When Love Actually premiered in 2003, the ensemble rom-com featured one very special supermodel cameo—Claudia Schiffer—as a potential love match for Liam Neeson. And when the long-awaited, sequel premiered on Friday, as part of Red Nose Day in the U.K., the 10-minute follow-up featured another surprise cameo from the catwalk. This time around, though, the supermodel in question only had eyes for Mark (Andrew Lincoln) and his beard. Sorry, Juliet (Keira Knightley).
Take a look at the first snippet below.
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And if you’re a sucker for spoilers, you can also catch a few other excerpts posted by fans on Twitter. (The full special won’t air in the U.S. until May.) The first shows that Hugh Grant’s prime minister is well acquainted with Drake’s discography.
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The second shows what happens when one is well acquainted with Drake’s discography. . . and not 10 Downing Street’s steps. (Even after all of these years, we know.)
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The third shows that Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s Sam is not in jail for blowing past multiple airport security checkpoints to meet Olivia Olson’s character.
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In a statement, Love Actually writer/director Richard Curtis explained of the follow-up’s format, “I would never have dreamt of writing a sequel to Love Actually, but I thought it might be fun to do 10 minutes to see what everyone is now up to. Who has aged best?—I guess that's the big question. . .or is it so obviously Liam [Neeson]?”
In a behind-the-scenes video released last week, Hugh Grant joked that he has been refusing annual invitations for Love Actually reunions for years.
“This nightmare with Richard happens every bloody year,” Grant deadpanned. (Love Actually writer/director Richard Curtis is the long-time romantic partner of Red Nose Day’s director Emma Freud—which might explain why Curtis & the Love Actually Co. were tempted to reunite in the past.)
“Some years I can fob him off with money,” Grant says. “‘I’m not doing that. Here’s a check.’”
Not everyone was as much of a Love Actually grinch, though. McCutcheon had a more rom-com appropriate response to the news that there would be a reunion: “My heart—there was a little skip, a little jump.”
Stateside fans can watch the complete Love Actually reunion when it airs on May 25 on NBC.
