Now we’ve hit the first full week of December, you’ll all be able to feel Christmas creeping ever closer.
With Mariah Carey officially defrosted and Netflix uploading this year’s latest Lindsay Lohan festive flick, next time you blink it will be December 28th and we’ll all be skint, hungover, and with a deep sense of existential dread.
Just me on that last one?
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Regardless, the lead up to Christmas is the perfect excuse to watch some great Christmas films.
Whether your favourite is Elf, Home Alone, or the objectively correct choice (It’s a Wonderful Life), everyone will have their personal option.
For many, this will be How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the festive classic starring Jim Carrey, Jeffrey Tambor, and Christine Baranski.
The film tells the story of the Dr Seuss classic, in which a cynical green monster The Grinch plots to ruin Christmas for the people living in ‘Whoville’.
This is all before he meets Cindy Lou Who, a little girl who teaches The Grinch the meaning of Christmas and warms his ice-cold heart.
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Adorable.
The film version of Cindy Lou is played by Taylor Momsen, and unlike other Christmas child stars such as Succession’s Kieran Culkin (he played the kid in Home Alone who kept pi**ing himself), she didn’t become famous for her acting after the film, even though she did appear in Gossip Girl.
Instead, Momsen became the lead singer of a world-famous rock band. As you do.
Momsen is the lead vocalist for The Pretty Reckless, a rock group that is currently touring the world opening for AC/DC and setting records along the way.
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One of the records is that amongst female-led rock bands, The Pretty Reckless are on their own when it comes to the Billboard charts.
The group has the most Rock Billboard number ones of any female led band, with their 2021 single ‘Death by Rock and Roll’ clocking in as their fifth number one track.
This single was the lead one on their album of the same name, their fourth.
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The album landed at the top of Billboard's Album Sales chart.
After debuting with 16,000 sales in the US, the record was also number one on the Current Rock Albums chart, the Record Label Independent Albums chart and Internet Albums chart.
Speaking to Today back in 2020, Momsen revealed that her time on set of The Grinch actually ended up influencing not only her career in acting, but also her music.
Recalling what it was like working with Jim Carrey, Momsen said: "I remember him being so kind, so concerned, but so methodical with what he was doing.
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"Even at that young of an age, I remember watching him and going, 'I'm watching an artist right now at work'."
She continued: "I think that people love The Grinch just simply because the core of the story is so sweet and it's so heartwarming and it has such a good message.
"Aside from how amazing Jim Carrey's performance is and the theatrics that went into the shoot, just the way the film looks and moves and is edited is amazing in its own right."
As for how the role impacted her move into the music industry, Momsen remembered feeling inspired after seeing celebrated composer, James Horner, at work in the studio.
Momsen said: "The thing that I remember the most that probably resonated with me to this day as an adult was the first time that I went into a recording studio and got to work with the amazing James Horner.
"And I'll never forget walking into this beautiful studio, with this immaculate console in front of me, and putting headphones on and singing into a microphone for the first time, singing 'Where Are You Christmas'."
"That was such an impactful moment in my life because it made me go, 'I wanna make music for the rest of my life. I love being in a recording studio'."
She added: "I'm in my bedroom singing 'Where Are You Christmas' with the flashlight. I mean, essentially, that was my first music video. So I always get a kick out of that. And I remember thinking that was a really fun scene to film."
Topics: Music, Jim Carrey, Christmas
Michael Slavin