flight. 

With an Instagram snap of the movie’s clapper, co-director Adil El Arbi wrote, “Day One of Batgirl!!!” followed with an Arabic phrase meaning “Praise be to God.”

Bilall Fallah is co-directing; the pair previously directed the hit Bad Boys for Life.

The photo was set against a desk belonging to “Officer Barbara Gordon,” who Bat-fans know is the alter-ego of the titular heroine and the daughter of Batman’s longtime confidante, Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon. 

Leslie Grace is playing Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in the film, and her dad will be played by Oscar winner JK Simmons, reprising his role from Justice League. Brendan Fraser has been cast as Garfield Lynns, also known as the pyromaniac baddie Firefly.

Warner Bros. has stated that HBO Max will be a proving ground of sorts for its DC heroes before they turn up on the big screen. However, Batgirl was written by DC big-screen movie vet Christina Hodson, who penned the scripts for both Birds of Prey with Margot Robbie and the upcoming Flash movie that will star Ezra Miller.

 

 

 

 

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Kathy Griffin was back to her old self — minus her usual voice — in an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in which she told him she’s now “cancer free.”

As previously reported, Griffin discovered in 2021 that she had lung cancer, and in August she underwent surgery to remove part of her lung.

The former Fashion Police co-host first explained to Jimmy and his audience that her voice is “two octaves higher” as a result of intubation from the surgery.

“I had a tumor, right? And I’ve never smoked, and it was in there for 10 years. So get this, they took it out and found [cancer] in another scan.”

Griffin, 61, made light of her new higher, huskier pipes, which she called “Minnie Mouse meets Marilyn Monroe” and which the former My Life on the D List star said would be temporary. For now, she’s enjoying it, saying her voice is “higher than Mariah Carey‘s.” 

The comic also revealed that she gained 20 pounds during the pandemic, so she says she’s taken to wearing Gucci tracksuits, which she did on the show, complimented with a fanny pack. “So I’m chubby…but I look rich,” she quipped. 

Obviously in good spirits, Griffin joked her surgery gave her some inspiration for a new drag moniker: Diva Half-a-Lungoria.  She also admitted that her fight with the disease gave her a good excuse to get out of anything. “I have too much cancer,” she recalled saying, to laughs.

Kathy also alluded to her being “cancelled” following a 2017 photoshoot where she was shown holding up a decapitated head made to look like former President Donald Trump‘s. “I’m uncanceled. I think I’m an actress again, you guys,” exclaimed Griffin, who appears in season five of the show Search Party.

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