A Million Little Things

• TV Show

• ABC

• Drama

Season 3's second episode of A Million Little Things kicks off with Darcy and Gary confronting some teething issues — quite literally since Colin has chewed Darcy's exercise band. Other than that though, things are pretty great between them, so good in fact that when Maggie calls Gary, Darcy encourages him to pick up and talk to his ex. He hums and haws for too long, however, and misses the call, but later returns it, only to hang up on Maggie abruptly when she suggests things are moving too fast between him and his new girlfriend.

Over at Rome and Gina's place, things are still super tense. Although it's been six months or so since they decided not to go through with the second adoption, Rome seems to still be harboring some resentment towards his wife for thinking it was too soon to go ahead with it. Luckily, he's keeping himself busy with his movie and a big star is interested in taking on the role inspired by Gina. Rome meets fancy actress lady, Shanice Williamson at the restaurant. She asks why he needs to tell this story and he tells her, though it sounds odd, his friend (Jon) died at the right time because that call saved his life and made him get honest about his depression. Shanice likes his answer. If she comes on board, she wants to bring her own hair and makeup people, and be done by 9 p.m. every night because she has a kid. She also has some notes on the script —even on some scenes she's not in. Rome is less pleased about that. Just then, Gina comes over to say hi and the two women get along well. Shanice tells them she thinks the relationship between Gina and Rome is perfect and they're the couple everyone is rooting for. Gina very pointedly says, "Yes, my husband is an amazing writer." YIKES. Later at home, Gina confronts Rome. She doesn't want their perfect relationship just to be fiction. Rome admits he's been feeling like he's not entitled to his feeling, that they'll either make him lash out at her or deny himself. He tells his wife he doesn't want to add to her pain, but he's still mad at her because they could be parenting right now, but they're not because she wasn't ready. He then walks out before the conversation can continue.

At Eddie and Katherine's place, Eddie is trying to be helpful around the house from his wheelchair. Katherine hasn't been to the office in weeks and is getting ready to go back. Meanwhile, Theo is racing in Eddie's wheelchair, before Katherine gathers him up to take him to the office with her. She's worried about leaving Eddie alone all day and tells him she wants to hire a home health care worker, but Eddie is resistant. Anyway, they soon rush out the door, leaving Eddie sitting in a chair, before he realizes his wheelchair and cell phone are too far away for him to reach alone. When Gary and Theo arrive at the house hours later, Eddie hides from Theo that he's wet his pants. Gary throws a glass of water on him to disguise it before helping him clean up. Eddie is upset, he doesn't know how much longer he can keep putting a happy face on everything for Katherine and Theo. He tells Gary he got what he deserves, that this is karma for all the bad choices he made, for his part in Alex's death.

When Gary gets back to Darcy's place and tells her what happened, she thinks Eddie needs to commit to a long-term plan. He needs to understand he can still do the things he loves, just differently. Gary wants her to be Eddie's physiotherapist, but Darcy doesn't think she can do it. She's primarily Katherine's friend and she saw how hard it was on her when Eddie cheated. Meanwhile, at Katherine's office, Theo admits to his mom that he feels like he's juggling torches over a volcano. THIS IS A LOT FOR A KID. He and Katherine play ping pong to try to revert him to just a kid having fun.

Heeding Darcy's advice that Eddie needs to do the things that make him feel normal, Gary takes Eddie to a basketball game with Rome, telling his friend he has to stay in the damn game. We love a sports metaphor. Eddie gets mad, and his buddies tell him to use that anger. Eventually, Eddie gets his bearings, playing from the chair, and shoots a hoop or two. He thanks Gary for helping him out and they head home where Katherine has just found Eddie's soiled pants. She tells her husband she can't go back to work and worry about what's happening at home too, but Eddie tells her she can and they'll hire a health care helper so she doesn't have to worry. Darcy, who has arrived with dinner, overhears and says she and Eddie are going to start physical therapy together. She later tells Gary she's doing it for Katherine.

Meanwhile, across the pond in Oxford, Maggie is getting to know her roommate Jamie (played by the ever-endearing Chris Geere of You're the Worst fame) a little better. He tells her she has to start living her life in England and have some fun. He's going to call her Margaret until she does. Luckily, just then, they both realize that a trunk that's been in the living room for some days belongs to neither of them. It must be the guy who Maggie replaced on the program's property. After some back and forth about making a good cup of tea and living in the moment, they decide to break into it to see what it contains. Naturally, it's full of weird things like handcuffs and microphones and a yellow rain hat. Jamie and Maggie burst into Young MC's "Bust A Move" because why not? Later, they have some wine while Maggie diagnoses the poor dude whose property they've just raided. She asks Jamie about his hate for therapists and he tells her a story about seeing one when he was 15, right after his mom died. They bond over it. It somehow inspires Maggie to start a therapy podcast. I mean, it's 2020 — if you haven't started a podcast, are you even living?

And last but not least, let's turn our attention to Chez Delilah. At the top of the episode, she's talking to her dad on the phone. He suffers from Alzheimer's and at that moment forgets who D is. Sophie is planning on applying to Harvard, where her dad went, and is visiting the school that night. Since D has the house to herself, she's planning on inviting Miles over, but when she's making up her bed, her eye catches a photo of her and Jon and she starts having flashbacks of the two of them together. Realizing she's not ready to have another man in the home she shared with her late husband, she cancels her date. Just as well, since Sophie has cut her Harvard trip short after seeing her dad's name signed on the wall of an old dorm building. So mother and daughter enjoy a charcuterie platter and have a girls' night instead. Sophie realized she was only going to go to Harvard to make her feel closer to her dad, so she's going to follow her gut when it comes to applying to schools instead.

The last minutes of this week's episode see Gary opt not to stay over at Darcy's because he wants to make sure they're not moving too fast. He thinks they're amazing and wants this to work. Rome apologizes to Gina. He thought they were on the same page, but feels like she was closing the door on them being parents without talking to him about it. She says they're not on the same page because she's still grieving and he doesn't seem to be. It's taking her longer to work through her grief because she feels like she's doing it alone. Meanwhile, Delilah calls her dad and tells him they should take a trip to France together, so Rome and Gina may well be landed with some kids pretty soon. Elsewhere, Katherine brings the ping pong table home for Eddie and they have fun playing. Then the doorbell rings and Theo goes to answer it. Alex's dad stands there, looking upset. Katherine joins her son at the door and he tells her she has a nice kid and to make sure she enjoys every moment with him, which... sounds vaguely like a threat? But more likely is just him grieving his dead daughter still.

Time will tell! Let's see what happens next week.

Related content:

• A Million Little Things season 3 premiere recap: Will Eddie survive?
• A Million Little Things recap: Let's talk about sex, baby
• A Million Little Things recap: What do you store in your sleeping bag?

This story originally appeared on: EW - Author:Ruth Kinane

If you're not feeling the spirit of Christmas, the Christmas Chronicles 2 has just the fix for you — namely, a song titled "Spirit of Christmas."

Yes, 71 minutes into the sequel to 2018's delightful festive romp starring Kurt Russell as the man in the red suit himself and  Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Claus, the whole movie takes an even more magical turn (it's possible!), when Santa bursts into song and dance accompanied by an exasperated airport attendant, played by Christmas icon herself, Darlene Love.

While traveling back to 1990 (it's a whole thing, involving a mischievous former elf), Santa realizes he needs to crank up some Christmas spirit if he's going to get his reindeer off the ground — it's what makes them fly. So with the help of Love (whose character is being surrounded by angry airport dwellers whose flights have been cancelled), Santa manages to bring the cheer of the festive period to all the would-be travelers and, in doing so, gets his reindeer back on their feet. Because the scene (you can watch an exclusive, extended clip above) is just brimming with, well, the spirit of Christmas, and since you can't spell Christmas without Chris Columbus, we just had to talked to the director and Love to get every last merry detail.

As he's done previously for many a festive musical moment, Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) reached out to his longtime collaborator and music supervisor Steven Van Zandt (of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band) when he decided The Christmas Chronicles 2 would include a song and dance, just like its predecessor. Van Zandt, who was also the musical supervisor for the jailhouse number in The Christmas Chronicles, as well as the writer of Darlene Love's "All Alone on Christmas" for Home Alone 2, was tasked with penning an original song for the Netflix sequel. "When we did the first musical number on The Christmas Chronicles, I hired Steven and the Disciples of Soul, his band, to perform a version of "Santa Claus is Back in Town" with Kurt and it went so well," Columbus tells EW. "I just remember seeing three year olds dancing to the television on social media. It seemed to be bringing a lot of joy to these little kids — and that song was 50 years old, nobody even remembered it. So, on this one, in our effort to be bigger and because we're painting with a much larger canvas, that meant a much larger musical number. A much larger musical number means that I'm not gonna do a musical number based on any song that already exists. I wanted Steve to write a brand new song."

With that, Van Zandt headed to the studio and enlisted the help of friend and "All Alone on Christmas" collaborator, Love. "Steve sent me a demo with Darlene on it before she had been cast," says Columbus of the original song "The Spirit of Christmas." "We had started shooting Christmas Chronicles 2 and I went out to the parking lot and put on my headphones to listen to what was then a seven-and-a-half minute version of it. I was just blown away. It was like a showstopper. It combined everything great about soul music and Phil Spector. It also felt like it could be a final number of Broadway show. It was working on so many levels for me that I called Steven and said, 'This is fantastic. I just can't shoot the entire seven and a half. It would kind of interfere with the pacing of the film.'"

Love, too, took little convincing. Indeed, she was in as soon as she heard the song. "I love songs that have melodies," she tells EW. "A lot of singers don't realize when you get somebody's song, they want you to sing their melody. They change the melody, they start riffing and going away so far from the melody that you don't even realize where the melody is. Steven sung the song to me, and it was so great song — who wants to go away from that melody? You might do a little run here and there, but you don't change the melody when it's a great melody."

The next thing to do was record the song with Russell and Love's real vocal and bring in the Disciples of Soul again. "It went incredibly well," says Columbus. "In the studio, there were times when Kurt was curious about what I was looking for in terms of Santa Claus's performance. I said, 'In the first movie, we wanted more of an Elvis's performance. This particular musical number has to be more of Kurt Russell's version of Santa Claus.'" Russell took that as inspiration for his vocal, but also wanted it to feel like a performance in the Music Man. "I was a little taken aback by that," says Columbus. "But if you watch the film and you know that, there are moments where it's kind of the Music Man meets Elvis meets Steven Van Zandt." For Love's part, she was equally excited to work with old friends as some new ones. "I met Kurt a few years before," she says. "I was doing The View and he was on at the same time. We had a chance to chat and we took pictures together and that was that, but I've always followed Kurt and Goldie's careers. Kurt was just great. He came in and he was ready. He was excited about doing that part of the movie."

Excited, but also a little hesitant, at first. "He has a slight hesitancy about performing and he asked why another musical number?'" explains Columbus. "I said, 'Well, I think the audience would now be disappointed if there wasn't a musical number.'" Columbus wanted it to feel like the old Marx Brothers movies, where there was always a musical interlude from Chico or Harpo. "Even as a kid I always looked forward to that and, as you know, I'm a gigantic fan of musicals, personally — I did Rent for God sake!" he says. "The music is almost as important to me as cinema. I'm like a kid in a candy store whenever I'm shooting musical numbers — I could spend the rest of my directorial career just doing them. I take it very seriously, but anyway, Kurt says, 'Why another musical number?' And Steve Van Zandt says 'Why not?' It's just a high point for the audience."

A high point that required a couple of weeks of rehearsals, took 9 days to shoot and is complete with a flashmob dancing perfectly in sync, a gospel choir effortlessly matching Love's high notes, and even some breakdancing from Santa and a security guard (body doubles were used in those shots) all in front of a '90s airport backdrop — with all the shoulder pads and enormous phones that come along with that. "It was ironic that we landed on 1990 because that's the year I directed Home Alone," says Columbus. "I walk onto the set and everyone is dressed like it's 1990. It was very surreal, particularly with Darlene arguing with the woman who was upset about her plane being canceled. I was watching the monitors and I'm like, 'This is very similar to Catherine O'Hara in Home Alone.' It was completely subconscious."

Luckily the mood in Chronicles airport scene is a little more festive than child-left-behind frantic, but there's no denying it's a high energy scene. Luckily, Santa's red coat doesn't stay on for much of the exuberant number, during which he's running around trying to invoke the holiday spirit. "That Christmas coat that he had has to weigh about 50 pounds!" says Love. "When I found out how heavy it was, I thought, 'How do you even walk in this?!' Every time we took a break, we had these little personal fans. They made him a special one that they held up to his face. It looked like it was on a flashlight and it really gives out air. He needed it with all the hair and the coat!" The hair, or rather the beard, had to be handled with care. "Kurt grew 80 percent of that beard," explains Columbus. "The only thing that were added were pieces by his makeup team. With intense physical activity on camera, those pieces start to break off. So we had to be careful about that."

But the beard survived and all that hard work and attention to detail culminates in another iconic musical moment that's sure to have three year olds (and older) out of their seats, dancing along. That begs the question, if these scenes are so stand-out and the cast talented enough to pull them off, why not go for a full-out musical for the inevitable third Chronicle? "You don't have to twist my arm," says Columbus. "Our goal with these movies is to not repeat ourselves, essentially. So the first movie is basically a night on the town in Chicago with Santa Claus and the two kids. The second movie opens up the world and the pathology in a much bigger way. So, if we do a third, we wouldn't want to repeat ourselves...so maybe a musical version is the only answer!" You heard it here first.

Watch the exclusive extended scene above.

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• The Masked Singer's latest guest panelist makes quite the entrance in semi-finals sneak peek
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This story originally appeared on: EW - Author:Ruth Kinane

The Crown

• TV Show

• Netflix

• Historical
• Drama

Turns out, not everybody is an all-adoring fan of The Crown.

On Sunday, the U.K.'s culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, suggested that each episode of the Netflix royal drama should begin with a disclaimer stating that the show is not factual. "It's a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that," Dowden told the Mail on Sunday in an interview. "Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact."

The fourth season of The Crown follows the life of the royal family during the 1980s, which means many of the main characters' real-life counterparts are still living. The new episodes focus mostly on Prince Charles (played by Josh O'Connor on the show) and Princess Diana's (Emma Corrin) strained marriage, as well as Margaret Thatcher's (portrayed by Gillian Anderson) years in office as prime minister, at times, butting heads with Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman).

Dowden — who plans to write to Netflix on the topic — is not alone in this school of thought. Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, has also made clear he believes the series should warn viewers that it takes artistic license with actual events. "I think it would help The Crown an enormous amount if, at the beginning of each episode, it stated that: 'This isn't true but it is based around some real events,'" he said during an interview with British broadcaster ITV.

Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond, former Buckingham Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter, and Thatcher biographer Charles Moore have also all spoken out about what they believe to be the show's loose grasp of the truth. Bond reminded viewers the show is not a documentary but a drama, while Arbiter claimed season 4 was "stretching dramatic license to the extreme."

Season 4 of The Crown is now streaming on Netflix.

Related content:

• Charles, Diana, and The Crown's best season yet: Review
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• The Crown star Josh O'Connor doesn't think Charles is the villain of season 4

This story originally appeared on: EW - Author:Ruth Kinane

On Thursday, Friends star  Courteney Cox got in the holiday spirit and decided to give the world a priceless gift via Instagram. The actress, who played Monica Geller on the beloved NBC sitcom, shared a video on social media in which she recreated the iconic moment when her character crammed her head into a turkey and danced around in order to win over boyfriend Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry).

"I'm feeling so thankful and also if I get one more goddamn GIF of that turkey on my head, dancing like a f—ing fool, I'm just gonna snap," she said, feigning exasperation, at the top of the video. "Since I'm the symbol of Thanksgiving, here you go. I hope it makes you happy." Then she really did do the goddamn thing: The video cut to Cox with what looks like a real turkey on her head, shimmying à la Monica while the Friends theme song plays. And, yes, she even added the sunglasses.

Thankful doesn't cover it. Watch the above clip on repeat until the much-delayed Friends HBO Max reunion special graces our screens in March 2021 — hopefully.

Author:Ruth Kinane - Source: EW

The Late Late Show With James Corden

• TV Show

• Talk Show

Streaming Options

Just when you thought 2020 was out of surprises, along comes a TikTok musical about Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday's episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden, the host surprised TikTok creator Daniel Mertzlufft by casting some huge Broadway stars in a musical he wrote about the Thanksgiving holiday. It all started after Corden saw Mertzlufft's musical post on the video-sharing platform about a fight in a grocery store. Impressed with his work, Corden invited the entrepreneur onto his show to create a new Thanksgiving musical, in which the late-night host would duet with him.

After playing a version of the song with just Corden and Mertzlufft, the host went on to surprise the viral star with a few other guest appearances including Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Josh Gad and Josh Groban. With Mertzlufft playing the role of a college kid who hates the holiday and Corden cast as the "Dad who's lovin' life!" (and super happy to have all his family back around him and a beer in his hand), Chenoweth was next to join the fun, playing "Mom who is *living* for Thanksgiving rn," complete with a glass of wine. Then, Gad joined in as the turkey who doesn't have much more to say other than "gobble gobble gobble gobble" and "this is the end."

But it didn't end there. The group was then joined by LuPone playing the "Saucy Granny" and enjoying every beverage available, including Everclear, before Groban popped in as "*that* uncle" who believes the election was rigged and calls the pandemic a "scamdemic" while squirting ketchup onto a gourd. Last, but certainly not least, McDonald appeared as the "Smoke detector, detecting" and beeped out some crazy high notes to warn the family that their Thanksgiving celebration was maybe getting a little too lit.

Naturally, Mertzlufft was delighted by the surprise, telling Corden that he was honored they had all taken part, especially LuPone who he called his icon.

Watch the video above.

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The Late Late Show With James Corden

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Author:Ruth Kinane - Source: EW

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

• Movie

Streaming Options

One hundred juicy roasted turkeys, mountains of boiled potatoes, tureens of buttered peas —it’s easy to imagine a young Harry Potter’s delight (and hunger pangs) when he wandered into the Great Hall during his first holiday season at Hogwarts.

Christmas is one of the more magical elements of the Harry Potter film franchise, but one hungry Hogwartian’s dream can be a prop maker’s nightmare. “It’s a feeling of Oh crap, because you’ve got a big lump of work coming,” says Pierre Bohanna, who worked as a prop maker on all eight Potter films. “But I also get a skip in my step, because it’s a fun challenge.”

While he didn’t have a tireless army of house elves, Bohanna’s prop-making crew — which grew from around 15 to more than 50 people over the course of the franchise —  was just as dedicated. Five months before filming began, they reported to the workshop to create snow-covered Christmas trees, holly wreaths, and mistletoe festoons, in addition to the multi-course feasts. For the first Potter film, the team assembled the Christmas feast with entirely edible options (for the most realism possible), but soon realized their mistake. “We discovered, after a day or two, that the smell of real food was a really unpleasant experience,” recalls Bohanna. “So, on Chamber of Secrets, we decided to replicate most of it.”

It was The Goblet of Fire’s Yule Ball, however, that would present a challenge more daunting than any Triwizard task. As one of Hogwarts’ most formal celebrations, the event called for decadent details, like ice-sculpture centerpieces —which numbed the prop team's fingers during setup.

When it came to the menu, despite what they learned on previous movies, the crew was unable to escape using real food entirely. In order to assemble seafood platters (with more elaborate variation than a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans), they crew made overnight molds using real shrimp. “We would have to come back the next day to remove the old, brewing prawns,” Bohanna says. “That’s the real glamour of the film business!” Still, the prop maker believes the payoff is worth the smelly struggle: “Seeing something that convincing on screen —that’s a different type of magic.”

To read more on holiday film favorites, order the December issue of Entertainment Weekly or find it on newsstands now. Don't forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

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Author:Ruth Kinane - Source: EW