Macaulay Culkin: The Home Alone Star Is Engaged

Macaulay Culkin recently became engaged to Brenda Song, his long-time girlfriend who he met on the set of Changeland.

By Faith McKay | Updated

Macaulay Culkin was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1991 for his role in Home Alone, when he was only eleven-years-old. While there are a lot of child actors out there, the legend surrounding Culkin stands apart. For many, it hasn’t been all that long since you’ve seen his young face, with Home Alone now a holiday staple. Through a long and winding career, Macaulay Culkin has had some high-profile relationships, but now he is engaged to a famous actress.

MACAULAY CULKIN IS ENGAGED TO BRENDA SONG

Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song have been in a relationship since 2017 when they first met on the set of Changeland which was directed by Seth Green. Since then the two have been together and even gave birth to a son in 2021.

The couple announced their official engagement via Brenda Song’s Instagram account when she said she was wedding planning and used it as a chance to promote pieces of a fashion collection.

Previously, Macaulay Culkin had been in a romantic relationship with Rachel Minor who he married at the age of 18. He also dated Mila Kunis for nine years between 2002 and 2011 before she married Ashton Kutcher.

MACAULAY CULKIN GOT HIS START IN UNCLE BUCK

Macauley Culkin in Uncle Buck

Macaulay Culkin’s home life has been gossiped about so much that it’s impossible to overlook. Culkin was one of many children living in a one-bedroom apartment, and his father saw a way out of poverty with his talented son. He enrolled Culkin in some ballet classes, started sending his son on auditions, and became his child’s manager.

His IMDB page lists a few small television parts in the mid-1980s until he landed the role of Miles in the 1989 John Candy movie, Uncle Buck. There’s a scene in that movie where Miles looks through a mail slot to see who’s at the door, wary of letting strangers into his home. Culkin has said that filmmaker John Hughes saw this brief scene and had a spark of inspiration. Child who protects his home! He wrote the script for Home Alone with Macaulay Culkin in mind for the lead part.

HOME ALONE MAKES HIM A STAR

home alone scream

Home Alone came out in 1990, when Macaulay Culkin was ten-years-old. The movie was a massive hit, making $476 million worldwide, against a budget of only $18 million. The film catapulted Culkin into stardom, with his iconic screaming face becoming the primary image from the film, Culkin became synonymous with this holiday classic.

His father made the decisions about which parts to accept for Macaulay Culkin. He would star in the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and he also played the unforgettable part of Thomas J. in My Girl.

He was also in some things you may not have heard of, like a television series called Wish Kid. His acting schedule was intense for an adult, let alone a child. When the press junkets are added in, it’s hard to imagine how it all got done.

MACAULAY CULKIN TAKES A BREAK AFTER RICHIE RICH

After 1994’s Richie Rich, we started to see less of Macaulay Culkin on the big screen, but that didn’t stop the headlines. Culkin’s parents’ split up during his teen years, and while many kids have to choose which parents to live with, Macaulay Culkin had to worry about whose name to put on his trust fund. Culkin handled this by using a third party instead of choosing between his parents. The headlines said he was emancipated, that he had to divorce from his evil parents. 

Macaulay Culkin was associated with Michael Jackson, which brought up a whole slew of rumors he doesn’t talk about. In 2003, he starred in the movie Party Monster, followed by Saved! in 2004. Around this time, there were more rumors about his personal life than the movies he was in. Also in 2001, after eight years together, his relationship with Mila Kunis ended. 

MACAULAY CULKIN STARTS BUNNYEARS.COM

macaulay culkin bunny ears

In 2017, Macaulay Culkin started the website BunnyEars.com, which is a satire site with real information. There are podcasts, articles, and interviews where Culkin talks to celebrities while wearing bunny ears.

When explaining the site to Jimmy Fallon, he said it was “kind of like Goop meets The Onion.” For a prime example of what that’s all about, you can read the article, “Exclusive: Macaulay Culkin Interviews The Swarm Of Bees From My Girl”. 

Clearly, he has managed to have a sense of humor surrounding his fame. This has become more obvious the more he’s shown up online. In the following year, he joined Twitter and Instagram.

He made several appearances on the YouTube Channel RedLetterMedia where he played a version of himself, Mack the Intern. He even formed a band called The Pizza Underground, which parodied The Velvet Underground songs using, naturally, references to pizza.

The singer Lizzo released a song called “Like a Girl” with a line referencing the child actor. “ I don’t really need you, I’m Macaulay Culkin home alone.” Eventually, Culkin was at one of her concerts, and a video was released of him dancing on stage. 

MACAULAY CULKIN STARS IN CHANGELAND

changeland

Changeland is a movie from 2019, and it was a big one for Macaulay Culkin. The movie was a drama/comedy about friendship, written and directed by Culkin’s friend, Seth Green. On the set, he would meet Brenda Song, the woman he often refers to as “my lady”. Song is an actress with many roles behind her, who also got started in show business as a child, working as a fashion model. 

The pair have a home together with many oddly named pets (Macho, Apples, Dude, Cinnamon, and Panda), and they haven’t been shy about sharing that they’re trying for kids. 

MACAULAY CULKIN OPENS UP FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH ESQUIRE AFTER 15 YEARS

home alone 2020

In February of 2020, Macaulay Culkin did his first photoshoot in fifteen years. He was on the set with the same publicist he’d had when he was ten-years-old. He spoke with Esquire during the shoot about his life these days, where he described himself as a homebody.

“This is not really my cup of tea,” he told them. “These are all lovely people, but the poking, the prodding—honestly, it’s part of why I don’t do this anymore. Any of it.”

Macaulay Culkin went on to say, “I enjoy acting. I enjoy being on set. I don’t enjoy a lot of the other things that come around it. What’s a good analogy. The Shawshank Redemption. The way he gets out of prison is to crawl through a tube of shit, you know? It feels like to get to that kind of freedom, I’d have to crawl through a tube of shit. And you know what? I’ve built a really nice prison for myself. It’s soft. It’s sweet. It smells nice. You know? It’s plush.”

HE TURNED 40 YEARS OLD IN 2020 AND IS NOW 42

Macaulay Culkin turned 40 in August of 2020. Can you believe it? He knows you can’t. 

It seems that if Macaulay Culkin could act in movies without ever having to promote them, that may be what he would do. But in recent years, he’s been coming out into the public eye bit-by-bit, seemingly on his own terms, but now, he may be ready to step it up.

He’s signed on for the tenth season of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story. We’ll have to wait and see if that leads to more roles for the actor in the coming years, or if he’ll decide the comfortable home he’s made for himself is just not worth leaving. 

HE DID NOT APPEAR IN THE HOME ALONE REBOOT

We may never know if Macaulay Culkin was even asked to return to his iconic role as Kevin McCallister in the tepid Home Sweet Home Alone despite all the rumors that he would be making an appearance. In the end, the only returning character from the first two Home Alone films was Devin Ratray, who played and plays Kevin’s older brother, Buzz. Culkin is probably happy he chose (or wasn’t asked) to return for this film. It was, unfortunately, that bad.

Undoubtedly it is Macaulay Culkin’s most iconic role, one that has followed him throughout his career and although he didn’t return in the Disney+ film, he actually reprised his Kevin McCallister persona for an extended Google Assistant commercial that recreated a similar “Home Alone” scenario for Kevin to undertake.

While the magic of the first two films has never returned to the franchise, though they have tried (Home Alone 3, Home Alone 4, Home Alone: The Holiday, and the most recent Home Sweet Home Alone), it was a great blast of the past to see Macaulay Culkin attempt to splash on some aftershave or jump around on his parents’ bed.

Since that time, Macaulay Culkin has limited his big and small screen appearances. He was seen on the series Dollface and then enjoyed starring in American Horror Story: Red Tide, part of an American Horror Story Season 10 double feature. Culkin played Mickey who may or may not have lasted throughout all six episodes. 

After his surprise and well-received turn in AHS, Macaulay Culkin went on to another popular series, HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. He appeared in two episodes of the hit series, again to much acclaim. Where Culkin goes from here is anyone’s guess but perhaps one more return as Kevin McCallister is not out of the realm of possibilities. 

But for now, Culkin’s future is pretty wide open with no productions reported as being in the works.