Gawker
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snl digest
Timberlake Non-Shocker Edition: Unsurprisingly Excellent
Too bad the Correspondent's Dinner will probably dominate any comedy talking points today, because last night's cameo-littered Saturday Night Live was the funniest it's been in a long, long time.
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obamarahma
Actually, You Would Like Obama When He's Angry
What's Obama like when he's angry? "Stronger and more impulsive," according to ex-wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who guest-hosted Saturday Night Live last night. Click to see Barack Obama turn into "The Rock" Obama. More »
11,792
By Owen ThomasComment by PRIsNotJournalism: Oh my gosh, it's Dick Cheney reincarnated. SNL can't find a black actor to do the non-scary Obama?! Sheesh. 8 Responses | Other threads
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snl digest
Alec Baldwin Can't Save SNL Every Time
Last night's waste-of-Alec-Baldwin Saturday Night Live was a sour little mess. But, in the interest of focusing on the positive, the three best sketches are after the jump. More » -
endorsements
Top Five Kellogg's Recipes For Stoners
As Seth Meyers pointed out on Saturday Night Live last night, Kellogg Company's image is closer to that of bong-smoking Olympian Michael Phelps than the cereal maker likes to admit. More »
9,944
By Ryan TateComment by Private Hangnail: I think looking at those foods has just give me diabetes. 2 Responses | Other threads
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snl digest
Neil Patrick Harris Hosts SNL, Saves Broadway
Out gay person Neil Patrick Harris hosted Saturday Night Live last night! He was—as grudging as I may be to admit— really funny. Plus there was a skit about Broadway, which made me happy. More »
10,476
Comment by BxgrlJeri: I don't buy his Barney character on How I Met Your Mother. And a player named Barney? Hah? He did a... 5 Responses | Other threads
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nightlife
Mr. Big's SNL Hangout Closing
So much for watching soused Saturday Night Live cast members play Bon Jovi songs Saturday nights at "The Cutting Room," because Chris Noth is shutting his Flatiron district club.
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By Ryan TateComment by FarleyPapus: "According to one Chicago Sun-Times gossip item, Noth even culled one of his girlfriends from the ranks of the Cutting... 3 Responses | Other threads
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regrets
Fake 'SNL' Apology Regrets Depicting Blind NY Governor As an Idiot
A statement sent to Defamer purports to offer an apology from Lorne Michaels, who regrets equating NY governor David Paterson's blindness to garden-variety retardation last week on SNL. But wait, says NBC: He's not sorry! -
tina fey
Tina Fey Breaks Campaign Promise, Forced to Play Sarah Palin Once More
Remember this lady, Sarah Palin? She was famous for appearing every Saturday night on the tee-vee, saying cute things about Russia, gays, and Katie Couric. Or maybe that was her portrayer, Tina Fey? -
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politics
Blind Guv Offended by SNL Impersonation
Fred Armisen finally did a politician impersonation that made everyone laugh! But immediately someone was offended: New York Gov. David Paterson went after the Saturday Night Live cast member for mocking the disabled. More »
17,505
By Ryan TateComment by Wrapitup: In this age where everything seems to be fair game and many people react favorably to jokes that in earlier... 20 Responses | Other threads
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videuhoh
Kanye West Disastrously Sings Without Digital Enhancement
On SNL last night, Kanye West sounded disturbingly like a quiet man doing bad karaoke. Severe tech problems, or natural talent problems? Click to watch, listen, and judge.
41,820
Comment by Eastcoaster: I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought so. This is what happens when talentless people sing live. ... 15 Responses | Other threads
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celebrity science
How To Lose Weight Like Horatio Sanz
Have any excess weight? Might you after the holidays? It's getting easier to follow in the increasingly shallow footsteps of Horatio Sanz, the former Saturday Night Live castmember who told New York he'd lost about 100 pounds. "I've been eating better," he told the magazine. And you can too! Publishing bosses are curtailing expense-account lunch options, with one (Random House) going so far as to issue tipping and venue guidelines. If that doesn't cut it you might try, you know, exercise. For motivation, there's always this blog, put out by an Equinox trainer who supposedly "all the Conde [Nast] girls live for," according to one magazine-industry source. Recent more-than-a-little-obsessive entires dealt with cardio workout times (you never need to exceed an hour!) and the entirely natural phenomenon of wanting to sit on your ass rather than working out.
8,570
By Ryan TateComment by not a sailor boy: awwww, he lost all his funny. 8 Responses | Other threads
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andy samberg
Rahm Emanuel Fun-Fact Addendum: Probably Loathes Andy Samberg
We'd like to take just a moment to officially append our 20 Fun Facts About Rahm Emanuel, Ari's power-broker brother who's expected to bring a little profane, alpha-male flair to the White House as Barack Obama's chief of staff. We'll call this Fun Fact #21: Was impersonated by Andy Samberg on Saturday Night Live in a skit eventually spiked by the show's producers, perhaps fearing it could overshadow any one of host Tim McGraw's own, more solemn stabs at comedy. OR for one of a couple of other reasons after the jump — where you'll find the clip as well. More » -
the panic of '08
Obama Needs Help Justifying Massive Auto Industry Bailout
Barack Obama totally wanted to give the auto makers billions of dollars, but, you know, when they showed up in DC and stepped off their fancy private jets and addressed congress, the representatives of the Big Three forgot to bring any sort of plan. How much money did they need and what were they going to do with it and how would they become solvent and restructure to become competitive again? They dont know! The president-elect knows he should probably not let the nation lose 2 million jobs in one fell swoop (unlike the sitting president) but, you know, they're not giving him much to work with here. Leading the Free World is already like one of those SNL sketches that doesn't need to be ten whole minutes long. Now we totally feel bad we made him be president.
2,676
By PareeneComment by MidTwix: What do you think Dismal? Are we (we, collectively) better off letting them declare bankruptcy, letting them off the hook... 12 Responses | Other threads
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saturday night live
Saturday Night Live May Hire Jordan Carlos For Obama Gig!
Big news on the Saturday Night Live Obama comedy crisis front: the show is auditioning several comedians who may take the Obama impersonation role from the workmanlike but not-so-funny Fred Armisen. And these new comedians are black, like Obama himself, coincidentally! And even more importantly, one of the contenders is reportedly our close personal friend Jordan Carlos, who already made his case for the role directly to Gawker readers! Three others are also in the running. But we really hope Jordan Carlos gets it, because then we are totally going to demand some free tickets for ourselves! And, of course, for you as well. We totally called it. Maybe. [Daily Beast]
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Comment by johnnyichiban: The missed out. This guy is awesome. [jp] 6 Responses | Other threads
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snl
SNL's Gay Minstrel Show
Where do you mine for easy laughs when you no longer have the most satirizable election in history at your disposal? In SNL's case, that would be the Gays, a topic this week's Paul Rudd-hosted episode visited and revisited so often, we lost count. And where does the show stand on the subject, in this, arguably the most important week for gay civil rights in history? Enjoy the highlight reel above, accompanied by this handy synopsis: More » -
tina fey
Tina Fey Suggests That Defamer Has Some Issues
Few things made us laugh harder than Tina Fey's devastatingly precise Sarah Palin send-ups on Saturday Night Live this season (or the fact that the quote that will be attributed to the candidate for all time, "I can see Russia from my house," was said not by Palin but by Fey). Still, as the hardest working woman in comedy was repeatedly spirited away from her 30 Rock duties, we grew worried for her — after all, she has a show, a kid, a book, an Emmy, an upcoming Steve Carell romcom... couldn't Lorne Michaels let the woman rest? We voiced our concerns after the SNL sketch where Fey appeared with the actual John McCain (her sixth appearance on the show this season), and now Fey is telling EW that she took our words to heart: More » -
saturday night live
Estrogen Deficient 'SNL' Adds Two More Women to Its Cast
Though MADtv was canceled today, elder sketch comedy statesman Saturday Night Live is still flying high — so high, in fact, that they've finally gotten around to addressing that whole "lack of women" thing! Season breakout Tina Fey wasn't actually a cast member this year (and won't be stopping by anymore), while utility player Amy Poehler is on Archibald-assisted leave, bound for Office-related parts unknown. So what two Los Angelenos has Lorne Michaels brought on to take some of the weight off Kristen Wiig and Casey Wilson? More » -
saturday night live
Meet 'SNL's' New Arianna Huffington
This is Michaela Watkins, and she's apparently the newest addition to the cast of Saturday Night Live, the ancient sketch comedy show that is relevant again because a) you can watch just the funny bits online and b) there was apparently a presidential election this year. (Ok fine and c) they have a good cast and it seems less terrible in its current incarnation than it did the last time everyone talked about how they were watching it again.) In the attached clip, Watkins is doing her audition bit: a pretty great impression of noted blog-runner and grudge-holder and Internet Doyenne Arianna Huffington! Hooray, making fun of Arianna Huffington will soon hit the mainstream! Click to watch. More »
12,124
By PareeneComment by ineffable.me: Alright ladies. I shall be watching on Saturday. Way to not call me Lorne :( 8 Responses | Other threads
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madtv
Defamer Exclusive: 'MADtv' Canceled
Though the high-profile political season has gifted Saturday Night Live with some killer ratings, it apparently hasn't floated all sketch comedy boats. Rumors started circulating today that Fox's MADtv was canceled in the middle of its fourteenth season, so Defamer checked in with one of our operatives to get the scoop: More » -
tina fey
Tina Fey Fires Herself as Sarah Palin
Oprah may have been vibrating out in Chicago, but Tina Fey nearly burst with relief at Sarah Palin's expulsion back to Alaska on Tuesday. "I have to retire just because I have to do my day job,” she told Entertainment Weekly this morning, suggesting Kristin Wiig as her flute-rockin', pageant-walkin' heiress apparent should Palin persist as figure worthy of late-night ridicule. We agree, if only to provide a cannier doppelganger for all those confused, frustrated European photo agencies. [EW] -
al franken
Defeated Al Franken Wishing He Had Just Shaken 571 More Hands
Not a typo: The AP reports from Minnesota that out of 2.9 million votes cast, Al Franken fell 571 short of upsetting his GOP nemesis Norm Coleman in their U.S. Senate death match. Coleman claimed victory early this morning while the defiant politico comic pledged to fight on with a recount, taking one last tour around the state to rummage beneath couch cushions and car seats for the mislaid ballots that will send him laughing all the way to Washington. And with the caravan of lawyers behind him, that might take a while. More » -
calling bullshit
Joe the Plumber Didn't Hook Up With Kristen Wiig
Back in September of 2007, a series of amusing "Rudy Giliani ads" were released to YouTube by a mysterious user named "abrad2345." One of them is attached. A year later, we were pointed to a blog and video series called "The Last Republican" by a "McCain advisor" named Martin Eisenstadt. Martin Eisenstadt is a gifted, funny satirist. Sorry for messing up your game, Martin, 'cause we like you, but the election's done, you've had your fun. And hey everyone else on the internet—the story of Joe the Plumber attending the SNL afterparty and hooking up with Kristen Wiig? It is bullshit. Or "a joke." You're welcome. Now go watch his videos, they're pretty funny. -
saturday night live
Is Ben Affleck's 'Countdown' Reason Enough to Prolong Election Season?
We look forward to that time less than 48 hours from now, when we can finally frame the entirety of the 2008 election season in our smudged rearview mirror and watch it shrink as we head toward the country's other essential round of cutthroat campaigning. But for all the misbegotten PSA's, infomercial filibusters and other punishing effluvia, we admit we'll miss the bits of election-related freakery that arrive with oxygen just in time to save us. And of course, the more unexpected, the better — like Ben Affleck bellowing about his cat after the jump. More » -
the view
Sherri Shepherd Ponders Why 'SNL' Is Not Ready For Black Comediennes
Compared to its Tina Fey-scripted, Debbie Matenopolous-spoofing skits of yore, Saturday Night Live's parody of The View this week felt awfully underpopulated. On today's actual episode of the daytime chat show, the ladies speculated as to why SNL left out two-fifths of the show's hosts, leading Sherri Shepherd to conclude, "I think they ran out of blacks!" More » -
campaigns
McCain Heads Into Final Stretch Feuding With Sportscaster Over Comedy Show
Did you watch Saturday Night Live? Ben Affleck was lame. John McCain was funny. Cindy McCain was the funniest(!). The ending was strangely awkward. But you know what wasn't as funny as it should've been? The Keith Olbermann sketch. Ben Affleck's "Keith Olbermann" impression was basically his "Alec Baldwin" except louder. The sketch lasted forever and wasn't funny until the "special comment" at the end, which should've been the sum total of the bit (watch the whole thing after the jump, kids!). But apparently John McCain thought it was the best! The McCain campaign was delighted with the absurd bit, and said it was "about time" that SNL mocked MSNBC's most indignant anchoir. So of course Ana Marie Cox emailed Olbermann himself for his response to the McCain camp's response to his getting made fun of on a tee-vee show. He responded faux-good-naturedly and also had some secret sexy news about Sarah Palin going rogue! More »
8,164
By PareeneComment by JinxyMcDeath: I'm sorry, but the GIRAFFES! sketch made me laugh so hard I woke up my roommate. Then I made her... 6 Responses | Other threads
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john mccain
Why Did McCain Allow SNL Palin Slams?
John McCain was reasonably funny on Saturday Night Live last night, but the show's most entertaining moments came during Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impression in his opening sketch. One was a joke about Palin's $150,000 wardrobe, the other about how she wants to run in 2012. It's funny because Palin's a terrible, out-of-control pick of a running mate and because McCain is broke and doomed. Ha.... ha? In the attached clip, McCain says the SNL gig was to "humanize" him with people who don't watch Meet The Press, but instead it's already being read as a "big... 'fuck you'" to Palin. Credit should probably go to Fey: She's a charmer but will most definitely cut you. Sort of like Palin. Sketch highlights are after the jump. More »
13,632
By Ryan TateComment by Weegee's bored: Call me a paranoid asshole ... okay, okay, I'm not paranoid ... but I keep believing that the real biggies... 27 Responses | Other threads
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saturday night live
Your Newest 'View' Hot Topic: Kristen Wiig as Elisabeth Hasselbeck
The moment we knew we'd plunged too far down the Barbara Walters-moderated rabbit hole that is The View came last night, and it came during Saturday Night Live. Our initial reaction to the show's View spoof was not, "Oh, Kristen Wiig's playing Elisabeth Hasselbeck!" or even, "Casey Wilson couldn't do an impression of a single View co-host?" No, instead our visceral first take was, "Elisabeth would never wear that color yellow!" In this case, the shame is spread all around: a healthy helping goes to the SNL costume designers who forsook the chance to design the wildest pirate shirt ever, and we'll claim the rest for ourselves. Click through for the clip. More » -
tina fey
John McCain Welcomed to 'SNL' By Tina Fey, Boos
Though both Barack Obama and John McCain were rumored to be planning appearances on last night's episode of Saturday Night Live, only McCain showed up in the end, and the two sketches he appeared in repped a decidedly mixed bag. More » -
saturday night live
McCain To Make Funnies on TV Three Days Before Election
Senator John McCain will appear on the popular "sketch comedy" television program Saturday Night Live this weekend. McCain hosted the show in 2002, so he's no stranger to their fun-loving antics. The only difference is that this time out, McCain is, we're told, running for president, and the election is on Tuesday. So, sure, hanging out in New York City sounds good, why not. Barack Obama was rumored to be considering an appearance too, but it seems like he might spend the weekend before the election campaigning in swing states? He has spent enough time on network TV, thank you. (Though someone could still make a stilted, unfunny, stunt cameo during SNL's Monday night prime time election special! Keep hope alive!) [AP]
1,897
By PareeneComment by Mount_Prion: McCain puts the sketch in sketch comedy. 3 Responses | Other threads
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snl
Casey Wilson Needs To Step It Up
Now that Amy Poehler has had her baby and is gone from Saturday Night Live for good, the show is down to two lone ladies. There's Kristen Wiig, the brilliant if overworked performer behind the Target Lady and the wonderful Suze Orman impression, and then... well, then there's Casey Wilson. Poor Ms. Wilson has been given little to do since debuting on the show last season. Is she not making friends with the writers? Is she just not that funny? I mean, there have been some bright spots. More » -
tina fey
Sarah Palin's Attempt to Abscond with Tina Fey's Child Ends in Disgrace
With less than a week to go before the presidential election, all of America is waiting, pondering the same pressing question: will the fate of Sarah Palin be wrapped up in a final, valedictory Tina Fey performance or will Kristen Wiig have to start practicing her "You betchas!" for the next four years? Until that day comes (and until 30 Rock has its TV premiere), Fey is milking her impression for all its worth, and last night, she talked to Conan O'Brien about what happened behind the scenes of her run-in with the actual Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. More » -
tina fey
Palin Offered To Babysit For Tina Fey
It's hard to tell if magical things just happen to Tina Fey, or if the magic is in the comedy writer/producer's telling. The movie Psycho transforms her three-year-old daughter into a miniature murder detective; she has a life-changing hug with Oprah Winfrey; the Republicans nominate a vice presidential nominee who looks almost exactly like her. And then there was the anecdote the 30 Rock star shared with Late Night host Conan O'Brien last night, in which Sarah Palin offers up daughter Bristol to babysit Fey's daughter on the set of Saturday Night Live. The incident would be a stretch even as the premise of an SNL skit, but there you have it. Click the video icon to watch.
19,671
By Ryan TateComment by prince_matchabelli: I am helplessly in love. Why can't everyone in my life be just like that? 7 Responses | Other threads
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saturday night live
Who Still Watches Saturday Night Live... Live?
The name should perhaps be changed to Saturday Night Streamed, suggests the Times' Brian Stelter, and he kinda has a point: The most memorable SNL sketches of the season were likely seen by more people online than on broadcast television. Tina Fey's debut impersonation of Sarah Palin was viewed 14 million times on Hulu.com, compared with 10 million people estimated to have seen it on TV. Numbers for her follow-up impersonation were similarly lopsided. We love the way NBC has used Hulu, but the whole thing looks like a trap. More »
3,616
By Ryan TateComment by American Dreamer: Its wednesday morning here in espoo! just wanting to wish all my amerikan friends the very best on their big... 6 Responses | Other threads
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coldplay
Coldplay's 'SNL' Freak-Out: Easy-Listening Performance Art, Awful, Or Both?
Whether you take or leave Coldplay mostly depends on your taste for their brand of overproduced nursery rhymes and moody rock-star glowering. But what of the megaband's performance this past weekend on Saturday Night Live, with frontman Chris Martin bounding through Studio 8A like a sort of atonal Bono? What of that insistent pitchiness and those karaoke-grade moves underscoring his most recent album's title track "Viva la Vida" — the single on which Coldplay's label EMI was counting to help rescue it from certain insolvency in 2009? In a post-Groban world where any court jester who tries hard enough can usurp his king's crown, is Martin's lunacy the un-self-conscious work of a born performer, or just another postmodern, funk-faking harbinger of SNL's obsolescence? We could go either way, though (SPOILER ALERT) the inspired back-bend at the end puts this just over the top for us every time. Team Coldplay? We think? [NBC] -
amy poehler
'SNL' Prepares For Future Sans Brand-New Baby Mama Amy Poehler
While it is a joyous event that comedians Amy Poehler and Will Arnett delivered their first child, Archibald, over the weekend, we recognize that this development has some downsides, too (though perhaps not the ones implied by the above "circle of child life and death" feature that is currently gracing the front page of Yahoo!). For starters, this marks Poehler's end on Saturday Night Live, as the new mother will be segueing to her still-untitled NBC sitcom after some well-deserved maternity leave. Just as devastating: Poehler's unplanned absence from this week's live taping of SNL forced the audience to sit through a third, hastily scheduled Coldplay performance. Still, at least Poehler ducked out before she had to take part in the painful Barack Obama skit that Lorne Michaels pointlessly lured Maya Rudolph back for. Take a look, after the jump: More » -
saturday night live
Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, And An Emboldened HuffPo Blogger Enliven Thursday 'SNL'
Returning alumni Will Ferrell (as George W. Bush) and Tina Fey turned last night's Thursday edition of Saturday Night Live into a veritable class reunion, but one other notable name returned behind the scenes: Ferrell's frequent collaborator Adam McKay. Little over a month ago, McKay (Step Brothers, Anchorman) lit up the left with a sky-is-falling Huffington Post blog entitled "We're Gonna Frickin' Lose This Thing," but to judge from the opening sketch he co-wrote, he now finds the Republican ticket about as threatening as a Jackie Mason PSA. The clip, after the jump: More » -
sarah palin
Sarah Palin To Be Offered TV Show
Face it, Sarah Palin is now a fixture among the East Coast elite whether she wins or loses Nov. 4. The Republican vice presidential nominee has lodged herself like some kind of tumor in the media psyche. Saturday Night Live is quite lucratively obsessed with her, as are newspapers, magazines, websites, the list goes on basically forever. And now, says the Hollywood Reporter, "producers and agents across the entertainment world" want her to star in a daytime talk show, news program or reality TV series, at least in between her attempts to rule the free world. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Richard Lawson: The good thing about her talk show is that gay people will be able to choose to be guests. 3 Responses | Other threads
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barack obama
To Barack Obama, Fred Armisen Is No Tina Fey
This could make that planned Nov. 1 appearance on SNL a little awkward: during an interview with a D.C. news station, Barack Obama was prompted by some "gotcha journalism" to dis his Saturday Night Live portrayer, Fred Armisen. "Are you disappointed at all that the person who parodies you on Saturday Night Live just isn't very funny?" said the interviewer, asking the late-night comedy version of "So when did you stop beating your wife?" A trapped Obama then conceded that Armisen's interpretation was definitely a run or two below its high Tina Fey watermark. Clearly, Obama is in the tank for 30 Rock. [WUSA9.com] -
tina fey
Are Democrats Better at Political Satire Than Republicans?
With the Sarah Palin-skewering SNL ascendant and the Republican-helmed satire An American Carol flailing at the box office (because of those pro-immigration chihuahuas), Boston Globe writer Lisa Wangsness has a provocative point to make: that events like these illustrate "the extent to which comedy has become a liberal genre in America." If you take the success of left-leaning satires like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and couple it with the mileage wrung from the McCain/Letterman War of '08, does it augur a bold new era of Democratic ha-has? More » -
barack obama
Barack Obama Fetches $4,600 For 90 Minutes Of Ecstasy With Lorne Michaels
And now, for what will presumably be its last trick before tumbling into a three-and-a-half-year election hangover, Saturday Night Live is rumored to have booked Barack Obama for an appearance on its Nov. 1 episode. The cameo replaces the candidate's original guest spot on last month's season premiere, which Obama was said to have backed out of in anticipation of Hurricane Ike. But one blogger's recently posed conspiracy theory is way more fun, suggesting that Lorne Michaels and Obama campaign overlord David Axelrod instead colluded at the time for a November surprise. But like Alec Baldwin, whom Michaels is said to have coaxed to the set last week with Harvey Levin's home phone number and a week's supply of gay venison, Obama, too, is pay-to-play through Election Day: More »
saturday night live
New York, 4:58 AM
Sat Jul 11
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