One of the most iconic Christmas film franchises, it seems wrong to go without watching the Home Alone movies each year.
But with the controversy surrounding Donald Trump's second term as president, the second film has a bit of a downside for many viewers - simply because he’s in it.
Sure, he’s only in it for a matter of seconds, but plenty of fans wish he wasn’t in at all.
And that’s something the director agrees on, as he describes the US president’s cameo in Home Alone 2 as a ‘curse’.
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However, Chris Columbus fears a severe consequence if he were to cut the scene after over three decades since its release.
The 66-year-old directed both the Christmas flicks, as well as the likes of the first two Harry Potter films and Mrs. Doubtfire.
In the sequel, Trump appears in a seven-second shot when Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin, obviously) asks the businessman for directions at his Plaza Hotel in New York.
Columbus says he had actually planned to remove the fleeting appearance before the 1992 release but was swayed after the reaction from an early audience.
“We screened the film in Chicago, and when that moment came onscreen the audience went crazy,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Years later, it’s become this curse. It’s become this thing that I wish it was not there … It’s become an albatross for me. I just wish it was gone.”
Columbus previously claimed Trump had managed to ‘bully his way into the movie’ by only allowing the filming to take place in the hotel if he could make a personal appearance.
And now the iconic director says he simply ‘can’t cut it’. He has always lived in the US, born in Pennsylvania and raised in Ohio, but is of Italian and Czech descent.
“If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of the country,” he claimed.
“I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I’ll have to go back to Italy or something.”
Trump actually responded to Columbus’ bullying allegation in 2023 when he hit back on social media.
“I was very busy, and didn’t want to do it. They were very nice, but above all, persistent. I agreed, and the rest is history! That little cameo took off like a rocket,” he said.
“If they felt bullied, or didn’t want me, why did they put me in, and keep me there, for over 30 years? Because I was, and still am, great for the movie, that’s why!”
Saying the moment has become an 'albatross' for him, Columbus responded in this latest interview as he said: "It’s become this thing that I wish it was not there. What’s going through this guy’s mind? He said I was lying. I’m not lying. He said I begged him to be in the movie, but there’s no world I would ever beg a non-actor to be in a movie. But we were desperate to get the Plaza Hotel.”
Culkin himself actually previously endorsed a social media comment calling for Trump to be wiped out of the film.
And plenty of fans have frequently expressed their wishes, even offering up alternatives such as: “Petition to digitally replace Trump in Home Alone 2 with 40-year-old Macaulay Culkin.”
Now that would be an interesting use of AI in films.
Topics: Donald Trump, Macaulay Culkin, TV and Film, Home Alone, Christmas
Jess Battison