Actress Melissa Joan Hart has revealed her three sons are less than amused by her massive collection of porcelain Shirley Temple dolls kept inside her home.
Speaking in an exclusive joint interview with E! News host Erin Lim Rhodes, the 50-year-old star said her sons Mason, 20, Braydon, 18, and Tucker, 13, are freaked out by the porcelain figures.
Hart, who is married to Mark Wilkerson, explained that she built the collection while working early jobs before her rise to fame. "I used to teach dance and babysit, and with the money I would send it to the Danbury Mint and get my porcelain doll of Shirley Temple. I would pay it in installments of $33 a month," Hart told E! News. "I still have a massive collection of the dolls."
Despite spending a significant amount of money on the items, her sons do not share her passion. "My boys get freaked out by it," Hart confessed. "They're like, 'Oh, the dolls!' And I'm like, 'I don't care. I have to have them somewhere.' I spent a lot of money on those."
While her sons dislike the doll collection, Hart noted that at least one of her sons recently joined her to rewatch her former sitcom Melissa & Joey. "I was watching the first episode again just to remind myself of where it came from. I was watching it in the living room and it went into the second episode and then the third episode," Hart explained. "I realized I was still watching it and my son was watching it. My other son walks in and goes, 'You're watching Mom's show?'" She added that her son responded: "Shut up! It's funny." Hart described it as "such a great moment."
The Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch alum joined fellow 1990s stars Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence, and Keshia Knight Pulliam for the interview while promoting HGTV's new renovation competition show Totally '90s House. Hosted by Jaleel White, the series premiered on HGTV on Aug. 16 and is available to stream the next day on HBO Max.
The competition pits Hart, Lawrence, and Pulliam against a rival team consisting of Brian Austin Green, Beverley Mitchell, and Jodie Sweetin. The two teams attempt to find a home stuck in the 1990s and modernize the spaces while preserving their nostalgic charm. Hart raved about rediscovering one of her favorite decade design features, glass brick. "There was a lot of glass brick," she said. "I did like the glass brick. I had a shower that was all glass brick going to the outside and I love that. I still love glass brick."
Where 1990s child stars are today
Jonathan Taylor Thomas rose to fame playing brainy middle child Randy Taylor on Home Improvement starting in 1991. His 1990s big-screen roles included voicing young Simba in 1994's The Lion King (though he did not perform the singing), starring with Brad Renfro in 1995's Tom and Huck, and appearing alongside Devon Sawa in 1997's Wild America. He left Home Improvement in 1998, when his character went to Costa Rica, to focus on school. He had a recurring role on 8 Simple Rules in 2004, graduated from Columbia University in 2010, and reunited with TV dad Tim Allen in 2013 to direct and appear in several episodes of Last Man Standing. Rare paparazzi sightings of Thomas continue to go viral.
Jonathan Lipnicki made a splashy movie debut at age six opposite Tom Cruise in 1996's Jerry Maguire. He went on to star in the Stuart Little films, voice Baby Tiger in Doctor Dolittle, and appear in The Little Vampire, Little Mike, and Dawson's Creek before taking a break for high school. In 2017, Lipnicki opened up on Instagram about middle school bullying, sharing that he was made fun of relentlessly, called a has-been, and suffered nightly panic attacks. He wrote: "I am grateful for the amazing life I have and I hope I can pass on that it DOES get better." The Los Angeles native, who holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, starred in the 2023 Lifetime movie Secrets at the Museum and volunteered to provide additional security outside a mid-city synagogue in May 2021 amid rising anti-Semitic harassment.
Mara Wilson starred in Mrs. Doubtfire at age six and Matilda at age nine before putting acting on the back burner. Now a writer and activist, she released her memoir Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame in 2016, appeared on Broad City, and voiced characters on BoJack Horseman, Big Hero 6: The Series, and Helluva Boss. In a February 2021 New York Times op-ed, Wilson recalled a friend asking how it felt to know she had peaked, writing: "I didn't know how to answer, but now I would say that's the wrong question. I haven't peaked, because for me, The Narrative isn't a story someone else is writing anymore. I can write it myself."
From adolescent roles to Hollywood careers
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a veteran actor by the time he starred as alien Tommy Solomon on 3rd Rock From the Sun, which premiered when he was 14 in 1996. That same year, he played Demi Moore's son in The Jury, later starring in 10 Things I Hate About You in 1999, Mysterious Skin in 2004, and Brick in 2005. His adult credits include 500 Days of Summer, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Inception, 50/50, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Lincoln, Snowden, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and playing Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick in Super Pumped. He also wrote and directed 2013's Don Jon. Gordon-Levitt married Tasha McCauley in 2014, and they share three children.
Natalie Portman made her acclaimed debut at age 12 in 1994's The Professional. Her career spans blockbusters such as Star Wars: Episodes I through III, the Thor franchise, and Avengers: Endgame, alongside indies like Beautiful Girls and Garden State, comedies Mars Attacks! and Your Highness, and dramas Closer, Brothers, V for Vendetta, and Annihilation. She won the Best Actress Oscar for 2010's Black Swan and earned a nomination for playing Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie. Portman made her feature directorial debut with 2015's A Tale of Love and Darkness. She married Black Swan choreographer Benjamin Millepied in 2012, with whom she shares son Aleph and daughter Amalia, before finalizing their divorce in 2024. She announced her pregnancy with boyfriend Tanguy Destable in April 2026.
Angus T. Jones played the son of Jon Cryer's character on Two and a Half Men, earning a reported $350,000 per episode during his final season as a full-time cast member. In 2012, a video surfaced of Jones calling the show filth during a religious testimonial for Forerunner Chronicles, an Alabama-based Seventh-day Adventist ministry. Jones later apologized for showing indifference and disrespect to his colleagues. He left the series, returned for the 2015 finale, and told Houston TV station KHOU that he was a paid hypocrite because the show made light of serious topics. After attending the University of Colorado at Boulder, Jones told People in 2016: "I got pretty doomsday with my thinking for a long time, but now I'm having fun and enjoying where I'm at. I no longer feel like every step I take is on a land mine." His acting credits after 2016's Horace & Pete include an uncredited 2023 role in Bookie.
Stage icons and Oscar winners
Daniel Radcliffe moved beyond his iconic role in eight Harry Potter films by starring on stage in Equus, The Cripple of Inishmaan, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Merrily We Roll Along. His screen roles include playing Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings, a flatulent corpse in Swiss Army Man, an opioid-addicted doctor in A Young Doctor's Notebook, a four-season run on Miracle Workers, and the title role in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Radcliffe has a son with longtime partner Erin Darke.
Jodie Foster made her acting debut around age six in Mayberry R.F.D. and earned her first Oscar nomination at 14 playing a prostituted girl in 1976's Taxi Driver, the same year she starred in Freaky Friday. After attending Yale, she won her first Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress, for 1988's The Accused, followed by a Best Actress Oscar for 1992's The Silence of the Lambs. Foster made her feature directing debut with 1991's Little Man Tate and directed TV episodes of House of Cards, Black Mirror, and Orange Is the New Black. Her 21st-century film credits include Panic Room, Inside Man, Elysium, Hotel Artemis, and The Mauritanian, which won her a 2021 Golden Globe. Foster has two sons with ex-partner Cydney Bernard and married photographer Alexandra Hedison in 2014.
Kristen Stewart was mentored by Foster when playing mother and daughter in 2002's Panic Room before gaining global fame as Bella Swan in the five-film Twilight series. Stewart recalled to Stellar magazine in 2019 that Foster initially doubted she would stay in acting, adding: "I really love my job, but I understand why she would have thought that about me as a kid. I love her." A Chanel muse, Stewart became the first American actress to win a Cesar Award for Clouds of Sils Maria, later starring in Personal Shopper, Seberg, Spencer, and 2019's Charlie's Angels. She married Dylan Meyer in 2025.
Sitcom stars and blockbuster leads
Josh Brolin, son of actor James Brolin, began his career playing Brandon Walsh in 1985's The Goonies. He starred in Flirting With Disaster, Mimic, No Country for Old Men, American Gangster, W., Jonah Hex, True Grit, Sicario, Deadpool 2, and the Dune series. He earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing Dan White in Milk and portrayed super-villain Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Brolin has two children from his first marriage to Alice Adair, was married to Diane Lane from 2004 to 2013, and shares daughters Westlyn Reign Brolin and Chapel Grace Brolin with wife Kathryn Boyd, whom he married in 2016.
Christina Ricci made her movie debut alongside Cher and Winona Ryder in 1990's Mermaids before starring as Wednesday Addams in 1991's The Addams Family. Her film credits include Casper, Now and Then, The Opposite of Sex, Buffalo '66, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sleepy Hollow, Prozac Nation, Pumpkin, and playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos' girlfriend in Monster alongside Charlize Theron. Her television work includes Pan Am, Black Snake Moan, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, Z: The Beginning of Everything, and Yellowjackets. Ricci shares son Freddie with ex-husband James Heerdegen and daughter Cleopatra with husband Mark Hampton, whom she married in October 2021.
Macaulay Culkin achieved fame at age 10 in Home Alone after early roles in Uncle Buck and Jacob's Ladder. He took a nearly decade-long break after 1994's Ri¢hie Ri¢h before returning in films like Party Monster and Saved. He voiced characters on Robot Chicken, played a barista version of himself on The Jim Gaffigan Show, and joined season 10 of American Horror Story. Culkin is engaged to Brenda Song, with whom he shares sons Dakota Song Culkin, named after his late sister who died in 2008, and Carson, who appeared at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Dec. 1, 2023.
Kieran Culkin made his debut as Pepsi-swilling cousin Fuller in Home Alone before starring in Father of the Bride, She's All That, Igby Goes Down, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He won an Emmy playing Roman Roy on Succession and won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2025 for A Real Pain. He shares three children with wife Jazz Charton: daughter Kinsey Sioux, son Wilder Wolf, and a third child whose arrival was confirmed in September 2025 by Sarah Snook.
Decades on television and beyond
Dakota Fanning played young Ally McBeal at age five and Sean Penn's daughter in I Am Sam at age six before starring in Uptown Girls, Man on Fire, Hide and Seek, War of the Worlds, Charlotte's Web, The Secret Life of Bees, three Twilight films, American Pastoral, and playing Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood. She starred in The Alienist, appeared alongside sister Elle Fanning in The Nightingale, and earned a 2025 Golden Globe nomination for Ripley. Elle Fanning debuted playing a younger version of her sister's character in I Am Sam before appearing in Daddy Day Care, Babel, Super 8, Maleficent, Trumbo, 20th Century Women, The Neon Demon, The Beguiled, Mary Shelley, and Hulu's The Great.
Hilary Duff starred on Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire before expanding into films such as Agent Cody Banks, Cheaper by the Dozen, and A Cinderella Story. She later starred in Younger and How I Met Your Father after a planned Lizzie McGuire Disney+ reboot was shelved. Duff shares son Luca Comrie with ex-husband Mike Comrie and daughters Banks Violet Bair, Mae James Bair, and Townes Meadow Bair with husband Matthew Koma, whom she married in 2019.
Candace Cameron played D.J. Tanner on Full House from 1987 to 1995, starred in the 1996 TV movie No One Would Tell, co-hosted The View, and returned for five seasons of Fuller House. She also leads Hallmark Channel Christmas movies and the Aurora Teagarden mystery franchise based on Charlaine Harris' books. She has three children with husband Valeri Bure, whom she married in 1996. Her Full House co-star Jodie Sweetin played Stephanie Tanner, authored the 2009 memoir unSweetined, overcame drug and alcohol struggles, and returned for Fuller House alongside Hallmark films Merry and Bright and Just Swipe. Fraternal twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen shared the role of Michelle Tanner before building a media empire and launching fashion brands The Row and Elizabeth & James. Ashley welcomed her first child with husband Louis Eisner in 2023, while Mary-Kate married Olivier Sarkozy in 2015 before filing for divorce in 2020.
Leonardo DiCaprio played homeless teen Luke on Growing Pains in 1991 before earning Oscar nominations for What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries, Marvin's Room, Romeo + Juliet, and Titanic. His later films include Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street, Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Revenant, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar. Emma Watson played Hermione Granger in eight Harry Potter films before starring in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring, The Circle, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Women. She serves as a UN Goodwill Ambassador, launched a gin brand with her brother Alex Watson, and enrolled at Oxford. Neil Patrick Harris debuted in 1988's Clara's Heart before starring in Doogie Howser, M.D., How I Met Your Mother, and winning a Tony for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He shares twins Gideon and Harper with husband David Burtka. Raven-Symoné played Olivia on The Cosby Show at age four before starring in That's So Raven, co-hosting The View, and marrying Miranda Maday in June 2020.
