Entertainment

Doobie Brothers star Michael McDonald revealed as biological father to man, 58

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Goessling always knew he was adopted. But what he did not know for nearly 58 years was that his biological father had one of the most recognizable and beloved voices in American music.
The St. Louis man learned recently that his father is five-time Grammy winner and Doobie Brothers singer Michael McDonald, a musician Goessling had admired since childhood and had unknowingly paid to see perform twice as a young man.
But even after receiving the letter that began it all, meeting his biological mother and learning his biological father was a mysterious musician named “Mike,” Goessling still had no idea who was waiting on the other end of the phone.
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The answer finally came during their first conversation, when “Mike” mentioned he was touring and would be stopping in St. Louis on Sept. 4 at a venue he believed was called “Hollywood.”
Goessling thought of the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater and, puzzled that his biological father was apparently still a touring musician at his age, began searching the venue’s concert schedule as the two men spoke.
The Doobie Brothers were playing in concert Sept. 4.
Suddenly, the pieces began falling into place: “Mike.” Musician. That unmistakable voice.
“Are you Michael McDonald?” Goessling finally asked.
McDonald chuckled. “Yep, afraid so.”
“Oh my gosh, this is getting crazier by the second,” Goessling recalled saying. “I can’t even, I can’t get my head around this. This is too much.”
“I know,” McDonald replied. “Take a minute.”
“I thought I was being punked for a second,” Goessling told Fox News Digital. “It’s like, ‘No, this can’t be real. This is impossible. What is going on here?'”
More than a year later, he said the discovery can still feel unreal.
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“I still wake up sometimes and my first thought is, ‘Oh my gosh, that was a crazy dream,’ only to realize that here we are.”
The extraordinary phone call came just days after a letter ended a mystery stretching back to Goessling’s birth. On May 6, 2025, an attorney representing his biological mother contacted Goessling to explain that she believed he was the son she had placed for adoption through Catholic Charities nearly 58 years earlier.
Goessling had always known he was adopted, but the adoption was closed. He knew nothing about his biological parents, and they knew virtually nothing about the life he had gone on to live.
His biological mother, he learned, had spent roughly 30 to 35 years searching for him. Both biological parents hoped he might be willing to communicate, Goessling recalled, but above all, they wanted to know that he was well.
“It was a wonderful surprise but quite a shock,” he said. “It felt like a tsunami hit me.”
Goessling called his biological mother that evening. Although he had never actively searched for his biological parents, he had long hoped he might someday have the opportunity to thank them.
“I just want you to hear from me that I got nothing but love for you,” he recalled telling her. “This is such an amazing gift, that I get to thank you personally. … They were always heroes in my story,” he said.
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Their first conversation lasted about 90 minutes. Goessling eventually proposed meeting for lunch that Friday, prompting his biological mother to remind him that Friday was his birthday.
“Yeah, yeah. You’ve waited long enough. I think I’ve waited enough,” he recalled replying. “Let’s meet on my birthday, 58 years to the day.”
After a three-hour lunch and nearly six decades apart, Goessling learned there was someone else anxious to speak with him. His biological father had deliberately remained in the background so mother and son could have their reunion first.
“He really wanted the mother-son thing to happen first, which is just true to his character,” Goessling said. “He thought that was very important, and he wanted to take a back seat so that could happen.”
Before father and son connected, McDonald left Goessling a voicemail. That unmistakable voice immediately struck him.
“Whoa, what a voice,” Goessling recalled telling his biological mother.
“Yeah, he gets that a lot,” she replied with a chuckle.
The voice seemed strangely familiar, but Goessling still didn’t make the connection. When the two men finally spoke, he began by telling McDonald what he had already told his biological mother.
“Thank you for giving me a shot in this world,” Goessling recalled saying. “I’ve had a charmed life. And it all started with you guys.”
Then he asked what his biological father did for a living.
“I’m a musician,” McDonald told him.
Goessling, a lifelong music obsessive who once worked in the music business, thought that was terrific. It wasn’t until the conversation turned to McDonald’s upcoming tour stop that he finally put it together.
The revelation contained another coincidence almost too remarkable to invent; Goessling was already a huge fan.
The Doobie Brothers had been among his favorite bands since childhood, alongside The Who and Journey. He vividly remembers first hearing “Takin’ It to the Streets” after McDonald joined the group and insisting to the person playing it that there had been some mistake.
“I know the Doobie Brothers and that is not the Doobie Brothers,” Goessling remembered declaring as a child.
He soon learned about the band’s new singer and became a McDonald fan, too. He remained one.
In fact, Goessling had already watched his biological father perform in concert twice, once in the 1980s, and again in the early 1990s, without ever imagining that the man onstage was the father whose identity he did not know.
When Fox News Digital pointed out that meant he had actually paid twice to see his own father perform, Goessling laughed.
“I should get reimbursed for that.”
There were other clues hiding in plain sight. After Goessling grew out his hair and white beard during the COVID-19 pandemic, people began telling him they liked the “Michael McDonald thing” he had going on.
“Little did I know, five years later that that would resonate even so true,” he said.
After the families met, the similarities became even harder to miss. During a visit with McDonald, Goessling said McDonald’s wife, Amy, and his newfound half-sister would watch him do or say something and suddenly burst out laughing.
“Your dad does the exact same thing,” they would tell him. “They couldn’t take their eyes off me,” Goessling said. “They’re waiting to see what I would do or say next because there was so many just natural similarities.”
Yet, for Goessling, the remarkable celebrity connection is not the part of his story that matters most.
Learning where he came from also meant finally understanding what his biological parents had faced nearly six decades earlier, when they were just two 14-year-old eighth-graders confronting a pregnancy that would change all three of their lives.
According to Goessling, the teenagers’ initial reaction was that they would marry, raise their baby and rely on their families to help them. Their parents concluded they were simply too young at the time.
“They were just far too young to be married and to have a child,” Goessling said.
Their families ultimately determined that adoption would be best, he said, although relinquishing their son had not been his biological parents’ first choice.
Nearly six decades later, Goessling sees what happened through the lens of both gratitude and faith.
“Mike, I mean, he wasn’t Michael McDonald [then]. He was Mike from the neighborhood,” he said, imagining how differently life could have been had two 14-year-olds attempted to raise a child together.
“I have to believe that it all worked out as it was supposed to because, certainly, when I see us all now together, it’s just the greatest joy,” Goessling said. “I think this was the plan. And I think it was a beautiful plan.”
That plan, as Goessling sees it, led him to Paul and Kay Goessling. He grew up in a family of four children. Three were adopted before, against the odds, Kay became pregnant with their youngest daughter, Linda.
Goessling describes his childhood as “charmed” and said he could not have chosen better parents himself.
“If I could go back and pick two folks, I would pick them and do it all over again,” he said. “They were just the most wonderful blessing in my life.”
His father, Paul, died shortly before Christmas 2024 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, and Goessling said the two were extremely close. Six months later, another father entered his life.
“After losing my father, I get a letter, and Mike pops up,” Goessling said. “Another father enters my life, my world.”
Kay’s reaction to the discovery was immediate. When Goessling showed her the letter, he said his mother began crying and declared what had happened “a miracle.”
She asked whether he had met his biological mother, and he had.
“Oh my God, go get her,” Goessling recalled Kay saying. “I have to meet her. I’ve got a million questions. What’s she like? I gotta give her a big hug.”
Goessling said his mother has embraced his biological family from the beginning, and the once-separate branches of his family came together with surprising ease.
“Everybody’s in love with everybody,” he said.
Father and son now speak frequently and text “all the time,” according to Goessling.
And while the identity of his biological father is what thrust his story into the spotlight, Goessling hopes the attention gives him an opportunity to talk about adoption as a blessing.
A practicing Catholic who was raised in the faith and adopted through Catholic Charities, Goessling said his parents taught him from childhood to understand his adoption not as evidence that he had been unwanted, but as evidence that he was deeply loved.
Even before he was old enough to fully understand what adoption meant, he knew how his parents viewed it.
“It was a miracle,” he said. “It was the greatest thing. It was a gift from God.”
Only when Goessling grew old enough to understand where babies came from, he said, did he fully appreciate the significance of the decisions that had been made before his birth.
“Obviously, we all know there are choices in this world, and I am so grateful and fortunate for the choices they made on my behalf,” he said. “Adoption has been absolutely nothing but a blessing for me. … I celebrate adoption and I always have. It’s always been a big part of my life story.”
Now, nearly six decades later, Goessling has been able to thank the biological parents he once could only imagine, and discovered that they had spent those same decades wondering about him.
He hopes the unlikely circumstances that brought attention to his family can help “elevate” the conversation surrounding adoption.
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“I want this to elevate the narrative, the adoption narrative,” he said. “I want that adoption gets celebrated more in this country. If my crazy story can be true, Lord knows anything is possible.”
And if Michael McDonald is watching? Goessling doesn’t need an interview to deliver the message. He said father and son already talk regularly.
“I just tell him that I love him, and I tell him thank you for everything,” he said.
After 58 years, the man who says he never felt deprived of a family has somehow ended up with an even larger one.
“My cup overflows,” Goessling said.

Entertainment

Steven Soderbergh To Help Finish ‘The Batman Part II’ Production

EXCLUSIVE: As director Matt Reeves continues to attend to an ongoing family matter, Steven Soderbergh is coming on to help finish principal photography for the final weeks of DC Studios’ The Batman Part II. The news comes after production was paused on the film so that Reeves could focus on the personal matter.
Soderbergh has been longtime admirer of Reeves work, and with Reeves unable to be on set, the Oscar-winning director offered to help with finishing principal photography on the film. Although Reeves is unable to be on set, the two will work together and remain in communication until filming has ended, with Reeves taking over post-production duties when he is ready to return.
The studio released a statement in regards to Soderbergh coming on to the production:
“As Matt Reeves continues to attend to an ongoing family matter, Steven Soderbergh, as an admirer of Matt’s work, approached Matt and will step in, with the full support of DC Studios, to help the writer-director complete the final weeks of principal photography on The Batman Part 2. Matt and Steven will work closely together with the actors and crew to fulfill Matt’s vision of the film.”
Soderbergh also released a statement:
“I thought Matt Reeves’ work on The Batman was stunning; it was intentional, specific, and rigorously coherent. The goal here is to work with Matt and his team to generate footage that will integrate seamlessly with what’s already been shot so Matt can properly finish his film.”
Deadline first broke the news earlier this month that production would be paused while Reeves attended to a family matter. Prior to the pause, filming had been underway in London. The film is set to bow on February 18, 2028. Sources say it is too early to say whether the stoppage will have an effect on the release date.
The cast has Robert Pattinson, Andy Serkis and Colin Farrell returning respectively as Batman, Alfred and Penguin, with new additions Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Brian Tyree Henry, Jayme Lawson, Charles Dance, Gil Perez-Abraham and Sebastian Koch.

Entertainment

Netflix’s Bela Bajaria Leaving After 10 Years Amid Layoffs

In a major executive shakeup, Bela Bajaria is out at Netflix after 10 years at the streamer, most recently serving as its chief content officer.
She will be replaced by former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice, as first reported by Puck. As chief content officer, Rice will lead Netflix’s global content organization, overseeing scripted and unscripted series, film, live events and more across all regions.
Bajaria’s exit comes amid a significant workforce reduction at Netflix. Around 1,000 employees (6% of the company) were laid off this week in what marks the streamer’s largest axing to date. Netflix‘s film VP Doug Belgrad and film director Sheroum Kim were also pink slipped as part of the restructuring.
“I want to thank Bela for a decade of dedication, innovation, creativity and leadership,” Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO, said in a statement. “She led enormous changes at Netflix. She helped broaden our content offering to include the large-scale expansion of unscripted programming and the launches of live events and sports, in addition to crafting and running a world class, global slate of films and series. I’m incredibly grateful for everything she’s done to help Netflix entertain the world.”
Bajaria joined Netflix in 2016 after she was let go from NBCUniversal, where she had served as president of Universal Television. In that role, she had produced shows that aired on Netflix, including “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Master of None.” Sarandos first brought in Bajaria to help Netflix launch an unscripted division, as well as licensing and studio co-productions. Bajaria was later elevated to head of global in 2020 as Cindy Holland exited the company, and was named chief content officer in January 2023.
Under her watch, Bajaria oversaw popular TV series including “Bridgerton,” “Squid Game,” “Adolescence,” “Beef,” “Stranger Things” and “Wednesday,” and films such as “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Frankenstein.” She also pushed Netflix into more live sports and events like “The Roast of Tom Brady” and deals with the NFL and WWE.
But in recent months, as Netflix growth has slowed, so too has the aura around its original programming. The streamer won just 16 Primetime Emmy awards this year — down from 30 in 2025 and quite a distance from 2021, when it tied the record for most Emmys won by an outlet in a single year, with 44. All told, 2026 was Netflix’s lowest Primetime Emmy haul since 2016.
“I know this is a big change in a year that has already had its share,” Sarandos wrote in a memo to staff. “But I also see an opportunity to take our slate to the next level, especially in UCAN [United States and Canada] where we have an outsize impact in creating big, buzzy hits that our members love and drive conversation around the world.
Rice’s own ousting at Disney in 2022, by then-CEO Bob Chapek, was a huge shock to the industry given his stature at the company. A well-regarded executive with strong talent relations, Rice was most recently chairman of Walt Disney Television and chairman of general entertainment for the Walt Disney Company. There he oversaw ABC, FOX Broadcasting, Fox Sports, ABC News, ABC Studios, Disney Channel, Freeform, FX Networks, Hulu, National Geographic, Onyx Collective, Disney Television and Twentieth Century Fox Television, with more than 300 shows and 4,000 hours of television a year. Programs during his tenure included “The Simpsons,” “American Idol,” “Modern Family,” “This Is Us,” “The Bear,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Shogun” and “Only Murders in the Building,” along with ABC News programming and sporting events such as the Super Bowl, NBA Finals and FIFA World Cup Finals.
Since he was let go from Disney, Rice worked as a producer on movies such as Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” “28 Years Later” and “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” at Sony, as well as “Warfare” and Chris Rock’s “Misty Green” at A24. He is currently producing Alex Garland’s “Elden Ring” and Sonoya Mizuno’s “Stages,” as well as as well as the opening and closing ceremonies for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Earlier in his career, Rice was president of 21st Century Fox and CEO of Fox Networks Group, and Fox’s lead executive on the Hulu board. He also worked at Fox Searchlight Pictures and worked on indie favorites like “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Juno,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Sideways.”
“Peter is one of the most effective at-scale operators in the entertainment industry. His business acumen is sharp, his talent relationships are exceptionally strong, and his experience across TV and film is deep and broad,” Sarandos said. “He understands what makes stories resonate, and he’s spent his career helping talent do the best work of their lives. I’m excited to welcome him to Netflix as chief content officer as we continue to scale and deliver members more of the stories they love.”
Added Rice, “Netflix has fundamentally changed the way stories are made, shared and experienced around the world. They’ve shown again and again that they’re willing to take chances on distinctive voices and fresh ideas, and I’m excited to work with the team to help bring even more great stories to members everywhere.”
Mike Schneider contributed to this report.

Entertainment

Violet & Xaden Have Been Cast In Prime Video’s ‘Fourth Wing’ TV Show

Lightning strikes as Prime Video has found its leading stars for the upcoming TV series Fourth Wing, the small-screen adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling novel of the same name, from showrunner and EP Meredith Averill.
Esther McGregor (We Were Liars, Babygirl) has been cast as Violet Sorrengail, and Emilio Sakraya (Those About To Die, Warrior Nun) will bring to life the character of Xaden Riorson, sources close to production tell Deadline. Violet and Xaden are enemies-turned-lovers in the books.
Amazon declined to comment.
In the fantasy adventure, Violet is forced by her mother to enter the brutal world of Basgiath War College. She joins hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of the country of Navarre: dragon riders.
In the book, 20-year-old Violet feels well on her way to becoming a Scribe (historian), following in the footsteps of her father, Asher, when her mother, General Lilith Sorrengail, makes her switch paths and become a dragon rider.
Far from the safety of the Archives where Scribes record the history of Navarre and keep records, Violet walks the parapet to bond with a dragon and undertake the very dangerous and highly fatal occupation. There, she encounters Xaden Riorson, a descendant of a rebellious sect of the population and a generally mysterious, brooding cadet with shadow-wielding powers. The one rule of Basgiath War College is “graduate or die.” Riders without their dragons are as good as dead, and vice versa, which stresses the bond between human and beast formed on Threshing Day.
Amazon MGM Studios snapped up the rights to the Empyrean book series for TV development in 2023, but it wasn’t picked up until this May when the streamer officially greenlit the series. Averill officially joined the series as showrunner and executive producer in September 2025. The greenlight included Lisa Joy as director of the series premiere and executive producer.
The plan is, if successful, to adapt the rest of the novels over multiple seasons. The Empyrean book series consists of five books, with Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), and Onyx Storm (2025) as the first three titles. Yarros is currently working on a fourth novel, which is as yet untitled, and a fifth will follow. She recently released a companion book of 13 short stories written from the point of view of dragon riders focusing on when they met their dragons, titled Threshing Day. It’s as-yet-unknown whether the new book will be included in the series, but it would make sense to feature some or all of the moments.
The series comes from Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society, Jonathan Nolan and Joy’s Kilter Films and Premeditated Productions. Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo executive produce via Outlier Society; Nolan, Joy, and Athena Wickham via Kilter Films; Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark via Premeditated Productions.
McGregor is currently shooting Life Is Strange for Prime Video, based on the video game. She also recently starred in the television adaptation of E. Lockhart’s best-selling novel, We Were Liars, for Prime Video. Her film credits include Babygirl and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. She previously starred with her father, Ewan McGregor, and sister, Clara McGregor, in the 2023 SXSW world premiere of Bleeding Love. On the TV side, she also appeared in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Sakraya’s schedule is also booked and busy, having recently completed work starring in the hit Netflix series One Piece‘s upcoming third season. In a recurring role, he will portray the character of Koza, leader of the rebel army. Among Fourth Wing fans, Sakraya was a top choice for the role of Xaden Riorson. His prior credits include the Peacock series Those About to Die, the mixed martial arts feature Sixty Minutes, the Netflix series Tribes of Europa, and Warrior Nun, also for the streamer.

Entertainment

Disney Inks Dude Perfect to Deal for Original Content

The Walt Disney Co. is cutting another major creator deal, this time with the prolific sports-focused Dude Perfect, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The deal, which the company is framing as a “company-wide creative partnership,” will span entertainment sports, consumer products and experiences.
Like Disney’s other creator deals, it will see some Dude Perfect content come to Disney+, including some of the group’s short-form library content. But it will also see the group create original content for its platforms and channels inspired by Disney events, with Super Bowl LXI, the 50th anniversary of Star Wars, and Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday among the projects being highlighted.
Dude Perfect was founded in 2009 when Tyler Toney, Coby Cotton, Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert and Cody Jones were all students at Texas A&M and decided to start a trick shot YouTube channel. It has since grown into a fully-fledged studio, with an 80,000-square foot facility in Frisco, Texas, and a full slate of programming and brand deals.
Dude Perfect raised $100 million from Highmount Capital in 2024 to help it kickstart its growth, with Coby Cotton telling THR at the time that they wanted to push further into live events and products, two areas that Disney happens to have particular expertise in.
Disney, meanwhile, has inked deals with creators like Dhar Mann and Like Nastya as it seeks to push further into that ecosystem. It also has a deal with TikTok that will bring some short-form content to Disney+.
Dude Perfect and Disney have worked together in the past, with the creators publishing videos like “Going to Every Disney Park in 75 Hours,” but the new deal significantly builds on that relationship.
“Disney has always been a place where great storytellers come to create, and Dude Perfect brings a distinctive voice and an inventive approach to everything they do,” said Asad Ayaz, Disney’s chief marketing and brand officer, in a statement. “By building on our longstanding relationship, we’re able to give fans even more ways to experience and be part of the Disney stories they love.”
“We’ve been Disney kids forever, from wearing out the VHS tape of The Lion King to making core memories as a family at Disney World,” added Dude Perfect co-founder Garrett Hilbert. “Disney taught us to go big and dream, and that has shaped everything we’ve built. Now, we get to make more of those dreams come to life with the Disney team, and we can’t wait to bring our fans along for the ride.”

Entertainment

Brendan Fraser Sequel Gets New Title Ahead of 2027 Release

Brendan Fraser‘s forthcoming installment in Universal Pictures‘ popular The Mummy franchise is alive and well.
The studio announced Thursday that the new movie will be titled The Mummy: Book of the Dead. Radio Silence duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are set to direct the film from a script by David Coggeshall (The Family Plan). It hits theaters Oct. 15, 2027, exactly a year after the title announcement.
Fraser returns as Rick O’Connell alongside Rachel Weisz as Evie O’Connell. John Hannah, Michael Johnston, Numan Acar, Kevin J. O’Connor and Oded Fehr round out the cast.
The classic Universal monster property first sprang to life with Boris Karloff in the titular role of the 1932 feature The Mummy. After a number of offerings over the decades, Fraser and Weisz’s franchise kicked off with the Stephen Sommers-helmed 1999 version of the same name.
Producers include Sean Daniel, who has produced five previous titles in the franchise, alongside William Sherak, James Vanderbilt and Paul Neinstein for Project X Entertainment. Clayton Townsend also produces, while Fraser and Hivemind’s Jason F. Brown serve as executive producers.
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, who helmed 2022’s franchise-reviving Scream and follow-up Scream VI, most recently directed this year’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.
The Mummy: Book of the Dead is a direct sequel to 1999’s The Mummy and 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns. The franchise also includes 2008’s poorly received The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which was followed by 2017’s Tom Cruise-led The Mummy reboot. The 1999 movie spawned the 2002 spinoff feature The Scorpion King, marking Dwayne Johnson’s first lead film role.
For the 25th anniversary of 1999’s The Mummy, director Sommers told The Hollywood Reporter that he continues to be pleased with the film’s lasting cultural impact. The franchise’s five theatrical features that began with the 1999 offering have surpassed $1.8 billion at the global box office. The 1999 movie centered on treasure hunter Rick heading out on an adventure with Evie and her brother, Jonathan (Hannah), where they accidentally awaken a mummy.
“It’s so funny how it just never went away,” said Sommers, who also helmed The Mummy Returns. “It’s always on TV somewhere. And I know, especially because the residual checks are great. I hate to say it, but somehow, it’s endeared itself to a lot of people.”