The pair celebrated the holiday season by recreating the classic “Last Christmas” single cover from British pop duo, Wham!
Actors Reynolds, 47, and McElhenney, 46 — who together own U.K. soccer team Wrexham — styled their hair and outfits to mimic those worn by Wham! stars George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley on the original cover art which was released in 1986. McElhenney then posted the hilarious results to his Instagram on Monday with Reynolds also sharing the image to his own Instagram Stories.
Underneath the pouting black-and-white picture, the pair replaced the names of the pop stars with their own and added the logo of their beloved Wrexham soccer club in the corner of the snap. The post’s caption simply read, “WREXHAM!” alongside a Christmas tree emoji.
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The stars also donned leather jackets to stage their own version of the 1983 Wham! studio album Fantastic. Against a red backdrop, the duo posed for the camera with McElhenney sporting a mustache, just as Ridgeley had on the original version, while Reynolds had his leather jacket unbuttoned. They also replaced “Wham!” at the top of the cover art with “Wrexham!” — a nod to their docuseries Welcome to Wrexham,
Game of Thronesactor McElhenney subsequently shared the images to his own Instagram Stories accompanied by Wham!’s famous festive tune, “Last Christmas.”
Ryan Reynolds and Robert McElhenney mimic Wham!.
Rob McElhenney Instagram
The festive tribute comes ahead of the 7th anniversary of Michael’s death. The music legend died unexpectedly on Christmas day in 2016, aged just 53, with his passing shocking fans around the world who had been captivated by his vocals since he rose to fame as part of Wham! before forging a hugely successful solo career.
Michael’s influence is still felt, however, and Kate Middleton even wove an emotional tribute to the singer-songwriter into her Together At Christmas carol concert for 2023.
George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in Wham!.
Pete Still/Redferns
Earlier this month, the Princess of Wales, 41, hosted the holiday service at Westminster Abbey in London for the third year in a row and it featured a piece of pop music history in honor of Michael and Beatles legend John Lennon.
During the program, U.K. radio host and mental health advocate Roman Kemp, 30, the son of 80s pop stars Martin Kemp and Shirlie Holliman, introduced singer-songwriter Jacob Collier’s performance of “Last Christmas,” which he performed on a piano that originally belonged to Lennon and was once owned by Michael.
Michael — who had been Kemp’s godfather — was remembered by him on the evening as “a man of great kindness and compassion.” The radio host added that Michael was also at the event in “spirit.”
Royal Carols: Together at Christmas will be broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX on Christmas Eve at 2.45 p.m. EST.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
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