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In this issue of The Upworthiest, Emily Shiffer visits the restored "Home Alone" house, where the guy who played Marv has installed a very lifelike bronze version of himself. Plus, the local weatherman who went off script on live TV, and the actor who gave a kidney to a stranger and still cannot get over how easy it was.
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‘Home Alone’ star Daniel Stern unveils lifelike bronze ‘Marv’ sculpture for film’s fully restored house | ||
He’s calling it “Marv by Marv.” | ||
By Emily Shiffer | ||
Home Alone remains one of the most popular movies in the United States. In fact, a 2026 YouGov survey reported it as America’s third-favorite film of all time. | ||
The original Home Alone house, the sprawling, brick McCallister family home located in Winnetka, Illinois, has become a place of pop culture pilgrimage. Currently undergoing renovations to return it to its ’90s glory (it was purchased for $5.5 million in 2025, per Realtor.com), the home is getting a special artistic addition: a bronze sculpture of Marv Merchants, created by Marv’s actor himself, Daniel Stern. | ||
Stern, who has left Hollywood to embark on a career as a sculptor, made a life-size sculpture of his legendary character from the scene with Kevin McCallister’s brother Buzz’s pet tarantula (named Axl) on his face. Stern is calling the statue “Marv by Marv.” | ||
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Despondent weatherman goes off-script on live TV to explain why he ‘can’t’ forecast anymore | ||
He couldn’t stay silent any longer. | ||
By Evan Porter | ||
I will admit that I hardly ever watch the news on television, especially not for the weather. It’s just so much easier to pick up my phone and check Google or The Weather Channel. I just want to know how warm it’s going to be or how likely it is to rain. These days, I can find that out in about 10 seconds and go about my day. | ||
But when there’s potential danger, hurricanes, storms that might knock out the power of topple over trees, tornado warnings, or threats of ice and snow, my trusty local meteorologist or weatherman is always there. All of that said, I’ve never once considered that I might not be able to get my weather forecast from either source, at least not accurately. It’s 2025, our weather modeling should be better than ever, state of the art, right? | ||
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Dolphins for hire and the payment is fish 🐬
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Jesse Eisenberg at the Broadway opening of "Operation Mincemeat" in 2025. | ||
Jesse Eisenberg gave a kidney to someone he’ll never meet. He still can’t get over how easy it was. | ||
“When I heard about kidney donations, my first thought was, why is there not a line down the block of the hospital?” | ||
By Adam Albright-Hanna | ||
About ten years ago, actor Jesse Eisenberg decided he wanted to give a kidney to a stranger. He contacted an organization to ask how, and nobody ever wrote back. That was the end of it until recently, when he mentioned the idea to a friend who works in medicine. She pointed him in the direction of NYU Langone Health in Manhattan. | ||
He was in the hospital the next day going through the workup. | ||
On October 30, 2025, he announced the news on the Today Show more or less by accident in the middle of a conversation about his blood donation habit. “I’m actually donating my kidney in six weeks,” he said. “I really am.” | ||
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An Upworthiest Quiz
Why did the "Home Alone" burglars call themselves the Wet Bandits?
Yesterday’s Results
In yesterday's issue, we shared Emily Shiffer's story on the seven personality traits psychologists link to fast walkers.
And we asked: The 10,000-steps-a-day goal did not come from science. Where did it come from? Almost 27% of you knew the origin story. In 1965, a Japanese company sold a pedometer called the manpo-kei, which translates to "10,000-step meter," and the number stuck because it was catchy and the character for 10,000 looks a little like a person walking. Nobody ran a study to arrive at it. When researchers finally did, decades later, the health benefits leveled off closer to 7,500.
A 1965 Japanese pedometer's brand name (26.9%) 🏆
A 1970s US Surgeon General's report (10.8%)
An early Fitbit marketing campaign (58.1%)
A Soviet cosmonaut fitness program (4.2%)
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Wil Wheaton gave a perfect explanation of how to separate problematic artists from their art | ||
A truly thoughtful response. | ||
By Annie Reneau | ||
When you find out an actor whose work you enjoy is blatantly racist and antisemitic in real life, does that realization ruin every movie they’ve been a part of? | ||
What about an author who has expressed harmful opinions about a marginalized group? What about a smart, witty comedian who turns out to be a serial sexual assaulter? Where do you draw the line between a creator and their creation? As someone with his feet in both worlds, actor Wil Wheaton weighed in on that question and offered a refreshingly reasonable perspective back in 2021. | ||
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