The Essentials With Jonathan Bennett: Palm Springs Gems, True Crime and Vintage Abercrombie
Observer ·
The Hallmark regular shares his go-to Palm Springs restaurants, his Vancouver Lululemon ritual, true-crime obsession and the Abercrombie cargos he refuses to retire.
When former Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett appears on the Zoom screen, he’s freshly tanned, which he informs Observer is courtesy of a recent trip with Carnival Cruises—one of the many he’s taken and posted about to his over 1 million Instagram followers. Now, he’s back on the West Coast, tuning in from his sunny home office in Palm Springs to talk about a few of his favorite things.
In the background, festive Hallmark posters are on display. Bennett, 45, has become the holiday channel’s go-to leading man in recent years, starring in everything from the reality show Finding Mr. Christmas to The Christmas House, which made history as the network’s first TV movie to prominently feature a same-sex storyline.
However, just because Bennett has become the network’s holiday go-to guy doesn’t mean he’s necessarily always ready to celebrate. Instead, his only time to relax is after his busy season is over. “By the time actual Christmas comes, I don’t want to talk about Christmas!” he spills. “I’ve talked about Christmas for two months straight, and even though I love it, I’ve already had my Christmas.” Instead, he and his husband, Jaymes Vaughan , will sit on the couch, order takeout and “just rot and do nothing.”
Bennet and Vaughan are very much a “we,” whether celebrating (or not celebrating) the holidays, or decamping from Hollywood to Palm Springs, where they relocated after spending years in Los Angeles. They made the move after getting married, because, as Bennett declares, “nothing good comes out of West Hollywood after 20 years.”
Bennett finds quiet comfort in his routine, whether it’s visiting the same restaurant every time he’s filming Hallmark movies in Vancouver or falling asleep to true crime shows alongside Vaughan. His career means he spends a lot of time away from home, so he values consistency and familiarity.
“I am a creature of habit,” the former Flywheel instructor admits. “When I’m traveling or if I go to Vancouver for the 100th time to shoot a movie, I will still eat at the same four or five places every time, even though there are a million restaurants. I will always go back to the places I know.”
These cozy escapist tendencies translate to his pop culture pursuits. He avoids watching comedies because he can “hear the writing” and “see the setup” as an actor. Instead, he adores RuPaul ’s Drag Race and watches true crime on repeat.
“I only like the ones where you don’t know who did it at the beginning,” he tells Observer. “ Studies show—and by studies, I mean TikTok, so it must be true—that there’s something relaxing about watching true crime, because you know that at the end they’re going to catch the killer, and you’re going to find out who it is.”
Here, the General Hospital actor walks Observer through a day in his life, from his early-bird wake-up to his secret technique for memorizing his scripts at the gym, and takes readers behind the scenes of his perfect day in Palm Springs.
I wake up at 5:30 a.m. After water, the first thing I drink is Stok iced coffee , which is what I survive on. Then I go to the gym, I work out, and I come back, eat breakfast and take a shower. I use EltaMD sunscreen , the green one that takes the redness out of your face. It’s the best because it doesn’t make you break out and evens out redness. I take my dog on a walk, and he poops three times.
This is a local place that is not on the strip—it’s a hidden gem called Billy Reed’s that hasn’t changed since it was built. They’ve refreshed it with the same fabrics and everything that was original, so it still looks like you’re trapped in time. It’s got a menu like the Cheesecake Factory . You want pasta? Sure! Do you want a burger? Great! There are just tchotchkes everywhere, lining the walls. It doesn’t feel like you’re in 2026. I always get the turkey dinner, which is your classic Thanksgiving dinner, and the carrot cake for dessert. I think the median age there is 85. My favorite breakfast place is Wilma and Frieda . It’s got the best biscuit. I get a goat cheese omelet with fruit and a biscuit. The best place for lunch, hands down, is Chicken Ranch . The food is amazing, and it’s got a great patio, so you can sit on the strip and people-watch.
The Colony Palms Hotel and Bungalows is the best because it really takes you back in time to the Frank Sinatra era. It was designed by the guy that designed Cher ’s house [ Martyn Lawrence Bullard ] in Malibu. It’s an old motel that used to be run by the Purple Gang, and they used to launder money back in the day. Then they revamped it and made it cool, and it’s stunning.
I love the Drag and Fly tour . It’s a bus that gives you a historic tour of Palm Springs. You check out Marilyn Monroe ’s house, Frank Sinatra’s house, and learn a little history. A drag queen does it with drag queen humor in full drag. What more do you want?
I go to (don’t make fun) Earls . It’s a chain like an elevated TGI Fridays. I go to Joey , which is another chain up there. Those are the good places I eat after work.
Every time I book a movie and I’m shooting in Vancouver, I get to go to Lululemon across the street from the Sutton Place , where we stay, and I get to get a new hoodie. That’s my treat to myself. I can’t afford to buy a Lululemon hoodie all the time.
In Palm Springs, I work out at Forja Strength . A lot of times, I’m memorizing my lines for General Hospital, and I’m working out. I do my bench press, and then while I’m resting, I learn one or two pages of my script. Then I do the next set, and learn the next two pages. By the time my workout’s done, I have my script memorized at least 50 percent. Then, I get on the treadmill for 30 minutes after every workout, and walk uphill and learn the rest of it. Usually, by the time I’m done with an hour-and-a-half workout, I’ve worked out and memorized my episode for General Hospital for that day. If I’m in L.A., I’m at Equinox . I’m an Equinox sucker through and through.
Right now, I’m obsessed with The Gentlemen on Netflix with Theo James . We are RuPaul’s Drag Race diehards. We watch every season of every country. If we’re not watching that, we’re watching true crime. We fall asleep watching Dateline. My husband and I, for the past 10 years, every time we’re in bed, we watch something, and then we put on a show that’s our fall-asleep show. We have watched Family Guy one million times. There has not been a night that I can think of where my husband and I have not fallen asleep watching Family Guy.
We have a Friendsgiving at my house going on for 14 or so years now. When we were starting off acting, we were all broke, and we didn’t have the money to fly home for Thanksgiving and then fly home for Christmas. For Christmas, my favorite thing that my husband and I do is we don’t go home, we don’t go anywhere. We stay at our house.
I don’t really read books, ever. But I have been picking through Stillness Is the Key . I get that people love reading. It’s just not my thing. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever finished a book in my life, and I’m not being funny. I don’t think I’ve ever actually read a book. And I’m proud of that, because it’s just not my thing. So stop pushing books on me, everyone, because it’s not my thing! Just how some people could not stand in front of a million people live on New Year’s Eve and talk for six hours. Well, that is my thing. So when it comes to sitting down and actually reading a book, I can’t get through a book because I get too bored. I read so many scripts that the last thing I want to do in my free time is read more pages. I’ve memorized 105 pages this week for General Hospital. The last thing my brain needs is more letters to learn.
I asked my husband this because we purchased some good stuff. I love Cove shirts because they’re thick, cool T-shirts, and they are really affordable. If you buy them in a bundle, you can get a couple things for $90. It feels like that shirt that you just want to throw on all the time. I bought holiday season Nest candles, like Pumpkin Chai and Winter Chai. There was a sale where if you buy a bunch, you get it cheaper. I bought a bunch of them. Those are my Christmas gifts, ’cause everyone loves a Nest candle.
I love yacht rock on SiriusXM. When did we become the age where you’re like, “Wow, that sounds like really nice music?” It’s always playing all day long in our house. Just subtly in the background, and it’s just such a good vibe.
My Abercrombie & Fitch cargo pants from 2000 with the strings that hang down from the bottom of the legs. I still have them, and those were the pants I was wearing when I was folding sweaters at Abercrombie and got the call that I booked Mean Girls. I will never throw those away because it’s superstitious. They weren’t in, and now they’re back in, so I can wear them again.