Watch Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel sing 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' during Elf reunion
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Everett Collection
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!" On that note...
On Sunday, the stars of Elf —Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel among them — reunited for a live script reading of the beloved Christmas flick to raise money for the Democratic Party of Georgia, with all proceeding going towards efforts to elect Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock and thereby flipping the U.S. Senate. They also invited some more stars into the mix to take up various parts, including John Lithgow, Wanda Sykes, Ed Helms, Busy Phillips, and more.
As part of the reunion, Ferrell (who played Buddy the Elf) and Deschanel (who played Jovie) recreated their famous duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from the movie. Iconic as the scene is now, it wasn't always going to appear in the film. The duet was added once director Jon Favreau cast Deschanel and her particular skill set. "I remember Jon Favreau telling me that they were catering it to whoever played the part," Deschanel previously told EW. "One actress they were looking at was good at skateboarding. But I had a cabaret act at the time and I was performing a lot. They knew that I was a singer, so they put that in to be my special thing that he could discover I was good at."
During a break in the one-hour, 40-minute live reading, Helms pointed out to the audience that the story wouldn't end with the song "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," as it does in the movie, but the cast would perform "Jingle Bells" instead. "Apparently, we think that perhaps Republicans own the rights to that song because we got an unkind email when we asked for the rights to do it today," joked the actor. "That's what I heard anyway. Who knows?"
By the end of the event, organizers had surpassed their goal to raise $400,000, with the total reaching $402,966.
The Elf reunion will be available for viewing again Monday. Watch the clip above.
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