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Jeff Baena's Friend Recalls His 'Larger Than Any Other' Personality
Weeks since his untimely passing, friends of the late filmmaker Jeff Baena are still remembering his larger-than-life personality and warmth.
Alex Ross Perry, a friend of Baena and his wife, Aubrey Plaza, reflected on his friendship with Baena in an emotional Vanity Fair essay published on Wednesday, January 22, revealing that Baena was known for throwing star-studded game nights. “I asked a group chat to share photos of Jeff’s house—game nights, dinner hangs. I’ve looked at the 60 photos Chad Hartigan sent of various get-togethers over the past year,” he shared. “They capture the essence of Jeff’s house, but nothing will replicate the spirit.”
According to Perry, 40, Baena’s game night guest lists would include “an actor or two you maybe recognized, a filmmaker you’re a fan of, and then some guy, or maybe a few some guys.” Despite the famous faces, Perry said “no personality was larger than any other, except for Jeff’s” at the get-togethers.
“You’d sometimes get the feeling his wife, Aubrey Plaza, was content to be another guest at game night, even in her own home,” he added. “It wasn’t her party. When the door opened and the players came through, Jeff and Aubrey’s home became Jeff’s house with Jeff’s rules.”
Aubrey Plaza's Late Husband Jeff Baena's Obituary Shares Family Memories
Baena’s competitive side, which Perry dubbed “game night Jeff,” is a side of the late star Perry grew familiar with. “I knew him well. Perhaps the most widely known Jeff. To me, this meant Codenames, Balderdash, Rummikub, and Scrabble,” he recalled. “He was undefeated—and undefeatable—at Scrabble. It was astonishing and maddening to play him, and I am incredible at Scrabble.”
Perry lived with Baena for a month while filming 2016’s Joshy, during which he said “every night was game night.” Perry explained: “Every day ended with the cast eating together and listening to music that Jeff, and only Jeff, curated. The ‘work’ was an opportunity for him to sit at the head of the table and not get up for weeks. To host, to curate, to introduce, to nurture. These were Jeff’s objectives, whether at his home for a night or on a shoot for weeks.”
In his essay, Perry noted how he “won’t sit at Jeff’s table again for a game night” following his death at age 47 earlier this month. “Honestly, I don’t know what meaning these recollections will turn out to have. I wanted to write this so that I can read it later and remember what Jeff’s house meant to me.”
News of Baena’s death broke on January 3, after the indie director was found dead in his home. Medical examiner records reviewed by Us Weekly listed his cause of death as suicide.
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Plaza, who wed Baena in 2021, broke her silence in the wake of her husband’s passing via a rep statement to Us Weekly. “This is an unimaginable tragedy,” the statement read. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”
Perry previously paid tribute to his late friend in a lengthy Instagram post on January 8. “There will be no rematch in Scrabble — he will remain undefeated against me, and I am great at Scrabble,” he captioned a photo of the two of them. “He knew words other people didn’t. He possessed facts that were so esoteric, they couldn’t be fact checked. He had opinions that were so baffling as to be definite. He claimed to have different rods and cones, and be able to see colors others could not.”
Jinger Duggar Says a Reality TV Return Would Be 'Drastically Different'
Jinger Duggar spent more than a decade in front of the reality TV cameras and now, five years after Counting On ended, she doesn’t seem eager to go back.
Duggar, 31, and her husband Jeremy Vuolo talked about the possibility of a reality return on the January 22 episode of “The Jinger and Jeremy Podcast.” The 19 Kids and Counting alum thought about it, but admitted she wouldn’t be able to recapture the nostalgia of the past.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” she said. “Not right now. Not in this season of life.”
She qualified that by saying that if she were to do another reality show, it wouldn’t be “following every aspect of life,” as Vuolo, 37, put it. Duggar added, however, that she does miss “some aspects” of reality TV.
Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo's Relationship Timeline
“For all those years you have the sweet memories of traveling and stuff, but it’s not all the same,” she said. “Because you wouldn’t have your same film crew, you wouldn’t have your same people you’re working with. And you’re not filming as a larger family unit so there’s lots of things that would feel so drastically different if you did a show again.”
The sixth of 19 Duggar kids in the TLC reality franchise, Jinger first rose to fame in 2008 when the show, then called 17 Kids and Counting, premiered. She later appeared in the spinoff series, Counting On, which ran from 2015 to 2020.
Now, she and Vuolo share two kids with a third due in March. Vuolo, a former professional soccer player, is now a minister. The couple cowrote a memoir titled, The Hope We Hold: Finding Peace in the Promises of God, in 2021 and appear content in having closed the reality TV chapter of their lives.
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Vuolo compared it to the end of his soccer career. Though he competed in MLS for the New York Red Bulls and then in the now-defunct NASL, he stepped away in 2014 to focus on ministry.
“It was a chapter,” he said. “It closed and I went, ‘Yeah that’s done. The Lord’s led me in a different direction.’”
He empathized with Duggar’s sentiment about it “not being the same,” adding that it’s good to have a “healthy break” from one chapter to the next.
“Otherwise, you’re constantly living in the past,” he said. “And if there’s too much nostalgia, it can lead to this depression because you’re thinking, ‘Man, I’ll never get that back,’ or ‘I’ll never have this opportunity again.’”
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‘The View’ Cast Has Lengthy Conversation About Sara Haines’ ‘Hot’ Dad
Sara Haines did not hold back on The View when it came to discussing her father, Dick Haines, or his conventionally attractive looks.
“My dad’s hot and I say it all the time,” Sara, 47, said during the talk show on Wednesday, January 22. Alyssa Farah Griffin replied, “Your dad is hot.”
Sara doubled down, adding, “My dad’s hot. He just is.”
The conversation came during the “Hot Topics” segment, when The View hosts brought up Jack Schlossberg’s recent X post in which he compared Usha Vance, Vice President J.D. Vance‘s wife, to his grandmother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
“True or false: Usha Vance is way hotter than Jackie O,” Schlossberg, 32, wrote. After receiving widespread backlash online for the post, the political correspondent continued to troll the internet.
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“I’m a literal pervert. I called my grandmother hot … have I totally lost it? Jesus,” he wrote. “This kid will do anything for attention. Your grandfather would be ashamed. Seriously. Time to get a job.”
Joy Behar seemed to have a lot of thoughts on the topic.
“My grandmother, Antonia, her name was, she was 60, I can’t tell that she was hot,” Behar, 82, explained. “She never took her apron off, so how would I even know how hot?”
Sara, meanwhile, didn’t think there was anything wrong with the social media message.
“Even when it’s family, you have eyes, though,” she said.
Sunny Hostin also chimed in, noting that she too has a hot dad.
“You have a hot dad,” Sara confirmed. (Hostin claimed that some of her friends “always wanted to date” her dad.)
Sara then bought the conversation back to her own father.
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“My friends, my whole life talked about my hot dad,” she continued, noting that The View producer Brian Teta finds it weird. “I’m not blind. I’m not attracted to him, he’s just hot. I can see him,” she continued.
She then got into specifics, recalling a past moment with a friend.
“We were walking up to my yard and my dad was mowing the lawn and had no shirt on,” Sara recalled. “My friend Emily was like, ‘Oh my God, who’s mowing your lawn?’ And I was like, ‘That’s my dad!’”
Haines’ dad is well-known among The View fans — Dick appeared on the “Behind the Table” podcast in October 2024 to talk about his daughter.
“I envisioned a different career path [for Sara],” he admitted, noting that he and wife Sandy Haines thought Sara would become a comedian. “I laugh at some of [her jokes].”
How 'W.A.G.s to Riches' Brought Up a Lawsuit Against 50 Cent Over a Sex Tape
Netflix’s W.A.G.s to Riches was about the wives, girlfriends and former partners of professional athletes and rappers — yet somehow 50 Cent‘s past legal issues due to a leaked sex tape quickly took center stage.
The lawsuit made headlines amid 50 Cent’s (real name Curtis Jackson III) feud with Lastonia “Stoni” Leviston‘s ex Rick Ross. A 13-minute video appeared online in 2009 with 50 Cent — in a wig — narrating the tape. A jury ordered the rapper in 2015 to pay $5 million to Stoni after allegedly acquiring the video from her ex-boyfriend Maurice Murray.
“This was something done to me,” she testified at the time. “I didn’t have a choice. I would never, ever do this to myself.”
Attorney William A. Brewer III said 50 Cent and his legal team were “disappointed in the verdict but very appreciative of the service of the jury and the court.” (A rep for 50 Cent didn’t respond about the resurfaced allegations in the Netflix reality show.)
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“Our client intends to file post-verdict, pre-judgment motions which we believe should reduce the size of the award,” the statement to Us Weekly continued. “Ultimately, the fate of any obligation to pay a final judgment will be determined by the bankruptcy court.”
Stoni got the chance to elaborate on Netflix’s W.A.G.s to Riches, which was released in January 2025.
“In the height of the breakup, the beef started with Rick and 50 Cent. Long story short, my ex — the guy that was in the sex tape — he is bitter so he goes and sells the tape to 50 Cent,” she claimed in the first episode. “Then 50 Cent released it on ThisIs50. It is petty and it still haunts me to this day.”
Keep scrolling for a guide to every mention on the show of 50 Cent and the legal issues:
At Odds Because of Her Past
During the series premiere, Stoni said she thought her leaked sex tape contributed to distance between her and her costars. (W.A.G.s to Riches also stars Sharelle Rosado, Maranda Johnson, Ashley Wheeler, Alexis Welch Stoudemire, Porsha Berto, Sadé Vanessa, Keeta Hill and Julz Goddard.)
“So things happened that Rick isn’t so happy about. The sex tape,” she explained. “I was dating this guy a long, long time ago — after I ended my relationship with Rick Ross. He was into videotaping me and he didn’t even really ask. He would just pull it out. Never once in my brain did I think I would have sex with him on tape. I didn’t feel unsafe at the time. I felt like I was happy.”
Stoni revealed what led to the sex tape being exposed. “I did the tape. Things got rocky, he started cheating and I outed him to the other girl. He got upset about it. We broke up,” she continued about how the video allegedly ended up in 50 Cent’s possession.
The reality star got emotional about the “leniency” she wished was extended to her by her costars.
“I was collateral damage in a beef I had nothing to do with,” Stoni noted. “In that second, my whole life changed. The minute the tape was released, nothing was the same. I became suicidal and I didn’t want to live anymore. I felt like I was damaged goods. Like no man would ever love me again. I felt like I let my kids down tremendously.”
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The Lawsuit
50 Cent, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015 after the initial verdict, was ordered by a New York City jury to pay $2 million in punitive damages to Stoni. The amount was discussed multiple times on W.A.G.s to Riches.
“Allegedly, she sued 50 Cent,” Sharelle told the cameras. “If I sued 50 Cent and I got a couple of million of dollars, I am not going to be standing up under my baby daddy. I would take that money and buy my own house because as a woman, I don’t ever want to have to depend on a man. Girl, you are a whole senior citizen and nothing has changed.”
Stoni, meanwhile, defended her monetary issues, which stemmed from her attempts to open a boutique.
“I didn’t have anything given to me. The money that they said I lost was all mine,” she shared. “It wasn’t from my football boyfriend or my basketball husband. If I took it and threw it all in the toilet or if I wanted to go buy 10 cars, it was my money and I did what I wanted to do with her.”
According to The Washington Post, 50 Cent accused Ross in another lawsuit that same year of being responsible for leaking the full video online first. Ross’ lawyer called that suit a “desperate” attempt to “avoid and deflect legal and financial responsibility.”
Rumor on the Street
According to Sharelle, some of the words others used to describe Stoni include “porn star and escort.”
“What frustrates me is she has had more money than the rest of us. She won a big lawsuit from 50 Cent, and she just blew it trying to impress other people,” Sharelle said. “She hangs around the wrong people, and she’s the oldest out of all of us. It is harder to change older people. I am not going to try to waste my time and breath trying to raise a grandma.”
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Getting Revenge
Stoni decided to strike back by bringing up the issues she heard relating to Sharelle and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson‘s then-engagement.
“They say you have an open door type of relationship. It is an arranged relationship. You got together because it looks good on paper and business wise. For looks,” Stoni claimed. “Because it is rumored that he likes to have threesomes. With other parties.”
Sharelle denied the insinuation, adding, “I don’t have time to focus on what everyone else thinks and their opinion. If I am sitting here worried about what everyone feels then I am missing out on money. … We are together. There is no arrangement.”
Sharelle and Chad called it quits once production on the show wrapped.
Shawn Johnson Reacts After Husband Andrew Puts Her Bikini Pic on Billboard
Olympian Shawn Johnson East gave husband Andrew East her honest review after he decided to take out a billboard of her bikini body for her birthday.
“I don’t [like it] — at all,” Johnson East, 33, told her spouse in an Instagram Story video uploaded on Tuesday, January 21. “It’s not anger, but it’s [disappointment].”
She continued, “He thought it was cute and it had to do with my birthday, evidently. It was my birthday present and I think he missed the mark. Just buy jewelry! I am embarrassed and sorry to say that he made a billboard — and he decided to choose a bikini picture.”
East, 33, clarified in the clip that he chose “a snorkel picture” even though the retired gymnast was wearing a two-piece swimsuit. (He further asserted the tribute was meant as “an ode to love.”)
Shawn Johnson and Andrew East's Relationship Timeline: Photos
“You put words over 90 percent of my body, but not my freaking crotch,” Johnson East explained. “If you’re a girl, you’ll be like, ‘I get it.’ What the [heck]?”
According to Johnson East, the billboard was installed “right next to Vanderbilt University” in Nashville for the entire city to see.
“So, when you go in for your prestigious education and you look over and see that, I don’t think that’s a good reflection of what Vanderbilt can give you,” Johnson East said, joking about East’s alma mater. “I’m sure Vandy is so proud! I am sorry for everything you get to see as you sit in Owen.”
East tried to soothe his wife’s concerns, mentioning that the billboard is only up for “four more weeks.”
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“There’s only one more surprise,” East, a former football player, said with a laugh as Johnson East appeared startled.
Johnson East also shared an image of the billboard, which featured four pictures of her — including one where she was wearing a swimsuit — alongside the text “Shawn Johnson Is Cool [Dot] Com.”
“My husband did a thing and I can only summarize my response as, like, disappointment,” she wrote alongside her upload.
The couple have been married since 2016 and welcomed daughter Drew in 2019. Sons Jett and Bear followed in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
“I feel like we’re slowly getting into a routine,” Johnson East exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2024. “It was touch and go there for a while, but we’re finally settling in, which is feeling more manageable.”
She added at the time, “Honestly, the first couple weeks of three was super — it felt easy, as easy as it can be. The only hard part was he was our first kind of colicky baby. We had some things we needed to figure out, and we hadn’t dealt with that before.”
‘Duck Dynasty’ Revival in the Works Without Controversial Patriarch Phil
Grab your duck callers and camo gear because a Duck Dynasty revival is coming to A&E this summer.
“Going back on A&E feels a little like going back home,” married stars Willie and Korie Robertson said in a statement on Wednesday, January 22. “We’re thankful for all who have followed along as our family has grown and expanded and can’t wait to get cameras rolling again on all our new adventures, or perhaps misadventures.”
The network announced on Wednesday that nearly all of the Robertsons will appear on the new series, Duck Dynasty: The Revival. Fans will get 20 one-hour episodes from the duck hunters over the course of two seasons.
In the updated series, Willie, 52, and Korie, 51, will be at the helm instead of patriarch Phil Robertson, who was not mentioned in the list of confirmed cast members.
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The Robertsons revealed in December 2024 that Phil, 78, was in the “early stages” of Alzheimer’s Disease.
“According to the doctors, they’re sure that he has some sort of blood disease that’s causing all kinds of problems,” his son Jase Robertson explained during an episode of their “Unashamed With the Robertson Family” podcast. “It’s accelerated and it’s causing problems with his entire body.”
Prior to his health issues, Phil raised eyebrows in 2013 when he made controversial statements during an interview with GQ that were homophobic in nature. Phil was briefly suspended from the show. However, after the family publicly said they regretted the “coarse language” he used and Phil claimed he would “never incite or encourage hate” he was reinstated.
When it comes to Duck Dynasty: The Revival, the show will follow Willie and Korie as well as their adult children and grandchildren as they continue their family’s work on their Louisiana homestead. Phil’s wife, Miss Kay Robertson, is slated to appear on the new show as is his brother, Si Robertson.
A&E also confirmed that five of Willie and Kori’s six children — John Luke, Sadie, Will, Bella and Rebecca — will all join in on the reality show fun. Their son Rowdy isn’t listed.
“With their dynasty expanding into more than just ducks, Willie and Korie will bring their signature humor and family fun as they grapple with mapping out the future of Duck Commander, watching the kids navigate marriage, children and businesses of their own, and passing down the family legacy,” the press release reads.
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Duck Dynasty premiered in 2012 and ran for 11 seasons before going off the air in 2017. At the time, the show focused on Phil, brother Si, and three of his sons, Willie, Jase and Jep Robertson as they grew their business, Duck Commander.
In time, Willie’s home life became a big focus and his children, Sadie, 27, and John Luke, 29, gained their own fame. (Sadie married Christian Huff in 2019, while her brother wed Mary Kate McEacharn in 2015.)
“The Robertson family has always been very open with their lives. Good and bad,” Willie exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2017, reflecting on the phenomenon surrounding their show. “When you’re vulnerable and say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going through,’ that resonates.”
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While the family has been off camera for nearly a decade, A&E is certain fans are still interested in their business and close-knit connection.
“The Robertsons earned a seat in homes across the country with their unique brand of downhome practicality, southern charm and relatable humor,” executive VP and head of programming for A&E and Lifetime Elaine Frontain Bryant said in a press release on Wednesday. “Duck Dynasty played a huge part of the success of A&E for many years, and we look forward to reuniting with the Robertsons on the revival.”
Duck Dynasty: The Revival will premiere on A&E sometime this summer.