Entertainment
The Cast Of Willy Wonka – See What They Are Up To Now
Originally filmed and released in 1971, the classic kid lesson movie of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory became a bit of a sleeper hit that crept across America and became a classic. The movie was replayed again and again on TV for years afterwards, and the golden ticket prize inside the chocolate bar that the movie’s hero wins has been replicated in jokes and references repeatedly. In 2005 the movie was released again in a new version, with actor Johnny Depp taking the role of Willy Wonka much further than Gene Wilder ever did, and it to become a success of its own as well. The second version resonated with audiences of another generation and had the same effect. So where are all those actors today? Many are grown up now and have had some interesting tales of their own as well.
Peter Ostrum
In the original Willy Wonka Peter Ostrom played the original hero of the film, Charlie Bucket. He was the boy who found the last golden ticket, the big prize that would allow any winning child to visit Willy Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory. Harkening from Cleveland, Peter was the perfect pick for the average boy surrounded by a bunch of greedy rich brats touring the chocolate factory.
Today, Peter still has his golden ticket from the movie props, however his life ticket wasn’t film or acting. Ironically, Peter was more at home around horses, and he decided to become a veterinarian instead with a specialty in large farm animals. Today, he still works his medical craft in the greater regional Cleveland area, but occasionally he whips out his golden ticket for the age-old fans.
Freddie Highmore
In the remake of Willy Wonka it was Freddie Highmore who won the casting to be the remake Charlie Bucket directed by Tim Burton. High more was a classic pick with a marketing-perfect smile. And Highmore already had heavy experience with his role in Finding Neverland.
Today, Freddie Highmore continues in his acting, but he won’t let his casting be put in a rut. Going the opposite direction from nice, Highmore was cast as Norman Bates in a four-year TV series dubbed the Bates Motel, and he continues to be pitched roles for additional projects today.
Johnny Depp
When the former 21 Jump Street actor took on the role of Willy Wonka in the Burton remake, Depp clearly wanted the character to be very different and evolved from the original one portrayed by Gene Wilder. Rumored to have used Michael Jackson’s late life behavior as a model, Depp recast Wonka as an androgynous, mentally-disturbed character with an entire life story behind him separate from the immediate film plot. It worked.
Despite his success a movie pirate later on, today Depp rides the rough sees of real life, becoming damaged by an ugly divorce from Amber Heard as well as accusations of spousal abuse. While Depp has defended himself vigorously, the entertainment industry is fickle and has immediately dropped him from projects to distance their brand from Depp.
Paris Themmen
Better known as one of the bratty kids with the cowboy hat in the original movie, Paris was a natural generational move into entertainment. Both his parents were working actors on both stage and TV commercials. Paris himself already had a resume of early parts as well when picked for Willy Wonka.
Once done with the original movie, Paris actually stopped acting for a while and spent a normal life growing up. He attended New York University for college and started a travel agency business specializing in those who want to travel with a backpack. Paris also tried his hand in a number of other industries as well as behind the scenes work in film production. In the last decade Paris has decided to cash in on his prior fame, attending conventions regularly to make some fame income off of his original casting.
Helena Bonham Carter
Along with Depp, Carter has been a favorite for Tim Burton movies, and she was in the heydey of the Burton productions when picked to play her role as Mrs. Bucket in the remake.
Carter has continued to play esoteric and different roles since, and has found herself repeatedly cast across from Johnny Depp in other films as well. More interestingly, she played interesting cranky characters in the Alice Through the Looking Glass film with Anne Hathaway, and she switched gears to play a part in the remake of Ocean’s 8.
Michael Bollner
Known as Augustus Gloop in the original film, Michael played the rich bratty kid who ended up blowing up like a giant blueberry balloon mid-story. Bollner played the role of the insatiable kid eating candy extremely well, and his German accent was authentic. He had to learn English for the film.
Today, Bollner has been living the life of a well-established accounting firm owner in Germany, although he had originally wanted to continue being an actor as a child.
Julie Winter
Who can forget Veruca Salt, the mean girl with a tongue made of barbwire in Willy Wonka? Julie Winter played the role in the remake version of the movie, and was another casting discovery of Tim Burton. After her vivid success in the Burton version, everyone expected that Winter was going to continue with roles for years to come as Willy Wonka was her breakthrough initial piece.
Winter had other ideas. She was originally from Sweden and decided film was not her passion in life. Returning back to her home country, Winter went to school in Sweden and has is well on her way through medical school there. Just imagine being able say my doctor is Veruca Salt! It might raise eyebrows at a party.
Jack Albertson
Grandpa Joe was a stalwart protector of Charlie Bucket in the original film, sacrificing and finding ways to make the rough world give a little back to Charlie Bucket, his grandson. Jack Albertson played the role magnificently, and he won many awards over his acting career before passing away.
Albertson died from cancer at the beginning of the 1980s at age 74.
Jordan Fry
Mike Teavee remade in the second film was played by Jordan Fry. Jordan also realized a first success with the film being his first cast in a movie that went to theaters versus TV. That said, Fry had been acting previously.
Today, Fry continues to act, but the roles he has picked up have not been comparable to the remake Wonka film. One could argue he fits the classic mold a successful child actor and struggling adult actor, a common Hollywood issue of the decades.
Christopher Lee
Always dramatic in any role he plays, audiences got to be spooked by Lee’s role as Willy Wonka’s mean, dentist father in the remake of the movie. No wonder Depp’s character was so warped growing up. Interestingly, Lee simply put on a cape and took the same brooding character over to Star Wars land to play his last big theater role most people remember, Count Dooku in the Star Wars franchise as well as Saruman in The Hobbit.
Christopher Lee has now passed on. But his voiceovers continue to linger on well past his time, with the actor having completely a library of roles and voice pieces for Disney and the Star Wars TV offshoots.
Julie Dawn Cole
The original Veruca Salt was played by Julie Cole, and she defined the rich bratty girl character for years to come with her acting.
Cole continued acting through the rest of the 1970s after the original film was released, and she continued to enjoy an acting career on British television as well through the 1980s. Today, she has a multi-talented career in an acting school for children (who better to teach child acting?), a fitness trainer, and a psychotherapist.
Gene Wilder
He being the man who played the original Willy Wonka, Gene Wilder produced a lifetime of characters, films and comedy that resonated well into the 1980s after the 1971 Wonka film was made. Wilder went on to big laughs in the classic B&W spoof of Young Frankenstein as well as the Mel Blanc comedy, Blazing Saddles.
Time was not kind to the man who could remember a thousands scripts and punch lines, however. Wilder passed away in 2016 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating memory and cognition loss condition.
Emma Selwyn makes up a quarter of a theater group dubbed, Not Your Circus Dog, which specifically makes a point of incorporating members who generally have some aspect that mainstream society has not accepted well historically. Whether it be queer orientation, learning disabilities, or being neurodiverse, the group includes performers who were introduced to each other through an acting course provided by Access All Areas, another theater company, as well as the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
With their creativity and determination, the foursome ended up developing their own presentation, which is now running with a first show in mid-December, at the Southbank Centre. This is after a similar run at the Soho theater a few months earlier. The show itself has an eye-catching title, “Not F**kin’ Sorry.” However, the script isn’t about swearing; instead, the actors spend the stage time opening up the audience to the fantasies of people who society typically puts on the edge or thinks aren’t normal. It’s intended to flip audiences’ perspectives of people dubbed “different” in society.
The audience goes through a bit of a rollercoaster of a show. The first half warms them up, gets the mood light with humor and joking, and then, a bit like the movie, Trainspotting, it all comes crashing down with a cold reality of brutal life. In this show, COVID-19 is the aspect that works like a bucket of cold water, emphasizing how disabled people have been disproportionately killed by the virus.
Selwyn has been part of the production from its start, and is, unsurprisingly, a heavy proponent of casting actors with known disabilities. Rather than a drawback, in her opinion, they should be used even more given their additional complexities added to the created characters. The show is intended to highlight that people with disabilities can create characters with vivid portfolios for audiences than any other actors can, and sometimes probably even more because if their uncommon situation. Disabled actors just need to be incorporated better by projects and productions versus being ignored.
Disabled people are regularly ignored in every aspect of life. While they receive the requisite medical and living support, as well as the obligatory familial help if available, many are relegated to a loneliness of being outcasts in normal society activities as well as commiserating with each other with nothing else to do. The theater group’s goal is to show that, just like anyone else, disabled people including individuals with complexities of life, thought and emotion, including the ability to dream and fantasize about anything anyone else does. In other words, they are human beings too.
If you’re a fan of South Park, the long-running animated series that tackles topical issues, particularly in politics, then you’re likely familiar with its multiple mentions of the famous restaurant Casa Bonita in the series, including a classic episode.
The restaurant could soon move from just a few mentions and features to be a childhood dream turn reality for the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The ink is nowhere near dry yet, but the duo who’ve loved this restaurant from their childhood hometown forever are bursting with pride.
Casa Bonita was not just any restaurant but a staple in Colorado, the venue for many first dates and a general, hang out for people of all ages since it offered both dining and entertainment.
The restaurant was shutting down, but now the delighted owners of Casa Bonita, the famous Colorado restaurant depicted on South Park, are Trey Matt, and they are bursting with pride at being able to save the iconic structure for themselves and thousands of fans.
It was in July that Parker and Stone announced that they were pursuing ownership of the restaurant. Casa Bonita, a favorite childhood haunt of Parker and Stone, has been mentioned multiple times in South Park and was even the subject of a famous 2003 episode. Casa Bonita got featured as downloadable content in the 2017 video game South Park: The Fractured but Whole.
Gov. Jared Polis interviewed the Colorado natives on Friday, where they revealed the news.
Parker later told the media that the purchase had concluded earlier that day. He added that “buying the restaurant just felt like the right thing to do.” Although the men have provided no financial specifics, Parker described the final amount as “fair.”
Soon after inking a six-year, 935 million dollar contract with ViacomCBS that comprises the streaming of fourteen South Park movies, the two secured a deal to acquire the restaurant.
Summit Family Restaurants, the corporation that operated Casa Bonita, filed for protection via Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Arizona on the sixth of April. According to Parker, the final sale could take several months as the bankruptcy hearing and sale are pending court approval, which could take months.
Meanwhile, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been cashing in on their CBS multimillion-dollar ‘South Park’ deal. Parker added of the duo’s ambitions to improve the famed Mexican restaurant that, if they had control of the situation, contractors should be working on upgrading the facility right now.
The massive and popular Mexican restaurant, which offers a waterfall and cave with cliff jumpers, an arcade, and many other enticements, first opened to the public in 1974 at 6715 W. Colfax Ave. in Lakewood.
Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul told THR, “This is a truly wonderful development not just for residents of Lakewood, but for the state as a whole.”
Mayor Paul added that “ A lot of activities have been underway behind the scenes, and these transactions may be difficult. Buying the iconic restaurant would not only help save a famous Lakewood landmark, but it would also act as a catalyst for a growing arts district. I want to express my gratitude to Matt and Trey for their dedication to the community!”
The popular animated series South Park is not suitable for youngsters. It appears that its objective in presenting the exploits of Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman is to upset as many people as possible. Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, lawmakers of all stripes, and self-important celebrities have been the show’s highlight. Spoiler alert! Kenny also gets snuffed out in several episodes.
Turfing might sound like what someone does to aerate a front lawn or prepare a garden for growing. However, for a teacher living in Alameda and who has spent most of his lifetime in Oakland, CA, turfing is far more personal as an expression of dance. Distinct and unique, Predovic has been “turfing” for decades, blending a mix of boogaloo and improv together into a form that is both eye-catching and artistic all at once.
Turfing is not that old, however, as a dance form. It technically started in the mid-2000s, according to Predovic, when territorial dance-offs were a regular thing in Oakland and eventually much of the East Bay region at the high school level. Literally, entire events would occur in school parking lots and on basketball courts as groups tried to out-dance and out-impress the crowd and each other with what was physically possible in dance form.
At age 63, however, Predovic continues to maintain the dance life with the best locally. He boogaloos and shimmies, bends and twists as the teacher continues to defend his “turf” and has done so personally since 2008. His discovery of the dance form was entirely accidental, however. Instead, Predovic was busy skimming through videos online for Johnny Carson videos of all things when he unintentionally caught a turfing video instead. Predovic was immediately hooked. Watching the video piqued such an interest, the teacher immediately figured out where the next event was going to be locally and went in person to see it for himself. Predovic couldn’t have picked a better show.
The competition he first attended turned out to be a front row seat for Predovic of some of the best turfing possible. It was a dance-off between groups from Oakland versus Los Angeles, and there was an intense showing and display of talent as a result. The competition was the closest thing possible to a national championship, if one could call it that.
Predovic’s personal introduction was trial by fire. He immediately stood out by color, being the only Caucasian present in a sea of ethnicity. One character decided to be insulting to Predovic, challenging his simple presence at the show; the teacher responded with his own moves on the spot. That caught attention, and within minutes Predovic was being put front and center in front of the crowd. It was a hit. And the teacher also became a known commodity and accepted among the regular turfers as well.
Decades later, Predovic still teaches at the high school level, dispensing the classic principles of math to students of all stripes. While his daytime career at Mt. Diablo High School might seem sedate, Predovic still makes a regular showing with an official dance crew, Turf Inc. Led by one of Predovic’s former math students, Turf Inc. the group regularly attends competitions, Predovic continues to be a classic draw and known name.
Even in the social media digital age, Predovic’s dancing still commands a draw. His TikTok video has a cool 61,000 unique viewers, and older tools like Instagram still draw an easy 5,000 views as well. In his 60s, the math teacher isn’t as nimble as he was years earlier, but the dancing and turfing continues to keep Predovic fit and limber for every new event. Most importantly, though, he feels a direct connection with the youth at the turfing events, and they want him there too. That’s priceless for Predovic, and is rare for older people his age in general. Hoping to keep dancing into his 80s, Predovic knows time is catching up with him, but he can always try.
Twitch is one of the largest video streaming platforms on the planet right now. An innovator and one of the leaders in the ‘let’s play’ revolution, Twitch generates more than 71 million hours of content every single day. Buoyed by top-of-the-line streamers like XQCOW and TOMMYINNIT, Twitch has become a proverbial playground for some of the most popular young entertainers of the day and age. However, that isn’t where our story is heading today.
Instead, we are talking about one of the unsung heroes of Twitch, the random streamer who streams despite a lack of attention. Today, we are going to be focusing on a live musician named Cameron Ferguson and the massive crypto movement that would appear in his streaming room.
Crypto, Raiding, and Zero Viewers.
While the top-ranked streamers on Twitch can exceed tens of thousands of viewers at a time, the majority of streamers don’t have that kind of success. Instead, the vast amount of streamers will end up with just a handful of viewers throughout their session. Still, that didn’t matter to a musician named Cameron Ferguson and the live music that he wanted to share with the world.
While playing live music to an empty room one evening, Cameron was startled to see that his session had been flooded with hundreds of people watching him play. It quickly became apparent to the viewers that Cameron was more than just another streamer, he was a talented musician who was appreciative of the sudden influx of attention.
Still new to Twitch, Cameron tried not to let his nerves get to him as he played to a suddenly very crowded room. A few donations would come in as viewers saw how talented Cameron was and in the blink of an eye, the musician had raised thousands! Not bad for a night of music, right? If that was where this story ended, that’d be great — but it isn’t.
As it turns out, Cameron had been raided by a team of crypto enthusiasts who had been listening to the cryptocurrency internet show, Up Only. The program is run by @CyrptoCobain and @Ledgerstatus and these two figures were the reason for Cameron’s suddenly packed house. The radio co-hosts had been browsing Twitch for crypto news when they stumbled upon Cameron’s stream.
After raiding the stream, the crypto team decided to do something even nicer for Cameron, they would decide to help him open a crypto wallet. Cobie and Ledger would walk Cameron through establishing a wallet on Blockfolio before helping the man add his Ethereum address to his Twitch bio. Cobie and the rest of the gang would donate a couple of thousand dollars through the wallet almost immediately.
Cameron could easily have been left behind by the group had he not blown them away with his music. Given an opportunity and a reason to excel, Cameron took advantage of his chance. The musician would keep the stream going for hours, before inviting his wife onto the stream to share the news. While she didn’t believe him at first, that would change when a billionaire by the name of SBF donated $10,000 worth of Dogecoin to the musician.
The funniest thing about this entire story is that Cameron almost quit the stream when the crypto raid arrived. His reasoning? He thought he was getting spammed. By the end of the session, Cameron had streamed for five hours, earning more than $85,000 along the way.
When we say that the internet can change lives, we really mean it. The internet can change lives!
Regardless of the ups and downs faced by former child star Macaulay Culkin over the years, his name still manages to trigger beautiful memories for people both old and young.
Many people fail to see him beyond his role in the Home Alone movies(afterall he was absolutely adorable) but now hearing that he is not only in a relationship but also welcoming a child has set the internet in a flurry.
Additionally it is with another former child star, Brenda Song, known for her role as a spoiled rich kid in the TV show “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.”
As per a statement to TODAY, the couple welcomed the boy on April 5, who weighed six pounds and 14 ounces, in a Los Angeles hospital. It’s their firstborn and the couple is clearly elated.
Dakota Song Culkin is the name they’ve chosen for their bundle of joy. If you’re wondering who Dakota is, well, she was Culkin’s sister who passed away thirteen years ago in 2008. According to the announcement, the new three-person family is happy and healthy.
The couple said, “We’re overjoyed.”
The “Home Alone” star, hit a new milestone in 2020 when he reached age forty and made everybody feel elderly, has previously expressed his intention to create a child, his girlfriend who is a former Disney celebrity.
He informed Esquire last year, “We prepare a lot.” “We’re working it out and figuring out how to make the timing work. Hardly anything sparks you on with your lady coming into the bedroom and saying, ‘Honey, I’m ovulating.’
Despite his meteoric rise to fame as a teen, Culkin is now at ease in his relationship with Song.
“People think I’m crazy, a kook, or mentally ill. Strange. He told the paper, “Cracked.” “But I’ve never really put myself forward until the most recent year or two. But that’s something I can appreciate. It’s also like, “Well, everybody, stop being so surprised that I’m reasonably well-adjusted.”
“Look at me,” he continued, “I’ve got money, I’ve got fame, I’ve got a beautiful girlfriend, a beautiful home, and beautiful animals.” “It may have taken me a long while to get here, and I had to have that talk with myself and ask myself, “Honestly, Mack?” It isn’t all evil. I have nothing I want and much less that I want. “I’m fine, man.”
Meanwhile, Song, who is 33, has been waxing poetic about her relationship with Culkin.
In 2020, she informed Esquire that, “Individuals are unaware how incredibly kind, loyal, nice, and smart he is.” “Truly, what distinguishes Mack is that he is unapologetically himself.
“Mack is aware of who he is and is perfectly content with it. And that, to me, is a very enticing feature. He’s put in a lot of effort to become the guy he is.”
Now what everyone is wondering is whether wedding bells will be ringing soon and if they intend to make the family any bigger.
In the meantime, everyone is basking in happiness for the cute couple and wishing them and Dakota all the best.