Shelley Long And Matt Dillion on Modern Family

We saw some familiar faces as guest stars on Modern Family tonight: Shelley Long was back as Jay’s ex-wife. Matt Dillon played Claire’s ex-boyfriend. Modern Family is celebrating a birthday tonight! Well, one of the characters is, anyway, and we are just glad to be invited...especially because the rest of the “Princess Party” guest list seems to go off the rails a bit.

Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) takes the reigns once again, much like he tried to when building Lily’s princess playhouse in the backyard, and he decides to invite his mom (guest star Shelley Long) to the party, which upsets Claire (Julie Bowen) and Gloria (Sofia Vergara) for very different reasons. He also decides to invite a new form of entertainment, in an actress dressed up as a Princess, instead of allowing Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) to don his Fizbo makeup once again.

Everyone is coming to gather for the little one, so how out of hand could things get? Well, let’s just say Cameron doesn’t take the slight lightly-- but he does take it a bit personally-- and he doesn’t make things easy on the entertainer. And of course anywhere the matriarch of the Pritchett family goes, trouble follows. This time that comes early when she shows up with a very special new beau-- one who just happens to be Claire’s ex and therefore not exactly age appropriate, let alone loved by the rest of the family, namely Jay (Ed O’Neill) and now Phil (Ty Burrell).

Oh and did we mention this guy is played by Matt Dillon? Something tells us he’s going to fit right in with this kooky clan!