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Minnie Driver dishes on her late father's double life

Minnie Driver is opening up about her father's secret double life and his other family.

In a new chat with The Sunday Times Magazine, the "Good Will Hunting" actress spoke about learning at a young age that her dad, Ronnie Driver, was married to a different woman throughout the course of his relationship with her mom. 

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"My parents separated when I was six, but at the age of 12 I discovered they had never been married, and that throughout their relationship my father was married to somebody else and had another family," she said. 

Minnie's mom, Gaynor Churchward, helped the actress process the secret family dynamic.

Gaynor told The Sunday Times Magazine that she had a five-year relationship with Ronnie.

"He was loyal to me, to his wife and loyal to the children," she said, adding that he was a "complicated man."

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This isn't the first time Minnie has spoken about her upbringing and her dad's other family. In 2014, she met the family she never knew existed for the TLC series, "Who Do You Think You Are."

"Did you get the impression that he was hiding something," Minnie was asked one newfound relative. Another chimed in, "In those days people didn't talk about things like that."

At the time of the series, Minnie said, "My parents Ronnie and Gaynor met in 1962 and they were together for 13 years. They broke up when I was six. And during that entire time my dad was married to somebody else and had another family. I didn't know my parents weren't married until I was about 12. My dad, I think, lived a very split life. We just did not talk about where he came from."

"He spoke very succinctly about his mom and his dad. I never met either of my grandparents. I had a grandmother who was alive when I was a child and I wonder if she even knew about us. I wonder if we were a secret that he therefore had to keep her a secret from us," Minnie continued. "I never saw even a photograph of my grandparents and I have always wondered what they looked like."

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How ABC exec's departure affects Meghan McCain's future on 'The View'

Meghan McCain's security blanket at ABC has left the building. 

Last week, ABC News president James Goldston shocked many when he announced he was leaving the network. The announcement, sources tell Page Six, is very worrisome for Meghan.

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"She should be very nervous now. Her cover has left the building," one source said.

During her time on "The View," Meghan has had controversial opinions, and she's been a target of her co-hosts, particularly Joy Behar, who said she "did not" miss Meghan while the new mom was out on maternity leave. 

The now-former ABC exec, who was in charge of daytime programming, was supposedly a Meghan fan and consistently stood in her corner.

"[James] has for years been seen as a Meghan McCain apologist. She's used him as leverage against other talent," an ABC insider claimed, "He's been Meghan's voice in the room. He's taken on Whoopi in defense of Meghan McCain."

The exec had even reportedly gone so far as to tell people to "get over it" when they disagreed with Meghan's viewpoint or sometimes brash delivery.

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One source, though, said James wasn't as close with Meghan as many thought. 

"He's certainly not her defender. Ally would not be the word," that source said. "Things happen and there are continued steps to solve them. Issues get addressed."

An ABC spokesman said Meghan's future at "The View" isn't tied to James at all.

"This is ridiculous. This combo of co-hosts has 'The View' delivering our best numbers in seven years," the rep said. "Meghan is a valued member of the team and no one is talking about any changes to the table."

ABC

The new report comes less than a month after the Daily Mail said Meghan's "View" gig isn't as secure as it once was.

"'The View' did better ratings with Meghan being gone. For years people claimed that viewers tuned in for her craziness, but the numbers showed us otherwise," a source told The Daily Mail on Jan. 8. "The show actually broke a record during her maternity leave and now she realizes that she doesn't have the job security that she once did. All of that has her shook."

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The funny reason Mila and Ashton filmed a Super Bowl commercial

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher saw the big game as a chance for a big parenting break!

On Super Bowl Sunday, the couple will star in a Cheetos commercial. In a new chat, Mila hilariously said one of the main reasons she and her husband signed on to do the commercial was to just get away from daughter Wyatt and son Dimitri for a few hours.

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"It's so silly! Ashton and I, we never work together," she told Entertainment Tonight. "I mean, I know we worked together before … And in the midst of quarantine, they sent us this ad to do and every time I've ever been offered a Super Bowl ad it's always a female having to be scantily clad."

Mila, though, looked at this particular commercial and thought everything was perfect, including the timing. 

"I started laughing so hard and Ashton was like, 'This is kind of funny.' And I was like, 'We should do it!'" she recalled. "Also it was quarantine and we were stuck with our children for nine, 12, months at this moment, and I was like, 'Two days, baby! Two days off.'"

"Literally we were like, 'Yeah, OK, let's do it,'" she said. "And so we did it. And I hate saying it but we were like, 'Freedom!'… It was amazing!"

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Although Ashton and Mila, who previously starred on "That '70s Show," were thrilled with their decision, Wyatt and Dimitri weren't as excited.

"[I've] never been so excited to wake up at five in the morning to be like, 'I'm going to work!' And I literally skipped out of the house," Mila said. "My kids were like, 'You're abandoning us!' And I was like, 'Relax.'"

BDAY LOVE

Tom Cruise making 'Mission Impossible' filming a 'nightmare': Report

Tom Cruise is so "obsessed" with finishing "Mission: Impossible 7" that he's making life a "nightmare" for the cast and crew, a new report states.

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Further, there is worry that the cast and crew won't be able to get home once the film is actually finished.

"A lot of us would love to cut our losses and leave things for a while, then pick up when we can," a source told The Sun. "But Tom is completely obsessed with finishing and nothing will stop him. He's the most determined person. It's impressive, but a nightmare."

The movie was filmed all over Europe, but production has now moved to the United Arab Emirates. Currently, due to the coronavirus pandemic, direct flights between Middle East and the United Kingdom are banned. That is worrying the cast and crew, as they're unsure if they will be able to get home.

"Now many of the production team, especially the more junior staff who aren't on big salaries, are up in arms and just want to go home," the Sun reported.

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Production of the film hasn't exactly been smooth. In mid-December, The Sun leaked audio of Tom laying into crew members on the set of the film for violating COVID-19 protocols.

The Sun's source said over the weekend, "This is starting to feel like a real nightmare of a production — and of course, a lot of that is totally unavoidable. But the hope was that after the pre-Christmas rows and delays, filming out in the UAE would give the crew more freedom to make headway without holdups. It feels like everything is against us at the moment and morale is really down."

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Kevin Nealon is victim in $100K home burglary

Kevin Nealon was the victim of a home burglary during which the crooks got away with more than $100,000 in property and valuables.

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TMZ reports the thieves broke in while the former "Saturday Night Live" funnyman was away from home for a few days. When Kevin returned, he discovered the burglary.

Authorities are still trying to figure out how the thieves got into the home. 

The crooks, he told police, got away with six-figures worth of jewelry and handbags. 

Police feel that Kevin wasn't targeted and believe it was more of a random hit. 

Kevin is just one of many, many celebrities who've been the victims of burglaries.

BDAY LOVE

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Marvel's Randall Park just learned he got COVID-19 vaccine in September

Talk about a pleasant surprise.

Randall Park revealed on Jan. 29 that he's been vaccinated against COVID-19 since last September, but only found out this week. 

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The "Ant-Man and the Wasp" star said he took part in a medical trial last year during quarantine, but wasn't sure if he received the actual vaccine or the placebo.

"I just found out that I've been vaccinated against COVID since September of last year," he said on "The Talk."

The actor recalled speaking to "The Masked Singer" panelist Ken Jeong, who's also an actual doctor, about the coronavirus pandemic. During the conversation last year, Ken told Randall about a vaccine trial in Los Angeles that was looking for Asian men and women.

"I was thinking, 'Oh that's interesting.' Then, I found out it was near my home, not far, and I was bored because it was the pandemic," he said. "I was stuck in the house. And I was like, 'Maybe I should donate my body to science.' I figured it would be my way to, kind of, fight this thing happening throughout the world. So, I enlisted in the trial. And I didn't know if I got the placebo or the actual vaccine, but I just found out yesterday that I got the vaccine."

BDAY LOVE

'Sex and the City' star apologizes for shooting rice at cats

"Sex and the City" star Jason Lewis is issuing a mea culpa after shooting a loaded gun at some feral cats — the gun, though, was loaded with rice, not bullets. 

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On Jan. 30, TMZ published a video showing the actor getting into a heated argument with a neighbor over the incident.

The webloid reports that one of Jason's neighbors passed away last fall and left the cats without an owner. A different neighbor — seemingly the one in the augmentative video — has been feeding the cats every day. Jason, though, is upset that the cats are apparently relieving themselves in his yard, so he took matters into his own hands and started shooting rice grains in cats' direction.

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The woman says Jason's action are undermining her efforts to "get [the cats] into homes."

"Everyone who knows me knows my love of animals. I've tried for months to work with a person who is coming into the neighborhood and feeding a large group of feral cats in an effort to relocate them as they have been filling the yards with fleas and waste," he said in a statement. "I made the wrong choice in shooting rice into the dirt (not toward the cats) to spook with the noise and scare them away. To fellow animal lovers that I disappointed, I'm sorry."

BDAY LOVE

Teresa Giudice says beau Luis Ruelas make her 'heart smile'

Teresa Giudice is officially smitten.

@teresagiudice/Instagram

The "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star and Luis "Louie" Ruelas were first linked in early November, and now they appear to be in the full throes of love. 

On Jan. 29, the reality TV star posted a beach pic with her beau, writing on Instagram, "You make my heart smile."

That message came just a few days after she posted an Instagram selfie with her man, captioning it, "You stole my heart, but I'll let you keep it."

Louis also hasn't shied away from public professions of love.

On Jan. 26, the digital marketing executive posted a photo from a dinner date with Teresa on Instagram. 

"Everyone has a journey and a path in life and we all have to go thru the pain in order to find the JOY," he wrote in the caption. "JOY Is a constant feeling of happiness and that's what I feel when I'm with you."

Teresa replied, "So happy you came into my life."

When the couple first began dating, they were said to be intentionally moving slowly. Apparently that's no longer the case!

While a smattering of fans wondered if a proposal might be on the horizon, most of Teresa's social media followers couldn't help but comment on how happy she looks, including several from the "Housewives" sorority.

"So happy for you," Vicki Gunvalson wrote. Meanwhile, Kelly Dodd wrote that Teresa and her beau are a "gorgeous" couple. Dolores Catania and Tamra Judge both left fire emojis in Teresa's comments section.

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Megan Fox sparks engagement rumors with new ring

A new accessory on Megan Fox's finger is sparking engagement rumors. 

The actress has been dating Machine Gun Kelly since early last year, and the couple hasn't shied away from publicly professing their love for each other. Now, after Megan was photographed wearing a big, sparkling ring on her ring finger, there's speculation that the couple has taken their romance to the next level. 

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In the new images, which were snapped in New York City on Jan. 28, Megan dons a dark coat and cat ears. It's her ring, however, that's getting everyone talking. 

An engagement wouldn't be a huge shock, as Megan and MGK's romance has moved quickly. The couple first met on the set of "Midnight in the Switchgrass" in late 2019. In May, Brian Austin Green announced that he and Megan had split up. She was quickly spotted packing on the PDA with Machine Gun Kelly.

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In speaking about her romance with the rap-rocker in July 2020, she said on a podcast, "We're actually two halves of the same soul, I think. And I said that to him almost immediately, because I felt it right away."

Around the same time, MGK declared that he was "probably" done dating forever. "I'm locked in," he said on Instagram. 

Later, he told Howard Stern, "I didn't know what [love] was until me and her made eye contact. That's when I was like, 'Whoa.'"

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'Housewives' fanatic Meghan McCain calls for cancelation of 'RHOC'

Meghan McCain's devotion to the "Real Housewives" is well known, but she's had it with one of the franchises.

The conservative firebrand thinks there's no juice left in "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

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Meghan aired her thoughts on Jan. 28 after writer Evan Ross Katz tweeted, "It's time to cancel RHOC."

The "View" co-host replied, "Yes."

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This exchange caught the attention of "Housewives" executive producer Andy Cohen, who doesn't want to put the squeeze on the show just yet. 

"I think you mean reBOOT," he said.

During the back-and-forth, Meghan said she had some "thoughts" about a reboot. She also pleaded for the return of a shuttered "Housewives" franchise.

"Since I have both of your attention and currently live in the beltway – please Reboot DC housewives PLEASE!" she begged. Andy echoed, "I loved RHDC."

Fans have been down on "The Real Housewives of Orange County" recently, mainly due to the casting. Many "Housewives" aficionados haven't connected with Braunwyn Windham-Burke, and others are displeased with Kelly Dodd over her controversial social media activity throughout 2020. 

Last year, Kelly downplayed the coronavirus, even once calling it "God's way of thinning the herd." Not long after that, she celebrated the fact that few people were wearing masks at a local restaurant. In the fall, she wore a hat that read "Drunk Wives Matter" — which many thought mocked the Black Lives Matter movement — during her bridal shower. She claims to be the "victim" of "cancel culture."

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There's speculation that Meghan's thoughts about "RHOC" are tied to her dislike of Kelly. Earlier in January, Meghan recalled a past appearance on "Watch What Happens Live" during which Kelly was also a guest. Kelly, Meghan said, "was so mean."

BDAY LOVE

Before pregnancy, Mandy Moore considered surgery for fertility struggles

Mandy Moore's struggles with fertility were weighing on her so much that she was close to getting surgery to fix her issues. But then something happened… she got pregnant the natural way.

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During a chat with Romper, the "This Is Us" star said that her pregnancy was far from an accident but noted that it was fairly unexpected because she thought she had endometriosis.

"I was fully prepared to go have surgery and fix my uterus and hopefully get rid of the endometriosis, if it was there," she said. "It was nice to have a plan and to know, 'Okay, well this is why I haven't been pregnant yet.'"

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WebMD describes endometriosis as a disease in which "tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows in other places in the body outside of the womb."

Mandy recalled meeting with a doctor last summer to set up an appointment for surgery. During that meeting, she was told she was ovulating but was also told to keep her expectations low.

"So I was like, all right, whatever," she remembered thinking. "And lo and behold…"

"I guess I understand why doctors tell you, like, 'Oh, just try for a year, and then if nothing happens, you can start sort of investigating,'" she said. "But I was like, 'Man, I wish I had known before.' It would have been a game changer had I had that information."

Still, even after realizing she was pregnant, the actress took a wait-and-see approach, as she was concerned that her reproductive issue would rear its head.

"I was very hesitant to believe it and put any stock in it," she said of the early months of her pregnancy. "I sort of was holding my breath until 12 weeks."

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Once she felt she was in the clear, Mandy and her husband, Taylor Goldsmith, announced their pregnancy news on Instagram.

"Baby Boy Goldsmith coming early 2021," they shared on Instagram in September.

Although she's yet to reveal her due date, Mandy told Romper her son will come "sometime in the next few weeks."

BDAY LOVE

'Fantastic Four' star's parents weigh in on his decision to 'leave' his family

"Fantastic Four" actor Ioan Gruffudd's parents said his decision to "leave his family" isn't a shock but maintain that another woman isn't involved. Friends of Ioan's wife, "The Mentalist" star Alice Evans, aren't so sure.

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"It is very sad and we are all very sorry it has happened, of course," Ioan's mother, Margaret Griffiths, told The Sun. "But the children will come first whatever happens, that's for sure. He's [in the United States] and we're here and because of Covid, there's no chance of seeing him for the time being. He's alright."

Ioan's marriage to Alice made headlines this week after she publicly announced their split by accusing him of "harassment" and claiming he "mentally toured" her.

"Sad news. My believed husband/soulmate of 20 years, Ioan Gruffudd, has announced he is to leave his family, starting next week," she tweeted earlier this week, according to screen grabs. "Me and our young daughters girls are very confused and sad. We haven't been given a reason except that he 'no longer loves me.'"

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The tweet has since been deleted. Afterward, though, Alice claimed that she didn't take down the tweet and alleged that Ioan, who many know from his bit role in "Titanic," deleted it. 

"I didn't delete the tweet from a few hours ago about him leaving. He did. From my account," she wrote on Jan. 26. "And hell yes when I am being gaslit and mentally tortured then hell yes I will wash my linen in public."

Ioan and Alice share daughters Ella, 11, and Elsie, 7.

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The fracture of the 13-year marriage isn't a "complete surprise" to Ioan's father, Peter Griffiths, who told the Daily Mail he was "aware" of issues between the former long-term couple.

"I have spoken to Ioan and we are of course incredibly sad but I do not want to go into too much detail," he said. "We are very sad, particularly for our two granddaughters. It is just very sad, but these things do happen and marriages do end."

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A source close to Alice, who recently spent time with the actress in Los Angeles, noted that tension has been building. 

"Obviously there is a lot of trouble there and obviously he's keeping a lid on it. She's probably very upset to go so far publicly with it. There is a feeling that there's probably another person involved," the friend said. "Alice is quite a smart cookie, so her going public might be her way of trying to smoke somebody out, if you get my drift, and create a bit of scandal to expose any infidelity."

Another friend told the Mail that he or she was "not at all surprised" the marriage is imploding because Ioan has been flirtatious with other women.

In hindsight, the writing may have been on the wall. In February 2020, Ioan spoke to The Guardian about his marriage, claiming, "I think we've struggled the past four years, making time for each other because physically we're apart.'"

BDAY LOVE

Kelly Dodd blaming others for her social media blunders

During 2020, Kelly Dodd seemed to consistently get backlash over her social media posts — she was called "tone deaf" for appearing to mock the Black Lives Matter movement; she also downplayed the coronavirus several times, calling it "God's way of thinning the herd." Now, though, she's claiming to be the "victim" of "cancel culture."

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While appearing on the "Real Housewives of Orange County" reunion on Jan. 27, Kelly was asked about the time she referred to protesters as "looters."

"Listen, I don't have anything with protesting. … Peaceful protests — I'm all about it," she said. "But that was on a whole other level that I saw in New York. There was looting. There was burning down buildings and I don't think that's the way to protest."

Reunion host Andy Cohen then brought up the "Drunk Wives Matter" hat Kelly wore at her bridal shower in the fall. Many felt the clothing was a jab at the BLM movement.

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"I wasn't being malicious and I get attacked by this cancel culture that's a bunch of haters that would never have any voice and here they are getting together and [coming] after me," she said, adding that the hat was a gift.

Braunwyn Windham-Burke, who is no fan of Kelly, chimed in, "It's not just haters, though. It's people who have been oppressed."

Kelly shot back, "Four of my best friends are African American and they didn't take offense. It's white people who did!"

During the back-and-forth, Kelly even claimed that she's Black but said she doesn't identify as Black. Interestingly, in 2020, a video resurfaced from four years earlier in which Kelly said, "I don't like Black guys. I don't even know any Black guys."

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Earlier in the reunion, Kelly's marriage to Fox News correspondent Rick Leventhal was brought up. The couple got married in October and 28 people attended. Andy, while referring to a fan-submitted question, asked whether it was responsible to have a wedding with guests during a global health pandemic

"But it's okay to protest?" Kelly interjected. "Everybody can have a protest and be amongst a billion people? But I can't have a celebratory wedding?"

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