“Ferris Bueller” book reveals the '80s star who almost beat out Matthew Broderick for title role (exclusive)

Ferris Bueller is undoubtedlyMatthew Broderick's most iconic film role — but the character was almost played by another '80s teen cinema icon.

Author Jason Klamm is pulling back the curtain onFerris Bueller’s Day Offwith his upcoming bookFerris Bueller…You’re My Hero: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Day Off, which chronicles the development and production of the classic high school comedy in great detail.

In the third chapter of the book, Klamm explains how writer/directorJohn HughespitchedFerristo Paramount executives Ned Tanen and Lindsay Doran. In that preliminary meeting, theBreakfast Clubfilmmaker and the studio execs tossed around marketing ideas, as well as a surprising casting idea for the title role:Jon Cryer, who had previously popped up as Ducky in the Hughes-written comedyPretty in Pink.

In the excerpt below, Klimm shares details from his interview with Cryer, in which theTwo and a Half Menstar indicated that he had no idea that he was considered to play Ferris. The author also addresses the rumors that another frequent Hughes collaborator,Anthony Michael Hall, was considered for the part.

Excerpted from FERRIS BUELLER… YOU'RE MY HERO: THE STORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS DAY OFF by Jason Klamm. Copyright © 2026 by Jason Klamm. Reprinted with permission of 1984 Publishing. All rights reserved.

They already had some casting ideas, too. The most prominent among these was Jon Cryer, whose performance inPretty in Pinkwas fresh on their minds. I asked Cryer if his people had relayed the studio's interest to him.

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"Yes, for theAlan Ruckcharacter," he says, then explaining why he likely wasn't cast as Cameron. "I mean, I'm just too similar to Matthew." As for being under consideration to play Ferris: "I have not heard that, but I trust Lindsay Doran [former Vice President of Production at Paramount]...yeah, that's news to me." [John] Hughes came to thePretty in Pinkset enough while it andFerriscrossed over that Cryer (a fan of Hughes back to hisLampoondays) did feel like he was missing out. "Ferris Buellersounded a little more antically comedic thanPretty in Pinkwas," Cryer tells me. "It sounded like he was going to have a great time, and I was like, 'Oh, that would have been a fun project to do with him'...I recall being a little jealous at the time."

Famously, Hughes' three-time leading man, Anthony Michael Hall, has since said that the part could have been his. "John actually had written Ferris Bueller for me," Hall would later write. "We both determined that I should move on to other things. I needed a break. I wanted to try some new things." Instead ofFerris, it seems, he shot the filmOut of Boundsand became a part ofSaturday Night Live's strangest season.

"Trust me, I think he would have put Michael in anything," Jane Lay [Hughes' assistant] says. "I don't want to say 100 percent, but I would say that I'm sure he was thinking of Michael for Ferris at some point." Some of the dialogue in the film—especially some lines that were either never shot or used in the film—do have that young Anthony Michael Hall attitude in them, though Hughes himself never publicly confirmed this rumor. "How it ended up not being Jon Cryer and being Matthew Broderick, I don't really remember," Doran admits. "I do remember that at least Jon's representatives were disappointed about that."

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Ferris Bueller… You're My Hero: The Story of the World's Most Famous Day Offwill be released on June 16 by 1984 Publishing.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

bySator Tenet

in

April 01, 2026

“Ferris Bueller” book reveals the '80s star who almost beat out Matthew Broderick for title role (exclusive)

Ferris Bueller is undoubtedlyMatthew Broderick's most iconic film role — but the character was almost played by another '80s te...

Read More

Former College Football Player Jack Pugh Dead at 24 After Quitting the Sport for His Mental Health

Former Wisconsin football tight end Jack Pugh has died

NEED TO KNOW

• The school confirmed Pugh's death in a post on social media

• Pugh, 24, retired due to mental health reasons in 2023

Former Wisconsin football player Jack Pugh has died, the school confirmed. He was 24.Pugh played tight end for the Badgers from 2021-2023 before retiring due to mental health reasons,theMilwaukee Journal Sentinelreported.No cause of death has been released at this time.Wisconsin football shared a tribute to the former player on X late Tuesday, March 31.“The Wisconsin athletics family is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Jack Pugh,”the school said. “Jack was a positive light and brought a genuine spirit to our football program. More than that, he cared about people and was loved by his teammates and staff. Jack proudly earned his degree from UW-Madison in 2025 and will forever be remembered and loved.”The Columbus, Ohio native was a four-star recruit for the Badgers despite only playing football for his final two years in high school.

Pugh was highly recruited by Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Maryland and Minnesota, according to theJournal Sentinel.In 2023, Pugh announced his retirement on Instagram.

“My physical health was not near perfect, but my mental health was the reason I decided to hang it up,” he posted at the time. “Over years of prolonged depression and substance abuse, I decided I deserved a better life and to finally find happiness.”

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He continued, “In no way was football the root of these problems, but everything in my life had distracted me for so long to the point I didn’t want to be alive for years. I never had prioritized my mental health all along, digging a deeper darker hole.”

Pugh went on to thank his coaches, teammates and others for their support.“I’ll never forget the memories. Love y’all,” he wrote.Pugh’s former teammate, New York Jets running back Braelon Allen, shared the news of his death on social media on Monday night, and added a message to his followers.“Protect your mental,”he wrote on X.

Read the original article onPeople

bySator Tenet

in

April 01, 2026

Former College Football Player Jack Pugh Dead at 24 After Quitting the Sport for His Mental Health

Former Wisconsin football tight end Jack Pugh has died NEED TO KNOW The school confirmed Pugh's death in a pos...

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Once World Cup outsiders, these national teams are crashing the party

One hundred minutes into a scoreless match Tuesday, Jamaican defenders watched the flight of a corner kick as it curled toward their goal. And for a brief, costly, moment everyone forgot about Axel Tuanzebe.

Tuanzebe, of the Democratic Republic of Congo,had called this matchthe biggest of his career. Only the winner of the FIFA World Cup qualifier in Guadalajara, Mexico, would advance to play this summer in the 48-team field comprising the most popular sporting tournament on the planet.

Charging forward, Tuanzebe met the ball as its arc fell just in front of the goal, smashing it for a 1-0 lead.

His goal didn’t end the game immediately. Congo had to endure 20 more minutes of extra time before it won, 1-0. But that wait paled to the country’s 52-year absence from the world’s biggest sporting event — a drought that ended Tuesday, when it became the 47th out of 48 teams to qualify for the World Cup.

“Right now, I don’t think we fully realize it yet, but when we get back ​to Kinshasa, it’s going to be crazy,” Congo strikerCédric Bakambu said, according to Reuters.

Celebrations weren’t limited to Kinshasa on a day when the final six countries qualified to round out the World Cup field. The expansion from 32 to 48 countries for this World Cup created opportunities for nations that had spent years on the outside looking in, such as Iraq (which last appeared in 1986), Turkey (2002) and Czechia (2006).

But the longest wait of all had taken place in Congo. The country was still named Zaire in 1974, when the nation was outscored, 14-0, in three group stage games. It was the nation’s first World Cup appearance and its last for the next five decades.

The 1974 team had won the Africa Cup of Nations and was encouraged by a figure no less powerful than the president, Mobutu Sese Seko, who had “used football as much as possible for hegemonic regime control,”researchers wrote in 2022.

After a particularly poor performance in 1966, not long after Mobutu began his three-decade run atop the government, the president brought national players playing abroad back to Zaire and outlawed their transfers to other nation’s leagues to build up Zaire’s domestic competition.

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By 1968, Zaire had won the Africa Cup of Nations. When it repeated in 1974, it became the first nation from sub-Saharan Africa to qualify for the World Cup, and each player was provided housing and a Volkswagen Passat as a show of appreciation, Mohamed Kalambay, a goalkeeper on the team,recalled to the BBC.

But such lavish funding didn’t last. The national team, called the Leopards, struggled as the country’s domestic league operated without support from sponsors or government funding.

Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, soccer leaders within Congo enlisted a strategy widely used in international soccer — calling in the help of dual-national players with lineage to the country but who developed as players outside its borders. The job of persuading players with Congolese ties to represent the country’s national team on its long-shot run to the World Cup fell to Gabriel Zakuani, a Congolese player whose career had been spent mostly in England.

Convincing Aaron Wan-Bissaka, a defender for English Premier League club West Ham, and Tuanzebe were priorities,he told the BBC last year; both had come up within the English national team system. Getting parents on board was helpful, Zakuani said. So was being able to make his case no matter where a player grew up.

“I speak eight (languages), so that helps,” Zakuani said.

The country remains marred by fighting in its east. In December, on the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump attended the draw for the World Cup, hehosted leaders from Rwanda and Congoas they affirmed their commitments to a peace deal. But fighting has continued. By then, though, the country was entering the final stages of its qualification.

“It’s my country; it’s where my parents are from,” Wan-Bissakatold the BBC. “I grew up in a Congolese household. I was just proud to represent them. As soon as I joined, they welcomed me, accepted me.”

Tuanzebe was born in Congo, but was in Manchester United’s academy by grade school. He made his Premier League debut at 17. He now plays for Burnley.

A decade later, this summer, he’ll make his World Cup debut thanks to his 100th-minute goal Tuesday.

“To get the winning goal for the country, I mean, this is what as a young boy you dream about,” Tuanzebe saidafter the match. “It’s happened for me and I’m so very happy.”

bySator Tenet

in

April 01, 2026

Once World Cup outsiders, these national teams are crashing the party

One hundred minutes into a scoreless match Tuesday, Jamaican defenders watched the flight of a corner kick as it curled toward their go...

Read More

Melissa Joan Hart Impressively Pulls Off Push-Ups in Heels with 15-lb Weights in Her Dressing Room

Melissa Joan Hart shared a video of herself doing push-ups with 15-lb weights while wearing stilettos

NEED TO KNOW

• The actress has been open about her health journey, losing nearly 20 pounds after lifestyle changes during perimenopause

• Hart credits cutting out alcohol and sugar with helping her feel stronger and healthier than she has in years

Melissa Joan Hartis showing off her strength — and doing it in style.

The actress, 49, shared avideo to Instagramon Tuesday, March 31, that shows her working out in her dressing room while wearing stilettos, jeans and a layered top with a sweater vest. In the clip, Hart performs push-ups using 15-pound weights, incorporating renegade rows into the move.

“Fun new project I'm working on... and I asked for 15lb weights in my room to get my pump on.... in my pumps,” she wrote in the caption, adding the hashtags “#StayStrong ladies” and “#RenegadeRows.”

The impressive moment comes as Hart continues to open up about her ongoing health journey.

In anexclusive interview with PEOPLEearlier this year, theSabrina the Teenage Witchalum shared that she initially believed perimenopause would prevent her from losing weight. Instead, she ended up dropping nearly 20 pounds after making lifestyle changes.

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“I actually feel stronger and better than I have in a really long time,” Hart told PEOPLE atSteven Tyler’s 7th Annual Jam for JanieGrammyviewing party on Feb. 1, an event benefitting the rocker’sJanie’s Fund, which supports neglected and abused girls.

“I just wanted to feel better. It had nothing to do with losing weight,” she said. “I really didn't think I could lose weight anymore, being in midlife and perimenopause and all those things, I was like, ‘Can I really lose weight? I don't think I can.’”

Her approach started with small changes that made a big impact.

“I haven’t had a drink in over a year,” she said. “I just don't even enjoy drinking. So why bother? So I cut these things out of my life, and I started to feel better.”

She added that cutting out both alcohol and sugar played a key role in improving her health.

“In doing that, I lost a lot of weight and kind of feel great,” she added.

Read the original article onPeople

bySator Tenet

in

March 31, 2026

Melissa Joan Hart Impressively Pulls Off Push-Ups in Heels with 15-lb Weights in Her Dressing Room

Melissa Joan Hart shared a video of herself doing push-ups with 15-lb weights while wearing stilettos NEED TO KNOW ...

Read More