Melissa McCarthy

Rejoice, parents: you’ll soon have a new Christmas movie to add to your family’s holiday rotation. If your family was anything like my own, you probably grew tired of placating screaming nieces and nephews with the same ratty DVD copies of A Christmas Story, Elf, or Home Alone. That makes any new holiday movie  —  regardless of quality  —  a welcome change of pace. Arthur Christmas? Fine. Rise of the Guardians? It’ll do in a pinch. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale? Maybe save that one for the time in the evening when the uncles break out the adults-only eggnog. But a Melissa McCarthy Christmas comedy? That could be quite a boon for tired family members everywhere.

Last year’s Ghostbusters reboot was supposed to be the start of an entire new franchise (or perhaps even a universe of franchises) around the venerable ’80s horror comedy. Sony Pictures, which owns the rights to bust ghosts on the big screen, even created this new production company, Ghost Corps, to lead the charge on all these various efforts. There was talk of an all-male Ghostbusters to accompany the all-female team we got from director Paul Feig. And a new cartoon series was put into development as well. But since the movie opened to just so-so reviews and box office last year, developments on this front have been as quiet as Spook Central after a total protonic reversal.

SNL isn’t always one to follow expectations, but with Melissa McCarthy hosting full-time after three Sean Spicer appearances, you knew they’d go all out. Watch McCarthy take Spicey to the streets in an elaborate SNL production setup for the weekend.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, because you almost certainly haven’t — think The Heat, but instead of tough cookie Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy teams with a street-smart puppet to bust criminal scum. Step aside, Anomalisa, a new puppet comedy has arrived to freak out audiences and challenge the boundaries of what can be considered marketable for a mass audience.

Ol’ Spicey gave us a taste of Melissa McCarthy’s SNL return this weekend (from another coast at that), presumably warming up for the comic actress’ full-fledged return in May. Don’t expect Sean Spicer to actually weigh in on the episode, as the White House Press Secretary claims not to watch any of the show (his boss would probably get mad).

It made sense of SNL to hire Melissa McCarthy for a fifth hosting gig, rather than rely on a weekly Sean Spicer impression. Nonetheless, our first live coast-to-coast SNL show managed to coax McCarthy’s Spicer out for Easter, and with an intriguing twist at that.

If perhaps SNL seemed to be sleeping on the job with its two-hosts-per-month in 2017, they had good reason. Not only have the final four hosts been announced, including Jimmy Fallon, Melissa McCarthy and The Rock, but shows will air live across the country for the first time in history.

SNL is no stranger to the current White House’s disdain for Alec Baldwin’s Trump impression (probably why we’re seeing it more and more), though the series trotted out another unexpected addition over the weekend with Melissa McCarthy’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Thankfully, the real Spicer is a much better sport about it than his boss.

For the second year in a row, Jennifer Lawrence tops the list of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, while the impressively prolific Dwayne Johnson has unseated Robert Downey Jr. as the highest-paid actor. Unfortunately, the highest-paid actors still earn millions more than their female counterparts, proving that Hollywood’s gender disparity problem still needs some fixing.

When Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters hit theaters over the weekend, a couple of things happened: It did fairly well at the box office — landing in second place just below The Secret Life of Pets — and no one’s childhood was destroyed. A $46 million opening isn’t mind-blowing, but it looks like it will be enough to justify a sequel to the reboot. The big question now is whether or not Feig and the whole cast will return for it.

Dear Ghostbusters haters, are you still angry about Paul Feig‘s female reboot? Are your hands tired from typing one vile, misogynistic comment after the next on YouTube? Are you praying the new movie will bomb at the box office so your precious childhood will never be threatened again? Well, too bad.

The very last line of Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters is “That isn’t terrible at all,” dialogue that can only be interpreted as a final nod to a fanbase that has worked itself into a lather fretting about this reboot’s tone, special effects, and particularly its female-centric cast. It feels sort of like when the doctor gives you a pep talk after a shot you’ve been dreading: That wasn’t so bad now, was it?