Latest news with #TheO.C.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rob Gronkowski, Sistine Stallone, Mischa Barton & More Join Crime Thriller ‘Bad News On The Doorstep'
EXCLUSIVE: Former NFL star Rob 'Gronk' Gronkowski (The Roaring Game), Sistine Stallone (47 Meters Down: Uncaged), and Mischa Barton (The O.C.) are among new additions to Bad News on the Doorstep, the 1950s mafia crime thriller on which we were first to report a week ago. As previously announced, Chazz Palminteri and Robert Davi lead the cast opposite their sons, Dante Palminteri and Nick Davi. Others newly set include Robert Picardo (Star Trek: Voyager), Cerina Vincent (Cabin Fever), Federico Castelluccio (The Sopranos), Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos), Ed Marinaro (Blue Mountain State), John Fiore (The Sopranos), Kea Ho (Junction), Rob Goon (The Roaring Game) and Godsmack lead singer Sully Erna (Bleed for This). More from Deadline Issa Rae To Star In & Produce Comedic MRC Thriller 'Good People, Bad Things' From Ninian Doff Country Star Kane Brown Joins Taylor Lautner In Romantic Comedy 'The Token Groomsman' First Look Images Of Rob Gronkowski, Mickey Rourke, Fivel Stewart & Justin Chatwin In Sports Comedy 'The Roaring Game' Recently wrapping production in Rhode Island, Bad News on the Doorstep unfolds as a poignant coming-of-age narrative chronicling the lives of Frank and Gino, two Italian-American high-school football prodigies amidst the gritty backdrop of late 1950s New Jersey. Beyond the gridiron, they confront a myriad of trials, from the complexities of post-football existence to the allure of delving into the underworld of organized crime. As they traverse this tumultuous landscape, they glean invaluable insights and grapple with profound life lessons, shaping their destinies in unexpected ways. Directed by Tom DeNucci (Vault), the film is produced by Verdi Productions (Bleed for This). Chad A. Verdi (The Irishman) is producing, along with Michelle Verdi, Chad Verdi Jr., Paul Luba and Sera Verdi. Exec producers include Peter Watzka, Dan Autiello, Joe Cervasio, John T. Callaghan, Anthony Gudas, Peter Baccile, Tom Bernardo, Vito Cucci, Joey Maurillo and Barry Maurillo. DeNucci and Cervasio adapted the script from the latter's semi-autobiographical novel. In a statement to Deadline, Verdi Production President Chad A. Verdi said, 'The entire cast of this film is a powerhouse of talent and showcase a remarkable range. From veteran actors to former athletes to famous musicians – and hidden gems like Sistine, an incredibly gifted up-and-coming actress with a remarkable presence every time she is on screen. We are eager to transport viewers back to the 1950s to experience this exceptional story of crime, family, loyalty, heartbreak and football.' Gronkowski is repped by UTA; Stallone by Independent Artist Group; and Barton by Cowley, Knox & Guy, WME, CLA Partners, and Kopeikin Law P.C. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More Men of Steel: Every Actor Who Has Played Superman - Photo Gallery 'Michael' Cast: Who's Who In The Michael Jackson Biopic
Business of Fashion
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business of Fashion
Want to Sell Lip Gloss? Get Boys to Do It
Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and a record nine body mists dropping on one day. Included in today's issue: Amika, Athena Club, Blake Brown, By/Rosie Jane, Coppertone, Ellis Brooklyn, Essie, Facile, Florence by Mills, Glamlite, Iris & Romeo, Laura Geller, Glossier, Kayali, Parfums de Marly, Parívie, Phlur, Roame, Sol de Janeiro, Tarte and an unforgivable Eowyn erasure. But first… Close your eyes and imagine which Lancôme ambassador you think is capable of selling the most $25 lip gloss. Is it Zendaya? Olivia Rodrigo? Julia Roberts? According to this week's data dump, it's actually… Ed Westwick. The 37-year-old actor is most famous for playing Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl. This week, he's the internet's main character in a throwback video shot in the Empire Hotel — where Chuck Bass lived in decadent sin on the 2008 hit show — for a new Lancôme campaign. Called the 'Juicy Tubes Kissing Web,' the ads enlist Y2K icons like Mischa Barton, Paris Hilton and Christina Millian, all gushing about Juicy Tubes flavoured lip gloss, which first launched in 2000. Lancôme says the campaign has been one of the brand's top 10 social media launches, but even with that metric, Westwick's wink-to-camera video is exceptional. As of this writing, it's been viewed over 1 million times and boasts nearly 400,000 engagements. All the videos are a blast, but about 30 percent of Lancôme's total follower count has seen the content from Westwick's video alone. (The average engagement rate for makeup brands is closer to 3 percent.) Lancôme says Westwick's video is the most-engaged social media content they've ever made. 'Obviously, we're very happy with the performance,' says Julie Selig, Lancôme's head of consumer engagement. 'We know that nostalgia is a huge conversation and a huge trend in the beauty industry.' Juicy Tubes first debuted in 2000 and appeared onscreen in formative teen content like Mean Girls and The O.C., shows with surprisingly broad and lasting appeal. 'Y2K teen nostalgia hits all the strings,' Selig added. 'Gen Z is just discovering it now and they think it's cool. Millennials remember it vividly because they were teens or college kids. Gen X watched shows like The O.C. as a guilty pleasure, because they were in their 20s. Everyone can relate.' Lancôme began planning the videos in November, and used a content strategy that mixed slickly-produced content with DIY footage shot by the stars themselves. 'I went to the Mark Hotel right before a party to shoot Gabrielle Union,' said Selig. 'When she said, 'There must be some juicy in the atmosphere,' like in Bring It On, I died.' The Juicy Kissing Web, which rolled out as a series of social media videos, "ties together your favorite 2000s celebs... and unites them with a kiss," the brand claims in a release. (Lancôme) Part of Lancôme's nostalgia play is engaging Millennial women's fantasy best friends, like Union and other beloved girl's girls, including Amanda Seyfried and Hilary Duff. But with Westwick and fellow Kissing Web recruit Chad Michael Murray, along with the adorable tagline 'kisses are better with Juicy Tubes,' the brand is capitalising on a different kind of Y2K throwback: Encouraging women to wear makeup because of men. Murray's video talks about kissing his Cinderella Story co-star Duff and his current wife Sarah Roemer when they wore the lip gloss. Westwick recalls a throwback hookup who tasted of Juicy Tubes' 'vintage' Marshmallow Electro flavour. 'A guy on the L'Oréal team brought it up during a brainstorm,' said Selig. 'Men have nostalgia for it too. They remember the taste!' This U-turn from the beauty industry's modern insistence on 'self-care' and 'empowerment' was a risk from a mega-brand like Lancôme. Choosing Westwick, who is most famous for playing a snobby sleazeball with a root-for-me redemption arc, was equally touch-and-go, especially since the actor faced assault allegations in 2017. (They were dismissed but Westwick lost work from the episode.) Today, it seems like both the flirty messaging and the casting choice is paying off. After his smash-hit campaign, Selig hints that Westwick will appear in more Lancôme content this year. As for the idea that you might purchase beauty items to please, or at least tease, a guy? It's been the marketing subtext for Sol de Janeiro's Bum Bum Cream and Phlur's Vanilla Skin for years. Now with the return of ultra-femme beauty aesthetics — as seen earnestly on Carrie Underwood and subversively on Sabrina Carpenter — Lancôme is saying the quiet part out loud: Glossing up is one way to go places. They're hoping brand fans will shop accordingly. What else is new… Skincare Coppertone unveiled a new ad campaign with Olympic rugby babe Ilona Maher on March 4; Instagram and TikTok ads began hitting my feed this week. The cutest is Maher getting chased by a puppy and showing off her taglines, just like the sun-care brand's original cartoon mascot did in 1953. Erewhon's newest arrival is By/Rosie Jane. On May 15, the Aussie brand debuted its Every Day range of body care, including deodorant, body wash, body milk and moisturiser. It's all under $25, which is considered a bargain at the L.A. grocery store. ($80 tote bags, anyone?) Iris & Romeo's Weekend Skin tinted moisturiser is now available in Cool Glow, a shade for pale girls. The colour hit shelves on May 16, with the same SPF 50 and Vitamin C as its original formula. E.l.f. Cosmetics introduced its Sheer For It Blush Tint on May 17. The $5 formula comes in five colours, including a cherry hue called Left on Red. (Adorbs!) Athena Club hit Target stores on May 18, which is great, because I cannot keep taping their single razors to a chopstick while I wait for replacement kits in the mail. Fran Drescher wants to pave your pores. On May 19, the Nanny icon paired with Laura Geller to launch Spackle Skin Perfecting Primer, a $38 formula with SPF 30. As part of the campaign, the brand will make a one-time donation to Drescher's charity, Cancer Schmancer. Paris Hilton's skincare line, Parívie, has arrived in full force. On May 19, the range dropped with a cleanser, serum, moisturiser, overnight mask and neck cream, along with an 'essence' for brightening. The range goes for $38 to $125, and comes packaged in gleaming fuchsia bottles. If only Kitson still existed so this thing could have a proper Melrose Place launch party! Julianna Christensen is the type of home influencer who organizes her fridge on camera. On May 20, she launched Roame, an extension of her tidy aesthetic bubble that includes soap sheets, wipes and even toilet-seat covers. Welcome to Sephora, Facile! The skincare brand by Los Angeles derm Dr. Nancy Samolitis launched in 273 doors on May 20 with four products; 'West Village Girls' can also buy it at Happier Grocery, the closest thing New York City has to Erewhon. Sol de Janeiro's Body Badalada Vitamin Infused Lotion dropped on May 22 with an ad campaign starring Brazilian influencer Juliana Nalu, along with online it girl Samyra Miller, dancer Nick Pauley and Bretman Rock. Makeup Glamlite's Lord of the Rings collaboration hit Middle Earth, and actual Earth, on May 16. It's got a shadow palette, a lip scrub, a highlighter and a gloss — but zero products named Eowyn, so just throw the whole thing off the Rohan castle drawbridge, because come on! Has Tarte made every possible Maracuja Lip product? Not quite. On May 19, the cosmetics giant dropped a $27 lip stain in two pink shades, Lolli and Ice Pop, meant to mimic the effects of lip blushing. (Or at least the effects of sucking on a cherry popsicle until your lips turn bright red.) On May 19, Glow Recipe launched Glass Balm, a four-shade collection inspired by the Korean shaved ice dessert bingsoo. The $22 formula has 'hyaluronic microspheres' that 'help to fill lip lines.' Does this mean there are also hyaluronic megaspheres? Or is that just, like, a regular drop of serum? Chemists, help a girl out. Glossier Lip Glaze arrived on May 20 with six colours, one for every member of the K-pop group Katseye, which fronts the new product campaign. They're $22 each. Kylie Cosmetics debuted its Hybrid Blush on May 20 with a balm-to-powder formula in eight shades. The launch imagery includes Kylie with high, teased hair and a white lace push-up bra — very Priscilla-coded. Essie has re-released Clambake, a red-orange glaze from 2008 that influencer Meredith Hayden of Wishbone Kitchen has been hunting down on eBay for the past decade. The shade matches the checkered plastic tablecloths at the seafood shacks in Maine and Massachusetts; it hit shelves on May 21. Makeup By Mario's SoftSculpt Blurring Bronzer hit Sephora on May 22. It's a buildable contouring compact available in six shades and retails for $38. Hair Care Amika's Frizz Me Not collection debuted on May 20. It's a trio — shampoo, conditioner and treatment spray — that claims to be 'a $30 replacement for a $300 Brazilian blowout.' I'm gonna take my coarse, bleached-fried 3C curls and test it. Stay tuned. Hair & Body Mist Overload Everybody's doing a hair and body mist, starting with Millie Bobby Brown, who named hers 'Love Core.' It's a perfect choice for her audience and personal brand, which is basically 'What if your fave Love Island contestant was also capable of winning an Oscar?' It's $18 at Ulta Beauty, and debuted with notes of cherry nectar and candied mandarin. Meanwhile at Target, Blake Lively's hair care line Blake Brown released three new hair mists on May 19, including bergamot, vanilla and santal options. They're $19 each and come in gilded bottles that resemble Parfums de Marly's take on modern decadence. And speaking of Parfums de Marly, did you know Amal Clooney's blowout was spritzed with the stuff before stepping out onto the Cannes red carpet in her vintage Galliano dress? Hair stylist Dimitris Giannetos did the honors. Phlur dropped two summer mists, Beach Skin and Peach Skin, on May 19. The former has notes of coconut milk and salted tiare flower; the latter launched with a special drink at the vegan cafe The Butcher's Daughter called Peach Glow. And just in case you want another flavour, Ellis Brooklyn's Milkshake trio includes banana, lychee and mango scents. They're $35 each, and debuted on May 19. Kayali's Vacay in a Bottle collection hit Sephora on May 20. It's kind of like the destination wedding of fragrances, with scents named for Maui, Capri, Marrakesh and the Maldives. And finally… Between this Jimmy Choo relaunch and the Row's $690 flip-flops, it's going to be a double-duty pedicure season. Birkenstock foot scrub, this is your time. Sign up to The Business of Beauty newsletter, your complimentary, must-read source for the day's most important beauty and wellness news and analysis.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'General Hospital''s Rena Sofer Celebrates Her 1st and 22nd Wedding Anniversaries with Sanford Bookstaver
Rena Sofer is celebrating her one year anniversary with husband Sanford Bookstaver The couple, who share daughter Avalon, born in 2005, were first married in 2003, and later divorced in 2017 The couple rekindled their romance and got engaged in 2019, tying the knot in 2024Rena Sofer is celebrating both her 1st and 22nd wedding anniversary with husband Sanford Bookstaver. Sofer, 55, first wed Bookstaver in 2003. The couple, who share daughter Avalon, born in 2005, later divorced in 2017. They remarried in 2024, after rekindling their romance in 2019. On Sunday, May 18, Sofer shared a glimpse at their relationship timeline on Instagram. "Happy 1/22 wedding anniversary to the LOML!!! Married 22 years ago and RE married 1 year ago! What a beautiful and special journey we've been on!!" she wrote. The post continued, "So excited for our next step! BIG MOVE!! I wouldn't want anyone but you @sbookstaver by my side!!! I love you endlessly! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️." The post was a split-screen of a photo of the couple from their 2003 wedding and a photo of the couple from their 2024 nuptials. In the recent photo, Sofer is seen in all-white and a gold initial necklace with a letter "R" charm, while holding a mixed bouquet of white roses, hydrangeas and assorted foliage. Bookstaver opted for a classic black suit and crisp white dress shirt. Bookstaver shared the same photos on Instagram, captioning the post, "Happy 1st and 22nd Anniversary to @ You are the love of my life, and I'm the luckiest person alive to get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend!" The actress is also a mom to daughter Rosabel Rosalind Kurth, whom she shares with ex-husband Wallace Kurth. Bookstaver and Sofer reunited two years after their divorce, and became engaged a second time in 2019. "What a weekend I've had!! HE ASKED ME AGAIN AND I SAID YES!!!" the actress wrote in an Instagram post shared at the time. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Sofer made a name for herself in the entertainment industry with her role as Lois Cerullo on the long-running soap General Hospital. She played the role from 1993-1996, and later reprised the same part in 2023 after a 26-year absence. Bookstaver, a director, has episodic credits on countless successful television shows, including One Tree Hill, The O.C., Dawson's Creek, House, Revenge, Chicago P.D., Jessica Jones, Dexter: New Blood and more. Read the original article on People
Los Angeles Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Leighton Meester is more than the internet's boyfriend's wife
When Adam Brody became the internet's boyfriend a few months back, people started acting weird around Leighton Meester. Of course, long before audiences became obsessed with Brody's turn as a hot rabbi in 'Nobody Wants This,' both he and Meester were cemented in the pop culture firmament as teen drama icons. She was 'Gossip Girl's' Blair Waldorf. He was 'The O.C.'s' Seth Cohen. And it warmed everyone's cold little hearts that actors from two beloved mid-aughts shows had ended up together IRL. But when the couple — who have been married since 2014 — showed up at the Golden Globes in January, the vibes were off. Reporters on the red carpet couldn't stop fawning over Brody during interviews, to the point where he had to step in and attempt to make things less awkward. 'Your date is the Hot Rabbi,' an 'Entertainment Tonight' host gushed to Meester. 'And she's my real shiksa goddess,' Brody duly pointed out. On the 'Access Hollywood' podium, one journalist even grabbed Meester's face to ask if her husband kissed her as intimately as he did his scene partner on his new Netflix show. 'She taught me,' Brody chimed in again. 'I mean, she gets the good stuff. That's not even, like, the A material.' TikTok users zoomed in on their television screens that night, posting clips highlighting the odd energy being directed Meester's way. This was Queen B, after all. Show a little respect. But Meester herself swears she didn't even clock the gushy line of questioning. 'Wow, I don't remember that,' the 39-year-old insists. 'I understand that people are doing their jobs. I'm sure they're generally trying to be nice and supportive and rooting for us, and me.' From anyone else, this might read as frustratingly Pollyanna-ish. A politically correct answer from an actor trying not to offend the people who help her make her and her spouse's livelihoods. But Meester really is that unbothered. It's hard to square with the fact that she played a calculating, uppity bitch so well in the role that made her famous. But the signs have always been there. In the 13 years since 'Gossip Girl' wrapped, most of the paparazzi pictures snapped of her have been shot while she was surfing, appearing more concerned with sun protection — outfitted in a bucket hat and full-body wetsuit — than her appearance. Meanwhile, Meester and her husband, 45, have both continued to work steadily, often in independent films or as supporting characters in larger projects. Meester has played a country ingenue opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the musical romance 'Country Strong,' done an arc on the short-lived 'How I Met Your Mother' spinoff and co-starred in an Elizabeth Meriwether-created sitcom that fizzled out during the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, she's not overly precious about what she chooses to act in. Her latest role is in the comedic police procedural 'Good Cop/Bad Cop,' which starts streaming on Amazon Prime this month. The show has been airing on The CW since February but, despite earning strong reviews, has yet to become much of a talker. Australian actor Luke Cook — the male half of the sibling detective duo on the series — attributes much of that to the fact that the show was co-produced by a streaming company in his native country. 'There's a marketing budget in Australia, and there's not been one behind the U.S. launch,' says Cook. 'I have family members and friends over there sending me pictures of posters of the show everywhere, and over here, there's no sign that it's on other than on social media.' But if Meester is the least bit salty about the show's reception stateside — you guessed it — she doesn't let on. 'I'm super proud of this show,' she says. 'I just really hope that if people watch it, they enjoy it. It's my happy place.' It's February, about a week after the first episode dropped on The CW, and Meester is sitting in a booth at Casablanca, a dimly lit, vaguely divey Mexican restaurant whose decor is comprised entirely of memorabilia relating to the 1942 film. She's already sipping on a mezcal margarita by the time I arrive, passing a menu to recommend the enchiladas or ceviche. She's a regular here — her kids, ages 9 and 4, often ask to swing by after school — but doesn't know the origin of its ties to the Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman film. We ask the waiter. 'You know, like the movie,' he says, dropping a basket of chips on the table and walking away. That Meester and her family are gravitating toward the familiar right now makes sense. It's been just over a month since their home burned to the ground in the Palisades fire. She's still trying to find the right words to describe the loss. Devastating, of course. That's the first one she settles on. Painful. But then she starts talking about how lucky she feels in the grand scheme of things — that she hasn't had to face many crises in her life. She didn't think she needed a perspective shift, but the fire forced one on her, and now she feels surprisingly grateful. 'Loving something — or someone — so much that it would hurt so badly to lose it, and then saying I wouldn't have loved it any less? That's what I think I'm here for,' she says. 'I don't want to feel unhappy loving another human and thinking, 'Well, you could leave me tomorrow. You could die.' That's the horrible truth of this life. But it's also the amazing thing of the day-to-day, and most days, I'm fortunate enough to say, are pretty damn good.' It has been a time of stark contrast. The fires started just over 36 hours after the Golden Globes. Shortly after, the second season of 'Nobody Wants This' started filming, so Brody began traveling across town from the couple's new rental house on the Westside to go to set. At Casablanca, Meester has just arrived from a table read for the Netflix rom-com, for which she'll shoot a cameo in a few weeks. She says her scenes are mostly with sister characters Kristen Bell and Justine Lupe, rather than her husband. But they've acted together before — she thinks this is the seventh project for them — most recently on 'Good Cop/Bad Cop.' 'When the camera wasn't on her and we were doing his coverage, I would be like, 'Leighton, you're not acting. You're just watching Adam with a big smile on your face,'' recalls John Quaintance, the show's creator. 'They're so supportive of each other that it's both heartwarming and a little sick.' They've never played an onscreen couple, but Meester says she'd be down for it. 'I really like hanging out with him and working with him,' she says, her eyes getting that gooey look she had watching Brody take home the actor in a comedy series prize at the Critics Choice Awards in early February. (His speech ended with this ol' heartstring-puller: 'And my darling, darling, darling wife, Leighton. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this life with me, and this journey with me. Thank you for our family. I love you with all my heart.') Those who've worked with Meester would love for her to have her own renewed moment in the sun. 'I don't think enough people have seen how great she is at comedy,' says Quaintance. ' I think that first huge role probably hangs over her in the form of expectations that people think, 'Oh, I'll go see her on some sort of nighttime soap.' And I think the real Leighton is a lot more fun than that.' Meester acknowledges that she and her 'Gossip Girl' character share startlingly little in common. She's definitely not into headbands. But you know that saying about ducks? They look calm on the surface of the water, but their feet are anxiously paddling away underneath. That feels like the thread connecting Meester and Blair Waldorf — they're both ambitious, the latter is just unabashed about showing it. As a girl, Meester did local theater in Marco Island, Fla. The only stage in town was a church, so the venue moonlighted as the host of Girl Scout meetings, potluck dinners and local productions. In fifth grade, Meester got a part in a play and went there every day after school for rehearsal. She loved it so much that she convinced her mother to let her attend a modeling and acting convention in Georgia. After performing a made-up commercial for a handful of talent representatives, one urged her to move to New York for the summer to try her hand at professional auditions. So at 11, she and her mother decamped to the city. She enrolled in junior high at Manhattan's Professional Children's School and soon landed a role on 'Law & Order.' She got to act with Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt, and the costume director liked her grape-juice-stained shirt so much that she was ordered to keep it on for her scene. She spent her high school years in L.A. but returned to New York City for 'Gossip Girl.' The show ran from 2007 to 2012, when she was in her 20s, and it's a period she still feels tender about. 'I feel so close to that person, almost now more than any other time in my life,' she says. 'I feel very in touch with her, and I feel for her.' There has, of course, been a lot of speculation about the turmoil of the 'Gossip Girl' years, particularly among the suddenly-famous young and beautiful cast members. In January, after Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni entered into a public and contentious legal battle, clips resurfaced online of Meester and Lively. It has long been rumored that the two did not get along, and old interviews posted online purported to spotlight steely interactions between the two of them. Asked how she felt about being brought up in relation to the Lively drama, Meester demurs. 'Oh, I — I don't want to talk about any of that,' she says. At the moment, she's focused on making her life as low-stress as possible. This summer, she'll stay in L.A., partly because of work: She's booked a recurring role on HBO's forthcoming 'Untitled Rachel Sennott Project.' But that's about all she knows about how the next few months will go. After the fires, she's focused on trying not to plan too far ahead. Her kids help with that. Lately, they've been fascinated with something called Stick Nation, a subculture of people on TikTok who upload videos showcasing unique sticks they've found in the wild. 'My son will see a stick and be like, 'Can I take it home? It's special.' To see the world like that is pretty amazing,' says Meester. 'I'm trying to spend those moments with them and absorb it. I was going to say trying to focus on the joy of the moment, but even sometimes the pain of it. It sounds strange, but I've really been enjoying this time.'
Irish Daily Mirror
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Star Wars star's return after divorce from 2000s star
Once a key figure in one of the world's most adored film series, he was a hot topic as a rising star in Hollywood. And now, after some time away from the limelight, he's making a much-anticipated comeback. Hayden Christensen, cast as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones at the tender age of 19, was catapulted into global fame almost instantly. Despite being part of the most iconic sci-fi franchise ever created, his performance received heavy criticism when Attack of the Clones premiered in 2002. Many felt his depiction of the future Darth Vader was too rigid and lacked the authoritative aura many thought the character warranted. His subsequent role in Episode III – Revenge of the Sith was somewhat better received, with fans applauding the darker direction his character took. However, the damage to his aspirations of becoming a movie star was already done. Unlike his co-stars Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman, Hayden never fully transitioned into a major leading man post-Star Wars. He made occasional appearances in films like Jumper in 2008 and Takers in 2010, but none achieved the success many had anticipated given his evident potential, reports the Mirror US. Away from the camera, Hayden's personal life also frequently made headlines. He started dating The O.C. actress Rachel Bilson in 2007 after they met on the set of Jumper. She was a big name on TV and an icon of early 2000's pop culture when the romance bloomed, getting engaged in 2008, then after a brief split, reuniting, and welcoming daughter Briar Rose in 2014. But by 2017 they had split. Hayden stepped back from the limelight for a time. But by 2022, his stars aligned once more. Disney gave Hayden the nod to return to the Star Wars universe with their Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. He'd don the cape of Anakin Skywalker and his darker alter-ego, Darth Vader, once again. "When I got the call, I was thrilled", Hayden told Entertainment Tonight in 2022. "Putting on the Anakin costume, wearing those robes, it blows your mind every time. I feel very grateful." The fans, especially those who grew up with the prequels, were delighted with his comeback. For many, he was the face of Anakin Skywalker, and now he was finally getting the kudos they reckoned he always had coming. The Kenobi series saw Hayden slip back into Anakin's boots with more depth, and 2023 swung around with him on screen again in Ahsoka, the Disney+ show about Anakin's one-time apprentice. Here, he brings a seasoned take on Anakin to life. During a SAG-AFTRA Foundation chat, alongside co-star Rosario Dawson in 2023, the actor said: "It really was trying to honour the relationship that was so thoroughly developed in [the animated series] The Clone Wars. "For me it was very interesting because of the way it changes Anakin's disposition... There's a slightly different slant to the character because now he has a Padawan... It was really beautiful to see that side in live-action". His role in the Ahsoka series led to significant buzz, with fans expressing their delight online when the episodes aired. Over on X (which used to be Twitter), one enthusiast said: "I can't believe we have so many new scenes with him!" Another wrote: "This is a wonderful reunion." One particularly moved fan confessed: "Got tears in my eyes while writing this." In an electrifying reveal at a Tokyo panel earlier this month, Hayden came out as a surprise for the crowd with Rosario Dawson, Dave Filoni, and Jon Favreau, announcing his return for Ahsoka's much-anticipated second season, speculated to drop in May 2026.
