Topline:
Catherine O’Hara, best known for her roles in Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice, and Home Alone, died in her LA home after a brief illness.
Remembering the actress: We’ve compiled five of O’Hara’s iconic performances from her roles in Schitt’s Creek, A Mighty Wind and more.
Read on … for the recommendations.
Catherine O’Hara, best known for her roles in Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice and Home Alone, died Friday after a brief illness.
While O’Hara was a cast member on Saturday Night Live for just one week, she got her big break as an original cast member of the Canadian sketch comedy show Second City Television (or SCTV), alongside Eugene Levy, who’d become a frequent co-star.
Her comedic genius, musical prowess and complete dedication to the characters she portrayed appeared in dozens of films and television shows over her over 50-year acting career, from voicing the speaking and singing roles of Sally and Shock in The Nightmare Before Christmas, to the inexplicable dialect created for Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek, to the sobering performance of a therapist practicing in a post apocalyptic world in The Last of Us.
Here are some of those essential O’Hara performances that highlighted her comedic genius and made her so iconic.
O’Hara had her hand in many roles across her eight-year long tenure in SCTV. One that still makes the rounds on social media is “the woman with indestructible hair.” Note the utter seriousness in her performance that sells the joke!
A favorite O’Hara moment as her beloved Schitt’s Creek character Moira Rose is when she delivers a performance of "craftsmanship" and “quality” for a TV commercial on fruit wine. Has anyone ever mispronounced words so perfectly?
If you want a master class in lip syncing, look no further than O’Hara as Delia Deetz singing “Day-O,” while possessed at the dinner table in 1988’s Beetlejuice. Her body and lips are in sync, while her eyes give a whole other performance of panic!
It wouldn’t be a complete list without including O’Hara playing one of our favorite 90’s on-screen moms screaming “Kevin!” to the camera. The original is iconic, but we might prefer her delivery in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Who else could play a mom who forgets her kid twice and we still love her?!
In the 2003 Christopher Guest mockumentary A Mighty Wind, O’Hara plays Mickey Crabbe, one half of a now broken-up married folk duo. A climax of the film is when Crabbe and Mitch Cohen (played by Eugene Levy) reunite onstage, performing their song “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow.” As the audience waits with baited breath, they share a poignant kiss. It’s a feel-good moment and a Julia Paskin favorite!
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Los Angeles County tenants who’ve fallen behind on their rent because of last year’s fires or federal immigration raids can soon apply for a rent relief program that had previously catered only to landlords and homeowners .
The details: The $23 million program closed its first application window last Friday. Now, county officials say applications will reopen Feb. 9. Tenants will be allowed to directly apply this time, and landlords and homeowners will get another shot too.
The help available: The program offers to cover up to six months of missed rent or mortgage payments, with a cap of $15,000 per housing unit. Utilities and other household expenses can be covered as well.
Applications so far: County officials said they received 4,644 applications during the first round. In the next phase, tenants can apply on their own, but they will eventually need their landlords to complete their own paperwork in order to receive funding.
For more information … go to the county’s rent relief website at lacountyrentrelief.com.
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The 2026 Grammy Awards — hosted by comedian Trevor Noah — will take place at Crypto.com Arena at 5 p.m. Sunday, so drivers can expect road closures in downtown L.A.
The ceremony will bring many of music's biggest names to downtown Los Angeles, and shut down streets around the arena.
Here's a full list of street closures from the L.A. Department of Transportation:
Closures starting early Sunday, after 1 a.m.:
Additional closures starting Sunday morning, after 10 a.m.:
The LADOT has not responded to an inquiry on when the closures will lift.
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Thousands of protesters began assembling in downtown Los Angeles Friday afternoon in one of several planned demonstrations calling for the withdrawal of federal immigration agents.
Why it matters: The protests are also in response to the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti — both fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis — and the deaths of people held in ICE custody.
Why now: It’s one of several “ICE Out” events expected in the L.A. region and around the country Friday and Saturday in response to the Trump administration’s immigration actions, which many have described as overreaching and unconstitutional.
The backstory: The Department of Homeland Security has said immigration agents were targeting violent criminals, but there has been ample evidence to the contrary.
Read on... for more on what protesters are saying.
Thousands of protesters turned out in downtown Los Angeles Friday in one of several planned demonstrations calling for the withdrawal of federal immigration agents.
The massive downtown protest is one of several “ICE Out” events expected in the L.A. region and around the country Friday and Saturday in response to the Trump administration’s immigration actions, which many have described as overreaching and unconstitutional.
Other local protests were planned in Santa Monica, Culver City, Torrance, El Monte, Monrovia and Pasadena.
The protests are also in response to the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti — both fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis — and the deaths of people held in ICE custody.
By mid-afternoon, there appeared to be as many as 5,000 people or more assembled downtown. Initially, many people gathered on Spring Street in front of City Hall and around a flatbed truck that was being used as a makeshift stage.
Later, the crowd moved along Temple Street toward the Metropolitan Detention Center. Shortly before 3 p.m., people were heading toward Chinatown.
Many carried signs with the words, "ICE OUT" and other pointed messages referencing the immigration raids and President Donald Trump.
Steve Frintner, 66, from Burbank was marching with his son and daughter.
"There's people who have been out here every time for these rallies, but there's got to be more of us," he said. "We all have to show that we're not going to stand for what this administration has been doing to our country."
Frintner said marching was a little tough for him physically, but he felt it was important to be there. In addition to the shootings in Minneapolis, he noted the fallout from ICE activity in L.A., Chicago, Portland and other cities.
"This is the kind of thing that in other societies our country fought against, and now we are seeing it happening on a daily basis," he said. "And I don't know how people can not see what the problem is."
There did not appear to be a large law enforcement presence early Friday afternoon. However, LAist reporters did spot a few Los Angeles city police and county sheriff's vehicles around the crowd perimeter.
Matt Carlin, 48, of Los Angeles said he decided to participate in the protests because he believes "a line has been crossed" by federal authorities, whom he repeatedly called "fascists" and accused of acting as secret police. He said the deaths in Minnesota were "disgusting" and "upsetting," but were the logical progression of an administration that wants to rule by fear.
"It's unacceptable and it's time for people to stand up," he told LAist. "And I think doing it on a weekday sends a stronger message, and not shopping and not getting on Facebook and Instagram."
He said it's important to show supporters of the Trump administration that "we're serious about this."
Uma Sanasaryan, 50, said she is originally from the former Soviet Union. She said she has seen people get "snatched up" in her Atwater Village neighborhood — a violation of human rights.
"I am an immigrant myself and we literally escaped Soviet tyranny to come to the United States so that we could feel free and have the freedom of speech and, you know, the ability to pursue our dreams," she said. "To do things with our lives that we could never do anywhere else."
Sanasaryan noted she is a naturalized citizen, but that doesn't ease her concern.
"They could come for me they could come for anyone," she said. "It doesn't matter anymore."
The Department of Homeland Security has said immigration agents were targeting violent criminals, but there has been ample evidence to the contrary.
Reports released last year noted that about half of the thousands of people held in ICE custody had no criminal convictions.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Topline:
Canadian actress and screenwriter Catherine O'Hara has died at her home in Los Angeles, following a brief illness, according to her agent and manager.
Six-decade career: She O'Hara enjoyed a long career in TV and film playing sometimes over-the-top, but endearing characters. In one of her most memorable roles, O'Hara played the freaked-out mom of rascally son Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) in two Home Alone movies. Later, she portrayed the self-centered, whiny matriarch in the riches-to-rags TV sitcom Schitt's Creek — a role for which she earned an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award in 2020.
Reaction to her death: Home Alone co-star Macaulay Culkin wrote, "Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I'll see you later."
Canadian actress and screenwriter Catherine O'Hara has died at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness, according to her agent and manager.
She was 71 years old and was known for absurdist comedy. She enjoyed a six-decade career in TV and film playing sometimes over-the-top, but endearing characters.
In one of her most memorable roles, O'Hara played the freaked-out mom of rascally son Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) in two Home Alone movies. Later, she portrayed the self-centered, whiny matriarch in the riches-to-rags TV sitcom Schitt's Creek — a role for which she earned an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award in 2020.
She won her first Emmy in 1982 for writing on the Canadian sketch comedy TV series Second City Television, or SCTV. She cofounded the show, and created characters such as the show biz has-been Lola Heatherton.
"I loved playing cocky untalented people," O'Hara told Fresh Air in 1992.
On SCTV in the '70s and '80s, she teamed up with another Canadian comic actor, Eugene Levy. Together, they — along with an ensemble — went on to perform in a string of films by director Christopher Guest.
O'Hara and Levy were dog trainers in the Guest's mockumentary Best in Show. And they were a folk-singing duo in A Mighty Wind.
O'Hara and Levy also acted together as the parents in Schitt's Creek. More recently, O'Hara acted with another Canadian, Seth Rogen, in his Apple TV comedy The Studio. She played a movie studio head who gets pushed aside.
O'Hara was born and raised in Toronto, and got her start as an understudy for Gilda Radner at the Second City Theater in Toronto.
She reportedly met her production designer husband Bo Welch on the set of the 1988 movie Beetlejuice. She reprised her spiritually possessed role in the 2024 sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Since the news of her death some of her famous friends have paid tribute to her online.
"Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I'll see you later." wrote actor Macaulay Culkin.
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