Rhody Spotlight: The Latest Celebrity Sightings and Filming News in Rhode Island

A still from Plucked, a dark comedy filmed in Newport that premieres later this year. Photo courtesy of Dark Passage Films

Editor’s note: Got a tip? Feel free to send info and photos to our Digital Editor, Kait Murray, at kmurray@rimonthly.com.

On Screen 

• Johnston’s Alexia DiGiglio-Mancini is currently competing on Food Network’s “100 Cooks.” Read our exclusive with the home cook-turned-social media star here.
• Rhode Island native Anna Molinari is a contestant on season 22 of “Project Runway.” Read more about her journey here.
• The first season of “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” is now available to stream on Peacock. Get our post-season scoop from the cast here.
• After a successful nation-wide theatrical run, “Secret Mall Apartment” — the documentary which shed light on how six artists transformed a hidden, unused space in the Providence Place Mall into a functioning dwelling — is now available on digital platforms.
• Sleepwalker, a female-centered psychological/horror thriller which was filmed at several Rhode Island locations and was produced by local production company Verdi Productions, is available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
• Catch the first two episodes of “Ocean State,” created by award-winning filmmaker Tomas Koeck, on PBS here. Learn more here.
• Ella McCay, which was partially filmed in Providence and stars the likes of Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis and Woody Harrelson, is available to stream on Disney Plus (read all about the local premiere here).
• See the first episode of The American Revolution — a documentary which details the war’s beginnings, including Rhode Island’s involvement — on PBS here.  For more BTS info, check out our interview with director Ken Burns.
• Watch two Rhode Islanders compete for the $4.56 million cash prize in the second season of Squid Game: The Challenge on Netflix.
• Newport — and more specifically, Bowen’s Wharf — took center stage in the Hallmark Channel’s holiday special, A Newport Christmas.
• Seasons one through three of the Emmy award-winning “The Gilded Age“ (which is based on real Rhode Island socialites and often uses the Newport mansions as scene backdrops) is available to stream on HBO Max.

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Call Sheet

• The Newport Folk Festival is back with a star-studded lineup at Fort Adams July 24–26. Some standouts include Hayley Williams, Lucy Dacus, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Micheal Shannon, the Lumineers, Brandi Carlisle, Lizzy McAlpine, Brandon Flowers and Nathaniel Rateliff. The festival is currently sold out but you can join the waitlist here.
• Rhode Island Comic Con will descend upon the AMP and the Rhode Island Convention Center November 6–8, with plenty of celebrity autograph, photo and panel opportunities. Current guest announcements include Michael Douglas (his first con!), Arden Cho, Don Bluth, Henry Winkler, Jeremy Jordan, Kathleen Turner, Mae Whitman and many more. Purchase your tickets here.

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On Set 

• The Rubber Hut, which is set in 1992 and follows the story of “an entrepreneurial ex-Pan Am stewardess who opens a drive-thru condom kiosk in her Italian Catholic town” (and is based on a real Rhode Island  spot called the Condom Hut) is being filmed in various northern parts of the state, including Warwick, Cranston and Woonsocket. The film stars Emmy Rossum (catch her story about watching the Knicks win from a Rhode Island rooftop bar on the Call Her Daddy podcast here), Grace Van Patten and Michael Imperioli.
• “The Gilded Age” has returned to Newport to film season four. It’s expected to premiere this fall on HBO.
• “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” are coming back for season two and filming is rumored to start any day now.

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Coming Soon to a Screen Near You

• Plucked, which is billed as “a Gilded Age dark comedy” and was shot at Newport’s historic Woodbine Cottage, will hit theaters on November 13. It has already earned “Best Feature Film” at the East Village New York Film Festival and “Best Dark Comedy” at the New York International Film Awards. See the teaser trailer below.
  
• J.J. Abrams’ latest drama, Ghostwriter, filmed last summer in Providence. The film stars Glen Powell, Samuel L. Jackson, Jenna Ortega and Emma Mackey, and follows “a young newlywed couple struggles to survive against a supernatural entity,” according to IMDB
• News broke in the spring of 2025 that M.Night Shyamalan is set to direct a supernatural romantic thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor in the Ocean State, and the cameras are finally starting to roll. The film is slated for an October 2026 release according to IMDB, and of now is titled Remain.
• A number of upcoming Lifetime movies were filmed in Rhode Island over the past few years thanks to local producers Chad A. Verdi and Paul Luba. Learn more here.
• Bad News on the Doorstep, a coming-of-age drama directed by Cranston native Tom DeNucci and starring Mischa Barton, is rumored to have been largely filmed in Providence. The film is currently in post production.
• Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company has teamed up with RI-based Verdi Productions “for the authorized documentary on the life of Rod Serling, most known as the creator, host, narrator and primary writer of The Twilight Zone … Principal photography wrapped in Rhode Island, taking place in East Greenwich, Providence and Wakefield.” A release date has not yet been revealed.

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Between Takes 

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  Cara Marie Mourning. Courtesy of Mill’s Tavern

  Hell’s Kitchen Season 24 competitor, Cara Marie Mourning, has been named executive chef of Mill’s Tavern in Providence. Mourning is also a three-time RIVA “Diced” Champion, and has appeared on Food Network’sChopped, Beat Bobby Flay and Beachside Brawl.

• Emmy Award-winner/Academy Award-nominee Richard Jenkins directed 2025’s A Christmas Carol at Trinity Rep with his wife, choreographer Sharon Jenkins.
• Rhode Island Comic Con returned to the AMP and the the Rhode Island Convention Center in early November with an impressive array of celebrity guests, including “The Boys'” Anthony Starr, National Lampoon‘s Chevy Chase, Beetlejuice‘s Geena Davis, “Stranger Things'” Jamie Campbell Bower, “Two and a Half Men’s” Jon Cryer, Clerks‘ Kevin Smith, Pretty in Pink‘s Molly Ringwald, “The Office’s” Rainn Wilson, “Ahsoka’s” Rosario Dawson, Thelma and Louise’s Susan Sarandon, and many more.
• For the first time in Rhode Island, fans had the chance to meet Dean Butler (“Almanzo”) and Alison Arngrim (“Nellie”) from “Little House on the Prairie” at Bally’s Twin River Lincoln Casino Resort’s Chocolate Expo on Sunday, November 16.
• In a crossover no one could have predicted, Comedian and TikTok Star turned Rhody resident Matt Rife recently bought Ed and Lorraine Warren’s home and Occult Museum. Rife will also be the legal guardian of the museum’s haunted collection, which includes the infamous Annabelle doll for the next five years. Like previous owners, he plans to open the house up to paid overnight stays and museum tours. Rife has said he also has his sights set on the “Conjuring House” in Burrilville. The famously haunted house was originally going to be put up for auction on October 31, but the event was recently canceled.
• Kumail Nanjiani, the Oscar-nominated writer/Emmy-nominated and SAG Award winning actor, performed at the Vets on Saturday, September 27.
• The King of Queens, a.k.a. Kevin James, brought his one-hour comedy special to the Vets on Thursday, September 25.
• Eight-time James Beard Foundation Award winner Chef Samuelsson hosted and whipped up a signature first course for the Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival‘s Vinter Dinner on September 19. Foodies know Samuelsson from the Food Network’s “Chopped,” Peacock’s “Top Chef: Family Style” and Netflix’s “Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend.” The chef also took part in the “In Conversations with Chef Marcus Samuelsson” panel the next day, September 20, at Rosecliff.
• Several big names, including Paula Abdul, were in attendance at Judge Frank Caprio‘s — “the nicest judge in the world” — funeral in late August.
• Serena Williams made a surprise appearance at Maria Sharapova‘s Tennis Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
• Former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski cut the ribbon at the re-opening of the McDonald’s at 923 Cranston Street in Cranston.
• SNL’s Colin Jost is took his comedic chops to the Vets’ stage on Friday, August 8.
• The Newport Folk Fest returned for its sixty seventh year at Fort Adams from Friday, July 25, to Sunday, July 27. Some lineup highlights included: Alex G, Big Freedia, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jack Antonoff and Bleachers on Friday; I’m With Her, Iron and Wine, Remi Wolf and Luke Combs on Saturday; and Jensen McRae, Mt. Joy, Tom O’Dell and Marren Morris on Sunday.
• Early aughts heartthrob Drake Bell (first made famous by “The Amanda Show” and “Drake and Josh,” both on Nickelodeon) performed with his band at the Ocean Mist in Matunuck on Tuesday, July 22.
• Ethan Slater of Wicked fame appeared as a special guest at the Rhode to Broadway’s Beach Bash Gala on Thursday, July 10, at Kinney Bungalow in Narragansett.  Students from Slater’s acting masterclass earlier that day joined him on stage for a one-night-only performance.
• Actor Sam Waterston of “The Great Gatsby” (1974 version) and “Law & Order” kicked off the Preservation Society’s Summer Lecture Series at Rosecliff in Newport on Wednesday, July 9. During the panel, Waterston revisited his role as the 1974 film’s narrator, Nick Carraway.
• Actresses Tina Fey and Kelli O’Hara were each honored with a Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts at Trinity Rep‘s 2025 Pell Awards Gala on June 23. (On the local side, Mixed Magic Theatre‘s Bernadet V. Pitts-Wiley and the Tomaquag Museum‘s Lorén M. Spears also received recognition with the Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts, respectively.
• Jay Leno swung by the Cluck House in Newport for a chicken sando according to a post from July 7.
• Whats Going On in Rhode Island bumped into “The Sopranos” actor Steve Schirripa at Longo Ristorante in Westerly on July 3. Apparently he’s a big fan of the meatballs
• In a now-deleted TikTok, The Nitro Bar owner shared that Jake Gyllenhaal stopped by for a cup o’ Joe on June 18.
• Part-time Cranston resident and former Miss Universe winner Olivia Culpo recently hosted her Parisian-themed baby shower at Castle Hill Inn in Newport.
• Sarah Jessica Parker, whose son graduated from Brown University this past May, was a featured guest during Fashion@Brown‘s 2025 Speaker Series.

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No Place Like Home

• Comedian and TikTok star, Matt Rife, purchased an eighty-acre estate in northern Rhode Island last year.
• Taylor Swift still regularly throws Fourth of July bashes at her Watch Hill mansion (which, fun fact, has its very own song on her eighth studio album, Folklore) and reportedly added a few major upgrades to the structure this past winter.
• Conan O’Brien also owns a vacation home in Westerly. We’re assuming this made it easier for him and his friends to headline the Newport Folk Festival last summer.
• Speaking of, James Taylor has a house in Jamestown and rumor has it took a quick boat trip across the harbor to fill in for Noah Kahan when the pop star backed out of the festival last minute in 2023.
• Former late night host Jay Leno (who coincidentally played a large part in Providence-born Paul Mecurio’s career) owns a Gilded Age mansion on Ocean Drive in Newport.
• Judge Judy Sheindlin also has property in Newport and last year she received special permission from the General Assembly to preside over her grandson’s wedding at the Weekapaug Inn in Westerly.
• James Woods still calls the Ocean State home with his compound in Exeter.
• Actor Christopher Walken has had a vacation home on Block Island since 1999.
• Pop star Elle King runs a farm — complete with goats and donkeys — in Little Rhody.
• Academy award nominee Richard Jenkins, who initially came to the state in the nineties to work at Trinity Rep, resides in Providence.
• Olivia Culpo, the North-Kingstown-native-turned-Miss-Universe-2012, owns a home in Cranston. Her family is also responsible for Back40 in North Kingstown.
• “Bachelor” nation alums Jared Haibon (who is originally from Warwick) and Ashley Iaconetti married in Newport, put down roots in Rhode Island and now own-and-operate the popular Audrey’s Coffee House and Lounge in South Kingstown.