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<\/p>\nThe birthday surprise was not subtle. <\/p>\n
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling showed up together in public Thursday evening for the first time in more than a decade, with Gosling enlisting \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon\u201d host for help in surprising his longtime partner for her 52nd birthday. <\/p>\n
Gosling was on the show to promote his upcoming film, \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d in which he plays a high school teacher tasked with saving the world. So he asked Fallon to arrange for an audience full of \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 high school teachers. Because Mendes absolutely loves teachers, he said. <\/p>\n
And then there was the request that they surprise Mendes by singing \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d when she came out on stage. It was unclear whether Gosling also ordered up the marching band that played backup, but Fallon wound up crediting him for the whole deal, which we assume included the, um, confetti cannon. <\/p>\n
So back to Gosling, who along with Mendes is very private about their relationship and hasn\u2019t been seen at a public event with her (His partner? His wife? Who knows, who cares) since they promoted their 2013 movie \u201cThe Place Beyond the Pines.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He talked about the movie, of course, sharing some funny video from a promotional spot he recorded. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was crazy,\u201d the \u201cCrazy, Stupid, Love\u201d actor told Fallon and the \u201cTonight Show\u201d audience. \u201cI swear, this is not a paid ad. I swear this happened. This was not planned. I had to do a little thing with Alexa, where I just was supposed to ask her facts about the movie. … And this is what happened. This is what she said, I swear.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the video, Gosling quizzed Alexa about why people should see the movie in theaters instead of waiting for it to stream at home. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the Imax visuals are absolutely stunning,\u201d Alexa said. But it was what she said next that warmed Gosling\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlus, Eva Mendes herself called it a masterpiece that brings back the magic of the big screen experience that you just can\u2019t get the full impact of on your couch at home,\u201d Alexa said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat Eva Mendes is great, isn\u2019t she?\u201d Gosling said in his trademark slight-smirk delivery. <\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely. She\u2019s got this incredible range that people don\u2019t always give her credit for\u201d \u2014 at this point Gosling blurted an enthusiastic \u201cThank you!\u201d \u2014 \u201cfrom her breakthrough in \u2018Training Day\u2019 to that beautiful performance in \u2018The Place Beyond the Pines\u2019 with Ryan Gosling, she brings this authentic vulnerability to every role.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point, Gosling kissed Alexa, who was made out of red plastic and had a \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d image emblazoned on her speaker. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlus, she\u2019s been smart about stepping back from acting to focus on family,\u201d Alexa continued, \u201cwhich shows she\u2019s got her priorities straight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t agree more,\u201d said Gosling, who\u2019s been with Mendes since 2011 and welcomed two daughters with her. Whether they are officially married is, of course, a mystery. And he did kiss Alexa, which could complicate things. That Alexa, she\u2019s a hustler. <\/p>\n
But married or not, Gosling was 100% committed to surprising Mendes on her 52nd trip around the sun. Turns out she was backstage at the show, thinking she was going to get the opportunity to tell the audience full of teachers how much she appreciated what they do every day. So someone brought her to the set, where Gosling greeted her with a \u201cHi, sweetheart\u201d and held her hand as he pulled her to center stage. <\/p>\n
Mendes, apparently thinking her appearance wouldn\u2019t be part of the show, immediately burst into a paean to teaching, telling the educators who were assembled, \u201cI love teachers so much, you guys. We owe so much to you guys. You\u2019re so underpaid and you\u2019re so \u2014 I just \u2014 thank you so much. I had so many amazing teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she turned to Fallon and said, \u201cYou\u2019ll cut all this, right?\u201d Seems she hadn\u2019t put two and two together when Gosling pointed her toward the mark on the floor where she was supposed to stand for the cameras. <\/p>\n
Nope, the host said. We love this. <\/p>\n
So Mendes went on. \u201cI had so many amazing teachers mentor me,\u201d she said, speaking rapidly and enthusiastically, \u201cand I just want to say thank you to you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Fallon reminded her that this was her day \u2014 her birthday. And Gosling pointed out that among the educators there were some band directors. <\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we have band directors from North Bergen High School,\u201d Fallon announced. \u201cLadies and gentlemen, here to play \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019 to Eva Mendes, we have the North Bergen High School marching band.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there they were, a dozen or two members of that marching band, in full regalia, with two people holding a \u201cHappy Birthday Eva!\u201d banner and the rest blasting out the familiar tune. The entire audience joined in serenading the woman of the hour as they clapped along. Mendes clapped along as well.<\/p>\n
As a finale, yup, confetti blasted out over those onstage. And Fallon gave credit where it was due. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all him,\u201d he said, indicating Gosling, which prompted Mendes to grab her beau\u2019s face and start whispering into his ear. And that\u2019s the most fans are likely to see the twosome behaving like a twosome in public, at least until maybe 2039 or so. Maybe for her 65th birthday. Or her 70th. Or perhaps their AI holograms will one day reveal whether they said \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the way, all those teachers were the ones who got the birthday gift last night. Fallon announced they would be going to a special screening of \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d after the taping, and the teachers\u2019 delight was palpable. <\/p>\n
Very nice, \u201cTonight Show.\u201d You and Ryan Gosling made some people very happy Thursday. Including one Eva Mendes. <\/p>\n
\u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d hits theaters March 20. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The birthday surprise was not subtle. Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling showed up together in public Thursday evening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[21143,96772,1864,96775,96770,96771,48,52,51,47,50,49,96773,4287,592,96776,32630,62173,10384,96774,96777],"class_list":["post-210270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-happy-birthday","tag-alexa","tag-audience","tag-eva-mendes","tag-gosling","tag-jimmy-fallon","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mendes","tag-movie","tag-people","tag-project-hail-mary","tag-public-display","tag-ryan-gosling","tag-teacher","tag-tonight-show","tag-training-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}