Entertainment
Nathan Lane Made a Hepatitis Joke to Jesse Tyler Ferguson's 5-Year-Old Son
Jesse Tyler Ferguson had no qualms about Nathan Lane telling an adult joke to his 5-year-old son, Beckett.
Ferguson, 50, shared that he recently invited Lane, 69, and Pamela Adlon over to his home for dinner during the latest episode of his “Dinner’s on Me” podcast. Before the meal, he recalled using Lane’s very famous Disney character, The Lion King’s Timon, as a touchpoint for Beckett and son Sullivan, 3, to help recognize their impending guests. (Ferguson shares both his sons with husband Justin Mikita.)
“[Lane] was in town shooting something and we’ve been trying to meet for dinner and it was just easier. I was like, ‘Do you just want me to cook for you? I’ll cook for you.’ And he came over,” the Modern Family star explained. “And I was like, ‘You know Nathan, of course. You’ve listened to him, you know his voice from [Timon in] The Lion King.’ So I played ‘Hakuna Matata’ and on my way to school, they were singing ‘Hakuna Matata.’ And I was like, ‘This is Nathan who is coming to dinner!’”
He continued, “So that evening, Nathan comes over with Pam, and Nathan comes in, and my son goes, ‘I know who you are!’ He called him, ‘Athan.’ ‘Athan, Athan, Athan, I know who you are! You’re from ‘Hakuna Matata,’ you’re from Lion King!‘”
While Ferguson’s kids were clearly excited, the Only Murders in the Building star was allegedly less than enthused to be recognized for one of his past roles. “Nathan was like, ‘Oh god.’ Like, as if he was being stopped in the street by a fan,” Ferguson recalled with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Nathan, he’s a 5-year-old. Like, let it rest!’”
Lane’s response didn’t dissuade Ferguson’s eldest, though, as Beckett returned shortly after with something hidden behind his back. When he asked Lane to guess what he had, the Birdcage star didn’t hold back.
“He’s like, ‘Athan, Athan, Athan, guess what I have?’” Ferguson remembered. “And Nathan goes, ‘Hepatitis.’”
Despite the joke being more geared toward adults, Ferguson said he wasn’t bothered by Lane’s disposition.
“I loved him so much for just being authentically himself,” Ferguson confessed, adding that Lane has expressed that children aren’t his favorite crowd. “He’s like, ‘I don’t mind kids, but I also don’t relate to them. And I hear an opportunity for a joke and this is what I’m going to give.’”
Lane’s status as Disney royalty has made him a legend to the younger generations. The Emmy winner starred as lovable jungle meerkat Timon in all three of the original Lion King films, one half of the movie’s comedic relief duo with Ernie Sabella Nathan Lane Made Hepatitis Joke to Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s 5-Year-Old Son who portrayed warthog Pumba.
While there is plenty of kid humor throughout each Lion King — including Pumba’s farting noises, which came from Sabella trying to make Lane laugh in early morning recording sessions — there was one adult-leaning joke that made its way into the movie thanks to Lane’s improv.
While appearing on an April 2025 episode of SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend show, Lane admitted the scene where Timon puts on a skirt and distracts a group of hyenas came from him “screwing around” in the studio.
“I don’t even remember half of it, but, apparently I said, ‘What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?’ for some reason,” Lane recalled of the now-famous line. “It must have been a long day. And then they made it a song.”
Lane, who came out publicly as gay in 1999, nearly expanded his kids movie resume with another classic, 1996’s Space Jam. However, the Guys and Dolls actor claimed during a May 2025 interview with Vanity Fair that he was passed over for the role due to homophobia.
“I was told [being gay did] impact a movie that I didn’t really care about: Space Jam. I was up for the part that the guy from Seinfeld wound up playing,” Lane said, referencing the role of Michael Jordan’s publicist that ultimately went to Wayne Knight. “I was up for that part. Apparently the director saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that suggested I was too gay to play the part. So thank God, I didn’t have to do Space Jam.”
Entertainment
Bumble quietly removes option for men to message first in Mexico and Australia
The dating app Bumble has been known for “women making the first move” (messaging first) in straight matches since its 2014 launch. Now the company is reversing a more recent change to let men message first — but only in a couple of areas.
Last week, Bumble announced that it’s removing the Opening Moves feature in Mexico and Australia. The feature has been removed automatically for those users.
Opening Moves was introduced in 2024 as a way for men to send the first message to women and was advertised as a way to lessen exhaustion with dating apps. The company’s former CEO Lidiane Jones led the charge after taking over from founder and first CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who shortly thereafter returned to the CEO role after Jones held the position for only a year.
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While the reputation of dating apps overall has been slipping in recent years due to burnout and bad actors, Bumble has been especially hit financially. The company laid off 30 percent of its workforce last year, and its stock price has fallen 95 percent from its IPO as of this writing.
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Bumble seems to be returning to its original ethos even amid legal challenges. The Observer reported Bumble introduced Opening Moves following lawsuits and legal threats in California, claiming that the app discriminated against men, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Observer states that the company is starting to remove Opening Moves in Australia and Mexico due to lower legal risks in those markets.
“At Bumble, we regularly test and innovate our features to foster healthy, respectful connections while staying true to our women-first mission and prioritizing member safety,” a Bumble spokesperson told Mashable. “Supporting our community as they go from match to message is a key part of that work. As with all testing, we evaluate our learnings before considering a wider rollout, ensuring any changes continue to meet our community’s needs and deliver a positive experience for our members.”
Entertainment
Erupcja trailer: Charli XCX stars in explosive sapphic romance
Charli XCX is going from pop star to movie star with a string of films, including the queer fantasy 100 Nights of Hero, the mockumentary The Moment, and the sapphic romantic drama Erupcja.
Charli XCX co-wrote the script for Erupcja with director Pete Ohs and co-star Lena Góra. Set in Warsaw, the film focuses on two women, a local florist named Nel (Góra) and a tourist named Bethany (XCX), who has repeatedly crashed her love life. But this time, Bethany’s brought her current boyfriend Rob (Will Madden), who is looking for the perfect moment to propose.
In my review out of the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is quoted in the above trailer, I cheered: “Shot with the kinetic yet poised cool of the French New Wave, this Polish production feels timeless. Its scenes play out with enough specificity for audiences to hook in, but enough ambiguity that they can feel like a dream. There’s a touch of fairy tale to that. Ohs keeps his characters curious and fluid, refusing to shove them into easy-to-define roles of hero and villain. Instead, Erupcja embraces the feral nature of love, messy and wondrous…. Erupcja is a thundering rumble of drama and romance, leaving its audience excited and rattled.”
Erupcja opens in theaters April 17.
Entertainment
Samsung finally sets a date: Galaxy Unpacked is coming Feb. 25
Our long national nightmare is over. We finally know when Samsung is going to show off the Galaxy S26 lineup.
The Korean tech giant confirmed that the next Galaxy Unpacked livestream will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. PT (9 a.m. ET). The event is in San Francisco this year, and it’s widely expected that Samsung will show off three new Galaxy S26 phones.
As per usual, you can watch the event on Samsung’s website or Samsung’s YouTube channel.
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Mashable will be at the event and reporting live on all of the announcements, so keep checking back for the latest updates on Galaxy Unpacked.
Hosting the event this late in February is highly unusual for Samsung, which usually launches its next-gen Galaxy phones in January. It’s not really clear why Samsung took as long as it did to put Unpacked together this year, as it doesn’t seem like the S26 lineup is doing anything too wild to shake up the formula, though production delays and the global memory shortage may be factors.
All reports point to the usual lineup (S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra) returning this year, with typical upgrades like a newer processor and bigger batteries.
It also wouldn’t be surprising to see some camera upgrades or new AI features, and we’ve already reported on a ton of S26-related leaks and rumors. We’ll all find out together in a couple of weeks.
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Samsung
Samsung Unpacked
Bumble quietly removes option for men to message first in Mexico and Australia
Erupcja trailer: Charli XCX stars in explosive sapphic romance
