Jon O'Brien

Joined: Jul 28, 2020

Jon O'Brien is a freelance entertainment journalist with bylines in Esquire, Billboard, Vulture, New Scientist, Vinyl Me, Please, i-D, The Guardian and Paste. He spends most of his spare time going to gigs, but he's also a soccer enthusiast, garage drummer, Icelandophile, and carrot cake connoisseur. He lives in North West England with his partner and King Charles Spaniel.

Clockwise from right: Peter Capaldi, Rebecca Front, Joanna Scanlan, Chris Addison, and James Smith star in 'The Thick of It.'

15 Surprising Facts About ‘The Thick of It’

Make “Believe“: How Cher Staged One of Pop Music’s All-Time Greatest Comebacks

Nicolas Cage stars as Nicolas Cage in 'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent' (2022).

15 Celebrities Who Played (Versions of) Themselves in Movies

10 Wonderfully Weird Muppet Duets

Tim Daly stars in 'In the Line of Duty: Ambush In Waco'

‘In the Line of Duty’: The Waco Movie Made Before The Siege Ended

In 1993, just 34 days after the Waco siege ended, NBC premiered 'In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco'—a TV movie greenlit, scripted, and largely shot while the tragedy was still unfolding.

Tom Hanks' 'That Thing You Do!' produced one of cinema's greatest earworms.

11 Fictional Bands Who Scored Very Real Hit Songs

The Monkees may not have been a "real" band, but their chart-topping legacy speaks for itself.

Macaulay Culkin in 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York' (1992).

10 Fun Facts About ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’

Ana de Armas stars as Marilyn Monroe in 'Blonde' (2022).

10 Actors Who Have Played Marilyn Monroe

With Netflix's 'Blonde,' Ana de Armas is the latest in a long line of actors who have attempted to portray Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood’s ultimate It Girl.

Slow Burn: How Elton John's "Candle in the Wind '97"—the Best-Selling Single in Music History—Became a Royal Relic

In the weeks following the death of Princess Diana, "Candle in the Wind '97" provided a form of musical catharsis. Then it simply burned out.

George Michael performs at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert

How The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert Became the Biggest All-Star Gig of the '90s

On April 20, 1992, the world's biggest musicians took the stage at London's Wembley Stadium to honor the late, great Freddie Mercury. Some tributes fared better than others.

Rankin/Bass's version of a leprechaun, from The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold (1981), is your new worst nightmare.

10 Totally Unconventional TV Christmas Specials

Not every seasonal offering brings maximum yuletide cheer. Here’s a look at 10 that suggest those responsible had indulged in a little too much eggnog.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt star in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001).

20 Fun Facts About Ocean’s Eleven

In 2001, newly minted Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh gathered up some of the biggest names in Hollywood and pulled off a heist movie for the ages.

Klaus Kinski stars in Crawlspace (1986).

Crawlspace: When the Makers of a Sleazy '80s Slasher Movie Nearly Killed Klaus Kinski for Real

“You can’t hope to direct [Klaus] Kinski,” John Vulich, a makeup effects artist on 'Crawlspace' once said about the 1986 low-budget horror movie’s leading man. “You can only document him.”

We apologize in advance for getting "Macarena" stuck in your head.

When Macarena Ruled the World in 1996

Los del Río's “Macarena” became the second longest-running number one in Billboard history, shifted 14 million copies, and sparked a dance craze that spread everywhere from the Olympics to the Democratic National Convention.

BrAt_PiKaChU/iStock via Getty Images; MTV Networks, Public Domain // Wikimedia Commons

20 Fascinating Facts About The Launch Of MTV

Although MTV has more recently become synonymous with reality TV and cheap clip shows, there was a time when the network truly did live up to its name. And it all began at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981.

Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway face off in The Devil Wears Prada (2006).

20 Fabulous Facts About The Devil Wears Prada—That’s All!

'The Devil Wears Prada' proved that Anne Hathaway’s range extended beyond fairy tale princesses, established Meryl Streep as one of cinema's all-time greatest villains, and taught us all the difference between blue and cerulean.