Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”
Mark Consuelos doesn’t mind hand-me-downs from Ryan Seacrest. Consuelos tells me he’s inheriting Seacrest’s dressing room when “Live With Kelly and Ryan” becomes “Live With Kelly and Mark” on April 17. “I’m no dummy,” Consuelos says on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “Ryan is very fancy — he’s got fancy stuff.”
At the same time it was announced in February that Seacrest was leaving “Live,” it was revealed that Consuelos will replace him as his wife Kelly Ripa’s co-host on the syndicated daytime talk show. “The first conversations started with like, ‘That is the worst idea ever,’”
Consuelos recalls. “Kelly and I were like, ‘Yeah, that’s insane. Why would we do that?’ Then I was like, ‘Well, I have filled in a lot over the past few years.’ She goes, ‘You have.’”
As Variety’s Elizabeth Wagmeister first reported in March in a cover profile of Ripa for the annual Power of Women issue, the longtime host’s deal now sits at about $20 million a year. Consuelos says of his pay, “This is my first contract on the job, so I shouldn’t make anywhere near what she makes. … I’m the newbie, so yeah, I won’t be playing hardball for sure.”
And he won’t be discussing their sex life on “Live.” Ripa opened up, during her recently launched “Let’s Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa” podcast, about how she and Consuelos engage in virtual sex when he’s out of town. “She is an open book,” Consuelos says, explaining he thinks that’s one reason audiences have stayed with her for 22 years of “Live.” Then he adds, “I definitely do not think we’ll be talking about that from 9 to 10 a.m. on Mondays through Fridays.”
It was on the same podcast that they revealed that they go to couple’s therapy. “We didn’t go into marriage counseling because we were in any kind of crisis,” Consuelos explains. “There were two things that were happening, one was that we became empty-nesters and then the job came up. I said, ‘What a great time for us to have a good reset on how we communicate…Wouldn’t it be a great time?’”
Consuelos says the show will become a “full nepo” production by possibly having his and Ripa’s three kids appear on the show. Consuelos and Ripa have been married for about 27 years. They started dating when they were both on “All My Children.” “I think we’ve joked about it,” he says. “Michael, our 25-year-old, would be hysterical. I’d love to see him with Kelly. Lola, she’s a dynamo, she would be amazing. Joaquin is a little bit more reserved, and I think he’d probably opt out.”
Find out what happened during Consuelos’ early days in New York that prompted him to almost quit acting by listening to the full interview on “Just for Variety” above or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
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Marcus Mumford at the premiere of “Daisy Jones & The Six” held at TCL Chinese Theatre on February 23, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Buckner for Variety
Marcus Mumford may have created music for “Ted Lasso” and “Daisy Jones & the Six,” but that doesn’t mean he’s itching to start acting. “I’m good. I’m married to an actor,” says Mumford, whose wife is Carey Mulligan. “I’ve seen enough of what goes on behind the camera. I’m never doing that fucking thing in my life. No chance!”
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SIGHTINGS: Academy president David Rubin getting in an early-morning work- out at Equinox in West Hollywood at the same time as Benny Medina, Neil Meron and “Million Dollar Listing New York” star Fredrik Eklund … Annette Benning taking her leftover lunch to go at Hugo’s in WeHo.
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Check out the best of April 2023 party pics here!
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Seth Rogen and Steven Spielberg attend the 75th Directors Guild of America Awards at The Beverly Hilton on February 18, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Seth Rogen promises that he hasn’t tried to get Steven Spielberg to smoke weed. The Oscar-winning director made headlines when he told me at the Palm Springs International Film Festival that he’s never gotten stoned. Then Jimmy Kimmel referenced the never-toker while hosting the Oscars last month. “I never will try to get him to smoke,” Rogen told me at the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” premiere. “I don’t want to be the guy who breaks his brain. If he does, God bless him, but I’m not going to be the guy who pressures him to do it.”
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THIS JUST IN: Country music superstar Maren Morris will receive GLAAD’s Excellence in Media Award at the 34th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York at the New York Hilton Midtown on May 13. “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness will receive the Vito Russo Award.
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It’s been more than a decade since Oscar winner Marion Cotillard met Will Ferrell for the first time to discuss shooting a video for Funny or Die. “I’m the biggest Will Ferrell fan. It was really awkward,” Cotillard tells me. “I literally jumped on him.” Three years later, she made a surprise cameo in “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.” Cotillard thinks it’s time for her and Ferrell to star in a movie together. “I love comedy but I don’t do much of it,” she says. “I’ve seen ‘Step Brothers’ 10 times. It has the same effect on me every time. I laugh and then cry at the end.”
