Octavia Spencer is returning for Ma 2
The 55-year-old actress has been announced for the upcoming sequel, which will see her reprise her role as the eponymous killer from the original 2019 thriller.
Blumhouse Productions founder and CEO Jason Blum has confirmed plans for the follow-up, and heaped praise on her "iconic performance" in the first film.
He said in a statement: "'Ma' has proven to be a social phenomenon since its release in 2019, with fans eagerly embracing the film and Octavia's iconic performance as Ma.
"Ma likes to say 'don't make me drink alone,' so we're thrilled Octavia will join us again for a second round.'
As of yet, development on the project is in its early stages, with no release date set or director attached.
In the 2019 movie - which was helmed by 'The Help' director Tate Taylor - a group of high school students struck up an unlikely friend with Octavia's Sue Ann Ellington.
The lonely veterinarian - with a wild party animal streak - let the teens party in her basement, but their intergenerational friendship soon took a sinister and violent twist when their bond started to cool off.
Taylor previously revealed he was keen to continue his longstanding film partnership with his friend Spencer, and back in 2021 there were already talks for a sequel.
He told Entertainment Weekly: "Can you believe how much 'Ma' lives on? Isn't that just crazy?
"I don't think we thought 'Ma' was going to have this afterlife as this cult thing, and I think it's worth discussing [a sequel].
"I know Octavia would do it, that's why I purposely left her death ambiguous!"
Although Ma's death is implied, it's never shown on screen, and Taylor had already given plenty of thought to how she could return.
He said: "My idea is that she's moved to another town, and she has open houses in another city and kills people in the open house.
"I think she'd be a real estate agent in the Pacific Northwest, and just murder white people looking at McMansions. That's as far as I've gotten!"
Meanwhile, Spencer - who has been friends with the filmmaker for around 30 years - previously opened up about the "mutual trust" they share.
She told website 'Hey U Guys': "Tate and I met as PAs in Mississippi on 'A Time To Kill'. When we moved out here we became roommates but I worked on everything, all of his short films.
"The only film I didn't work on with him was 'A Girl On The Train'. So we've worked together a lot more than people know.
"When you have someone who has your best interest at heart and its mutual we trust each other, he trusts me as an actor, I trust him as a director and writer. I feel fortunate that I get to have that type of work collaboration."
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The Advertiser
2 days ago
- The Advertiser
Why Happy Gilmore was an unlikely stroke of comedy genius
Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'." Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'." Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'." Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'."
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Perth Now
Selena Gomez recalls 'sweet' origins of Taylor Swift friendship
Selena Gomez believes the "best thing" to come out of her relationship with Nick Jonas was her friendship with Taylor Swift. The Only Murders in the Building hitmaker began dating the Jonas Brothers star when she was 15 years old, around the same time the Blank Space singer was 18 and romancing Nick's sibling and bandmate Joe Jonas, and the two stars grew even closer when their respective relationships came to an end. Speaking on the Therapuss with Jake Shane podcast, Selena, now 33, said: 'Taylor and I dated the Jonas Brothers. I dated Nick and she dated Joe. "And everything was, it was cute, we were young. We all know and love each other now and it's so cute. "We don't know what we were doing — She and I like to say the best thing we got out of those relationships was each other because it was really sweet.' Selena noted the pair went on to become "best friends" as they 'bonded over the break-up, as girls do.' She added: 'And then we just stuck around for all the ups and downs that came after and here we are now 16 years later." The Emilia Perez star - who is engaged to Benny Blanco - recalled how Taylor played her 2008 singer Love Story to her before it was released to the public and she was blown away by the track. She said: 'I believe Love Story was the first song she had ever played me and it wasn't released yet. 'Yeah, I was in a hotel room and I remember it vividly, it was just one of those songs I instantly heard and thought this is one of the most beautiful songs ever... "It was so sweet. She was like, 'Okay I just want to play you this song but just like you know, I don't know it's going to be the first single, I think, I think.' And just hearing her say those little thoughts and just listening to it. Yeah, she is a chameleon, she's incredible.' Selena and Taylor, 35, have both previously spoken of their storng bond. Taylor previously told The Wall Street Journal in 2020: 'I knew from when I met [Selena] I would always have her back. 'In my life, I have the ability to forgive people who have hurt me. But I don't know if I can forgive someone who hurts her.' And the Rare Beauty founder told how they "clicked instantly" She said: 'That was my girl. We both went through s*** at the same time. She taught me a lot about how I should be treated at a young age.' Selena previously praised the Karma hitmaker as "one of the greatest songwriters" when she ran through some of the songs on her 'At Home with Selena Gomez' playlist, which included her friend's hit track Lover. Of the song, she said: "There's nothing really to say other than this is another song that shows her ability to take it back to the old, to also combine it with her challenging to do new things with her music. I think that's as pure as that - I'll always, not even biased, just think she is one of the greatest songwriters."
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Sky News AU
Nearly two-foot-long rat ‘almost the size of a small cat' discovered inside family North Yorkshire home: ‘Growing problem'
Exterminators discovered a gargantuan, nearly 2-foot-long rat inside an English home, and officials are warning the cat-sized rodent is 'not a one-off' but part of an increasingly out-of-control infestation in the area, according to local officials. The rat measuring 'over 22 inches long from nose to tail' was found cozying up in a North Yorkshire home, Eston Ward Councillors David Taylor and Stephen Martin posted on Facebook. Photos taken by the unidentified resident showed the massive critter curled up in a plastic bag to be tossed. 'It's almost the size of a small cat. And it's not a one-off,' Taylor and Martin said in the post last Monday, calling its size 'shocking' and 'a growing problem.' Rodents have been spotted in increasing numbers around the area, traipsing alleyways, trash bins, overgrown land, and now inside homes, the local officials said. Taylor and Martin proposed more funding and collaboration with landlords to tackle the hair-raising infestation. 'As your local councillors, we're calling on the Council administration to take this seriously, the people on the ground who do work extremely hard but we need this all round the borough,' the post read. 'The longer this is ignored, the worse it will get. We need action — not just advice.' Originally published as Nearly two-foot-long rat 'almost the size of a small cat' discovered inside family North Yorkshire home: 'Growing problem'
