Coronation Street boss Kate Brooks revealed the soap would revisit a bizarre scene where Maggie Driscoll seemed shocked about something in Ken Barlow’s home months ago
Coronation Street boss Kate Brooks revealed the soap would revisit bizarre scene where Maggie Driscoll seemed shocked about something in Ken Barlow’s home(Image: ITV)
Fans will finally learn the truth about why Coronation Street newcomer Maggie Driscoll was acting strangely at Ken Barlow’s home a few months ago.
On Halloween, Maggie was invited into the house by Amy Barlow, as she was looking for a punch bowl for the party at The Rovers. While looking in a cupboard, she appeared to stare at something not shown onscreen.
She looked startled if not anxious about whatever it was, and quickly shut the cupboard door. It was not referenced again, and has yet to be explained.
Amid fans speculating it could confirm a link to the Barlow family, possibly Ken, Corrie boss Kate Brooks has revealed the scene will be revisited. Speaking to The Mirror, Kate said it’s linked to a secret that will soon be exposed.
Kate spilled: “There are other secrets as well that Maggie’s been hiding. Some eagle-eyed viewers might have spotted Maggie at number 1.
“She looks into the cabinet, and her reaction kind of suggested that she saw something that made her feel slightly on edge or uncomfortable. We will reveal what that secret is in the upcoming months.”
So that scene hasn’t been completely forgotten about, and we were right to find it weird. It seems Maggie’s hiding more than one secret, with more about her and the Driscoll family still to be uncovered.
Kate also revealed the grooming storyline featuring Maggie’s teenaged grandson Will is set to explode at some point this year. She told us: “The Driscolls really have got their feet under the table. There is loads to come for this family. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. The ongoing story of Will and Megan is huge for them. We also know what Maggie’s capable of now.
“When, eventually this awful secret is exposed, it’s not gonna go down well with Maggie. [As we follow on with] the Will and Megan element, Sam [Blakeman] will end up getting embroiled in it all. We will see the lengths that Megan will go to to manipulate Sam into keeping quiet, and it will be massively detrimental to Sam’s well-being.
“We have Eva in the mix, who will be naturally furious when this comes to light. We’ve got Leanne and Toyah, and you’ve got these three very strong, very fiery women, sisters, whose boys have been manipulated by this woman, who they considered their friend.
“So, needless to say, it’ll be quite explosive when this all comes to light. Ben adores his family, he adores Will, he adores Ollie. It’s a real kind of journey for us to take Ben on as well, as they all struggle to navigate this.
“It’s a situation none of them thought they’d ever be in, and the fact that they are really tests them as a family unit. Maggie’s a fiery one, so I’d keep an eye on Maggie.”
In between such pistol-packing antiheroes as Bonnie Parker and Luigi Mangione, financially-squeezed Americans rooted for Tony Kiritsis, a working stiff who took his mortgage lender hostage in 1977 Indianapolis, claiming that the loan company cheated him out of his land. “Dead Man’s Wire,” the title of Gus Van Sant’s wonky true crime caper, comes from Kiritsis’ weapon: a shotgun tied to a noose looped around the neck of his prisoner, Richard Hall. His hair-trigger homemade contraption pressured all three major networks into giving Kiritsis airtime to explain his grievances to the public. Pressing a sawed-off barrel to Hall’s head, the hot-tempered chatterbox told the cameras, “I am sorry I humiliated this man this way, even though he must’ve surely had it coming.”
To the establishment’s horror, many viewers sided with Kiritsis. “How about some Tony Kiritsis t-shirts, some Tony Kiritsis badges, a Tony Kiritsis fan club?” one supporter wrote to the local paper, the Indianapolis News.
Or how about a biopic that fires blanks?
Van Sant has long taken aim at the intersection of violence and mass media culture. Over his career, he’s attacked it from several angles, including the fame-seeking satire of “To Die For,” his elegy for the publicly out politician of “Milk” and the clinical ennui of “Elephant,” his take on the Columbine massacre, in which his pair of teen killers numb themselves with grisly entertainment. Kiritsis’ story is an irresistible target: an ignored man thrilled to have the attention of the spanking new Action News squads who barge onto the scene unprepared for the risk they might broadcast an on-air murder.
But this time, Van Sant seems more interested in the period-piece décor and the aesthetics of early video footage (the cinematography is by Arnaud Potier) than he is in the bleak humor of Kiritsis’ televised tirade cutting to a burger commercial. The result is a faintly comic curio that hurtles along without much impact.
The mishaps start when Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) storms Meridian Mortgage’s office only to discover his intended captive, the ruthless M.L. Hall (Al Pacino), is away vacationing in Florida. Hall’s cowed and coddled son Richard (Dacre Montgomery) will have to do, even though the real estate scion is so passive that he barely bothers to fight for his life. If you’ve seen the original footage of the bizarre press conference where Hall, a twitch from assassination, stares blankly past the flashbulbs, then you know that Van Sant and Montgomery (the “Stranger Things” bully cast against type) get their victim exactly right while robbing Kiritsis, and the audience, of a worthy adversary. In one cold yet weightless moment, the boy-man realizes his own dad might not care whether he survives.
At least the younger Hall’s dull demeanor — then coded as dignity, now as soullessness — makes Kiritsis seem more alive. The real Kiritsis was short-statured with a car salesman’s sideburns; he had the kind of face you only see onscreen during competitive bowling. Lanky, hunched and fragile, Skarsgård’s version isn’t quite as salt-of the-earth, although he’s captured his rapid patter and the burning menace in his eyes. He plays the role somewhere between a soapbox preacher and a “Scooby-Doo” episode that imagines Shaggy unmasking a money-grubbing bad guy and threatening to beat him to death.
Kiritsis is so convinced of his righteousness that he genuinely believes the mortgage company’s manipulations, not his own murder threat, to be the big story. When Hall proves too mute to debate, Kiritsis vents to a radio disc jockey named Fred (Colman Domingo), even though Fred is more interested in smooth tunes than hard news. (Springboarding from this and his perky TV host role in “The Running Man,” Domingo needs to star in his own comedy stat.) Won’t someone, even an inessential young reporter played by Myha’la, poke into the alleged scam?
Yet despite how often Austin Kolodney’s script has Kiritsis say he just wants to be heard, the soured mortgage deal is so impossible to follow that even the movie itself deems it unnecessary. Our attention pivots to the futility of this self-described “little guy” trying to get someone with clout to take him seriously. In this period, criminal psychology was just starting to go mainstream. An FBI agent (Neil Mulac) instructs the Indianapolis cops to think deeper about Kiritsis’ motivations, wielding chalk to illustrate how anger is rooted in humiliation and disrespect. Kiritsis is screaming mad and the police’s yawns aren’t helping.
Today, Kiritsis would have a podcast. But cranks like him seem especially at home in the 1970s — the mad-as-hell decade — when their polyester button-downs make them look extra itchy around the collar. It’s easy to picture Kiritsis exiting a double-feature of “Network” and “Dog Day Afternoon” and vowing that he, too, isn’t going to take it anymore.
Van Sant sees the parallels between Kiritsis and “Dog Day Afternoon’s” populist bank robber Sonny Wortzik — heck, he’s even stunt-cast Pacino as the fat-cat financier — but the film doesn’t appear to have the budget to examine how Kiritsis’ anger fires up the cash-strapped masses. It certainly can’t afford to include the real-life scene at an Indianapolis Pacers game where an arena of basketball fans cheered for his not-guilty verdict, although I would have settled for even a bit player who helps us understand why a jury of his peers let him off the hook.
Instead, the movie inexplicably squanders its energy on needle drops that act against the mood: the watery irony of Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby” cooing over an image of Hall handcuffed in a bathtub. Better is Danny Elfman’s spartan and fraught score, particularly the dyspeptic drums.
Was Kiritsis a narcissistic madman or a schmuck who’d put too much trust in the American ideals of hard work and fair treatment? Van Sant alludes to the latter when the televisions keep showing John Wayne on other channels, the gunslinging Duke setting things right in a classic western or winning the 1977 People’s Choice statuette for best actor.
It’s no wonder that Kiritsis figured he’d be a hero, too — and that, in real life, many of the people watching at home agreed — although as obvious as that point is, it would have been nice if Van Sant explored it. At least we get Kiritsis’ sentimental, expletive-laden version of an awards speech which devolves into him thanking his family, Hall’s family and even the police academy before he gets hustled offstage. Kiritsis is certain he’s accomplished something great. We’re glumly aware of how many others are waiting their turn in the wings.
House of Guinness featured a particular scene which has had everyone talking.
09:20, 30 Sep 2025Updated 13:42, 07 Jan 2026
House of Guinness is on Netflix and the historical drama was the creation of Peaky Blinders boss, Steven Knight. Having been out for months already, the series continues to be a huge hit with new fans continuing to tune in.
While it did not bother him filming completely naked, he did have one worry about the audience following the show’s release.
Speaking to Town & Country, he was asked if he considers the large audience of Netflix intimidating, to which he said: “Yeah, definitely when I did the naked scene [laughs].
“Definitely when I did that, I was sat in that bath and I was like, ‘Oh wait, it’s gonna be like millions of people’.
“My focus is usually on the other person, less so than what I’m experiencing, but on the day that you’re getting naked, you’re like, ‘Oh god, I hope my f****** granny doesn’t see this!’
“Moments like that happen! But for the most part, I don’t think about the reach of the show, no.”
Taking to X to share their thoughts on the bath scene, Sharon SL shared: “Is no one talking about Arthur’s bath scene? What was that I just saw?”
Stoops commented: “Did NOT expect to see that in the bath scene, holy hell.”
Addressing the future of the series, Boyle said he would love to return for a second season if it was given the green light by Netflix.
Speaking exclusively to Reach titles at a screening of the series, he said: “If they want to do a second season, I’d love to. I think the scripts were amazing and I really enjoyed the cast and directors.
“I loved it, I love the end product. It’s a show I’m really proud of and if they wanted to go again I’d be overjoyed.”
At this moment in time, the series is yet to be renewed for a second season. This could be because director Knight is focusing on the upcoming Peaky Blinders film, titled The Immortal Man. The film is due to be released in March 2026 and it sees the return of Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby.
House of Guinness is on Netflix
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During Oscar season, The Envelope also likes to celebrate actors in roles that might not otherwise garner awards attention. You can sense a whole life behind these portrayals; they draw you in and make you want to know more.
April Grace as Sister Rochelle, ‘One Battle After Another’
Amid the controlled chaos that is Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” young Willa (Chase Infiniti) is brought to a nunnery that used to be part of her parents’ revolutionary group French 75. What Willa doesn’t know is that her mother (Teyana Taylor) betrayed the group in order to save herself from prison, and is still alive.
Sister Rochelle, played by April Grace with seething intensity, sets her straight. “Your mother was a rat, and that makes you a baby rat,” she spits, and Willa’s world crumbles further.
Grace will be familiar to eagle-eyed PTA fans; in “Magnolia,” she played Gwenovier, the reporter who calmly destroyed Tom Cruise’s character. When the offer of Sister Rochelle came, “I didn’t need to look at the role, I trust Paul implicitly,” she says. “He is there for the actor, whatever you need.”
Grace has worked in film and television for over 30 years, “but I started out in theater, so character development is really important to me.” She created a backstory for Sister Rochelle, building up the reasons she was so hostile to Willa. “Sister Rochelle is all about community, and you don’t betray your community.”
Of Infiniti, Grace notes, “She was just lovely, and she made my job really easy, just looking at her” trying to act tough, “like you don’t even know you’re a baby.”
Jacobi and Noah Jupe as Hamnet and Hamlet, ‘Hamnet’
(Dania Maxwell / For The Times)
Jacobi Jupe plays the title role in “Hamnet,” as the ill-fated son of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Agnes (Jessie Buckley). He was thrown into the deep end on his first day, when his father leaves the family for London. “I didn’t really know Paul, and I had to get so intimate and so upset but hold it together, and I was a bit nervous,” Jacobi recalls. “But Paul is such a lovely person, and I instantly trusted him, so it was really easy to do that scene.”
His big brother Noah adds, “And it’s what spurs on your entire character, the courage from that scene, so it’s a big thing to start with.”
It gets harder from there. Jacobi depended on his mother (actor Katy Cavanagh), Buckley and director and co-writer Chloé Zhao — “they were my three mums on that shoot” — to help him process his own death scene. “It was shocking, really, because I spent so long being Hamnet and feeling his emotions, and having to let him go was really hard.”
Noah was hired to play the actor playing Hamlet just before the part was to be shot. “That is an opportunity you cannot turn down,” he says, even though he only had a week to prepare the most famous soliloquies in the Western canon. “I learned the sword fight in eight hours.”
During rehearsals onstage, there was no Globe audience before him except for Buckley. “I just found myself performing to her, which then made all of the scenes I was doing like a conversation between me and Jessie.”
Zhao showed Noah his brother’s scenes so that his Hamlet would carry echoes of the lost child. “It was like watching yourself without all of the self-consciousness or the criticism,” he says of seeing Jacobi’s portrayal, “and just truly marveling at a performance by someone that is literally part of your heart.”
Hadley Robinson as Belle, ‘The History of Sound’
With one glance at Hadley Robinson’s Belle, you can feel the weight of the baby in her arms, the sorrow in her eyes, and the exhaustion in her soul. The film, directed by Oliver Hermanus and written by Ben Shattuck, centers on Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor), secret lovers who travel the American countryside to record folk music after World War I. After they part, Lionel writes David for years without hearing back, and finally travels to his home to see him again.
Unknown to him, David had married Belle, and died several years earlier. Lionel instead meets Belle, now remarried and with a baby.
In a powerful scene, Belle tells Lionel her own love story — meeting David, falling for him, losing him — fully aware that she’s talking about her great love to David’s great love. But her loneliness is so thorough, she’s almost grateful to have someone to share David with. Lionel barely speaks as he absorbs the information.
“It was absolutely a monologue,” says Robinson. “But I found that to be so much easier to prepare, because there was so much in there that the character couldn’t help but be specific, because I was given an exact template.” She journaled as Belle for a week before her one day on set. “I’ve never had a role that was that devastating before.”
Though Lionel says nothing, Robinson praises Mescal as a scene partner. “I have found listening to be extremely difficult, and the way Paul listens is like a superpower. He was so incredibly present in that room.” He stayed on set all day, even when he was offscreen, “and rehearsed with me as well. He really showed up in a way that not all actors do.”
Victoria Jones, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones, was reportedly found dead at a hotel in San Francisco on New Year’s Day. She was 34.
According to TMZ, the San Francisco Fire Department responded to a medical emergency call at the Fairmont San Francisco early Thursday morning. The paramedics pronounced Victoria dead at the scene before turning it over to the San Francisco Police Department for further investigation, the outlet said.
An SFPD representative confirmed to The Times that officers responded to a call at approximately 3:14 a.m. Thursday regarding a report of a deceased person at the hotel and that they met with medics at the scene who declared an unnamed adult female dead.
Citing law enforcement sources, NBC Bay Area also reported that the deceased woman found in a hallway of the hotel was believed to be Jones and that police did not suspect foul play.
“We are deeply saddened by an incident that occurred at the hotel on January 1, 2026,” the Fairmont told NBC Bay Area in a statement. “Our heartfelt condolences are with the family and loved ones during this very difficult time. The hotel team is actively cooperating and supporting police authorities within the framework of the ongoing investigation.”
The medical examiner conducted an investigation at the scene, but Jones’ cause of death remains undetermined. Dispatch audio obtained by TMZ and People indicated that the 911 emergency call was for a suspected drug overdose.
Jones was the daughter of Tommy Lee and ex-wife Kimberlea Cloughley. Her brief acting career included roles on films such as “Men in Black II” (2002), which starred her father, and “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” (2005), which was directed by her father. She also appeared in a 2005 episode of “One Tree Hill.”
Page Six reported that Jones had been arrested at least twice in 2025 in Napa County, including an arrest on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and drug possession.
Fire replaces water as the elemental character in James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” It’s even weaponized by Varang (Oona Chaplin), the ruthless leader of the volcano-dwelling Ash People, in their war against the rest of the Na’vi tribes.
“After figuring out water in all its complexity in [‘The Way of Water’], we focused on fire,” Cameron said about his VFX Oscar front-runner. “Fire is very much the same — you have to be very observant of [this] in the world. This is where having an understanding of physics — which I do — helps, and this is where a lot of real-world photography and reference comes in handy.”
Creating more realistic-looking fire in CG required Cameron to apply his understanding of fuel and how it burns, including flow rates, the interaction of temperature gradients, the speed of an object that’s burning and the formation of carbon and soot.
In essence, fire became the centerpiece of every scene — and a character with its own escalating drama. That’s where the VFX wizards of Wētā FX in New Zealand came in. They developed Kora, a high-fidelity tool set for physics-based chemical combustion simulations. Kora increased the scale of fire while providing more artist-friendly controls. The film contains more than 1,000 digital fire FX shots, ranging from flaming arrows and flamethrowers to massive explosions and fire tornadoes.
“Physical fire is really hard to control, so we had to come up with how to bend the physics towards the direction that Jim was giving it,” said Wētā senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri. “Because he was very specific where he wanted the fire, what kind of speed, rate, size, how much or how little energy. He very carefully crafted every component, guiding your eye across it.”
“Fire serves two roles,” added Eric Saindon, a VFX supervisor at Wētā. “There’s always a little bit of low fire going on during quiet moments, but then you get fire that becomes much more destructive whenever there’s an attack sequence.”
In the film’s best scene, where archvillain Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Varang meet for the first time in her tent, fire takes on a more subtle, mysterious quality. She gives Quaritch a trippy “truth drug” to ascertain his real agenda, seductively playing with fire with her fingers like a sorceress. The scene turns surreal with camera distortion and zoom shots to convey his hallucinatory point of view.
Then Quaritch surprises her with his superpower: the truth. He proposes a partnership to provide his military weaponry so she can spread her fire across the world and he can rule as her co-equal. “In a strange way, they become the power couple from hell,” Cameron said. “He wins her over by sharing his vision.”
The physical properties of fire drove much of the visual effects work in “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
(20th Century Studios)
Meanwhile, the subtle flicker of fire with cool blues around the edges of the flame is like a magic trick. “She knows it’s about theater, so she presumably has some kind of a gel or makeup that’s on the tips of her fingers so that they just don’t burn away in the first few seconds,” Cameron continued. “She’s able to dip her fingers in some kind of inflammable oil and light them and have them burn like candles. Of course, in his mind, it’s all enhanced much more due to the hallucinogen.”
Cameron praised both actors in the scene, but singled out Chaplin’s performance for the force she brings to Varang’s shamanistic authority. “She understood how the character would manifest her power psychologically and how there was a flip in the scene, where the flow of power runs the other direction at a certain point.”
The director also commended Wētā’s facial capture animation team for achieving a new level of photorealism, thanks in large measure to more realistic muscle and skin movement. “The way Oona’s performance comes through so resoundingly in the character is a tribute to a lot of R&D, a lot of development in the facial pipeline. But I think it really demonstrates how the idea of CG as a kind of digital makeup really does work. What I’m proud about in that scene is that it’s a culmination of an almost 20-year journey in terms of getting exact verisimilitude in the facial representation of the characters as an extension of the actors’ work.”
“It was really fun showing Varang to Jim because he knew what he had in the performance,” added Dan Barrett, a senior animation supervisor at Wētā. “And he included Oona’s idiosyncrasies in the final animation. He was very respectful of the performance.”
In fact, Cameron argues, Chaplin’s performance as Varang is Oscar-worthy. “It may be counterintuitive, but I would argue that it’s a more pure form of acting,” he suggested. “Now, you may say that it’s cheating in terms of the cinematography in the sense that the cards are stacked in our favor because that perfect performance will always be there and will be repeatable as I do my different camera coverage. But it’s not cheating in terms of the acting.”
Cameron has recently been more proactive in demonstrating how the performance-capture process works to academy and SAG-AFTRA acting members so they can better understand it. “It was just us, working on capturing a scene, and I even wrote new scenes so it wasn’t a made-up dog-and-pony show. And they were blown away,” he added.
A ping-pong ball at top speed travels over 70 miles an hour — so fast it could zip across Manhattan in less than two minutes. Director Josh Safdie’s hyperactive, head-spinning “Marty Supreme” keeps pace. Set in 1952 New York, this deranged caper races after a money-grubbing table tennis hustler (he prefers “professional athlete”) named Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) who argues like he plays, swatting away protests and annoying his adversaries to exhaustion.
Hounding his shoe-store co-worker to give him $700 from the safe, Marty hammers the poor sap with every trick he’s got — emotional pressure, physical violence, bribery, humiliation, revenge — until he hits one that wins. The high-strung kid is pure nerve and he looks like one, too; he’s the embodiment of a twitch. But with a paddle in his hands, Marty turns into Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain.” He could win a match swinging an umbrella.
The character’s inspiration is Marty Reisman, one of the so-called “bad boys of ping-pong,” according to a U.S. Table Tennis Assn. official in 1972, explaining why the rascal wasn’t invited to the USA versus China exhibition games referred to as “ping-pong diplomacy.” You may remember those matches from “Forrest Gump,” but Tom Hanks’ guileless sweetheart would never use the sport to smuggle gold bars out of Hong Kong, as the real Reisman once did.
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Reisman’s exploits, immortalized in his 1974 memoir “The Money Player,” are too outrageous to squeeze into one film, even for a chaos-feeding filmmaker such as Safdie, going solo after co-directing “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems” with his brother Benny. (A trilogy, maybe.) Reisman’s biography opened with him fleeing French-occupied Hanoi, Vietnam, the day before it fell to the Viet Minh and detoured to a meeting with the Pope in Rome before drunkenly landing a plane in Brazil. The book was optioned shortly after publication. He felt it should star Robert De Niro.
That movie never happened and Reisman died in 2012 at the age of 82, still insisting he deserved to bask in the spotlight. He’d be happy to see Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” which time-travels audiences back seven decades to when American table tennis players were certain bright days were ahead.
As an athlete, Chalamet seems to have lost muscle for the role. Yet as funny as it is to see a guy this scrawny carry himself like Hercules, he leaps and strikes with conviction. His Marty yearns for prestige. Safdie even concocts a subplot in which he invents his signature orange ball solely so he can wear all-white like the posh jocks of Wimbledon. He starts the film desperate to fly to a tournament in London, in part to escape the walk-up apartment where he’s always squabbling with his mother (Fran Drescher) and uncle (Larry “Ratso” Sloman) and a nosy neighbor (Sandra Bernhard). Perilously, Marty’s secret lover (a simmering Odessa A’zion) lives with her jealous husband (Emory Cohen) in an apartment one floor below.
Marty and A’zion’s Rachel belong together, if only to quarantine their equally manipulative genes from the general population. Before the opening credits, the couple improvises a lie to get some privacy to mate. Cinematographer Darius Khondji sends the camera inside her body to see Marty’s most aggressive sperm wriggle to the finish line. Rachel’s egg becomes the moon; the moon becomes a ping-pong ball. Game on.
From this scene forward, Marty will dash around the city and the globe, chasing his dreams and out-running his parental responsibilities. Along the way, he trips over a gun-toting gangster named Ezra (Abel Ferrara), a faded movie star, Kay (Gwyneth Paltrow, sullen and aloof), and her callous husband Milton (“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary), the chief executive of a pen corporation who thinks Marty can make him a mint in ping-pong-crazed Asia. O’Leary, a first-time actor, easily embodies the face of capitalism.
Flaunting that he can turn anyone into an actor, Safdie crowds his New York with bit parts played by big personalities: magician Penn Jillette, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, basketball player George “The Iceman” Gervin, highwire artist Philippe Petit, playwright David Mamet, journalist Naomi Fry and grocery tycoon John Catsimatidis. The musician Tyler Okonma, better known as the Tyler, the Creator, is great in his feature film acting debut as Willy, Marty’s gambling wingman. He was previously seen onscreen getting electrocuted by a piano in “Jackass Forever.” Okonma brings that same energy here and it’s perfect.
Marty’s main foe — and personality opposite — is a Japanese player named Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi) who lost his hearing in the Tokyo airstrikes that happened seven years before and uses a deadly quiet foam-backed paddle. Marty’s friendliest rival, Béla (Géza Röhrig), survived Auschwitz, and in a jaw-dropper of a scene, shares a story of endurance that actually happened to the Polish player Alex Ehrlich. Imprisoned in the camps shortly after winning silver at the World Championships in 1939, Ehrlich was renowned for a record-breaking competitive volley that lasted over two hours, a back-and-forth so relentless that the referee quit with a sore neck. The rhythm of it could be a metronome for this movie’s plot — it whips us around to the point of delighted collapse.
The soundtrack is an unexpected backbeat of synth hits by Tears for Fears and New Order that bleeds into a Tangerine Dream-esque score by Daniel Lopatin — a startling choice for an era where people act like World War II happened yesterday. But to our modern ears, the music has its own vintage: It’s the sound of the greed-is-good 1980s, when movies rooted for ruthless strivers such as “Risky Business’” Tom Cruise, who opened a brothel in his parents’ bedroom.
Safdie’s script, co-written by Ronald Bronstein, is even structured like an ’80s movie that builds up to the big showdown, be it a ski race, a car-washing competition or a frat house decathlon à la “Revenge of the Nerds.” The catch is that Marty — not Endo — may be the bully who deserves to lose. How loudly are we willing to cheer for a callow guy who thinks of WWII as an opportunity for trash talk, boasting he’ll “drop a third bomb” on Endo’s fans? (In fairness, Tokyo promotes their rematch with a poster of Marty that looks uncomfortably close to antisemitic Nazi propaganda, a pointed choice by Safdie and the production designer Jack Fisk.)
Marty is convinced he’s a self-made success who doesn’t need anyone’s help; the people we see him squeeze and squash would disagree. He’s similar to Adam Sandler’s rapacious jeweler in “Uncut Gems,” except that scoundrel contained his damage to the Diamond District and people as shady as him. Safdie sends Marty out to bedevil the world, shipping him to Paris where he gets snippy with a maître d’ who doesn’t speak English and then to Cairo where he steals a chunk of the Great Pyramids.
Listening to a Japanese newsreel describe him as a villain referred to only as “the American,” you realize that “Marty Supreme” is more than a caricature of Reisman. It’s a biography of our national ego, with Marty brashly lecturing the British head of the International Table Tennis Assn. that a champion from the United States would boost the sport’s global reputation. After the commissioner makes this conceited Yank grovel, Marty simply replies: “It’s every man for himself where I come from.”
Like Marty, Chalamet was raised in New York City, and since he arrived on the scene, there’s never been a doubt he’ll win an Oscar. The only question is, when? To Chalamet’s credit, he’s doing it the hard way, avoiding sentimental pictures for pricklier roles about his own naked ambitions. For “A Complete Unknown,” he taught himself to play guitar like Bob Dylan while revealing that the bard was a rat, and in the even-better “Dune: Part Two,” played a naif radicalized into a galaxy-destroying messiah.
Here, Chalamet again fuses his personal drive into his performance, claiming that he spent seven years training to play ping-pong like Reisman, and unlike Tom Hanks in “Gump,” he’s doing his own stunts. Voters seem content to let the young talent dangle, trusting that he’ll continue flogging himself to make more great pictures like this.
The movie’s moxie makes it impossible not to get caught up in Marty’s crusade. We’re giddy even when he’s miserable. Performing with the Harlem Globetrotters in some of the most war-scarred, joy-desperate corners of the planet, his own shame prevents him from appreciating how much he’s entertaining the crowd. When you weigh his selfish desires against any other character’s needs, Marty is as hollow as a ping-pong ball. It really is all about his balls. Their embossing reads: “Marty Supreme — Made in America.”
‘Marty Supreme’
Rated: R, for language throughout, sexual content, some violent content/bloody images and nudity
The Holiday is one of the most well-loved Christmas films among Brits. But many fans might not know that one of the film’s most iconic scenes was improvised by cameo star
Alice Sjoberg Social News Reporter
12:41, 26 Dec 2025Updated 12:41, 26 Dec 2025
Fans were baffled that one of the iconic scenes in The Holiday was improvised (file)(Image: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)
People have been left baffled after learning that one of the most iconic scenes in festive classic The Holiday was improvised by a movie star in an impromptu cameo performance. For many, Christmas time means watching as many festive films as you can before the year comes to an end, and The Holiday is often cited as one of the best.
This 2006 romantic Christmas comedy stars Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Jack Black. The plot revolves around two women, played by Diaz and Winslet, who decide to swap homes for the holidays, crossing continents to escape their relationship woes. However they might not be as unlucky in love as they thought.
The film boasts picturesque country houses, an incredible play tent, plenty of festive cheer, and even cameo appearances from the likes of Dustin Hoffman, star of a plethora of screen gems, including 1967’s The Graduate. However, many fans have been left baffled to learn his surprise appearance wasn’t planned.
In an interview with NBC News, the film’s director, Nancy Meyers, revealed Hoffman’s cameo in the film had come up by accident after the actor walked onto set to say hello to her.
“Dustin was eating at a restaurant next door,” Nancy explained, saying he’d spotted all of the accompanying trailers and trucks outside. “And someone said they’re shooting in the Blockbuster.”
Dustin was told that the film was directed by Nancy, and since their daughters, who were in Middle School at the time, are best friends, decided to walk onto set to say hi. She then recalled Dustin sitting with her for an hour, just watching the shooting and having fun.
The scene they were filming took place inside the Blockbuster film store and sees Black’s character perform a number of iconic scores from different movies to Winslet’s character. “Well, it wasn’t an hour, but it was a long time, when I thought ‘what is wrong with me?” Nancy recalled, saying she invited the star to join the scene.
She said: “We’re talking about The Graduate, do you just want to be in the scene and we’ll just cut you, and you can just, whatever. And he went ‘alright’.”
Nancy went on to explain that she sent Dustin straight into the scene in the clothes he’d worn for this lunch earlier. They also didn’t do his hair or put any makeup on him.
“And he went over there, I had them do The Graduate thing, and he just said ‘can’t go anywhere’, and it was just great,” Nancy explained.
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Several people quickly took to the comment section to share their bafflement, as many thought the cameo made the film even better.
“LOVE THIS!!!! Wow what a fun story,” one person said, while someone else wrote: “I love to see Dustin in that scene! It made it look even more realistic.”
A third user said: “One of my all time favourite movies, and yes, he added so much fun to it, seems like a great guy.”
Someone else shared: “I love this story! I walked by the Blockbuster as they were filming this that night in Brentwood! Dustin must’ve been dining at Pizzicotto, next door.”
This article contains spoilers from Season 5, Vol. 2, of “Stranger Things.”
What could be more gulp-inducing than trying to defeat a nightmarish vine-covered villain and wipe out an eerie and horror-filled alternate dimension? Maybe writing a satisfying conclusion to a mega-popular TV show built on that idea.
Ross and Matt Duffer, the sibling masterminds behind Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” are closer to finding out if they’ve achieved that in the eyes of the show’s fans. On this morning in early December, the duo are in their own alternate dimension limbo with the show’s final season release — Vol. 1 is out and they’re bracing for impact with Vol. 2.
“The day that [Vol. 1] was released, I paced around all day,” Matt says. “I did absolutely nothing, just waiting for reactions to come in and reviews to come in because you really never know how people are going to react. There’s pros and cons to the show growing in size in the way it did — people just take it apart to an insane degree. It’s scary, always scary. You never really get used to it.”
But the self-doubt keeps them sharp, he says. “It forces you to not get lazy.”
“It’s a balance between feeling very confident, then it swings to being very insecure about it — and it’s hard to keep sight,” Ross adds. “You watch these episodes dozens and dozens of times over and over again. And the strange thing about this show is that a very small group of people had seen the episodes, a really small circle, then suddenly you’re just blasting it out to millions of people all at the same time.”
The pair are sitting on a couch in the office they share — “E.T.,” “Alien” and “Batman Returns” posters adorn the walls — at their facilities, Upside Down Productions, in Los Angeles. While they were able to revel in fan reaction for a few days after the release of Vol. 1, they’re back in work mode. At this point, they still have to finalize sound and color, as well as some visual effects, on the series finale.
“Very boring visual effects,” Matt quips. “If I have to look at one more shot of spores and fog, I’m going to lose my mind.”
Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) in Season 5 of “Stranger Things.”
(Netflix)
For now, the drip-drop release around the year-end holidays continues, with Vol. 2 (Episodes 5 through 7) now streaming. The episodes contain some of the season’s bigger emotional beats, including one of TV’s most amicable breakups between teenagers, a mended friendship and a character finally living his true self openly. The Duffers discussed that and more in this edited conversation.
Let’s start with those final 10 minutes of Episode 7. Will [Noah Schnapp] shares a part of himself that he’s kept secret for a long time. He realizes that if he wants to be successful in defeating Vecna, he can’t feel afraid about this part of myself. How did you decide Will’s coming out would be revealed?
Matt: It’s something that we’ve been planning to do for a really long time. Initially, it was planned for Season 4, and we just felt it was unearned by the end of it. We wrote that scene with him in the back of the van and him talking to Jonathan [Charlie Heaton]. But I like the idea of Will slowly building to this moment. He has a breakthrough in Episode 4 in a major way, but he has this one final step to take in order to really unlock his full potential. Something we really wanted to do with the show is tie his emotional growth with these powers that he’s developed.
Ross: Putting it at the penultimate [episode] ultimately made sense because what we’re trying to do with the second volume is get our characters in a place where they all felt confident in themselves. Will being one of the major character arcs that carries through the season, but also with Dustin [Gaten Matarazzo] and Steve [Joe Keery] and Nancy [Natalia Dyer] and Jonathan — we wanted to get people, before they go into this final battle, having dealt with their internal fears and doubts.
Matt: Because that’s what Vecna weaponizes against you. If you don’t have that self-hatred or self-doubt or those insecurities, then he can’t hurt you. When Will purges himself of that, he becomes unstoppable — or that’s the hope.
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1.Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, the show’s central character.2.With his mother, Joyce (Winona Ryder). In Season 5, Vol. 2, Will comes out to her and his friends. “It’s something that we’ve been planning to do for a really long time,” says creator Matt Duffer.(Netflix)
What did you want that moment to be? What didn’t you want it to be?
Ross: We were nervous about it because you want to get it right, particularly working with Noah, who had recently come out himself. When he read it and we got his blessing, we felt really, really good about it. For us, it clicked writing it when we started talking about, “What are Will’s actual fears here in the future?” When the show really works for us is when we can combine both our mythology and the supernatural with the emotional. In this case, it’s going: Vecna is taking these fears and weaponizing them against Will, so Will actually talking to the group about these fears, as opposed to keeping them to himself — that’s when the scene really clicked.
The original plan was for him to come out to Joyce [Winona Ryder], and we started writing it and it felt really wrong because if he’s really going to be confronting these fears, he has to open up to to his friends as well. Once we did that, and we put the group in there, and we had him talk about what he saw in his future, that’s when the scene felt, as a coming-out scene, like something very unique to this show.
Matt: It’s the scene we spent the longest on this season because we were so anxious about it and getting it right. It was the most important scene of the season. I can’t emphasize enough how much the actors influence the characters, and their journeys as people really feed into what we’re writing and how we write those characters. You’re trying to channel Noah and what he went through and his growth, which we’ve watched as a person, as he’s found himself. Most of what is in the show is the first take, the first close-up that we did of Noah. It was incredible to watch because it’s one of those moments where Noah was not acting. Those words were real that he was saying. It was very emotional. It felt so real to Noah, so truthful to him. Hopefully the scene feels like that to other people because a lot of kids are watching. You feel a certain responsibility, especially with scenes like that. You can’t be careless about it.
Shipping is a hallmark in every fandom. There’s a moment where Will mentions a crush he’s harbored. He doesn’t directly state it’s Mike, but Mike knows. The viewer knows. How would you describe their dynamic?
Ross: There is a lot of shipping that’s going on with this show. In terms of all the relationships — this goes with the Will storyline, it goes with Jonathan and Nancy — for us and the writers, what’s interesting is not who ends up with who. What’s interesting to us is, how are our characters growing as people? And most of the time, the answer to that is them finding strength within themselves as opposed to finding strength with someone else. When we were talking about Will, those are the conversations that we have. How do we get Will in a place that he feels confident and strong? And that, ultimately, is him confronting these fears and exposing himself to everyone, including Mike.
Matt: When we were growing up, shipping was not a thing. This is a new thing and it gets intense. Part of me likes it because it shows how passionate people are for the show. I don’t mind people interpreting things however they want. Obviously, Ross and I have what we intended. Ross touched on it thematically — in [Episode] 4, when Will finds his power, what we were intending was not that his love for Mike gives him these powers, but his love for himself and tapping back into how he felt when he was younger — that was the key to unlocking his full potential.
Ross: It’s more of an important message to put out to younger viewers. When I’m thinking about my younger self and our struggle growing up, to put out a message that’s “It’ll all be right if this secret crush you have works out” versus “You don’t need that.” Even if it disappoints some people, it’s the more important message to put out into the world.
Matt: Not one crush of mine worked out. It hurts you, though, right? If you feel feelings and it’s unrequited, it feels like an attack on you or makes you feel unwanted. So much of the show is two things: just our love for the supernatural in the movies that we grew up on, and the other part of it is dealing with all the feelings that we had growing up. The best thing for me in the world is when younger people come up to us, the very few that recognize us, and tell us how it helped help them through a difficult time in their lives. Even Robin’s speech to Will, giving him the confidence to come out, that makes it all worth it.
“To write them being back together and friends again was just such a relief,” says Ross Duffer of Dustin, left, and Steve.
(Netflix)
I want to move on to Dustin and Steve. The strain on their relationship comes to a head in these episodes, but also reaches a reconciliation. That moment between them on the collapsing stairwell —
Matt: It’s a very short moment, but incredibly emotional. We were really moved by Gaten and Joe’s performance. It wasn’t hard for them to get into that spot. They’re very close, they have a very sweet friendship that’s not entirely dissimilar from their friendship on the show. The one frustrating thing about the show being split in the way it is, is we didn’t put out a season of the show in Volume 1 — that’s half of a show. I’m excited for people to see Volume 2, mostly for the Steve-Dustin resolution.
Ross: It was hard even writing it, keeping them apart. We felt it was right, emotionally, but to write them being back together and friends again was just such a relief because we’ve missed them, and hopefully the audience has too.
And I love that Steve gets to have his a-ha moment where he comes up with what may be the plan that ends all this.
Ross: It’s funny, we’ve joked about this; he’s very convenient for us as writers because he’s always confused. He doesn’t know what’s going on. Dustin dings him for that in Episode 5, and it was so satisfying to have Steve come up with the final plan, or the linchpin for the final plan. That was such a thrill to write to finally give Steve a moment because the brainstorming almost always goes to Dustin.
Nancy and Jonathan, at one point, are bracing for imminent death and find themselves having this touching and tender moment, sharing confessions and hard truths. What was the lay of conversation for what you wanted from that moment — there’s the acknowledgment of their trauma bond and a slightly romantic unproposal?
Matt: It’s not dissimilar, in some ways, to the Mike-Will stuff. These are people who do love each other very much; it’s just a question of, “What does that mean? What does the future look like for them?” Whenever we talked about Jonathan-Nancy — there’s got to be this feeling that they feel like they must be together because of what they’ve been through, and how could you ever connect with somebody else who hadn’t been through the same thing? But are they right, in the long run, for each other? We wanted to express that as best as we can.
Ross: It was a challenging idea. We’ve been building to it, but to get it across in five-ish minutes, it’s a complicated thing. It’s not just a soap opera where it’s shipping and who’s going to end up with who. I’ve been through experiences similar to this, when you’re with someone for a very long time, you grow so close and you go through so many things together, and it reaches a point where you go, “Well, how could someone else understand?” But at the same time, is that suffocating to your own self-growth? So when we were talking about Nancy and Jonathan, and where do they go from here, it felt like for Nancy to really grow, it’s not about Steve, it’s not about Jonathan, it’s about giving herself the space.
Matt:And for Jonathan. They both felt the same way, they just weren’t expressing it. Especially when you’re young, you have trouble understanding or expressing those feelings. We wanted to put them in a life-or-death situation where it’s their last opportunity to confess. The reference for that scene was “Almost Famous,” when the plane’s about to crash and everybody, in the moment of near-death, tells everybody everything. And then the plane doesn’t crash and it’s awkward. This is the opposite.
Matt, left, and Ross Duffer are closer to releasing the “Stranger Things” series finale. Is it a happy ending? “Even in victory, it’s not confetti and dance parties,” Ross says.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
To return to this idea of the characters wrestling with what life looks like after this is over, if it’s ever over — is a happy or triumphant ending possible? Do you even think of it in those terms?
Matt: It’s weird because we didn’t realize until we had finished writing it, how much was a reflection on the show itself. Everybody had a tricky year emotionally; it was a real roller-coaster in terms of dealing with the fact that something we had been putting everything into for 10 years was coming to an end. Ultimately, the show is more about childhood, coming of age and leaving that behind for a new part of your life. It’s not really a question of a happy ending versus a not-happy ending. It’s just a question of capturing what it feels like to move on. It’s a bittersweet thing, but I think it’s something that everybody goes through.
Ross: Even in victory, it’s not confetti and dance parties. It’s a little more complicated than that. I remember “Lord of the Rings,” reading it and watching the films as a kid — there’s that moment when they’re just back in the Shire, and there’s bit of like, “How can you understand? And how do you move on from this?” I remember at the time, when I was younger, feeling a bit of disappointment. I was like, “Can’t they just come back and everyone just celebrate and there’s a party and then we fade out?” But watching it older now, there’s something so much more resonant about it. That’s why we talk so much over the course of this season about “Even if we are able to defeat Vecna, what does that look like for all of us?” Because this Vecna and the evil in the Upside Down brought all these people together.
Matt: In terms of the parallels to the show ending, that’s really a complicated and confusing mix of emotions. Everybody’s sad to move on, but then there’s that sense that you have to move on. We try to capture that feeling.
I need you to tell me what the workflow is like on a show like this. It’s lore, science and nerd-heavy. What are the checks and balances of making sure you’re not messing things up?
Matt: The challenge, especially as the lore and mythology has gotten too complicated, is to ensure that it’s not weighing down the show and that there’s enough room for the characters. That is more important than anything. What we’ve been trying to do as much as possible with this season, because there is so much mythology, is tie it into characters and their growth.
Ross: For instance, the Jonathan-Nancy scene — the melting lab was not an idea we had and then thought, “Oh, we could put Jonathan and Nancy in the situation.” We know we want this conversation with Jonathan and Nancy. How do we get there? Then going, “Oh, what if the dark matter makes the lab unstable?” Most of the time, you’re starting character first, and then we’re adjusting the mythology in order to make those character moments work.
Matt: But also, a melting lab is cool! Everybody was super enthusiastic about that — Netflix, our production designer.
Ross: Other dimensions, everyone was fine with the wormholes. But when we suddenly go, “The lab is going to melt,” everyone was like, “Excuse me?” No one knew how to do it.
Matt: We had to fight for that melting lab, from a production and cost standpoint.
I thought we were going to have a “Titanic” situation.
Ross: Oh, “Titanic” was a reference. But we wanted them both on the table.
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1.Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), left, and Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher).2.Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna.(Netflix)
There’s a massive culture of forecasting and dissecting — it can be overwhelming to me as a viewer because I feel like I’m not watching closely enough. But I also love seeing how people interpret things.
Ross: Especially with the superfans, the tiniest of detail is picked up on. I think it’s fun for them because they’re rewatching this over and over again, so every little minute thing is seen as something significant even when that wasn’t our intention — not that we don’t plant things for later and do Easter eggs, but 99.9% of the writers’ room is just talking about these characters in the story they’re on. That is hopefully how you’re going to be watching the show because it can get overwhelming when you see this stuff online. But at the end of the day, we’re having people engage with a long-form story, so it makes us generally happy.
Matt: But you hit on something important, which is everybody experiences the show very differently. Sometimes I go, “What show are you watching?” Whatever show they’re watching is a completely different show than the show we thought we wrote. Then sometimes, some are on exactly our wavelength. And you see this with debates over the season. Season 3 is either the best season ever or the worst season ever. This is why you can’t write to fans, because which fan are you writing to? It would be impossible. Ross and I just try to write what we think is cool and what our writers think is cool.
There are so many theories out there about how the show is ending. Has there been one where the person got it or close to it?
Ross: I remember Season 4 someone early, very early, before we’d even released it, had figured out the Henry-Vecna-One thing, which was pretty impressive. This season, though, I have not seen anyone get the ending correct, which is, hopefully, a good thing.
Matt: I think it’s good. We’ll find out. I like that the ending is not obvious to people.
My understanding is the final scene of the series is one you’ve had in mind for about seven or so years. In the end, did you reach it the way you thought you would?
Matt: Yes. The show changed a lot in the course of seven years, so aspects of it certainly changed. But I think the fundamental state, more or less, the scene is what we always thought it was going to be.
Ross: I would say there was a key idea that we came up with, breaking [Season] 5, that wasn’t in there seven years ago. There was one element that we changed, but generally it is what we always hoped it would be. After the finale is out, we’ll be happy to tell you.
Matt: It didn’t change the scene, it just added something that I think was really important.
You spoke earlier about the circle of people that you share episodes with. How do you know you’re on the right path?
Ross: It’s such a small group. It really comes down to just our group of writers. What I love about our writers’ room is, even with Matt and I, people are very happy to tell us that an idea is not working. It’s usually everyone building off of each other, and then someone synthesizes those ideas, pitches it out to the room, and you feel this collective relief and excitement within that room. And when that happens, we go, “That’s it. That’s the idea.”
Matt: This is how we’ve always worked, once the draft is written, Ross and I will do multiple passes to the point where we’re really happy and confident. We don’t like turning in anything even remotely rough to Netflix. But the final episode, that was actually weird. We didn’t get any notes from Netflix or the producers. It is that first draft that we turned in. We did multiple drafts of it, but once we turned it in, that was it.
Were you on time with that draft?
Matt: We’re never on time, as you can tell with the gaps between seasons. Ross and I are not the fast. We were actually writing it in the midst of shooting, which was not a great idea. But Ross and I do the best work when we have a gun to our heads.
Ross: There’s not a single finale of the show that wasn’t written in the midst of production, but we like it because it allows us to get a sense of what the season is, what’s working, how the actors are performing, and we can really write to that. If you look at our season finales, generally, they’re some of our better episodes, part of it because the story is culminating, but also because we’ve learned over the course of the season what this season really is, what is really clicking. Then you can lean into that.
Matt: The only weird thing to have is because we were behind, and this has never happened before, is the Holly sequences that are in Henry’s mind, that’s in summer, so we couldn’t wait to shoot those. We were shooting any scene in the woods with Holly before the script was done. That was odd because we were handing actors scripts and scenes when they hadn’t even finished the episode. But it worked out quite well.
But now, I don’t know if it’s because of us, but Netflix won’t start shooting a season of anything until all the scripts are written. I do think they’re missing out on something because … like the sense of discovery that it allows. That’s the nerve-racking thing to me about doing a movie next, is we won’t have that ability to have it evolve.
What was the reaction at the table read for the series finale that stood out to you?
Matt: As nervous as we are of how the audience is going to react, it will never match the nerves we had in terms of how the actors were going to react to it. They’ve been in it with us since the beginning and they’re so invested in these characters. I think everybody was crying. Noah started crying first, then it just spread from there.
How do you feel you’ve changed since starting the show?
Matt: It’s hard to know. You have to try to remember back to how we were 10 years ago. We were really green. We had only directed one movie before. And we never directed television before. We’ve become, hopefully, better leaders and more confident and better at communicating. Ross and I, because we’re twins, we were really good at communicating with each other, but not with other people, and I think we’ve gotten a lot better at working with a large group of people, and hopefully we’ve evolved as as filmmakers.
Ross: There was a lot of fear making that first season. It was almost out of panic and fear both, if we get this wrong — our first movie was a failure — if we mess up, we’ll never be able to tell a story again. And the lack of experience, especially in terms of production. Production was scary because our production on the movie was such a challenge and it was a traumatic experience. Now, we know so much more. We keep making it hard for ourselves because we keep raising the bar in terms of the scale of the production [and] the number of people we’re hiring. But at this point, we can walk into a set, we’re much more flexible now if actors are coming in with ideas that are different from what we had planned, there’s a lot more ability to explore.
Caleb McLaughlin, left, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown and Gaten Matarazzo when they were much younger in “Stranger Things.”
(Netflix)
To expand on the learning curve, there was a recent report that said Millie Bobby Brown had filed a complaint of bullying and harassment against David Harbour. As first-time showrunners, how was it helming a show with young actors and figuring out how to balance the responsibility of making sure they feel safe and cared for on set?
Matt: Ross and I just love working with kids, and it was fun this season to go back to that, in terms of bringing in a new generation of kids. Mostly what we try to do is treat them respectfully and listen to them and listen to their ideas. I think you just get so much better work out of them that way. We’ve become very close because we got to know them when they were really young. It feels less parental and more like an older brother situation, and we try to make it very relaxed so they’re not nervous around us, and they certainly are not. I think what’s been challenging, and mostly challenging for the kids, who are no longer kids anymore, is when the show became bigger and [dealing with] social media. I think if something’s been damaging, it’s social media. I saw it happening with Jake [Connelly], who plays Derek this year.
Ross: And Nell [Fisher, who plays Holly], as well. That is something you feel more helpless about. But what has been beneficial for them, for Jake and Nell, [is] the kids that have been through it can help them through this more. Millie’s been through it. Finn’s been through it.
Matt: That’s the thing — yes, they have us, but they also have each other to get through this. I always think that that’s the key in terms of how they all turned out as grounded as they are. We were with all of them on this press tour, and I’m constantly impressed by how level-headed and grounded they are, and how ego-less they are; that they’re not broken by what they’ve been through. It’s been great with Jake to see it completely turn around. But that doesn’t excuse what people were doing before. It’s disgusting. I wish they had gone through this without social media.
A big talking point in Hollywood right now has been the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. You have forged relationships with both Paramount and Netflix, the companies vying for it. How are you feeling about this moment and where things seem to be headed?
Matt: It’s just so hard to know what things are going to be like. It’s hard to say anything right now. Ross and I have been pretty open about wanting to make sure that the theatrical experience is preserved. For as long as stories have been told, it’s often in front of a group. There’s something about the communal experience and I just don’t want people being isolated. But as long as things are getting in theaters, I think it’s going to be OK. I’m trying to be optimistic about it.
Ross: I think the two fears are, with whatever happens, is you want to try to protect theatrical, which is in not the best state right now. And if you keep shrinking these windows, it just continues to de-incentivize people to go to the theater. That is not something we want to see. It’s a reason why we’re making a movie for theaters next; we believe in it and want to fight for it. The other is you need competition for artists because that’s the whole reason “Stranger Things” exists in the first place. If it’s too much consolidation, then shows like this are just going to become increasingly extinct.
Was it an easy sell, getting Netflix on board with releasing the series finale in theaters?
Matt: Yeah, actually. This is where the internet can frustrate me because something starts as a rumor and then goes around, then it’s fact. We pitched the idea to Netflix marketing — it was mine and Ross’ idea, then [Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria] called us — it was only about five days [later] and [she] said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” We’re really grateful for them for supporting us. I cannot wait to go sneak into some theaters and watch it.
A mother and her teenage son died in fighting between the Syrian military and Kurdish-led SDF forces in Aleppo. The violence began shortly after talks in Damascus on integrating SDF forces into the army. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna is in Aleppo, where a truce has been called.
A SUPERMODEL was reportedly paid an astonishing amount to appear in one of the world’s most famous Christmas films.
Claudia Schiffer appears in the perennial festive favourite Love Actually for one minute – and earned the equivalent of the average UK salary in just EIGHT seconds.
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The pay-off in the film, when it finally arrives, works a treat as Daniel, played by Liam Neeson finally meets Carol – played by Claudia SchifferCredit: Alamy
Richard Curtis, the film’s director, cast the supermodel in brief – but memorable – scenes alongside Liam Neeson’s character Daniel.
On several occasions in the 2003 film, Daniel, recently widowed, tells his love-sick step-son, Sam, played by Thomas Brodie Sangster, that the path of true love rarely runs smooth.
Daniel tells Sam that he need only look to his step-dad for proof after telling him several times he wants to date supermodel Claudia Schiffer.
The pay-off in the film – when it finally arrives – works a treat.
In one memorable scene, Daniel hits it off with one of Sam’s classmates – played by the supermodel.
The pair then appear on screen loved-up near the end of the film.
Although her appearance is brief, her paycheck for the role in the film proves it was well worth turning up.
As reported by Vogue, in his book ‘How Much?!: The $1000 Omelette … and 1100 Other Astonishing Money Moments’, author Andrew Holmes revealed Schiffer was paid $350,000 for the role.
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer earned £4,500 per second for her brief appearance in Love ActuallyCredit: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
That works out at £275,000 for the entire screen time – or £4,500 per second.
In contrast, two-time Academy Award winner Emma Thompson, who plays Alan Rickman’s long-suffering wife Karen in the film, has stated she felt she was underpaid for her role.
Thompson’s fee has not been disclosed.
While on Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Tutti Frutti actress said she no longer rewatches Love Actually,
The couple make a loved-up appearance at the end of the filmCredit: Alamy
Pete Davidson has officially entered fatherhood, welcoming his first child with British model-actor Elsie Hewitt.
The former “Saturday Night Live” comedian, 32, and his girlfriend, 29, are new parents to a baby girl, Hewitt announced Thursday. “Our perfect angel girl arrived 12/12/2025,” the model captioned her Instagram post.
Hewitt shared scenes from Scottie Rose Hewitt Davidson’s arrival, including their first family selfie, images from the labor room and snaps of her own post-push sushi meal. In her caption, Hewitt described her daughter as “my best work yet.”
“I am absolutely overflowing with love and gratitude and disbelief,” she added.
Davidson apparently had other words to herald the arrival of his first child: “Wu tang forever.”
The pair welcomed their first child after less than a year of dating. Davidson (whose dating history notably includes high-profile relationships with Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande) was first romantically linked to Hewitt (who previously dated Jason Sudeikis and Benny Blanco) in March when they were seen kissing in Palm Beach, Fla. Two months after making their relationship red carpet official, the couple announced in July they were expecting a little one.
In addition to recovering from labor, Hewitt revealed that she is simultaneously bouncing back from another procedure. In an Instagram story posted Thursday, Hewitt shared a selfie of herself in a pink hoodie with an ice pack around her cheeks as she held onto her daughter’s car seat.
“Who else had to get a wisdom tooth removed directly from the hospital the day after they gave birth,” she captioned the photo.
COPS investigating the deaths of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife have shared more details about the scene that greeted them at the couple’s sprawling home.
Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer’s manner of deaths have been ruled a homicideCredit: GettyCops at the scene of the couple’s $13.5 million Brentwood homeCredit: Reuters
Both deaths have been ruled as a homicide by Los Angeles County medical examiners.
And, both died from multiple sharp force injuries. Only one cause of death has been listed on their reports.
Cops on the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners spoke briefly about the scene at the $13.5 million Brentwood home.
Dominic Choi said the couple were found in the master bedroom of the home.
“Officers conducted a thorough search of the residence to determine whether there was any additional victims or suspects,” he said.
“No one else was located.”
Los Angeles Fire Department was among the first agencies to rush to the Reiner home.
The first call was made at 3:30pm and a unit was requested to respond to a Code two situation, as per dispatch audio obtained by People.
A code two situation is where trucks respond with lights flashing and no sirens.
This was then upgraded to code three, where crews respond with sirens and flashing lights.
The Reiners died on December 14, according to the medical examiner’s report.
A masseuse called the couple’s 27-year-old daughter, Romy, on Sunday when they weren’t let into the home.
She found her dad’s dead body before suddenly charging out of the home, as reported by the New York Times.
Romy didn’t see her mom’s body before learning that she was also dead.
The legendary career of iconic director Rob Reiner
FAMED actor, director and producer Rob Reiner, 78, died on December 14 alongside his wife Michele Singer, 68, in an apparent homicide.
Here is a look at the prodigious list of achievements the Hollywood powerhouse earned before his tragic and sudden death.
Director’s Beginnings
Reiner was born in New York City on March 6, 1947, to legendary comedy writer Carl Reiner and singer Estelle Reiner
He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles film school before breaking into the entertainment industry
Hollywood Career
Reiner first found fame as an actor playing Michael “Meathead” Stivic on the iconic sitcom All in the Family from 1971 to 1979
In 1984, he directed his first film This Is Spinal Tap – a mockumentary following a fictional heavy metal band
Reiner went on to direct cult classic films like The Princess Bride in 1987 and When Harry Met Sally… in 1989
Other notable movies made by the director include Misery, The American President, and A Few Good Men, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture
The production company he co-founded, Castle Rock Entertainment, has also produced hits like Seinfeld and The Shawshank Redemption
Reiner didn’t halt his acting career either, recently starring in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013 and The Bear in 2025
Personal Life
Reiner married actress Penny Marshall in 1971 and adopted her daughter, Tracy, from a previous marriage. The couple divorced in 1981
He met photographer Michele Singer while shooting When Harry Met Sally
They married in 1989 and had three children: Jake, born 1991, Nick born 1993, and Romy born 1997)
Nick opened up about his struggle with drug addiction in 2016. The movie Becoming Charlie, directed by Reiner, was based on Nick’s story
Reiner was an outspoken Democratic activist and a fierce critic of Donald Trump
Nick was arrested near the Expo/Vermont metro station in the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles at around 9:15pm – around six hours after Romy rushed to the scene.
Around one hour before he was arrested, he bought a Gatorade from an Arco gas station.
He was reportedly fidgety before buying the drink and kept looking behind him.
At the party hosted by Conan O’Brien, Reiner expressed concern for his son’s well-being.
ADDICTION BATTLES
Nick has been candid about his battles with drug addiction.
His stints in rehab facilities began when he was just 15.
Nick, also a producer, co-wrote the 2015 film Being Charlie and the inspiration behind it was his relationship with his dad during his addiction.
Charlie, played by Nick Robinson, becomes addicted to drugs and his dad in the movie urges him to get help.
The movie follows Charlie’s battle as he fails at different rehab programs.
“It was very, very hard going through it the first time, with these painful and difficult highs and lows,” Reiner said.
“And then making the movie dredged it all up again.”
Reiner said making the movie with Nick helped the two become closer.
“I said it to his face. I’ll say it on the air: He was the heart and soul of the film and any time I would get an opportunity to work with him I would do it,” he told NPR.
A court sketch of Nick Reiner wearing a blue suicide vest during his hearingCredit: ReutersNick was seen in a gas station buying a drink – just an hour before he was arrestedCredit: CBS News Los Angeles
