The New York Observer » Saturday Night Live

Did Saturday Night Live Mock A Former NBC Local News Anchor?

Keen-eyed, New England-based Saturday Night Live viewers last weekend may have noted that the frumpy character Bobby Moynihan played in a Super Bowl-themed sketc h, Janet Peckinpaugh, shared a distinctive name with the former anchor of NBC's Connecticut affiliate. "Janet Peckinpaugh" is a lady of a certain age who idolizes Tom Brady, offering the quarterback Read More

Paul Brittain, Everyone from X-Factor Leaving

Featured player Paul Brittain is leaving the cast of Saturday Night Live effective immediately, Entertainment Weekly reports. Mr. Brittain will be most fondly remembered for his inept sex-ed tutor character; sources told EW that the parting was "amicable." Last night, another show shed some weight as well--Idol rival The X-Factor, which struggled in Read More

Whitney Cummings, Unpopular Comedian, Defends Lana Del Rey, Unpopular Chanteuse

The Lana Del Rey/SNL imbroglio, ensuing after the neophyte singer bombed live has some pretty muddled gender dynamics--the spectacle of Brian Williams, face of the establishment, berating Nick Denton for not taking out the long knives on a 25-year-old rising artist was rather unseemly. Now Whitney Cummings, a comedian who herself has been Read More

Living for the (Long) Weekend

With temperatures dropping into the low single digits, is it any wonder that most of us would prefer to spend our weekends indoors? Sure, we could be doing something with our families and friends on these blustery Saturday and Sunday evenings: Throwing a fondue party, perhaps, or helping the kids put together a jigsaw puzzle with one hand, a glass of Malbec in the other. But how can you expect us to concentrate when there are so many amazing things going on inside that spectacularly flashing flat screen? Read More

Explaining Lana Del Rey to Your Roommate: A Short Play

SCENE: Sunday afternoon. An apartment living room, Brooklyn, reminiscent of Jodie Foster's apartment in Carnage in the intended effect of its decor if not in its plushness. Television at center of room. ROOMMATE: So, did you see Lana Del Rey Saturday night? YOU: Yeee-es. ROOMMATE: I read about it all over the Internet. Read More

Saturday Night Live‘s Stefon has a Yelp Page

In either a brilliant marketing maneuver or the most creative use of fan fiction we've seen in awhile, Saturday Night Live's Nightlife Correspondent, Stefon, is now reviewing real bars and clubs on Yelp. Yaaaay Stefon!
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This Is Your Stefon-Themed Saturday Night Live Holiday Card

By far, the best thing Saturday Night Live has brought us in the past two years has been Bill Hader's "Weekend Update" character Stefon: the club promoter/city correspondent whose ideas for "family fun" usually involve some combination of terrifying dungeon imagery, punny drag queen names, and politically incorrect uses for "midgets." (Their word, not ours.)

That's why this holiday season, the best gift you could get is one sent to you by the cast and crew of Saturday Night Live, featuring Stefon in the set of the Norman Rockwell "Freedom From Want" painting.

This was first put online (to the best of our knowledge) by theater publicist Aaron Meier, who received one of the cards and put it on Tumblr, where it was subsequently picked up by Mediaite.

For a larger photo, check below. And then forward to all your friends and family, because this picture definitively answers the question "Buh-whaaa?"
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The Muppets Take Manhattan, Redux (Video)

In case you were living under a rock for the past month, the new Muppets movie is coming out this weekend. And boy, have those little felt feet been hitting the pavement hard. You need to look no further than Saturday Night Live opener with the movie's star and writer, Jason Segel, for proof:
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Falling Back Into This Week

We never can remember…is it “spring forward, fall back” or the other way around? Either way, we’ve been three hours late to every party since March and we’re just happy to have an extra hour to sleep in. Read More

The Situation and the Story: Press Corps Parties While White House Makes History

It was Wednesday morning at 9:47 a.m. in the White House Press Briefing Room. The president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, took the podium. Major television networks had interrupted coverage to broadcast the president's address. "Now, let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can't get the networks Read More

Will The Strokes End Up on Lorne Michaels’ Banned List?

Julian Casablancas of the Strokes seemed to drop the f-bomb on this weekend's Saturday Night Live broadcast, towards the end of a performance of new song "Under Cover of Darkness." (In the video below, it's audible at about 3:59.) "I highly doubt it was purposeful--he's not that kind of guy," a member of the band's Read More

Flop-Sweat and Heroin: A Preview of the Chris Farley Play

On Monday evening, a near-capacity crowd gathered at the 248-seat Players Theatre in the Village to watch an industry reading of The Fatman Cometh, a play about the death of former Saturday Night Live star Chris Farley. The stage, a bare-bones representation of Farley's dressing room at 30 Rock, was set with two end tables Read More

‘SNL’ Ladies Follow Fey’s Lead to Bookstores

All that's missing is a Maya Rudolph novel! The women of Saturday Night Live's early-2000s renaissance are following in Tina Fey's footsteps by writing books. Rachel Dratch is putting together and has sold a memoir on "humorous reflections about what happens after the time on the show is over," including motherhood--which sounds a Read More

Tom Cruise Goes Broadway! Corner Store Hopes for a Payday on ‘Rock of Ages’

Tom Cruise must miss the 1980s. The star, who spent the decade playing straitlaced prep types, is in talks with New Line Cinema to star in the hair-metal Broadway adaptation Rock of Ages--which features the music of Bon Jovi and Poison, among others. Cruise is to play Stacee Jaxx (a far cry from Jerry Read More

Does Anyone Believe Jennifer Aniston Was Cast on ‘SNL’?

In the promotional churn for her new film with Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston let slip to Oprah that she'd once weighed taking a role on Saturday Night Live instead of the Friends pilot. Makes sense that she joined the Friends cast--she's a Los Angeles actress through and through. But was the offer ever even Read More