Jonathan Bennett is an actor best known for playing Aaron Samuels in the popular comedy film Mean Girls. He has also appeared in the movies Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and Lovewrecked, and the television shows Celebrity Big Brother, Veronica Mars, and Dancing with the Stars.
For the month of October 2021, Bennett is starring in a special series that calls back to his role in Mean Girls. Bennett opened up to Showbiz Cheat Sheet about the social media project On Wednesdays We Cook Pork and how his work on the 2004 hit film led him to a cooking series.
October is National Mean Girls Month and National Pork Month
Since its release over a decade ago, Mean Girls has developed a cult-like fandom. Countless memes and videos have been generated based on quotable moments of the film.
One of the most sensationalized scenes from the movie is when Lindsay Lohan’s character, Cady Heron, describes her progress in winning over Jonathan Bennett’s Aaron Samuels.
Over a scene in a high school where Cady Heron sits behind Aaron Samuels, Lohan narrates, “On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was.” In the classroom, Lohan answers, “It’s October 3rd.”
It’s hard to say why this moment, in particular, grabbed the attention of viewers. But it has been quoted and parodied so often that October 3rd is now known on social media and to film fanatics worldwide as Mean Girls Day, and October became National Mean Girls Month.
Since both National Pork Month and National Mean Girls Month fall in October, it made sense for Bennett to team up with the National Pork Board to star in the social media series On Wednesday We Cook Pork. The series runs every Wednesday in October on Jonathan Bennet’s and the National Pork Board’s social media channels.
Jonathan Bennett cooks with Carnie Wilson and Joey Lawrence
In each episode of the social media series, Bennett is joined by guest cooks Carnie Wilson or Joey Lawrence to prepare recipes from Bennett’s Mean Girls-inspired parody cookbook, The Burn CookBook, modified to include pork. The recipes are based on quotable moments from the movie, including Gretchen’s Weiners (which Bennett told Showbiz Cheat Sheet is his favorite), She Asked Me How to Spell Orange Chicken, and You Go, Glenn (Hot) Cocoa.
When asked what inspired him to create the 2018 cookbook with celebrity chef Nikki Martin, Bennett said, “I realized that Mean Girls is such a part of people’s lives that I wanted there to be a way for everyone to get together and watch the movie… it’s a movie that brings people together. So I thought, why not create a book that could bring people together over something fun like food and give people something to do so they can create more memories with the movie.”
Carnie Wilson is a singer and co-founder of the pop group Wilson Phillips. She has also hosted and starred in several TV shows, including The Newlywed Game, Carnie Wilson: Unstapled, and Wilson Phillips: Still Holding On.
Joey Lawrence is an actor, musician, and game show host. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Joey Russo in Blossom and Joe Longo in Melissa & Joey. Lawrence also starred in Gimme a Break! and the series Brotherly Love with his brothers Matthew and Andrew.
Jonathan Bennett has worked with Joey Lawrence before
When asked about the most exciting part of filming the cooking series, Bennett responded, “What’s really exciting about doing this series to celebrate Pork Month and to celebrate The Burn CookBook is getting to work with Carnie Wilson and Joey Lawrence, who are such food fans and huge fans of cooking. So to work with them and get to cook some of these really cool recipes was fun.”
Cooking together on On Wednesdays We Cook Pork wasn’t the first time that the Mean Girls star worked with Joey Lawrence. They both appeared on season two of Celebrity Big Brother.
“I was with Joey Lawrence on Celebrity Big Brother, so we are old friends. And to reunite with him and get to work with him in the kitchen was so much fun because Joey’s a huge foodie, and he is really good at cooking. So, we had so much fun playing around in the kitchen and teasing each other.
“Joey thinks he knows everything about cooking, but I had to show him a thing or two,” Bennett added playfully.
“And Carnie knows everything about cooking. I’ve never seen anyone cook as much as Carnie Wilson. She is an expert in the kitchen, so getting to work with her, I thought I was just going to fangirl over her because I’m such a huge Wilson Phillips fan. But really, she taught me a thing or two about cooking that I didn’t even know. She’s a much better cook than me.”
Dina Lohan, mother of Bennett’s fellow Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan, also competed on the same season of Celebrity Big Brother with Bennett and Lawrence.
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