Running Point’a Brenda Song Unveils Macaulay Culkin Easter Egg in Season 2

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details about Season 2 of “Running Point,” which will be available for streaming on Netflix on April 23.

Brenda Song first captured audiences as London Tipton on Disney Channel’s “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” while her fiancé Macaulay Culkin went through his own iconic child star era. Decades after each film first captured the world’s attention, they still find ways to keep audiences hooked, even when one of them isn’t technically on screen.

While Culkin made an on-screen cameo in Season 1 of ‘Running Point,’ he made his way into Season 2 in a completely different way. Song spoke Variety in the season 2 premiere Wednesday night about a “My Girl” Easter egg tucked into the new season: A flashback reveals that Ally (Song) and Isla (Kate Hudson) were once roommates in college who couldn’t stand each other, eventually bonding over crying together while watching the 1991 tearjerker starring Culkin. “They were all the writers,” she said. However, getting her fiancé’s autograph came down to the wire. “He just signed it two days ago. I’m like, ‘Honey, the show’s going to premiere next week. Just sign it.'”

As for a full cameo this season, Song had some thoughts. “He pitches himself every season. I love him, but I’m like, ‘Honey, this is my job. Let me live,'” she joked. “We have Ray Romano. We have Octavia Spencer. And not that he has chopped liver, but…”

Song and Culkin were among the many who celebrated the return of ‘Running Point’ to Netflix on April 23. Also walking the carpet were Hudson, Drew Tarver, Justin Theroux, Romano, co-creators Mindy Kaling and Ike Barinholtz, and real-life Lakers president Jeanie Buss. Season 2 opens with Isla Gordon, no longer the surprise choice to lead the Los Angeles Waves, but rather the one with a target on her back.

Barinholtz, who joins the cast this season as the Gordon family’s “crazy” cousin Bennie, revealed that the role wasn’t exactly what he envisioned for himself. “I said, ‘Maybe I’ll be a love interest for Kate, three episodes, a dashing businessman who she falls in love with,’” he said. “And Mindy said, ‘Yes, you’re going to play her cousin, who is the biggest loser in the world.’…It’s one of the funniest characters I’ve played. He’s almost not a real person.”

Romano, who joins the cast this season as “Running Point” as a basketball pundit turned social recluse, claimed one personal highlight on set: winning a foul shooting contest among the writers during a break. “I’m a good foul shooter,” he said. “I actually won that one.” However, when asked if fans will see him win a shooting competition on camera, he clarifies: “No, because they want to stay on the air.”

Buss reflected on the show’s unexpected global reach, recalling that she was in Poland watching the Slovenian basketball team play when a local radio station brought up “Running Point.” “It just blew my mind,” she said on the show fictionalizing her life. Entering the playoffs with Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves nursing injuries, the Lakers kept things under control. “LeBron James is doing a pretty good job of carrying the team,” he said. “He was fantastic, as always.”

Fortunately for LA Wave fans, Stassen confirmed that the writers’ room has already started planning a possible season 3. “We want to keep the family dynamic high and intense and full of antagonism,” he said.

As for his other current gig, Barinholtz confirmed that Season 2 of “The Studio” is about halfway through production. About his character Sal Saperstein: “He’s up to his usual antics, trying not to die and trying to keep Matt Remick in check a little.” He also teased a location change. “We went to Venice,” he said. “So if you’re a fan of Italy and scenery, this season is for you.”

Kaling also talked about her upcoming series “Not Compatible for Work,” a show about sloppy, over-ambitious 20-somethings in New York that hit closer to home than expected. “It was actually kind of a trigger to go back to my 20s, when your desires are bigger than what you’ve achieved,” she said. “I wanted to get married at 24, become a millionaire, become a writer for ‘Saturday Night Live’. None of that came to fruition, so I took a different path.”

She called the cast, including “Mean Girls (2024)” breakout star Avantika, “so funny,” adding that the actress is “killing it right now.”

Check out more photos from the Season 2 premiere of ‘Running Point’ below.