Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett Joins General Hospital in Grool New Role

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Jonathan Bennett is returning to his soap opera roots—and the excitement limit does not exist.

Daniel Franzese, known for his role in Mean Girls, is joining the cast of General Hospital, according to TopMob News. Franzese, who played Aaron Samuels in the popular 2004 movie, announced the news on Instagram, playfully writing, “There’s a new guy in town.”

ABC has announced that Bennett will join the cast of the popular medical drama as a new character named Joe Pitzpatrick. Details about how his character fits into the show’s storylines in Port Charles are currently being kept secret.

However, the show’s cast and crew are already celebrating his arrival.

Oh my gosh, I nearly fainted when I heard! Frank Valentini, our amazing Executive Producer, announced on April 16th that Jonathan is joining the cast! He said Jonathan is incredibly talented and will be perfect for General Hospital. I just know he’s going to be amazing, I can’t wait!

The actor’s debut episode will air in May.

As a longtime follower of the entertainment industry, I’ve definitely kept up with Bennett’s career! Many of you might remember him from his early days on All My Children. He actually took on the role of JR Chandler back in 2001 and 2002, stepping into the shoes of Jesse McCartney. It was a great introduction to the world of daytime television for him!

Best known for his role in the hit movie Mean Girls over twenty years ago, Bennett has shown he’s talented in more ways than one. He now hosts Halloween Wars, Food Network’s yearly cake-decorating competition.

Recently, Bennett has become a familiar face on Hallmark Channel, starring in and hosting several holiday programs. These include the movie The Holiday Sitter, the Groomsmen series of films, Keller Christmas Vacation, and the competition show Finding Mr. Christmas.

Outside of work, Bennett is happily married to Jaymes Vaughan, and the couple has been together for four years. Living in Los Angeles, they often collaborate with organizations like GLAAD to support LGBTQIA+ rights and increase representation.

As someone who’s followed pop culture for years, let me tell you, the idea of a same-sex kiss on a red carpet back during the Mean Girls days felt totally out of reach. Growing up, my partner and I never saw couples like us represented in the media, let alone celebrated publicly. That’s why we make a point of showing affection – we want to ensure there’s at least one kid out there who sees two men proudly being themselves and knows they’re not alone.

As fans anticipate Bennett’s first appearance on General Hospital, here’s a look at some unexpected stories from the making of Mean Girls.

While Lindsay Lohan was filming Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen in Toronto, director Mark Waters—who had previously worked with her on Freaky Friday—offered her a part in his new movie. She immediately knew which role she wanted.

Lindsay Lohan really wanted the role of Regina George. She’d recently played characters who weren’t popular in movies like Confessions and Freaky, and at 17, she was eager to play the cool, confident character on set. However, finding an actress who could convincingly play Cady Heron and stand up to Regina, combined with the success of Freaky Friday, led the filmmakers to realize a different approach was needed.

According to director Mark Waters, Sherry Lansing, then the head of Paramount, insisted that Lindsay Lohan play the main character in Mean Girls. Lansing felt Lohan’s audience wouldn’t accept her in a villainous role. Waters recalled telling Lohan the news, and she reluctantly agreed to take the lead, noting at least she’d have more lines to say.

Before Lindsay Lohan was replaced as Regina, director Mark Waters had several actresses audition with her for the role of Cady. Rachel McAdams, who was 24 at the time, was one of them.

John Waters recalled telling the actress after watching her perform a scene, ‘You have the potential to be a major movie star, but you’re not right for this role. You don’t quite fit the image of a young, innocent character.’ She responded by saying she understood and accepted his assessment.

Once they started looking for a new Regina, Rachel McAdams quickly became the obvious choice. As McAdams explained to EW, the director, Mark Waters, wanted to portray Cady as a bit younger, and felt it would be believable if Regina seemed to have matured too quickly.

Before Rachel McAdams was cast as Regina, she had to convince the director to choose her over Amanda Seyfried. Seyfried, who later starred in Mamma Mia!, was a strong contender for the role of the mean girl before she became known for playing the quirky character Karen.

According to Waters, the actress was fantastic when auditioning for the role of Regina, offering a performance quite unlike Rachel’s. She portrayed the character as both otherworldly and unsettling, creating a frightening yet surprisingly non-threatening presence. Producer Lorne Michaels was the one who ultimately suggested she be considered for the part of the ‘dumb girl’.

He continued, “So she came in and read it and nailed it, and we got the best of both worlds.”

Although it’s hard to picture Mean Girls without SNL stars Tim Meadows and Amy Poehler as Principal Duvall and Mrs. George, director Tina Waters revealed that the studio, Paramount, had some concerns about the casting.

Apparently, Paramount was hesitant about featuring too many people from Saturday Night Live in Mean Girls. According to a recent interview with Vulture, they’d had some bad experiences with previous movies based on SNL sketches and didn’t want Mean Girls to be perceived as just another SNL film, fearing it would turn audiences off.

Mark Meadows, who had previously appeared in the unsuccessful film version of The Ladies Man for Paramount, required a significant amount of negotiation with the studio, according to Waters.

Luckily, Waters chose Poehler for the role, as she ended up being key to making mathlete Kevin Gnapoor’s rap performance a reality. Fey actually asked her former ‘Weekend Update’ co-star to write the song for actor Rajiv Surendra.

According to Waters, the success of the rap portion is largely due to Amy, who coached him on delivery and even contributed some of the dance moves and choreography. She deserves a lot of the credit for it.

When Paramount submitted Mean Girls to the MPAA for a rating, the board initially suggested an R rating. The studio then had to appeal this decision to make sure teenagers could actually see the film in theaters.

Oh my gosh, you won’t BELIEVE what they had to cut from the movie, even for the PG-13 rating! Tina Fey told Variety about it a while back, and I was horrified! She said if it had been a movie about boys, they wouldn’t have even questioned a line like ‘Is your cherry popped?’ But because it was about girls, they had to change it! Can you believe it? They replaced it with ‘Is your muffin buttered?’ Seriously?! It was so much tamer! But it wasn’t like they just gave in on everything, apparently. They fought for some things, which is good to hear, honestly.

John Waters explained to Vulture that the joke about a woman’s anatomy was the reason his film received a ratings issue. The ratings board wouldn’t give it a PG-13 rating unless he removed the line. Waters’ team argued that the board was being sexist, pointing out that a scene of Ron Burgundy with an erection in Anchorman had been allowed in a PG-13 film. They successfully argued that objecting to a woman discussing her own body, without any sexual context, was unfair and demeaning to women, and the ratings board eventually conceded.

Jonathan Bennett famously asked Lindsay Lohan what day it was – October 3rd! – but several other actors were also considered for the part of Aaron Samuels.

Daniel Franzese, who played Damian in Mean Girls, shared in a 2014 Cosmopolitan interview that another actor was originally cast in the role but lost the part after a poor performance during the first read-through of the script.

Franzese described another actor who deliberately maintained a relaxed appearance by not shaving or removing his hat. He was hesitant to reveal the actor’s identity, not wanting to cause embarrassment. People kept politely suggesting he take his hat off. Surprisingly, shortly after the read-through of the script, he was let go and Jonathan Bennett, who was apparently their backup choice, was brought in to replace him.

Franzese also revealed that Lindsay Lohan had mentioned James Franco being considered for the role of Aaron Samuels before the actor who was ultimately fired was even in the running. He thought Franco would have been a great choice, though he acknowledged Bennett was fantastic in the part.

I’ve always been fascinated by how the cast came together! Apparently, when Aaron was looking for someone to play the role, Bennett wasn’t initially at the top of the list. But he ended up getting the part because, and this is amazing, he looked so much like Jimmy Fallon, who used to work with Tina Fey on Weekend Update. Bennett himself told the Huffington Post back in 2015 that Tina actually said that was the only reason he was cast – 100 percent true, according to her!

As Tina Fey told Entertainment Weekly in 2014, she preferred using real names when writing the script simply because it was more convenient. For example, the character Glen Coco – who appears briefly in the movie – was actually named after a friend of her older brother.

She explained that he’s a film editor in Los Angeles, and she suspects his job is really difficult. She also shared a funny story: someone told her you can actually buy a t-shirt at Target with the line ‘You go, Glen Coco!’ which she found surprising.

The movie also features characters inspired by real people. Janis Ian, played by Lizzy Caplan, is based on the musician who was an early performer on Saturday Night Live. Damian is named after Damian Holbrook, Tina Fey’s best friend from high school, who now writes for TV Guide. And Cady’s name comes from Fey’s college roommate, Cady Garey.

Tina Fey not only wrote the incredibly popular movie Mean Girls, but she also starred in it as Ms. Norbury, the math teacher and Mathletes advisor. However, she confessed she didn’t understand any of the mathematical terms she wrote into her character’s lines!

She explained to the NYT in 2004 that she deliberately tried to challenge the idea that girls aren’t good at math. Despite not understanding the math concepts herself, she managed to write believable scenes by simply copying lesson plans from her friend’s boyfriend, who was a calculus teacher in the Bronx.

The movie Mean Girls is inspired by Rosalind Wiseman’s book, Queen Bees and Wannabees, which offers advice to parents about teenage social dynamics. Because the movie wasn’t based on a specific story, Tina Fey was able to create the plot using her own high school memories, while still reflecting the insights from Wiseman’s book.

The author continues to love how Fey adapted her work, with one small exception. She jokingly told The Atlantic in 2014, “I’ve never done a trust fall, I don’t do trust falls, and I never will.” She remembers immediately thinking, ‘Tina, I really don’t like that,’ when she first saw it.

Do you remember the hilarious scene in the movie where Amy Poehler’s character is holding her dog, completely unaware that it’s chewing on her breast implant? Here’s a look at how the filmmakers made that happen.

McAdams recounted to EW that during filming, a small sausage was actually attached inside the actress’s bra. He said he was worried the dog would really hurt her, but she remained incredibly professional despite the dog biting at the prop. He was amazed by her ability to continue acting her lines while the dog was ‘chomping on her fake boob,’ and he said he’ll never forget the scene.

Franzese revealed that an early version of the script included a scene with Damian that never made it to filming. He explained to Cosmo that the original ending showed what happened to Damian after his junior year, involving an American Idol audition. In the cut scene, Simon Cowell was supposed to insult Damian’s weight, prompting Damian to rush the stage and punch him.

Oh my gosh, you will NOT believe what I read! Apparently, the ending of Mean Girls was totally different at one point! Like, they originally had Ms. Norbury catching Kevin G selling ecstasy! So when everyone starts thinking she’s the one dealing, there were actually drugs hidden in her desk! Can you even imagine?! It would have been SO much more intense!

Janis and Damian tried to get Kevin G. to take responsibility for the incident by going with them to the school board meeting, hoping he’d confess it was his fault. However, Kevin G. didn’t show up. So, Damian stepped up to the microphone and improvised a story, pretending it was his fault to try and shield Miss Norbury from trouble.

Tina Fey has admitted she now regrets her initial refusal to make a sequel to her popular movie. She explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2014 that when the idea first came up, she strongly opposed it, saying, “We shouldn’t do that!” Looking back, she wonders why she felt so strongly against it, but acknowledges that it’s too late to revisit the possibility now.

In a 2018 interview with Variety, she suggested focusing all effort on the current project, saying, “Maybe it’s better, because we can save all the energy for this.”

Okay, so this is the musical – the Mean Girls one! It’s the one Tina Fey wrote with her husband, Jeff Richmond, who did the music for 30 Rock – seriously, his work is amazing. It first came out in 2017, and then it hit Broadway in April 2018. It was a huge deal, getting nominated for twelve Tony Awards and nine Drama Desk Awards! She actually won a Drama Desk Award for the book, which is so deserved, and honestly? It’s what sparked the whole new Mean Girls musical in 2024. I’ve seen it like, a million times, and it still gets me!

Although a direct sequel to the original Mean Girls was never made, a television film called Mean Girls 2 aired in 2011. It was a separate story with only one returning cast member – Tim Meadows as the principal – and wasn’t very popular with audiences.

In 2024, a new Mean Girls movie based on the musical was released. Angourie Rice starred as Cady Heron, and Reneé Rapp returned to play Regina George, a role she originally performed on Broadway. The cast also included Bebe Wood as Gretchen, Avantika as Karen, Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, and Christopher Briney as Aaron.

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2026-04-16 21:19