Todd Bridges was one of the stars of the classic ABC sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” which ran for eight seasons. Recently, while promoting his new horror film, “Skate to Hell,” he opened up about his experience on the show. Notably, he recalled former First Lady Nancy Reagan visiting the set and the mayhem the high-profile appearance caused.

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Reagan appeared on “Diff’rent Strokes” during its fifth season in order to promote her anti-drug campaign, “Just Say No,” for an episode titled “The Reporter.” However, due to heightened security, including Secret Service presence, the actors on the show were under more intense pressure than they typically experienced.

Bridges was featured on an August 2026 episode of the “Taboo’s Comics & Kicks” podcast and detailed the behind-the-scenes drama of the episode. He recalled, “Nancy Reagan was on the show, but the president [Ronald Reagan] came in the audience, and the audience was all Secret Service. It was the biggest, craziest nightmare ever. It was terrible.”

After that, Bridges stated that Universal Studios, where they filmed the show, was sealed off for Reagan’s appearance, including the airspace.

Todd Bridges Opened Up About The Security Needed For The High Profile Appearance

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Bridges continued his interview by delving further into the use of security, noting that he “learned a lot” about the Secret Service’s operations.

He explained, “One of the guys showed me in his trunk; they had surface-to-air missiles in there and stuff. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It was a no-fly zone. If they came close, they’d shoot you out [of] the sky.” After that, he discussed the measures taken for the actors and crew who were stationed inside the studio.

According to the actor, “Man, it was crazy. You got scanned when you came close, you got scanned again, then they would scan you again, and then scan you again before you actually got in the door. It was a nightmare. We couldn’t wait till she left.”

Todd Bridges Opened Up About Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just Say No’ Campaign Aided In His Personal Life

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Bridges interviewed with The Hollywood Reporter in 2016 and opened up about the time the former First Lady appeared on the classic ABC Sitcom. In describing the behind-the-scenes chaos, Bridges stated, “The audience held about 300 people in total. We didn’t know exactly how many of them were Secret Service, but it was a lot of them. Tons of them. They had guys on the roof. They had guys everywhere, man.”

He then said, “They were dressed just like normal people. The way I knew they weren’t our regular audience is that [the cast’s] jokes they weren’t laughing at, but when Nancy Reagan made a joke, they laughed at everything she said.”

After that, Bridges revealed that he’d retained Reagan’s “Just Say No” message and that it came into play during his later battle with drug use and addiction. The “Diff’rent Strokes” alum stated, “At my lowest point, I started remembering what she was talking about and the reason why the stuff was so bad. Once you figure out the root cause — what makes you do something [self-destructive] — you figure out how to stop.”

He added, “It’s really all about you when it comes down to it. You can’t blame anybody else. You can’t put it on whatever environment you grew up in. You have to quit blaming and put the responsibility on yourself to get off of it.”

Todd Recently Opened Up About His Relationship With Gary Coleman

Bridges made an appearance at the Fanboy Expo Knowville in early 2026. While there, he opened up about his relationship with his former “Diff’rent Strokes” costar Gary Coleman, who passed away in 2010. Notably, he shared that they’d reconciled before Coleman’s death after years of not speaking.

Per PEOPLE, the actor said, “The first three years [of Diff’rent Strokes] we were all very close, and then Gary’s parents came and changed a lot of stuff.”

He then shared about their reconciliation, “I’ll tell you a funny story. I hadn’t seen Gary in years or talked to him in years. I’m about to get on a plane, and somebody says, ‘Hey, man, your little brother’s here.’ I’m like, ‘I ain’t got no other brother; what are you talking about?’ He was like, ‘Your little brother’s here.’ I go, ‘Dude, I have no idea…’ He goes, ‘Gary Coleman.’”

Bridges stated that they were seated next to one another on the plane and that they spoke for the duration of the flight.

Todd’s New Movie Was Released In 2026

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Bridges remains active in Hollywood decades after starring in “Diff’rent Strokes.” One of his latest projects, “Skate to Hell,” had its Las Vegas premiere in January 2026 after securing over $55,000 for its production from crowdfunding, which began in 2024.

The movie was then released on DVD in March 2026 before going to digital platforms in April.

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Jessica Alba just reminded me how much power the right pair of shoes can have. I’m usually tempted to throw sneakers on with jeans and call it a day, but her latest outfit has me reconsidering that habit. Alba swapped sneakers for kitten heels, making her outfit read more polished, expensive and ready for a night out.

Alba was spotted in Beverly Hills wearing light-wash jeans with a relaxed gray off-the-shoulder top, a black Fendi Baguette bag and $585 silver Tresse Paris sandals. The shiny heels took her laid-back denim look straight into dinner-date territory without changing anything else about the outfit. Naturally, I searched for a similar style and found a strappy silver pair on Amazon for just $46.

Get the SLXCHBSL Slip-on Kitten Heels for $46 (was $50) at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate as of the publishing date but are subject to change.

The Slip-On Kitten Heels combine a square toe, metallic finish and knotted straps for a look that feels far more expensive than its under-$50 price tag. I’m especially into the slim 2.75-inch heel, which adds just enough height without going into the uncomfy, sky-high stiletto territory.

Alba’s silver color choice is surprisingly versatile. I’m thinking of it almost like jewelry for my feet: The metallic finish perks up basic denim and a tee, complements an all-black date-night outfit or gives a simple wedding guest dress some extra sparkle. The slip-on, strappy silhouette also feels light enough to wear through the final weeks of summer before closed-toe shoes take over.

One Amazon reviewer called the heels “very comfortable,” adding, “had no problems wearing them for long hours.” Another buyer loved the “chic strappy design,” noting that the front knot adds “a really stylish detail for parties or holidays.”

Alba’s outfit is making me rethink the sneakers with jeans combo. Her silver kitten heels did all the styling work, instantly making her casual basics feel more polished without changing the entire outfit. Whether I’m heading to dinner, drinks or a late-summer wedding, I’m grabbing this $46 Amazon pair as an easy shortcut for giving my everyday outfits the same elevated finish.

More Jessica Alba-Inspired Kitten Heels

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Charles M. Schulz had numerous options available to him toward the conclusion of Peanuts. After having created more than 17,000 comic strips over the course of nearly half a century, he could have given Charlie Brown a final triumph, let Snoopy prove once again that he is capable of executing another outlandish scheme, or simply made one more joke at the readers’ expense. What he eventually chose was to look back.

The concluding edition of Peanuts that appeared on February 13, 2000, is in fact less of a comic strip than a kind of scrapbook. It shows Snoopy seated at his typewriter, surrounded by many favorite images from the past comics, including a farewell letter from Schulz himself. It is a fitting ending for a comic built around small moments rather than grand adventures, but what makes it devastating is that Schulz died in his sleep on February 12, just hours before the final installment emerged.​​​​​​

The Final ‘Peanuts’ Strip Was Really a Walk Through 50 Years of Memories

Image via Peanuts

The genius of the February 13 strip is that Schulz didn’t try to invent one last Peanuts story; there was no grand resolution because there didn’t need to be one. Peanuts had spent five decades finding meaning in Charlie Brown’s failures, Lucy’s schemes, Snoopy’s fantasies and Linus’ anxieties. Trying to wrap all of that into one final gag would have felt almost beside the point. Instead, the strip gathers pieces of what came before. Charlie Brown and the football are there, Lucy’s psychiatric booth makes an appearance, Snoopy’s various adventures and alter egos are represented, along with familiar interactions involving Linus, Woodstock, and the rest of the gang. Readers were invited to remember the comic strips that came before.

Schulz created a comic strip focused on children who were not constantly engaged in saving the world but rather on dealing with their sadness and failure on the baseball field, in school, and in life. Charlie Brown personified the very inability to win, yet the will to keep trying despite it. By the time Schulz retired, Peanuts was appearing in more than 2,600 newspapers around the world. For generations, they had become part of the rhythm of everyday life.

Charles Schulz Refused to Let Anyone Else Continue ‘Peanuts’

Image via CBS

The farewell becomes even more powerful because Schulz had already made one decision that separated Peanuts from virtually every other long-running franchise: it would end with him. Schulz announced his retirement in December 1999 after being diagnosed with cancer and suffering serious health problems. His final newly drawn daily strip appeared on January 3, 2000, with Snoopy sitting at his typewriter as Schulz thanked his readers and said goodbye to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy. Crucially, the retirement message also said that his family did not want Peanuts to continue under another cartoonist.

It was a very personal decision as Schulz had drawn, written, and lettered the strip himself for almost half a century. The characters were inseparable from his particular voice and style, and letting another artist take over would have meant allowing someone else to decide what Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the others would do next.

The reruns could continue, and the characters could eventually appear in other forms, but there would be no new Peanuts newspaper strips drawn by someone else; the ending was his to make, which gives the final strip an emotional weight most franchises never get. There isn’t a new version waiting around the corner, and there isn’t a replacement creator preparing to continue the story. When Schulz put down his pen, Peanuts stopped moving forward with him.

Schulz Died the Day Before the Final ‘Peanuts’ Strip Appeared

Image via CBS

Schulz died on the night of February 12, 2000, from complications related to cancer. The following morning, newspapers published the final Sunday Peanuts strip as planned. The farewell he’d written as a retirement message became something much larger as it became the final statement from a creator who was gone before most of his audience even knew it.

The strip’s opening makes that realization particularly eerie. Charlie Brown is on the telephone and tells the unseen caller, “No, I think he’s writing.” Then the scene shifts to Snoopy, sitting atop his doghouse and typing. The words “Dear Friends…” appear above him before Schulz’s letter fills the final panel. Schulz wrote that drawing Charlie Brown and his friends had fulfilled his childhood ambition, thanked editors and fans for their support, and ended by naming the four characters who had become synonymous with his work: Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy.

The man who had spent nearly 50 years drawing these characters was gone, leaving behind the memories he had deliberately placed on the page. The final Peanuts strip was Schulz handing his work back to the people who had loved it, knowing there would be no new chapter. More than 26 years later, that’s why the strip still hurts. For once, Charlie Brown didn’t need to lose the football for Peanuts to break your heart.

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Peanuts

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1965 – 2005

Directors

Phil Roman

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This year, Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 cyberpunk masterpiece, Akira, is returning to theaters for a newly restored 4K re-release in theatres and IMAX. To celebrate the occasion, Collider is proud to announce that we’re partnering with IMAX and Crunchyroll to offer our readers the chance to experience this groundbreaking anime’s restoration on the biggest screen possible – at an advanced free screening!

If you’re in the L.A. area or have the means to get there, don’t miss out on this very special IMAX 4K screening of Akira. Join us on Wednesday, September 2. The screening will take place near LAX and begin at 7:00 p.m. Read on for more information on how you can enter for your chance to win free tickets to this advanced screening.

How to Get ‘Akira’ IMAX Screening Tickets

Don’t miss your chance to win free tickets! This IMAX 4K screening will fill up quickly, so don’t wait to claim your seats. For your chance to join us for this free IMAX showing of Akira in 4K, hit this link to provide us with your email address. Be sure to let us know if you’d like to bring a guest with you, and RSVP as soon as possible to secure your spot. All confirmed guests will receive an email confirmation. Please note that seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

‘Akira’ Returns to Theaters in IMAX and 4K

Directed by Otomo and co-written with Izo Hashimoto from Otomo’s manga, Akira is widely recognized as a definitive anime masterpiece. When it first debuted, the cyberpunk epic took fans far into the future, shattering the boundaries of Japanese animation.

Akira takes place in the year 2019 in Neo-Tokyo, a sprawling, technologically advanced metropolis, over three decades after World War III. In the city’s underbelly, motorcycle gang leader Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata) spends his nights racing rival groups with his best friend, Tetsuo (Nozomu Sasaki). One night, Tetsuo encounters a strange young boy with ESP, the product of human experimentation. When a military squadron arrives looking to retrieve their experiment, Tetsuo is captured along with him and taken back to an army research facility. Kaneda, determined to rescue his friend, sneaks into the facility to bring Tetsuo back, but extreme experimentation has left him consumed by madness.

The 4K re-release of Akira opens in theaters and IMAX on September 4. The film will be released in Japanese with English subtitles, as well as in English dub. Tickets are now on sale. Check with Collider for more special event screenings.

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Release Date

July 16, 1988

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Runtime

124 Minutes

Director

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Katsuhiro Otomo

Writers

Katsuhiro Otomo, Izô Hashimoto

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Fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher book series rejoiced when Prime Video’s wildly successful series, Reacher, hit TV screens in 2022 with the strapping, gargantuan Alan Ritchson in the titular role. Ritchson’s four-season run as Reacher, in the minds of many fans, righted the wrong of Tom Cruise’s original turn as the hero; even creator Childs eventually admitted that casting Cruise as a 6’5, 250-pound bruiser was ridiculous, telling the BBC that “Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality.” Cruise’s two Reacher movies — Jack Reacher, released in 2012, and its forgotten sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, released in 2016 — suffer as a result, as they adhere to the formula of Cruise action blockbusters, rather than honor Child’s work on the page. Nowhere is this more apparent than with Edward Zwick‘s Never Go Back.

But Cruise’s Reacher films also offer the star’s typically superlative level of spectacle and stuntwork, making the film not quite a total miss. Curious viewers can now decide for themselves, as the latter is climbing the streaming charts on Paramount+.

‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’ Was a Mixed Bag

Image via Paramount Pictures

For viewers who weren’t already Reacher fans (and thus disappointed in the leading man), Christopher McQuarrie‘s Jack Reacher was a thrilling, action-packed experience, aided by Cruise’s innate movie star charisma and the unstoppable, devil-may-care persona that the actor brought to his Mission: Impossible movies — four of which would go on to be directed by McQuarrie.

With Never Go Back, the reins were handed over to Cruise’s Last Samurai director, Edward Zwick, best known for historical epics and war dramas like Glory, Legends of the Fall, and Courage Under Fire. The film surging up the charts on Paramount Plus is based on Child’s book of the same name. In it, Reacher returns to uncover another grave government conspiracy, which leads to his going on the run as a fugitive with few allies — most notably Military Police commander Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), who is also being framed.

While it performed fairly well at the box office, the film’s reception was mixed at best, with critics and Reacher fans alike asking whether we truly needed a sequel, even if the series is ripe with stories waiting to be adapted for the screen. The original will never be confused with Shakespeare, but it had enough dramatic heft and engaging twists and turns to elevate itself above the basic action crop. Never Go Back, however, had a story and retreaded plot that would have better served as a direct-to-video sequel, one that someone of Cruise’s pedigree would have no business partaking in. Where McQuarrie’s film let its stacked supporting cast shine in various ways, Zwick’s film underutilizes its own supporting actors, including versatile talents like Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge, and Holt McCallany. No Cruise movie would be complete without awkward chemistry with his female co-star, and here, Smulders’ tough MP commander somehow falls for Reacher despite his emotional distance.

‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’ Set the Template for the Modern Tom Cruise Movie

Today, every Tom Cruise film is a major cinematic event; for proof, just witness the months-long rollout for his upcoming return to creatively challenging work, the highly anticipated Alejandro González Iñárritu film Digger. Given this, it’s bizarre in hindsight that Cruise made the relatively forgotten Jack Reacher: Never Go Back only 10 years ago. Upon re-examination, however, Cruise’s Reacher sequel quietly set the blueprint for the Cruise blockbuster event that today captivates audiences across the globe.

The release of both Top Gun: Maverick and the 2010s and 2020s Mission: Impossible films revolved around Cruise’s public persona as an inscrutable, uber-determined, and God-like manifestation of destiny (to quote Alec Baldwin‘s character in Rogue Nation). In Never Go Back, Reacher has been fully absorbed by the Cruise persona, making the character nearly indistinguishable from Pete Mitchell or Ethan Hunt. While the film’s script doesn’t attempt to raise the stakes, this version of Reacher is not an incognito outlaw, but rather the embodiment of American liberty and justice.

If you can’t buy into the story and characterization, Never Go Back undoubtedly excels as a piece of pure spectacle, with its action set pieces outmatching its predecessor. Edward Zwick’s sense of scope and epic magnitude come in handy here, as all the fights, shootouts, and chases (more top-notch running from Cruise, per usual) mirror the white-knuckle intensity of Mission: Impossible‘s showcase of death-defying stunts.

While it is imperfect and unnecessary, you could still do a lot worse than spending your time watching Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, a movie that probably didn’t need to exist. When you have Tom Cruise at the top of his physical game, though, it’s hard to complain.

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Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

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Release Date

October 21, 2016

Runtime

118 minutes

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Director

Edward Zwick

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Writers

Marshall Herskovitz, Richard Wenk, Edward Zwick

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Before Slow Horses, before Reacher, before Homeland, before governmental paranoia and institutional betrayal became the bulk of the binge-watching lineup, there was Jennifer Garner… in a pink wig… sprinting through a nightclub in Taipei with a stolen hard drive. Her early aughts ABC spy series Alias has been off the air for almost two decades, but its fingerprints are still everywhere.

Created by J.J. Abrams and stacked with talent from top to bottom, the show ran five seasons on ABC, burning through a new undercover mission every week while weaving serialized storylines underneath that kept getting bigger. Recently, all 105 episodes landed on Pluto for the show’s 25th anniversary, right in the middle of a bit of a Garner Renaissance. (She brought The Last Thing He Told Me back to Apple TV+ in February and then opened The Five-Star Weekend to a record-breaking debut on Peacock in July.) But Alias is what all of that was built on, and now, we’ve got plenty of excuses to revisit it.

Every Week a New Wig, a New Mission, and a Cast You Won’t Believe

If you missed Alias, or you were too young for it the first time around, you should know the basics. Garner plays Sydney Bristow, a grad student who’s been moonlighting as a spy for what she thinks is a black-ops division of the CIA. She finds out in the pilot that the organization she works for is actually the enemy, and the rest of the series follows her working as a double agent to take it down from the inside. Every week she puts on a wig, adopts a new accent, struts into some overseas operation, and finishes the mission. (In other words, she kicks ass and takes more names.)

But what keeps the show locked in is the toxic familial dynamics. Sydney’s father, Jack Bristow, played by Victor Garber, has been lying to her for her entire life. The layers of those lies peel back slowly across the first two seasons, and each one reframes everything you thought you understood about the pilot. Ron Rifkin plays Arvin Sloane, Sydney’s boss at the fake CIA, and his motivations shift so many times that you stop trying to predict him and just gleefully marvel at his villainy. Michael Vartan, Bradley Cooper before he was Bradley Cooper, Carl Lumbly, and Kevin Weisman round out the main cast, with star-studded guests (Quentin Tarantino, is that you?) popping up across seasons. There was romance and betrayal, explosions, thrilling car chases, some puzzling mythological undertones, and an identity theft subplot so wild it has to be seen to be believed.

How ‘Alias’ Rewrote the Spy Drama Playbook

The reason Alias holds up decades later goes beyond all of that, though: the things Abrams figured out on this show became the wiring in every spy series that came after it. The first unlocked binge-watching secret was structural. Network TV in 2001 was still choosing between procedural and serialized. Alias did both at the same time, and it worked because the weekly missions weren’t filler. They kept feeding you new information about who Sydney could trust and who was lying to her, which meant you had a reason to show up every Sunday.

The second was where the show put its emotional weight. The missions are fun, but Sydney’s relationship with her father is the spine of the story. Garner and Garber play off each other with a tension that never fully resolves. She needs him and doesn’t trust him, and he loves her and keeps choosing the work over everything else. That dynamic is more interesting than any of the gadgets or fight choreography. It’s also the thing the genre adopted wholesale. Carrie and Saul on Homeland run on the same push and pull. Slow Horses builds its entire ensemble around the question of whether the people above you are protecting you or burning you. Reacher keeps circling back to military loyalty gone wrong. The handler relationship, the institutional suspicion, Alias proved what existed in movies could exist on network television, which made the leap to streaming even less daunting.

‘Alias’ Bet Big on Jennifer Garner…and Won

Image via ABC

All five seasons are on Pluto, and the first three are where the show is at its absolute best. A lot of that is because of Garner. She was 29 when the pilot aired, doing her own stunts, disappearing into a new version of the same character every episode, and carrying the emotional weight of a show that kept asking more of her. Sydney could kick through a door and fall apart emotionally in a parking garage ten minutes later. Garner made both feel easy.

Then there’s the Sydney and Vaughn (Vartan) romance. Vartan plays her handler at the real CIA, the one person she can be honest with, and the show takes its time letting that relationship build. They can’t be together for professional and safety reasons, and the tension of that runs through the first two seasons in a way that makes you impatient. When the show finally lets something shift between them, it earns it. The Season 2 finale ends on a cliffhanger so disorienting that it resets the entire story going into Season 3, and that reset is one of the boldest swings network TV has ever taken. Everything you thought was settled gets thrown out, and Sydney has to figure out what she lost and whether she can get any of it back.

Seasons 4 and 5 have their moments, too, introducing new characters, villains, and complications that muddle the bigger mission. And its early success meant ABC wrote a blank check for whatever Alias wanted to do in later seasons. So even when the story wanes, the fight scenes, chase sequences, and spy games grow more impressive. If you’ve been curious about the blueprint for streaming’s spy show boom, or have just been craving an action-packed small-screen drama worth injecting into your veins, you can’t do better than this.

The entertainment world is still reeling from the sudden and tragic passing of film and television star Hayden Panettiere, who has been a fixture on many of our screens since Remember the Titans and A Bug’s Life. Panettiere died at the age of just 36 last week, and fans have spent the days since celebrating her life by revisiting the best performances from throughout her career. Scream 4, Heroes, and I Love You, Beth Cooper have been in the rotation for many, as well as the surprising ABC drama where Panetierre spent six seasons delivering some of her finest work.

From 2012 to 2018, Panetierre starred in ABC’s Nashville, alongside Connie Britton and Charles Esten. The series, which took a dramatic behind-the-scenes look into the underbelly of the country music industry, aired a total of 124 episodes. Panetierre appeared in every one of them. Nashville may not have the same kind of genre appeal as the Scream or Heroes franchises, but the show was always buoyed by the stellar performances from its cast, and Panetierre was consistently one of the strongest of the ensemble.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking to watch (or rewatch) Nashville in the near future, it’s about to get a little more difficult to binge the series. Netflix, the only major streamer currently carrying the series, is set to lose Nashville in the coming weeks.

‘Nashville’ Leaving Netflix in the US

Image via ABC

All six seasons of Nashville are currently available to stream on Netflix, allowing fans to watch through every episode on the same platform. That will sadly be changing next month, however, as Netflix has confirmed that Nashville is going to be exiting the lineup in September.

The Netflix newsletter for September 2026 revealed that every season of Nashville will be leaving the service’s US lineup on September 15th. That gives TV fans about three more weeks to watch as much of the series as they can before it’s gone. There hasn’t been any word yet on whether Nashville will appear on another major platform after leaving Netflix’s lineup. Given that it aired on ABC initially, it seems likely that the show will eventually pop back up on Hulu, though there’s no telling exactly when.

Nashville is, frustratingly, only one of several major shows set to exit Netflix in the month of September. The service is also set to lose every season of Orphan Black, Girlfriends, Black Lightning, and Lopez vs. Lopez.

What Is ‘Nashville’ About?

If you’re not familiar, Nashville is a drama about the country music business, initially centering on two major stars at very different points in their careers. Britton, fresh off Friday Night Lights and American Horror Story, took on the lead role of Rayna Jaymes, an aging country star who is slowly coming to terms with the fact that her spotlight is waning. In order to give her career a second wind, and hopefully boost her popularity with younger fans, Rayna is booked to be the opening act for Panettiere’s character, Juliette Barnes. Of course, the two stars butt heads throughout the tour. Juliette is the young upstart that the fans are paying to see, but Rayna knows the industry like the back of her hand, and she still believes she’s the much bigger act of the two.

The series also stars Charles Esten, Clare Bowen, Jonathan Jackson, Sam Palladio, Lennon Stella, Maisy Stella, and Chris Carmack. Notable guest stars over Nashville‘s six seasons include Kimberly-Williams Paisley, Chloe Bennet, Jay Hernandez, Derek Hough, Wyclef Jean, Rachel Bilson, Mario Lopez, and Vince Gill.

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2012 – 2018-00-00

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Directors

Callie Khouri, Stephen Cragg, Michael Lohmann, Allan Arkush, Julie Hébert, Michael Waxman, Paul McCrane, Arlene Sanford, Dan Lerner, Eric Stoltz, Jean de Segonzac, Lily Mariye, Mario Van Peebles, Mike Binder, Timothy Busfield, Bethany Rooney, Dawn Wilkinson, Devon Gummersall, Eric Close, Jan Eliasberg, Ron Underwood, Sanaa Hamri, Patrick R. Norris, Jet Wilkinson

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  Hayden Panettiere

  Juliette Barnes

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  Clare Bowen

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  Scarlett O’Connor

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  Charles Esten

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  Jonathan Jackson

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Tom Cruise may still be one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, but his romantic life is reportedly proving far less successful. 

At 64, the actor is said to be single, while several of his famous former partners have moved on to new relationships. 

From Ana de Armas’ PDA-filled getaway with musician Beto Montenegro to Katie Holmes making her latest romance Instagram official, Cruise is reportedly watching his exes move forward while privately hoping to find a lasting relationship of his own.

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Despite his status as one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars, Tom Cruise is reportedly feeling the loneliness that has accompanied his bachelor life. 

A source close to the actor told the Daily Mail, “Tom is frustrated that his love life has not been smooth because often he is lonely.” 

His romantic prospects have been limited to whispers of a renewed connection with Russian socialite Elsina Khayrova, following their brief fling in 2023.

According to the insider, the actor is not desperate to find someone, even though his friend Victoria Beckham reportedly continues to try to introduce him to potential partners. 

What he apparently wants is something more lasting than another high-profile romance. “But I do know that Tom would love to get married again and have it last, he wants a solid relationship. Like anyone, he wants to be in love,” the source said.

That desire has become more noticeable as several of his former partners appear to have found happiness elsewhere, creating an uncomfortable contrast with Cruise’s current single status.

Cruise Reportedly Finds Ana de Armas’ New Romance ‘Hard To See’

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Ana de Armas appears to have moved on from her reported romance with Tom Cruise, and her latest relationship has put that transition on public display. 

The 38-year-old actress was photographed showing affection toward musician Beto Montenegro during a sun-soaked getaway in Formentera, Spain. Montenegro is the frontman of Venezuelan band Rawayana.

The sight came after de Armas and Cruise were linked for roughly nine months, beginning with sightings in London in February 2025. 

Their reported relationship included private-jet trips, David Beckham’s 50th birthday celebration and a hand-holding outing in Vermont. 

Neither star publicly confirmed the romance, but insiders claimed their professional ambitions eventually made the relationship difficult to manage.

The pair reportedly chose friendship over continuing the romance, but one source acknowledged, “It is hard for Tom to see her move on.” Still, the insider added that “he is happy for her if she is happy.” 

Tom Cruise Faces Katie Holmes’ New Romance After ‘TomKat’ Marriage

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Katie Holmes’ new relationship may carry an especially complicated history for Cruise because of the highly publicized marriage they once shared. 

Holmes, now 47, is dating artist Jason Bard Yarmosky, who is nine years her junior, and has taken the relationship public on Instagram. Their romance comes years after Holmes and Cruise became one of Hollywood’s most closely followed couples.

The pair began their whirlwind courtship in 2005, married in an extravagant Italian ceremony and welcomed daughter Suri in 2006. 

Their marriage ended abruptly when Holmes filed for divorce in 2012, bringing the era of “TomKat” to an unexpected close. The source described the aftermath bluntly, noting, “What happened with Katie Holmes, that was a public humiliation.”

The insider also claimed, “I think it is hard for him to see her move on,” while saying Cruise did not like discussing Holmes and that people around him know not to mention her. 

The source further alleged that Suri dropping Cruise’s last name is “crushing.” Meanwhile, another of Cruise’s exes, Nicole Kidman, is enjoying time with Michael Reinstein in Portofino, while Penélope Cruz has been married to Javier Bardem for 16 years.

Kidman Opens Up About Her Marriage To Cruise

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Recently, Nicole Kidman offered a rare perspective on the relationship that began when she was just 22. In an interview with British Vogue, the actress reflected on marrying Tom Cruise on Christmas Eve in 1990, recalling how quickly their relationship developed after meeting while filming “Days of Thunder.”

The “Babygirl” actress revealed that becoming the wife of one of Hollywood’s biggest stars at such a young age “seemed completely natural” because “We just fell madly in love and it was that simple.” 

Kidman also remembered being warned that marrying Cruise could damage her career. “I remember people saying to me, ‘OK, well this is really going to affect your career,’” she recalled. Her response was unapologetic. “I don’t care. I’m in love. I want to be married,” she said.

Kidman also reflected on how being married to Cruise shaped her early adulthood. “Suddenly I was 22, 23 years old and I had this huge movie star husband,” she explained, revealing that she was thrust into intense public attention very young. 

Kidman and Cruise remained married for more than a decade, adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, and worked together again on “Far and Away” and “Eyes Wide Shut.”

Tom Cruise Reportedly Wants To Clear The Air With Nicole Kidman

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Nicole Kidman’s comments about her marriage to Tom Cruise reportedly prompted an unexpected reaction from her former husband, with reports claiming Cruise wanted the two to have a private conversation. 

As The Blast reported, Cruise was initially “irritated” after Kidman discussed their marriage in her recent interview, particularly when she recalled being warned that marrying him could affect her career. 

The report claimed Cruise did not necessarily view Kidman’s comments as an attack, but allegedly preferred that their past remained private. 

A source revealed he believed the two may have unresolved matters they could address directly and that a face-to-face conversation could help “clear the air.” 

The insider also claimed Cruise was interested in a family reunion involving their two adopted children, Bella and Connor, something the former couple had reportedly discussed before but never managed to arrange.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and his executive producer wife Molly McNearney recently opened up about the secret beginnings of their romantic relationship.

McNearney confessed she initially hesitated to cross professional boundaries with her boss after realizing the comedian was deeply interested in pursuing an intimate relationship with her.

They quietly navigated a hidden workplace romance before finally taking their relationship public, marrying, and expanding their family with two children alongside Jimmy Kimmel’s older kids from his previous marriage.

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McNearney discussed her “meet-cute” with her husband during a joint appearance on the “Armchair Expert,” podcast, detailing how they transitioned from colleagues and friends to lovers, then eventually lifelong partners.

The conversation centered on how working together affected their marriage and family life, and McNearney spared no detail.

She explained that someone, likely Kimmel himself, had asked everyone to share the names of their five favorite foods during a meeting at their workplace.

McNearney remembered rattling off “Pizza and gnocchi, crab claws, BLT and chocolate chip cookies.”

Several months later, Kimmel invited her to his home. Upon arrival, she discovered her favorite dishes were all in front of her.

“I go to Jimmy’s house, he asks me to come over after work, and he opens up the door, and it smells delicious, and he’s like, ‘I made some things,’ and it was pizza and gnocchi, crab claws, chocolate chip cookies and BLT,” she recalled per Page Six.

When podcast host Dax Shepard asked if she “immediately register[ed] that as, ‘Oh, he wants to f–k,’” the producer admitted she did.

“Yes! It made me very excited and very nervous,” McNearney shared. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, no. This is a bad idea.’ He was my boss.”

The Couple’s Romance Story Has Faced Negative Reactions Online

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The reaction to Kimmel’s wife’s retelling of their love story has since been met with mixed to negative reactions, with many comparing the comedian to disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Former reality TV star and politician Spencer Pratt led the criticism, asking on X, “Isn’t this what Harvey Weinstein did?”

Another said, “Jimmy Kimmel and Eric Swalwell’s tight friendship suddenly makes a lot more sense,” comparing the comedian to the embattled former California governor candidate.

“Turns out he’s just another Harvey Weinstein,” a third critic noted, with others branding the story as “absolutely gross.”

However, amid the backlash, several defenders pointed to Kimmel’s long-standing marriage to McNearney, highlighting their strong professional and personal partnership.

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The producer said the professional hierarchy was an obstacle that complicated their situation. She was concerned that a romantic association could affect her career and the workplace environment.

McNearney noted that the person with more power in the dynamic wouldn’t worry about it, but it bothered her, and she was “skittish.”

“I just kept thinking statistically this is not going to work out, and your life isn’t going to change, but mine does,” she said. “And that’s what freaked me out. Because I had worked really, really hard.”

The couple ultimately kept their relationship on the down low due to the power imbalance, as Kimmell was her boss. They did “some sneaking” before deciding to make their relationship public and inform their colleagues.

“The first few months, we were very, very quiet,” McNearney stated. “I was very nervous about it changing the work dynamic, and I was in a room of mostly men, and we had a great thing going on, and I didn’t want it to change.”

Her concerns about the romance were consistent with comments she previously made in a 2014 Glamour interview barely a year into their marriage.

When asked if she always knew Kimmel was the one, she said, “I never once thought of him that way or looked at him that way. I really didn’t. I had worked for him for so long… And that’s workplace 101. You don’t date your boss.”

Molly McNearney And Jimmy Kimmel’s History

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McNearney met Kimmel when she joined “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” as an assistant. She eventually rose through the ranks, joining the writing staff to become one of the show’s leading writers and producers.

According to Us Weekly, their friendship turned to romance in 2009 when they started dating. Three years later, Kimmel “popped the question” while they were vacationing in Africa.

They married the next year in California in a lavish ceremony attended by several of their celebrity friends, including Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Ellen DeGeneres.

The couple welcomed their daughter Jane in 2014 and their son Billy in 2017. Kimmel had two older children, Katie and Kelvin, from his previous marriage to Gina Kimmel.

Molly McNearney And Jimmy Kimmel Remain Committed To Each Other

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McNearney and Kimmel have now been together for 17 years, married for 13, and their bond has remained strong ever since.

The couple’s latest podcast appearance brought attention to their relationship. McNearney has previously talked about their experience working together and the challenges that arise from managing the professional and the personal.

In her Glamour interview, she said, “I like to keep it separate, and I’m very good at compartmentalizing work—at home, it’s a different relationship. At 10 A.M., he’s my boss, not my husband.”

That dynamic has persisted over the years and seems to be the secret to their successful relationship and how they manage their life at work and at home.

A meme used to be regarded as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture,” and it still kind of is, though the definition’s shifted a bit. Now, it concerns things that are spread online through social media, usually within fandoms, and those things that spread are usually of a humorous variety. Or at least memes are supposed to be funny.

Certain movies have inspired more memes than others. It’s hard to determine which movies have objectively spawned the most memes, but if you spend enough time online, you start to see some usual suspects. Some of the films below have been mocked through memes, while others have been celebrated through memes (and sometimes, there’s a bit of both). They’re also generally more recent movies, but that’s understandable, since a “meme,” in the current/modern sense, is a relatively recent phenomenon.

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‘Morbius’ (2022)

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

With Morbius, the memes are the only things that matter. The movie is otherwise a footnote within the broader superhero genre, because not many people genuinely like Morbius. But people did enjoy making fun of it, and while some of the other highly-memed movies that’ll be mentioned in a bit have people making memes out of love for whatever they’re memeing, the memes against Morbius were more spiteful.

“It’s Morbin’ time” was the big one, even though it obviously wasn’t said in the movie. Then there was that whole dance sequence, and the way it returned to theaters as a way to potentially cash in on all the ironic memes, but that didn’t seem to do much to actually allow the movie to earn that fabled “Morbillion dollars.” Since the film wasn’t very good, the bullying felt kind of fair, or at least could be justified as punching up. Interest in the Sony Spider-Man Universe But Without Spider-Man (the SSUBWS) was never that high, after all.

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‘Bee Movie’ (2007)

Image via DreamWorks

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Hey, if an entire article can be written about the memes that Bee Movie has inspired, then it’s worth giving it a quick mention here. Thomas Butt broke it all down in more detail, and made the very accurate declaration that Bee Movie is a “meme factory.” It joins Morbius as one of those not particularly well-liked movies that’s endured largely because memes made fun of it.

There are countless “Bee Movie except x” videos on YouTube, and getting lost down that rabbit hole is more fun than watching the film itself. “The Bee Movie without Anything Even Remotely Related to Bees” is especially good, and honestly almost avant-garde. Just the existence of Bee Movie already feels like a joke, so anything that makes it into even more of a joke feels hard to resist.

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‘Titanic’ (1997)

Image via Paramount Pictures

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James Cameron knows how to make movies that resonate with people, and Titanic might well show that best of all. Like, the Avatar movies have also been hugely successful, sometimes so successful that people are confused about their popularity, and you get memes about that series not having memes, even though there are still memes of a less meta variety. Look, the Avatar series is complicated.

But Titanic… you know what you’re in for, with Titanic. And the changing of the way the movie’s been perceived overall, if you’re going by memes and what people say online, is interesting. The film was huge when it came out, then mocked for some of the 2000s and a bit of the 2010s, but now, people don’t just poke fun at the movie in a mean-spirited way. There are cheesy and broad things here to enjoy and make fun of at the same time, and so that’s kind of where Titanic is right now.

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‘A Minecraft Movie’ (2025)

Image via Warner Bros.

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The bad side of meme-making and all that was exposed by some of what A Minecraft Movie inspired. Some enjoyment of this seemed to be sincere, so it wasn’t entirely a Morbius situation again, but other things that really took off here seemed ironic, or maybe just hard to comprehend for someone who’s a little older and/or didn’t really grow up with Minecraft.

A Minecraft Movie seemed like a bit of a joke when it was first announced, and the trailer was hugely criticized, but the movie did well, and fans of the game… again, some of them sort of seemed pleased? But the “Chicken Jockey” meme did get kind of out of control, with cinemas filled with people trying to one-up each other in pulling stunts when Jack Black’s character said those infamous words. The hole is there, if you want to be a rabbit and disappear down it.

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‘300’ (2006)

Image via Warner Bros

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The memes that were popular around 300 aren’t really as cool or funny anymore, and maybe somebody out there has already rolled their eyes at the “This is Sparta!” movie making it onto this ranking. But 300 is historically important, as far as memes go. And yes, that’s a ridiculous thing to say, but it did feel like one of the first movies to come out at a time when memes were popular, and have memes tied to it pretty much instantly.

They were impossible to avoid in the late 2000s, and even if you were too young to actually watch this R-rated movie, you likely knew a bunch of the hammy dialogue. There were also eye-catching visuals here and a style that was easy to simultaneously celebrate and mock, because 300 is spectacular and very silly at the same time, so maybe it was all inevitable.

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‘Shrek’ (2001–Present)

Image via DreamWorks Animation

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Some of the memes around Shrek are horrifying, or might be horrifying if you’ve not grown up online and seen the degradation of Shrek happen in real time. Maybe it’s fitting, though, because from the very first movie, Shrek was irreverent and definitely felt quite adult if you were just a kid, with some of its humor.

So, as those kids in question grew up, some felt a need to find ways to push the humor of Shrek a little further. Sometimes, uncomfortably far. “Shrek is love… Shrek is life” is something you can research yourself if you feel so inclined, but it’s not really worth it. Other memes and parts of the fandom are more endearing, though, like the time in 2018 when more than 200 people collaborated to make a chaotic remake of the first film called Shrek Retold.

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008–Present)

Image via Marvel

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It might seem like cheating to put a whole cinematic universe here, but it’s hard to find a series within the Marvel Cinematic Universe that feels particularly heavily-memed. Also, just about all the movies within the series have had some degree of memes made about them, so it’s not just that there’s a quantity of memes because there’s a large quantity of movies.

There are lots of memes per movie, at least for a lot of the movies, and sometimes even before the movie itself has come out. You can see Avengers: Doomsday getting memed even with people only having a few minutes to make fun of or celebrate (or do a bit of both), via the trailer footage released to date. This whole cinematic universe has been dominant and popular for almost two decades now, so it having inspired a ton of stuff meme-wise shouldn’t be too surprising.

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‘The Dark Knight’ Trilogy (2005–2012)

Image via Warner Bros.

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Whenever Christopher Nolan makes a movie, memes follow. An honorable mention should go out to Oppenheimer, though it was hard to figure out whether to include that or Barbie, because both undeniably contributed to the overall memetic phenomenon that was Barbenheimer. And then more recently, The Odyssey inspired quite a few memes, largely thanks to one Robert Pattinson line about beggars and the ease with which music can be added to the Sirens sequence for comedic effect.

But the most memed movies with Nolan’s name attached would have to be his Dark Knight trilogy, and especially The Dark Knight Rises, which was the hammiest of the bunch (largely thanks to Bane). There’s also a balance here, with the kinds of memes, because there are lots of things The Dark Knight movies do right, and quite a few things they do wrong, so you get a mix of affectionate and cynical memes with this trilogy.

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‘The Lord of the Rings’ (2001–2003)

Before The Lord of the Rings movies, the books (or book, if you’re talking just The Lord of the Rings) were popular, and you sometimes got references to the whole saga outside the book sphere (oh hey, Led Zeppelin IV). But the movies did catapult The Lord of the Rings to new heights culturally, even if some might prefer the books, but the sheer enormity of the memes here… one does not simply discount the memes.

Like the only example ranking above The Lord of the Rings here, it’s hard to watch these three movies without finding at least one highly-memed moment per scene. Over-explaining trivia has become a meme, there was the “They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard” remix, and the time someone uploaded a version of The Fellowship of the Ring where Sam said, “If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been” every time he took a step. And on, and on, and on…

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‘Star Wars’ (1977–Present)

Image via Lucasfilm

The Star Wars series is going here largely because of the prequel trilogy. What more has to be said? Well, maybe a little more. It’s probably worth noting that the prequels became so memeable and popular on that front because the original trilogy was also a juggernaut pop culture-wise, and so the momentum kept going, people were always making jokes (often affectionately) about the series, and then a new trilogy came out in a world where the internet was a thing.

And the internet got more popular in the years following 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, or at least making memes online got more popular, and then things reached a point where it’s hard to watch a scene from any of the prequels without being reminded of at least one meme. The original trilogy has its memes, too, and even the sequel trilogy has some attached to it, but the prequels are the memequels. They are unstoppable. One can drown in memes there.

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