My new favorite celebrity couple is Brenda Song and Macaulay Culkin. I know they’ve been together since 2017, but it’s only been over the past few months that they’ve really opened up and let us get to know them as a couple. ICYMI, they did a big spread for Cosmopolitan in February. Brenda is currently co-starring in the new Netflix series, Running Point with Kate Hudson, so she’s been doing the talk show circuit. On The Jennifer Hudson Show she talked about being a working mother, how she’s a die-hard LA Lakers fan, and her relationship, including the times that she attempted to teach the world’s most famous child star how to drive and do his own laundry.
Brenda Song revealed her fiancé, 44, still doesn’t know how to drive a car and didn’t know how to do laundry when they first met.
“I always say Mac is a very unique human being the most famous child actor in the world,” Song said during her Thursday appearance on “The Jennifer Hudson Show.” “He still doesn’t know how to drive! I took him out to drive in our neighborhood. I was terrified, let me tell you.”
The “Suite Life on Deck” star, 36, joked she has to “hire someone” to teach the former child star to do that specific task.
As for the laundry, Song explained that Culkin’s unique childhood is to blame.
“He lived and grew up in hotels, he had just never really done laundry, and I was shooketh…,” she told Hudson.
“I’ve been doing laundry since I was 10 helping my mom,” Song added. “It’s funny, teaching him how to do laundry.”
Song and Culkin have kept a relatively low profile throughout their relationship. Though, Song has shared more details of their personal lives in recent months while promoting her latest projects — “The Last Showgirl” and the Netflix series “Running Point.” The parents, who share 3-year-old son Dakota and 2-year-old son Carson, gave fans the first glimpse at their kids when they attended Culkin’s Walk of Fame ceremony in December 2023.
There’s a famous scene in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody where Phil Lewis’ character, Mr. Moseby, is trying to teach Brenda’s character, London Tipton, how to drive, and she refers to the gear shift as “the PRINDL.” It sounds like there was a case of life imitating art here. I think that the older you get, the harder it is to learn how to drive. It’s similar to how it’s tougher to learn a new language as you get older. Mac is rich enough to be able to call a driver and he could have gotten lessons at any other point in his life before now, so I’m sure he doesn’t really feel like he’s missing out. Still, the imagery of him trying to practice left-hand turns in an empty parking lot is sending me. As for the laundry, it makes sense that he never had to learn due to growing up in hotels. It’s also not surprising. Some couples split up household chores and literally never learn how to do the one that isn’t their responsibility.
JHud was stanning Mac pretty hard throughout, so Brenda also talked about how she made her beau watch Home Alone for the first time in over a decade when they first got together. He kept telling her behind-the-scenes trivia and she had to tell him to knock it off because he was “ruining it” for her. Hahaha, amazing. As it turns out, Jennifer is such a fan that she actually tried to buy the Home Alone house when it went up for sale last year! I think that is so cool. Apparently, the people who ended up buying it did so anonymously, but this makes me wonder how many other celebrities also tried to buy it.
Here’s Brenda’s appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show. I queued it up to start when she comes on, but just in case, she shows up at 26:54:
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix 2024, Getty Images for Netflix
Macaulay also talked about watching Home Alone with his son and apparently his son thinks he is the one in the movie, not his father 😭😭 So happy Mac has a relatively normal life now with Brenda and their kids. They are a very cute couple.
That’s kinda cute.. But serious question : do you actually learn how to do laundry? I just remember doing it. Never watched my mum, just followed the instructions as a kid. Kinda like basic cooking, you just do it as a kid.
Maybe it’s a matter of learning how to do laundry the way she wants it done. People can be awfully picky about sorting and water temps and folding things just so. I’m in the category of “shove everything in, dump in some soap, and hope for the best.”
LOL-I am the opposite. I don’t want my delicates washed with my son’s stinky lax gear, or a bra thrown in the dryer! If I’m out of town, they will wash clothes but leave mine and that’s totally fine.
It involves learning how to sort colors and determine proper temperatures and figuring out stain removal. It’s not not hard but many people need to learn how.
Given his background I’m not surprised he didn’t know how. But then again men are socially incentivized to not do housework and will do the whole “weaponized incompetence” thing so their partner has to do it.
Anyway this combined with his remarks about her race and the race of their children makes me think she has to be his babysitter somewhat. But looking at what he’s lived through I guess any partner of his would have to be that.
I wish she would teach him to pose for photos, too — when I see photos of him posing, it always looks to me like he’s drunk or stoned. (I’m not saying he is — he just doesn’t seem to pose with a confident smile.)
He hasn’t always been comfortable with his fame. We don’t even know if he is now. But he’s doing red carpets and he looks happy. He’s not doing the conventional stuff because frankly he might hate it. He needs to have control over the way he interacts with the press and on red carpets. So more power to him.
I do hope he’s just happy and silly and subversive and not something more worrisome too.
A reminder that Mac also has a history of pretty gross comments. I feel for Brenda
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1264101
Bleurgh. Yet another white person totally baffled to find themselves in close proximity to someone not white, and needing to point that out continuously.
I’m 37 and can’t drive. My parents never taught me as a teenager and than I moved to a big city where cars aren’t necessary. I totally relate to this.
When I took my one daughter to freshman orientation at her college, one speaker pleaded with the parents to teach their kids how to do their laundry before sending them off to school. I looked around and moms were typing this into their phones to remind themselves to do this.
My girls have been doing their laundry since they were 13 — I remember reading that Michelle Obama insisted that Sasha and Malia do their own laundry in the White House and I figured if the Obama girls could do it, so could mine.
I thought they were already married and had been for a while! Learn something new everyday. They’re one of my favorites! They’re just adorable! They’re whole little family!
Never found the mothering of grown men particularly cute, but ig in the context of Culkin’s history it makes sense. In other news, I had no idea these two were even dating in the first place.