Saturday Night Live

Bittersweet Symphony? Ashlee Simpson may not be welcomed back to Saturday Night Live after her 2004 appearance exposed her lip-synching talents. Also, Page Six hears that the young Mr. Simpson was not exactly a hit with the show's producers. [P6]  read more »

Did George Clooney pop the question? [Marie Claire UK]

All this while he avows that he is "gay, gay" (and not "gay, gay, gay"): "That third 'gay' was pushing it."[People]

Matt Damon's rep confirms he and his wife Luciana are expecting. [People]  read more »

In case you missed it, here's Hillary Clinton's appearance on Saturday Night Live, complimenting Amy Poehler's impression and asking for her earrings back.

Over the weekend, the first new episode of Saturday Night Live to air since the end of the writers’ strike posted the show’s highest ratings since Feb. 4, 2006, easily topping seven million viewers, Variety reports. SNL hadn’t broadcast since the fall, which made Saturday’s show—the first in four consecutive weeks of new SNL episodes—with Tina Fey as host (see above), guest appearances by Mike Huckabee (he was on Weekend Update, too) and Steve Martin (who, coincidentally, hosted the Feb. 4, 2006 episode), and a musical performance by Carrie Underwood, a highly anticipated event.  read more »

So Saturday Night Live is finally addressing its Barack Obama problem. When last I spoke to SNL's writers and its creator, Lorne Michaels -- way back in the old days, when Hillary Clinton was still the consensus front-runner-by-a-mile -- they didn't think he was funny enough to lampoon. Now, I guess, they've got no choice.

In this week’s New Yorker, Ben McGrath writes a Talk of the Town about, well, beards. In days of yore, the piece points out, facial fuzz was de rigueur among a certain set of powerful gents—Confucius, Abraham Lincoln and Rasputin among them.

But now, it seems, there’s begun a resurgence of the bearded-bigwig milieu—particularly those ‘working’ in film and television. The reason for this trend, of course, has more to do with the extended W.G.A. strike than anything else. Now famous personalities—many of which heretofore seemed peach fuzz-free, let alone capable of generating thick cheek rugs—have started to cultivate beards of their own. Take, as the item does, Conan O’Brien, who had reportedly spent the last 44 years of his life with a clean, baby-smooth shave. Not so any more; the pompadour’d late-night talk show host now has what he bills “a hobby on my face.”  read more »

Chevy Chase says he was asked to have a recurring role on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update,” but that was before the W.G.A. strike. Recalling his recent debut appearance on the sketch show’s mock-news segment, for which he was apparently paid scale, the Caddyshack actor said he was disappointed by the poor writing. He also blames his poor performance on a standing ovation from the audience. “I didn’t want to overshadow the new kids," he told Fox News, referring to co-anchors Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, adding: "I was shocked." According to Mr. Chase, 64, who was only on SNL for its first season, famed musical composer Leonard Bernstein nearly hosted an episode during the show’s inaugural year on the air. “The idea of John [Belushi] and Danny [Aykroyd] coming out doing a number from that show cracked us up," Mr. Chase said. But when the comedian and writer Tom Schiller visited Mr. Bernstein backstage, the West Side Story creator got fresh with the wrong guy. “He put his hand on my knee. When we were leaving, he kissed me full-on, on the lips,” Mr. Chase remembered. “I wagged my finger at him and said, ‘No, no, no.’ And that was the last we ever heard from him."

This week’s New Yorker, on newsstands today, contains a “Talk of the Town” that tells the bittersweet tale of someone named Cara Hannah. She is, according to the petit profile, currently suffering the brunt of both the Writers Guild strike and the collective towel-throw of Broadway stagehands. After all, Ms. Hannah is a wig stylist. And she not only powders pate-rugs for The Phantom of the Opera, but also for the funny folks at Saturday Night Live.

Because both productions have gone dark, she has been forced to trade in the glamour of eight-hour fittings for James Bond skits at 30 Rock for the bleak, lonely landscape of the classifieds. But after being snubbed by a wig shop and then Macy’s, Ms. Hannah started cutting hair in her bathroom, or, Chez Sullivan Salon, as her fiancé has billed the joint. In just two days, business was booming—she suddenly had more heads to cut and style in her loo than Frédéric Fekkai on a Friday. “I think my prices are attractive,” she told the magazine. “I take into consideration that, you know, I’m making people sit next to my john.”  read more »

The striking cast members and writers of NBC's 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live programs will present one-night-only live performances of the shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre this weekend. The (already) sold-out performances will benefit the Writers Guild strike fund.

Playbill reports:

"Saturday Night Live" will feature a collection of favorite sketches, hosted by Michael Cera, the young star of "Superbad." The musical guest will be Yo La Tengo. The entire current cast of "SNL" has been confirmed for the 11:30 PM performance on Nov. 17.

The live performance of "30 Rock," scheduled for Nov. 19 at 8 PM, will feature the complete cast of "30 Rock," including Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski and Alec Baldwin. The star-studded cast is scheduled to perform a live episode from the popular series.

They’re killing Hillary, but only because she’s so Nixonian.  read more »

In case you missed it, here's how the producers of Saturday Night Live found a solution—albeit a temporary one—to their Barack Obama casting dilemma.

Cracked made a list of the worst Saturday Night Live characters. We always found Hans and Franz's pouffy muscles endearing, but they ranked a No. 4. Maybe we just liked the clapping part in the "We're going to pump (clap) you up!"

Who made No. 1?

#1. The Samurai (John Belushi)

Catchphrase lodged in America' brain: "(rough approximation of Japanese, shouted loudly)"

Every generation has its own "fat, funny guy." And since ours was Chris Farley, some of us can't quite see the genius behind John Belushi (though this might also be due to his brother, Jim, forever linking the Belushi name to jokes about how husbands never do laundry and forget about their wives whenever "the big game" is on). Yes, the guy was gifted. We're just saying we don't spontaneously wet our pants every time he appears on TV the way our parents do.

Witness one of Belushi' more famous characters, The Samurai, from his heyday on SNL. Here' the premise for The Samurai sketch: The Samurai finds himself in a job that is inappropriate for a person with a samurai' skill set. Things are chopped, gibberish is screamed and suicide is attempted - over and over again.

Regardless of John' place in the annals of American comedy, you must admit he paved the way for a whole line of one-note recurring characters that came after him. It can be said, in fact, that every single recurring character on SNL can directly trace their origins to a specific Samurai Futaba episode. Before there was Rob Schneider' "You Like-a the Juice" Guy, there was "Samurai Delicatessen." Before Cheri Oteri put on her Judge Judy wig, there was "Samurai Divorce Court." Even The Ladies Man' seemingly inherent funkiness was in actuality handed down from "Samurai Night Fever." That' why he makes the top spot, because none of the other characters on this list would have been possible without Belushi and his cohorts on the original SNL cast...and we don't mean that in a good way.

Ladies’ Man Tim Meadows has some ideas.  read more »