After a few years out of the spotlight, Renée Zellweger is back in our lives in a big way. The actor was just nominated for her fourth Academy Award, for her critically-acclaimed performance as Judy Garland in Judy. (She won for Best Supporting Actress in 2004 for Cold Mountain.)
The actor has played so many memorable roles over the course of her career but none is perhaps as beloved as Bridget Jones. Based on the best-selling novel by Helen Fielding, Zellweger made her onscreen debut as the titular character in Bridget Jones’s Diary in 2001, followed by Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason in 2004 and Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016. And in a new interview with Vanity Fair, she said she’s open to revisiting the lovably messy character once again.
When asked if there would be another installment of the hit franchise, she said…maybe: “It would be fun, yeah. I know people are coy. I’m not. I promise I’m not. I just don’t know.”
“I mean, that’s a Helen [Fielding, the author] question, but I hope she would want to,” Zellweger continued. “I know she wrote a book , so maybe. I’m always the last to know. They’re already building sets, and they call me and say, “What do you think?” It’s fun. It’s so much fun. Man, I’d love the experience of revisiting her. I love her. I just think she’s so much fun. She’s the best. Sure, if I got invited to do that, that sounds like fun.”
Well, that sounds incredibly promising, doesn’t it? When last we left our dear Bridget on the big screen, she was a new forty-something mom and finally married to Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Though the plot of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (which was written before Bridget Jones’s Baby) offers up plenty of fodder for a possible new film.
And considering nostalgia-inducing reboots, revivals, and sequel are all the rage in Hollywood, we wouldn’t be surprised (but very thrilled) if this became a reality in 2020.
Broadcast journalist Sheinelle Jones moved her family to New York from Philly for her dream job on NBC’s Today show. Five years later she’s the cohost of the beloved morning show’s third hour, the co-anchor of the Saturday edition of Weekend Today, and a correspondent for all platforms of NBC News. When she came in to record her episode of Glamour‘s new podcast What I Wore When,—during which I talk to women about an outfit they chose during a pivotal moment in their lives—she chose to talk about the dress she wore to her first day on the job.
If you think picking out a dress for work can be stressful, imagine having to do it with the knowledge that millions of people will be seeing—and maybe judging—it. The dress she chose: A floral, fitted Cynthia Rowley stretchy sheath that she got at Nordstrom. The dress, she told me, still holds up.
“You know what’s crazy, is that when I close my eyes to think about how I would look, and I opened my eyes to what I had on. I looked better than I imagined I could look.”
Jones’ first day as a ‘Today’ anchor five years ago—and the Cynthia Rowley dress she still loves. (Courtesy of Sheinelle Jones)
I was particularly excited to talk to Sheinelle. Growing up, my family always had the Today show on as we got ready in the morning and so, as an adult, I’ve remained loyal, even during the show’s ups and downs. One of the program’s bright spots, for me, is the number of women broadcasters they’ve introduced during the last few years.
When she came in for our interview, Sheinelle, 41, was in the process of booking parent-teacher conferences straight from her phone—I have a 10-month-old, so didn’t know that was a thing—and talked openly about the challenges of working six days a week while raising three children. Even though I was the one asking the questions, I felt comfortable talking to Sheneille—especially when she put her interviewer hat on and turned some questions back on me.
She was cool and real and we bonded over our love of shopping at men’s stores in the ‘90s (shout out, Structure), she explained how “news girls” (her words) choose their outfits and why the Today show trusts its talent to dress themselves, aging, and the fact that she still doesn’t own an “I’m successful!” handbag despite being, in fact, quite successful. She also broke into song four times which I found highly enjoyable.
Toward the end of our conversation, Sheinelle shared with me a particularly special part of her morning routine that involves her young daughter, and also casually said I should come on the Today show for a fashion segment. Sheneille, you have my number.
Perrie Samotin is the digital director of Glamour and the host of What I Wore When, produced by Glamour and iHeartRadio, the team behind our earlier podcasts, Broken Harts and She Makes Money Moves. Follow her on Instagram at @perriesamotin, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where ever you listen to your favorite shows.
John Paul Jones and Tayshia Adams were fan favorites on their respective seasons of The Bachelorette and The Bachelor, so you can imagine fans’ excitement when they became a couple on Bachelor in Paradise. But their union wasn’t exactly drama-free. The two experienced conflict both together and apart (remember Jones’ feud with Derek Peth)? Adams and Jones’ time on Paradise ultimately ended with a breakup of sorts, but there’s still so much more to their story. Below, the two reality stars discuss the status of their relationship, the BiP group text, and what’s next for both of them.
Glamour: JPJ, you revealed tonight that there’s a Bachelor in Paradise group text chain. Is there anyone not on it?
Tayshia Adams: I think everybody’s on it.
John Paul Jones: I think most of the people that stayed around for more than one night are on it, simply because if you were on for more than one rose ceremony, you just had the chance to develop friendships, and some people were on for such a short period of time, they just didn’t have the time to connect with anyone.
Tayshia: Also, John Paul Jones is no longer in the group chat, because he left!
Why did you leave?
JPJ: So at the time I was in the group chat, I was just trying to get over Tayshia, and we were both in the group chat, and I just didn’t want anything to do with her.
Tayshia: Isn’t that so rude?
No, because it makes sense!
JPJ: Tayshia broke up with me, and the best way to get over someone is to just not interact with them everyday or be constantly reminded of them.
I agree.
Tayshia: It’s true, it’s true.
So that’s why you left it?
JPJ: Yeah.
And you haven’t rejoined it?
JPJ: Yeah, no, and honestly, I’m in a group chat with the Bachelorette guys, and I don’t really have the time to stay updated on everything that goes on.
But you’re still on the Paradise group chat, Tayshia?
Tayshia: I am, I am, but I put it on silent because it kind of goes off sometimes, but it’s good, it’s fun.
What do you guys talk about?
Tayshia: The honest truth is that it’s just a lot of love and support. We call some people out, like each other, like ‘haha, that’s funny, Jordan,’ but honestly it’s mostly us saying we love each other and are here for each other and support each other.
What are you guys most excited about for your future together?
Tayshia: We’re working through what any normal couple works through, just because we did have a little bit of time away doesn’t mean that we don’t still go through our ups and downs. We’re just trying to navigate it as best we could, and I think that because we no longer have the cameras and all that stuff, we’re very open and transparent because we learned how to be really vulnerable and honest being on the show. I might be a little more vocal than maybe I should be at some times, but I’d rather him know where I’m coming from, and vice-versa.
JPJ: Right. Yeah, and I think Tayshia made the mature decision to end things on Paradise because it eliminated a lot of unnecessary pressure that may have come if we rushed into something, so I think we can let time kind of decide how this will play out.
Bad news, people: It was confirmed today (August 27) by multiple outlets that Leslie Jones is not returning to Saturday Night Live. The comedian made her debut as a cast member back in 2014, having previously working as a writer on the show.
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Jones opted to depart from the long-running series so she could work on her upcoming movie projects and Netflix special. Her absence will be palpable this upcoming season—especially during the “Weekend Update” segments, where she first gained a following.
And that following only grew with each season. After more than six years on the show, Leslie Jones has cemented herself as a Saturday Night Live icon, offering up top-notch impressions, hilarious bits, and even poignant commentary at times. Below, we explore 10 of her most memorable moments.
“You can’t control women,” Jones said during a segment of “Weekend Update.” “Because, I don’t know if y’all heard, but women are the same as humans. And I’m Leslie ‘Dracarys’ Jones! Why do all of these weird-ass men care what women do with their bodies?”
Jones and Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage filmed a parody of this hit Discovery Channel series a few years back, and it’s way funnier (and more intense) than the actual show.
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Emma Thompson also appeared in this sketch as an etiquette coach preparing Jones’ character to attend Baby Archie’s christening. Let’s just say things didn’t go according to plan.
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A duo like no other.
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Her vocal impression alone deserves 2,000 Emmys.
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Alec Baldwin is shaking.
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In this “Weekend Update” segment, Colin Jost and Michael Che hypothetically cut Jones’ impression of Williams, so she takes matters into her own hands—by showing up to the set dressed as the tennis champ.
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Had Jones actually starred in that remake a few years back, maybe the reviews would’ve been better.
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The two of them recreating the cow bell sketch would’ve been pure gold.
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“My arms rule, I love vegetables, and I can be president whenever I want.”
Saturday Night Live cast member Leslie Jones took on Alabama’s new anti-abortion law last night during the show’s “Weekend Update” segment—and she didn’t hold back on condemning it.
Jones joined co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che decked out as a handmaid from The Handmaid’s Tale in a red robe and bonnet. After joking that her name is now “Ofjost,” she then ripped off her costume to display a black T-shirt that had “mine” written on it along with an arrow pointing down. What followed was a powerful, yet comical, take on the newly passed Alabama legislation that makes performing an abortion at any stage of a pregnancy a felony.
“You can’t control women. Because, I don’t know if y’all heard, but women are the same as humans. And I’m Leslie ‘Dracarys’ Jones!” she said. “I mean, why do all of these weird-ass men care what women do with their bodies?”
She then showed a photo of all 25 of the white male Senators who voted for the legislation and said, “This looks like the mugshots of everyone arrested at a massage parlor,” Jones said. “And if any of them had lips, I would tell them to kiss my entire ass.”
Jones then went on to say, “The fact that nine states are doing this means this really is a war on women.” She then made it clear that anyone feeling alone or scared is not alone.
She concluded her compelling bit on the segment with a “Dracarys” command, which is what Emilia Clarke’s character Daenerys uses on her dragons to release fire.
Rashida Jones is no newcomer to social justice. She attended her first-ever protest as a teenager and, to this day, remembers what she was opposing (the Gulf War), what she felt (a sense of unity with other demonstrators), and even what she wore (her cheerleading uniform, having come straight from practice). Since then, she’s directed a Time’s Up-related video on sexual harassment in the workplace, launched a line of eyeglasses to raise money for the ACLU, and worked with the International Rescue Committee to help Syrian refugees.
Now, the actress, 42, is putting her skills to familiar use in front of (and behind) the camera with “The Last Weekend” project, a progressive coalition’s push to get people to the polls in the November midterms—and she’s doing it in a way that pokes fun at traditional celebrity PSAs that demand viewers take action.
“Hopefully we created something that people will share with each other,” Jones told Glamour in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s national “Last Weekend” kickoff. “People are fatigued. And I’m certainly fatigued of celebrity PSAs, so the joke was sort of [that] we ourselves are fatigued with our own PSA-ness.”
A still from “The Last Weekend” promo featuring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Rashida Jones.
“The Last Weekend” is exactly what it sounds like: In the days before the November 6 midterms, it’s an attempt to mobilize a volunteer army to hit the phones—and the pavement—to make sure people actually show up to vote that Tuesday.
Jones, known for comic turns on Parks and Recreation, The Office, and I Love You, Man, is part of a team that’s using humor to send a message about a dead-serious subject: An election that will determine who controls Congress and what happens to women’s rights.
Working with the organization Swing Left, which wants Democrats to wrest control of the House from the GOP, Jones helped write and direct a lighthearted call to action video co-starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda—two women with their own history of both funny film roles and serious political engagement.
“They’ve managed to take things that can be heavy and super political and difficult to understand and create levity around it so that people can really digest it and see it,” she said in praise of Fonda and Tomlin, whose teamwork spans projects from the 1980 hit 9 to 5 to the modern-day series Grace and Frankie.
The video features the three women urging viewers to avoid becoming complacent and to not only vote, but get others to do the same by volunteering in the run-up to the election. But, there’s a comic twist.
A promo video for “The Last Weekend” project.
“I just think [that’s] how you really get people—you make them laugh… You make them see themselves in something you’re talking about. You don’t treat it with a heavy hand. You don’t make it a chore.”
That’s a point worth remembering: Non-presidential election years don’t typically get Americans voters fired up; 2014 was particularly bad when it came to turnout. Despite the marches and the hashtags, some early analyses suggested a significant percentage of voters, including the young, might not show up.
Jones knows the history of underwhelming midterm turnout, but says this year could be different: “We’ve never lived in a time like this before, where we’ve all been kind of forced into civic engagement in a really kind of new and visceral way, where every single day, [we’re] seeing the kind of deconstruction of our democracy,” she said.
“I think people now understand more about how American democracy has been set up to function — because it’s not functioning in that way.”
Rashida Jones promotes “The Last Weekend” drive.
“The Last Weekend” coalition includes groups ranging from MoveOn, Indivisible, and the Democratic Attorneys General Association to the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Latino Victory, and Resistbot. Depending on who you ask, their work might fall into the category of making “good trouble,” a phrase Jones borrows from Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis.
“The first thing with making ‘good trouble’ is exercising your right to vote,” Jones said.
“Listen, there’s a lot of reasons to be disillusioned. The country’s divided. There’s evidence of interference in our voting process. There’s so much voter suppression. There’s a lot of reasons to feel like you can’t be heard,” she said. “But there’s not enough reasons not to encourage people to push through.”
