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Pink Villa
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
10 Actresses Who Made Powerful Comebacks After Break: From Drew Barrymore to Jennifer Lopez
Hollywood has seen several actresses take a break from the spotlight to focus on their personal lives or rediscover themselves away from the attention. When they return to the showbiz after years to deliver breathtaking performances, audiences cannot stop gushing. In an industry with "out of sight, out of mind" mentality, these actresses have proven that their fandom can wait years to see them grace the silver screen or television again, no matter how long their sabbatical was. Here are 10 actresses who reclaimed their place in the industry and returned to acting after a break! Nicole Richie Comeback Project: Great News Director/Producer: Tracey Wigfield Release Year: 2017 Nicole Richie rose to fame with the reality show, The Simple Life, which also featured Paris Hilton and aired from 2003 to 2007. The show abruptly came to an end when both Richie and Hilton faced DUI charges. Post the controversy, she remained out of the spotlight for over a decade. In 2017, she made a major comeback as Portia Scott-Griffith in the NBC sitcom Great News. She is now married and also has two kids. Richie also launched a successful fashion line, named House of Harlow. Drew Barrymore Comeback Project: The Wedding Singer Director/Producer: Frank Coraci Release Year: 1998 Drew Barrymore had a troubled childhood. After achieving immense fame as a child actor in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Firestarter (1984), the actress's life went downhill. She started drinking alcohol at 9, began smoking pot regularly by 10, and was addicted to cocaine by 12. She was sent to a rehab center at 13 and again at 14, when she tried to commit suicide by cutting her wrists. Despite her struggles and bad image, she continued to work in the industry, but the 1998 film The Wedding Singer brought her back to the forefront. After rebranding her image, she continued to be a highly bankable star in Hollywood. Betty White Comeback Project: The Proposal Director/Producer: Anne Fletcher Release Year: 2009 Betty White made a mark in the industry as a television actress on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973–1977) and the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–1992). In 2009, she made her comeback in the romantic comedy film The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. She later starred in You Again and did voice work for several other projects. She died on December 31, 2021, seventeen days before her 100th birthday. Jennifer Lopez Comeback Project: Hustlers Director/Producer: Lorene Scafaria Release Year: 2019 After starring in the 2003 film Gigli with Ben Affleck, JLo didn't bag a major acting role, so she decided to focus on other passions, like singing. However, in 2019, she once again proved her acting prowess in Hustlers, which also starred Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Lizzo, and Cardi B. Since then, she has delivered several groundbreaking performances in films like Marry Me, Shotgun Wedding, The Mother, Atlas, Unstoppable, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Next, she will feature in Office Romance, directed by Ol Parker, written by Brett Goldstein. Hilary Duff Comeback Project: Younger Director/Producer: Darren Star Release Year: 2015 Disney darling Hilary Duff shot to fame in the early '00s by playing Lizzie McGuire in the titular TV series and movie. She also played pivotal roles in Cheaper by the Dozen and A Cinderella Story. However, post that, she vanished from the screens and only made a few cameos here and there. In 2016, she decided to make a comeback with TV Land's Younger as the main lead, Kelsey Peters. The series' finale aired in June 2021. The role brought her back to the spotlight, and her fans were all praise for her performance. Natasha Lyonne Comeback Project: Orange Is the New Black Director/Producer: Jenji Kohan Release Year: 2013 Natasha Lyonne surprised fans with her acting in the 1999 teen comedy American Pie. However, she struggled to bag a major role in films or television shows later. After taking up several small roles, she bagged her breakthrough project in 2013. She starred as Nicky Nichols in Orange is the New Black and proved that it's never too late for a comeback. She later played the role of Nadia Vulvokov in Russian Doll, further cementing her status in Hollywood. Winona Ryder Comeback Project: Stranger Things Director/Producer: The Duffer Brothers Release Year: 2016 Before getting arrested in 2001 for shoplifting, Winona Ryder played several pivotal roles in films and television shows. When the controversy resulted in an unannounced ban from Hollywood, she took a four-year career hiatus. Even though she starred in several films from 2006 to 2015, her major comeback project is seen as Netflix's science fiction-horror series Stranger Things. In the show, she was seen as Joyce Byers, a single mother whose 12-year-old son Will vanishes mysteriously. Jane Fonda Comeback Project: Monster-in-Law Director/Producer: Robert Luketic Release Year: 2005 Jane Fonda's breakthrough role came in the 1965 film Cat Ballou. In 1968, she played the title role in the science fiction spoof Barbarella, which established her status as a sex symbol. She won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1971, for Alan J. Pakula's neo-noir psychological thriller Klute. In the 80s, she became the queen of fitness and released several workout videos. After a fifteen-year hiatus, she released two new fitness videos on DVD in 2010. In 2005, she returned to the screen with the box office success Monster-in-Law, starring opposite Jennifer Lopez. Mädchen Amick Comeback Project: Riverdale Director/Producer: Warner Bros. Television and CBS Studios Release Year: 2017 Mädchen Amick was an acting sensation in the '80s and '90s. But her career saw a few years of quiet in the 2000s until she starred as Alice Cooper in CW's dark mystery TV show, Riverdale, based on the Archie comic book series. On the silver screen, she was last seen as Jean Brooks in the 2005 film Lies and Deception and also played a small role as Shannon Pace in the 2011 film Priest. Marisol Nichols Comeback Project: Riverdale Director/Producer: Warner Bros. Television and CBS Studios Release Year: 2017 Marisol Nichols made her movie debut as Audrey Griswold in the film Vegas Vacation with Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo. She also starred in the drama series Resurrection Blvd.. The Princess and the Marine, Cold Case, and Blind Justice. Before a five-year hiatus, she starred in the ABC TV series GCB, with Leslie Bibb, Kristin Chenoweth, Annie Potts, Jennifer Aspen, and Miriam Shor. In 2017, Nichols starred as Hermione Lodge, the mother of Veronica Lodge, in Riverdale. The journeys of these actresses who made powerful comebacks after taking a break are nothing short of inspirational. Each of them defied the odds, navigated personal and professional challenges, and returned to the screen with a renewed sense of purpose. In an industry that often sidelines women after a certain age, these women shattered stereotypes and redefined what it means to be successful on their terms.
Miami Herald
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Drew Barrymore praises Adam Sandler's parenting while talking with Mindy Kaling
Drew Barrymore is sharing her signs of a good parent. While talking with fellow actress Mindy Kaling on a recent episode of 'The Drew Barrymore Show,' Drew Barrymore explained what she thinks makes a good parent. She then shared that Adam Sandler and his wife Jackie Sandler have those qualities. 'I feel like it's a really good sign of a good soul and good parenting when older kids are not dismissive of younger kids,' Barrymore explained in a clip shared by Entertainment Tonight as she and Kaling, who is a single mom of three, talked about parenting and raising kind children. As Kaling agreed with Barrymore's statement, the talk show host said, 'it's funny like not to drop names, but Adam Sandler's daughters, Sunny and Sadie, are so good to my daughters. And they're 16 and 18, and Olive and Frankie are 10 and 12, and they like 'hang out!'' 'I always tell Jackie, Adam's wife, what a good mom that she is, and what good parents they are, because their daughters like, always take younger ones under the wing. So I can only hope that Olive and Frankie demonstrate that.' Fans called that portion of their conversation 'wholesome.' 'Wholesome shout-out! Love seeing longtime friends lift each other up like this,' one person commented on Entertainment Tonight's Instagram post. 'When a celebrity is self made and not problematic, best believe they're gonna raise their kids right,' added another fan. 'This is so true! Should always treat little ones with kindness and show you care for them. Take them under your wing. You are never 'too cool' to be kind,' another commenter added. Barrymore and Sandler have been friends since meeting in 1998 on the set of their first movie together, 'The Wedding Singer.' The friendly duo have gone on to film other movies together, including '50 First Dates' and 'Blended.' In April while answering audience questions during a taping of her talkshow, Barrymore said she and Sandler have plans of filming another movie together sometime soon, according to Today. 'I think so, as far as — I know so. That's a yes, and it's a matter of when, but I don't think it'll be too long, because we've always done everything every 10 years, and we're running out of time. We're past 10 years at this point.'
Boston Globe
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Explore R.I.'s dynamic summer theater offerings, from classics to new works
Academy Players 180 Button Hole Drive, Providence. ' The Wedding Singer. ' Set in New Jersey in the 1980s and based on the popular 1998 film of the same name, a wannabe rock 'n' roller finds his true self when he finds true love. Aug. 14-24 Arctic Playhouse 117 Washington St., West Warwick. ' Laughter on the 23rd Floor .' This ensemble comedy about a harried writing staff was inspired by playwright Neil Simon's youthful experience as a staff writer on Sid Caesar's 1950s hit TV program 'Your Show of Shows . ' May 15-June 1 'Harvey.' This chestnut features Elwood P. Dowd, who has a six-foot rabbit that nobody else can see for a best friend. It won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for drama, beating 'The Glass Menagerie.' Tennessee Williams was robbed. Aug. 28-Sept. 14 Burbage Theatre 59 Blackstone Ave., Pawtucket. Get Globe Rhode Island Food Club A weekly newsletter about food and dining in Rhode Island, by Globe Rhode Island reporter Alexa Gagosz. Enter Email Sign Up ' The Legend of Georgia McBride .' Casey has just been fired from his gig as an Elvis impersonator in a run-down, small-town Florida bar. When the owner brings in a B-level drag show to replace his act, Casey finds that he has a whole lot to learn about show business – and himself. May 15-June 8 Advertisement Contemporary Theater Company 327 Main St., Wakefield. ' Noises Off .' The ultimate farce, this play follows the making of a play amid a confused late-night rehearsal, a backstage backstabbing, and a performance where everything that can go wrong does. June 20-July 26 ' A Midsummer Night's Dream .' This Shakespeare comedy is a dreamy charade where mortals mingle with pixies and all sorts of absurdities are commonplace. Here, this reverie takes place under the stars and on the banks of the Saugatucket River. July 6-Aug. 3 ' The Last 5 Years .' Jason Robert Brown's intensely personal chamber musical is a simple story about a singular event: the failed marriage between Cathy and Jamie. Their respective timelines careen in opposite directions until they cross and converge. Aug. 8 - Sept. 14 Gamm Theatre 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick. ' Angels in America (Part I) .' This Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning masterpiece is set in 1980s New York City at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Part II will open in September. May 29-June 15 Granite Theatre 1 Granite St., Westerly. ' Kiss Me, Kate .' Passions run high in Cole Porter's 1948 backstage musical comedy as the leading lady and her ex-husband actor/director battle onstage and off in a production of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew . ' July 11-Aug. 3 Newport Playhouse 102 Connell Highway, Newport. Advertisement ' Just a Dinner .' Single and in their 50s, Candace and Oliver prepare to enter the internet dinner dating scene. Much to the chagrin of their adult children. May 14-June 18 ' It's Your Funeral .' This funeral home farce finds the new owners breaking into the business amid bad news from a doctor, threats from their shady silent partners, and a surprise visit from a former bookie. June 25 -Aug. 7 Theatre by the Sea 364 Cards Pond Rd., Wakefield. A ' Always… Patsy Cline .' This jukebox musical follows the country music icon's longtime friendship with a fan from Houston. The story is oversimplified and the down-home humor is an acquired taste, but the work is heartfelt and the music is country classic. May 28-June 21 ' Waitress .' Adapted from the low-budget 2007 film, the story is a blue-plate special. It offers marginally nutritious fare about a talented pie-maker trapped in a troubled marriage with an unexpected pregnancy while working at a small-town diner. It comes with a side of gorgeous songs by Grammy-winning composer/ lyricist Sara Bareilles. June 25-July 19 ' Hairspray .' Based on the high-camp, low-budget 1988 cult film, this Broadway musical offers the light-weight story of a heavy-set girl with big dreams against a backdrop of the civil rights movement in 1962 Baltimore. July 23-Aug. 16 ' Heartbreak Hotel .' This biographical musical chronicles Elvis Presley's rise to fame, featuring over 40 of his iconic hits and a pedestrian script that explores his journey from humble beginnings. Aug. 20-Sept. 14 Trinity Repertory Company 201 Washington St., Providence. ' Blues for an Alabama Sky .' In the summer of 1930 in Harlem, New York, the creative euphoria of the Harlem Renaissance has given way to the harsher realities of the Great Depression. This play looks at the lives of five characters trying to hold onto their idealism amid racism and sexism. May 29-June 29 West Bay Community Theater 25 Dillon Ave., North Kingstown. ' Chicago ' – In Concert. A dazzling, satirical look at fame, justice, and the media machine, set in 1920s Chicago and performed at the NK Town Beach Bandshell, 10 Beach St., Wickford, R.I. August 16 Wilbury Theatre Group WaterFire Arts Center, 475 Valley St., Providence. ' American Idiot .' In 1994, Rolling Stone magazine dismissed the underground band Green Day as 'cheeky monkeys who came to raid the bar and disappear.' Raid they did, but disappear they did not. In 2004, the boys produced the Grammy Award-winning anti-hero concept album, 'American Idiot , ' which was turned into a 90-minute punk rock opera that opened on Broadway in 2010. May 29-June 15 See you at the theater. Bob Abelman is an award-winning theater critic who formerly wrote for the Austin Chronicle. Connect with him .
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The Independent
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Billy Idol: ‘I'm the sexy sexagenarian. Then I'm gonna be the sexy septuagenarian, ha ha!'
On the big cream couch of The Drew Barrymore Show, the proprietor's rescue mutt, Douglas, nuzzling between them, host and guest are reliving the bad old days. Or trying to. On a screen above Drew Barrymore and Billy Idol is a photograph of the pair with their arms around each other at New York's Limelight club in 1986. The actor turned TV chat show host has an angel's halo fixed above her head, the punk rock veteran a smiley version of his trademark lip-curl-cum-sneer fixed on his face. 'That is where I see us when I think of you in my mind,' says Barrymore to Idol, as the pair crane their necks at the flashback snap and the studio audience whoops. 'Back in the old club days. What the hell do you remember from those days?' 'Not very much!' replies Idol in a gravelly, remarkably well-spoken chuckle that recalls a retired squire from the shires. Albeit one with the same hair and wearing much the same clobber as in that four-decade-old pic: spiky bleach-blond thatch, leather jacket, chunky silver necklaces and a shirt open below the nipples, the better to showboat a chest that's as smooth, hairless and caramel-coloured as the English punk-rocker's now 69-year-old face. To be fair, the old pals' spotty memories are understandable. Barrymore was only 11 at the time of the pic – and, as she later revealed, already had a drink problem, with drug addiction looming fast on the horizon before she was even a teen. Idol, not unfeasibly, was in his own altered state. 'Drew's mother used to bring her there when she was eight or something,' Idol tells me from his green room in Manhattan's CBS Broadcast Center immediately following the chat show's taping. 'So we used to hang out there. I responded to her on an equal level,' he adds of his adolescent friend (Idol was 30). 'I didn't play down or speak down to her. I think she liked that.' Who was the bad influence on who? 'I think we were a good influence on each other,' he demurs of an actor with whom he would later share screen time, playing himself in 1998's Eighties-set romcom The Wedding Singer ('I played a rock'n'roll cupid'). 'Because I treated her as an equal.' Likely, too, as someone who could relate – kind of – to what he was experiencing. Barrymore was a child star from the age of seven, courtesy of her generationally defining role in Steven Spielberg's ET, released four years earlier. By 1986, Idol, too, was a bona fide Stateside phenom, albeit of a very different stripe. He had upped sticks to the US in March 1981 after the collapse of his punk combo Generation X, B-list peers of the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Within a couple of years, the London scene's prettiest punk was a megastar in America. That was thanks to the chart success of 'White Wedding', 'Dancing with Myself' and 'Rebel Yell', FM radio anthems made with Idol's regular producer partner and fellow Londoner Keith Forsey. And thanks to a sexy, cartoonishly bad-boy roguishness that made this outrider of the Eighties British Invasion catnip for the recently launched MTV. Forty-odd years later, both elements – the fist-punching tunes and the nipple-flashing swagger – are impressively present and correct on this grandfather of four's new album. The nostalgic but defiantly two-fingered Dream Into It is a rollicking nine-song set that features throatily tonsil-to-tonsil collaborations with Joan Jett, Avril Lavigne and Alison Mosshart of The Kills. Idol's first album in 11 years is a record that celebrates his Seventies and Eighties excesses – the highs, the lows, the near-fatal motorbike crash (seven operations and a steel rod to repair his shattered right leg) and that time he legged it from rehab for crack cocaine addiction before Forsey could get him out the door. 'I said, 'Let's just do a hit first.' And while Keith went off to get someone, I ran away, heh heh!' In the pop-punk ramalam '77', he enlists sk8r girl Lavigne, born in Canada in 1984, to hymn the thrills of battling skinheads on Chelsea's King's Road in the heady summer of 1977: ' You gotta swing first and you better not miss! They show their teeth, we kick them in!' As may already be apparent, Idol enjoyed the fruits of his embrace by mainstream America. When Barrymore asked whether, back then, he ever stopped being 'Billy Idol', he replied in the negative: 'I was 24/7 like this.' Or, as he says to me now, his conversational pace slowly revving up after the TV interview: 'Well, yeah, the Eighties was really a seminal period.' That's putting it decorously. In summer 1984, Neil Tennant interviewed the leather-clad rock'n'roller, whom Smash Hits lovingly lampooned as Sir Billiam of Idol. The Pet Shop Boy wrote of a character whose 'behaviour can be unpredictable, to say the least. After a recent concert in Canada, he serenaded a crowd of fans with an impromptu version of 'Rebel Yell', standing naked on his hotel room window ledge… Asked live on Countdown, the Australian equivalent of Top of the Pops, what he'd been doing since his arrival in Australia, he replied: 'Having sex.'' Then, a sweary, 'threatening' appearance on Radio 1's singles review show Round Table led to Idol's expulsion from the studio mid-broadcast. 'But the BBC still invited him to wander on to Top of the Pops the next week,' reported Tennant. ''Billy Idol — what are you doing here?' asked [DJ and presenter] Steve Wright. And Billy paused for a second, as though he'd been wondering much the same himself. Then he remembered. 'I've come here,' he declared, clenching his fist, 'to ROCK AND ROLL!'' 'Heh heh heh!' Idol replies, laughing like Dick Dastardly's Muttley, when I read that to him. Does that article feel like a fair portrait of the artist in the summer of 1984? 'Well, we were super-living it, really,' is his PR-friendly reply. Then he mentions 'Still Dancing', the album's autobiographical closer. It's a picaresque that takes in the man born William Broad's mid-Seventies homeless squat days, near-weekly fights with teddy boys in Brixton, a penchant for smashing up hotel rooms and, in sum, all-round, what-you-got punk defiance. 'I was really committed to what I was doing. You had to fight for your right to be there.' The d***-waving and on-air argy-bargy that Tennant reported, then, were simply a demonstration 'of how much I, ah, cared about what I was doing'. He recalls that period with slightly more punch in 'Too Much Fun'. It's a Killers-esque mea culpa of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll: 'I kissed a girl and smoked some H… Half a line turned into five… Fell off stage but didn't die…' he sings. In raunchy trip-down-mammary-lane 'Gimme the Weight', he rues the days when he ' loved a thousand girls, it only made things worse'. Writing those songs was a useful way of processing the ups and downs: his 'fatal charm', the relationships and addictions, 'the crazy, different events… But it was quite a different time, the Eighties,' Idol continues, warming up. 'Even though Aids was on the horizon, it hadn't affected the heterosexual people yet. It was still the free love, free sex world. A lot of modern fears hadn't happened yet. So it was quite an unhinged time.' 'By '92 it all closed down once Magic Johnson got Aids,' he says of the American basketballer's November 1991 announcement that he had tested positive for HIV. 'People realised how serious it was. Everything changed overnight, almost. So we were living those last days of this liberating time, where people felt that they could have sex at the drop of a hat.' Idol doesn't think that means musicians now are, necessarily, boring compared to him and his high-on-life Eighties peers. 'It's just that it's a different world. People have to think about the diseases and the STDs. We thought that they got rid of [all that]. In the Fifties, they cured syphilis, they cured gonorrhoea. But herpes was happening in the Seventies – I caught herpes. I went to some clinic and they gave me some pills, but they didn't actually tell me what it was.' The singer is also, perhaps surprisingly, sympathetic to the pressures facing a younger generation of artists who don't hesitate to cancel tours to protect their mental health. For the man who, between 1984 and 1985, performed some 130 American gigs in 10 months as his career took off, that wasn't an option. But, he says with a shrug, 'it didn't hurt us'. Nonetheless, 'I can see with social media, this landscape has completely changed in lots of ways. There were only a few [media] outlets in the Eighties – compared to today, [that's] minuscule. [Now] there's a million because of the internet. He thinks that inevitably puts pressure onto millennials and Gen Z. 'For us, it was just a lot of shows. The modern people, it's a lot of social media. It's quite different. And that can affect mental health.' Accordingly, this is one Baby Boomer – a tribal follower who readily fought with rival youth cults just for the right to wear what he liked – who won't be heard complaining that millennials are snowflakes. 'Not really. My children are millennials, and they're having babies – they've given me my grandchildren. They seem hardworking, and they care about what they do. I don't see that at all.' Here, certainly, Billy Idol isn't 'living 24/7' the performative 'Billy Idol' that young Drew Barrymore knew and loved. Why should I be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Because I'm f***ing incredible! Still, once a punk, always a punk. This year, Idol is up for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He's one of 14 candidates, half of whom will make it through after public voting ends later this month. I ask for his pitch to undecided voters – why should he be inducted? 'Because I'm just f***ing incredible!' he shouts, before going on to clarify. 'It's pretty amazing that I went from something like punk rock in England to mainstream success in the States. I was not only involved in punk, I became a big part of the '80s New Wave. And then I carried on making the music, living the rock'n'roll life. I've also gone beyond what people expect, with things like cyberpunk,' he says of his 1993 album of that name. 'I didn't stay in my lane. I took chances. Even coming to America, I had no idea I was going to do really well. And the risks I took worked. All of that shows an enterprising spirit – a spirit of rock'n'roll.' Vote Idol! But what of the other class of 2025 nominees – does he think Oasis deserve to be in there? 'Of course. I'm a Liam and Noel fan. I played before Oasis in Italy a few years ago. I'm excited for their comeback. I'm looking forward to seeing them.' Joy Division and New Order? 'Definitely deserve to be in it.' Cyndi Lauper? 'She's a great singer, and she's written some great songs. So she deserves to be in.' Mariah Carey? Idol pauses and smiles. 'I don't quite get [this].' But he mentions last month's iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles, at which he and Carey both appeared. 'They were all bowing down to her as the queen. So maybe there's an aspect of that. I know sometimes they're just trying to draw people to the [Hall of Fame] TV show. But she obviously had millions and millions of hits. And she went through a lot with Tommy Mottola, I would have thought,' he says of Carey's tempestuous marriage to the music industry executive (Mottola wrote in his own memoir that it was 'absolutely wrong and inappropriate' for him to become involved with a 19-year-old Carey). 'She might have had a bit of a rock'n'roll experience there.' At the time of our interview, Idol is four weeks out from the start of an arena-scale tour that includes a stop at Wembley in June and stretches towards the end of the year. He admits his midriff is 'a little sludgier, but it's not too bad for my age'. A long-time proponent of a meat-free diet, he's getting extra gig-fit through exercise and temperance, the former becoming a habit when he moved to LA in 1987. 'Working out became a big part of my life. And it helped me get over drug addiction. Caring about your body, eventually that took precedence over the drug addiction. It helped me develop a sense of discipline so I could put the drugs in the rearview mirror.' Does he allow himself a little drink now and then? 'I've actually just stopped drinking. I used to have a glass of wine at a restaurant. I'm just watching out for my liver these days – unfortunately! I'd love to be piling them back! Then again, you put on weight, that's all that happens with alcohol these days. You just get puffy.' Plus, the hangovers are a killer. 'I started getting a really bad headache if I have more than two glasses of wine.' Still, old habits die hard for Mr Too Much Fun. 'I still take marijuana and stuff like that, so I'm not completely sober.' Also in need of some tactical nipping and tucking is that iconic barnet. Again, Idol counts himself pretty lucky. 'It's just about holding on! I just hope I can make it to the finish line. They can make the little bit of hair I've got look like a lot! As my hairdresser said: 'As long as you've a little bit of hair, I can work with it.' With a lot of pomade and dry shampoo, they can do miracles.' Sir Billiam of Idol will be hoping his signature 'do hangs on until at least 30 November, when he turns 70. There are no big birthday plans currently as he'll still be on tour, somewhere in the southern hemisphere. But nor will he be going quietly into that good night. 'We'll probably have some wingding South American party.' Is he looking forward to being 70? 'Errrr… I dunno!' says Idol. 'You don't see yourself ageing. But this one, I might have to celebrate. I'll be on the road with a load of people I'm enjoying playing with. So we'll make it fun. It'll be killer. SEVENTY HERE WE COME!' he shouts, loud enough to frighten Douglas the pooch back on Barrymore's sofa. Anything else to declare? 'I tell you what: at the moment, I'm the sexy sexagenarian. Then I'm gonna be the sexy septuagenarian, ha ha!'
Forbes
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Probably Needed A Hug' Trends On TikTok. Here's What It Shows
People have been posting videos on TikTok using the catchphrase 'probably needed a hug' to show ... More times when they probably needed said hug but instead ended up getting or doing something else. (Photo: Getty) In the 1998 movie The Wedding Singer, one of the characters Sammy explained, 'What I'm saying is all I really want is someone to hold me and tell me that everything is going to be all right.' Well, there's a TikTok trend and hashtag, #probablyneededahug, that's sort of in line with that. People have been posting videos using the catchphrase 'probably needed a hug' to show times when they probably needed said hug but instead ended up getting or doing something else. Many of these video posts have Adele's "Hometown Glory" blaring as background music and do highlight the glory of the warm embrace. They also do shed some more light on how people are doing in their hometowns and everywhere else these days. The hug replacements in the TikTok videos do range from the simple to the sensitive to the satirical to the sarcastic. Some of the videos have showcased stuff that people are doing to bring themselves comfort and joy like traveling, dancing, running or shopping, the last of which should make many businesses smile. For example, it looks like @amayacrichton got something to 'matcha' her mood, so to speak, here: From TikTok Another example from @theogsnail was very bunny: From TikTok Alternatively, there were those hug-alternatives that seemed to bring some 'pressions,' not impressions but more like suppression or repression of what people really wanted. For example, @fiftyshadesofmomlife stated that she probably needed a hug 'but put on fake smile instead and continued pretending I was OK,' here: From TikTok Others followed the 'probably needed a hug' catchphrase with things like 'detached and learnt to never need someone else instead' and 'doesn't like talking about her feelings so always pretends that everything is OK.' This just in: people tend to like hugs. That's as long as it isn't a bear hug to keep them away from their smartphones. Hugs can make you feel closer to someone else. After all, you you kind of have to be in close physical proximity to hug each other unless it is one of those fake 'air hugs.' Plus, when you hug someone, you tend to do so in an affectionate manner with other accompanying signs of affection, rather than saying, 'I am going to knock all your teeth out as soon as we are done this hug.' Moreover, studies have shown hugs to be associated with increased levels of oxytocin, the so-called 'cuddle hormone,' in your blood. Oxytocin is a chemical messenger that originates in your hypothalamus and remains stored in your posterior pituitary gland, until it is ready to be released into your bloodstream. Since your hypothalamus and pituitary gland are located in your head in your brain and oxytocin is also one of the so-called 'happiness hormones,' it can be accurate in a way to say that happiness is all in your head. Oxytocin can play a range of different roles in your body. For example, it can help your uterus contract during labor and childbirth and your breasts produce milk. But that doesn't mean that you have to have a baby to benefit from the secretion of oxytocin. This chemical messenger seems to play a key role in the whole recognition-trust-bonding-attachment thing. For example, a study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology found new lovers tended to have higher blood oxytocin levels than singles. Moreover, oxytocin levels were higher among those in relationships with higher versus lower amounts of affection and reciprocity. Other studies have shown that higher oxytocin levels correlate with drops in blood pressure and levels of the stress hormone norepinephrine. There are also studies that have shown how hugs can be protective against things like fear, pain and illness. For example, a study published in the journal Psychological Science found that people who reported getting more hugs were less likely to have had upper respiratory illnesses. Now, this doesn't mean that you should replace vaccinations and hand-washing with hugs. But it does suggest that one's susceptibility to infection could be associated in some way with social support or the lack thereof. With all of the above, the question then is how many people these days are actually getting all the hugs that they want or need. I've written in Forbes in 2018 and again in 2023 about how loneliness has been a major, growing and under-addressed problem since the 1980s. When he was the U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy. MD, MBA, published in May 2022 a report entitled, 'Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community' The report provided a lot of evidence that people are feeling less and less socially connected with others nowadays. And in this case, socially connected doesn't refer to the number of followers you have on social media or the number of likes that the post of you dropping heavy items on your foot got on TikTok. This may be leaving a lot of people wanting true real-life social connection but then having to suppress or repress that desire because they feel like only skeletons are around, with 'no-body' around to hug, so to speak. Suppression is when you consciously bury a desire, feeling or need. Repression is when you unconsciously do so. Both are not great ways to proceed in the long run. Burying your true feelings can be like having your cat do your taxes. Sure, your cat may look rather nonchalant about it. But who knows what problems may emerge in the future. So, while the 'probably needed a hug' trend might be offering some interesting and neat things to do for fun and entertainment, many of these cannot truly replace genuine human connection like a hug.
