The Step Brothers made their triumphant return, and from the looks of things there didn’t appear to be any lingering hard feelings between the two stars.
On Saturday, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, longtime friends and colleagues, reunited to help celebrate Snoop Dogg’s 52nd birthday at the Best Night Of Your Life 2 benefit show.
While the hip-hop legend was on stage, the two actors and comedians came out and surprised him with a huge three-layer birthday cake.
‘Yesterday was a very special day. It was Snoop Dogg’s birthday,’ Reilly, 58, told the crowd, before Snoop pulled out a joint and lit it up with the candles.’That’s what I’m taking about,’ Reilly added.
The duo then led the crowd into a sing-along rendition of ‘Happy Birthday, followed by Snoop blowing out his candles.
‘My brothers surprised me,’ Snoop wrote on Instagram, while sharing a backstage view of the special moment. “Will and John.
The sight of Ferrell and Reilly on stage together having fun with Snoop comes in the wake of the fall out over the role of Jerry Buss in HBO’s sports drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
The two stars share a long collaborative history that includes starring together in Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006), Holmes & Watson (2018), to go along with their comedy film Step Brothers (2008).
But it turns out Ferrell had been lobbying his then-producing partner and best friend Adam McKay to play the Lakers’ larger-than-life owner, Jerry Buss, since he had started developing the show, which is an adaption of Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty.
But McKay didn’t feel he was right for the role of the late Buss, who passed away in 2013, and instead cast Boardwalk Empire star Michael Shannon in August 2019.
‘And Will was good with it,’ McKay said of their different casting choice, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
However, things didn’t go as planned with Shannon, who reportedly did not like the fourth wall breaking format of the series, and he ended up exiting the production just one month later.
With just over a week until the shoot was scheduled to begin, McKay and the casting crew scrambled and choose Reilly for the Jerry Buss role.
Before Reilly signed on he decided to reach out and call Ferrell, which in hindsight McKay confessed it should have been him who called the comedian first.
Upon learning of the decision, via a phone call from Reilly, Ferrell was so infuriated that he ended his friendship and professional relationship with McKay.
‘It was at this weird moment where Will and I weren’t exactly hugging each other, even though there was nothing that terrible, and he called Will and said, “Hey, McKay just came to me with this,”‘the producer and pilot director said.
He continued, ‘And Will was very hurt that I wasn’t the one to call him, and I should have. I f***ed up.’
Not wanting to jeopardize his friendships with both men, Reilly decided to steer clear of anything that would hurt either of them
‘Will is one of my best friends, Adam is one of my best friends, I was delighted to get the job and that’s all I really have to say,’ he said of the rift between them.
The first season about the Showtime Lakers, consisting of 10 episodes focused on the 1979–1980 NBA season, premiered in March 2022 to ‘generally favorable reviews’ from critics.
A second season, consisting of seven episodes covered the years between 1980 and 1984, followed this past August.
But just over a month later HBO announced the series would not be renewed for a third season.
Along with Reilly (Jerry Buss), Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty also stars Quincy Isaiah (Magic Johnson), Solomon Hughes (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Jason Clarke (Jerry West), Adrien Brody (Pat Riley), Jason Segel (Paul Westhead), DeVaughn Nixon (Norm Nixon), Sally Field (Jessie Buss) and Gaby Hoffmann (Claire Rothman),
The cast also includes Tracy Letts (Jack McKinney), Hadley Robinson (Jeanine Buss), Julianne Nicholson (Cranny McKinney), Tamera Tomakili (Earletha ‘Cookie’ Kelly), Spencer Garrett (Chick Hearn), Sarah Ramos (Cheryl Pistono), Molly Gordon (Linda Zafrani), Delante Desouza (Michael Cooper), Jimel Atkins (Jaamal Wilkes), Austin Aaron (Mark Landsberger), Brett Cullen (Bill Sharman), Stephen Adly Guirgis (Frank Mariani), among others.
Laura Davis is an entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to Broadway, she offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
