Though nobody really knows what NBC's The Office spin-off will look like, one thing is nearly for sure: It will star Amy Poehler. The Saturday Night Live veteran is said to be signing on to the show, where she will join the string of cast members who hope to escape the confines of the sketch show for bigger paydays. This has worked well for Tina Fey (30 Rock, Mean Girls), Will Ferrell (Old School, Step Brothers), and Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy). This has not worked so well for Tim Meadows (The Ladies' Man), Molly Shannon (guest spots on Will & Grace, uncertainty on the upcoming Kath & Kim), and Rachel Dratch (ahem, 30 Rock). We have high hopes that Poehler, one of the most well-liked SNLers, will succeed outside the show. Mostly because those who stay inside the NBC family have a better shot at not screwing everything up. Unless you're Rachel Dratch. [TVW]
Just in time to blow a second wind into her movie's $18.2 million opening weekend, Amy Poehler announces she and husband Will Arnett are expecting their first child. Her movie is called, for fuck's sake, Baby Mama.
Publicist Lewis Kay deserves a jock nod for lobbing that headline perfectly into the news cycle. (Not to mention her Nickelodeon show The Mighty B also debuted this week.)
TV Week's annual popularity contest, the "10 Most Powerful," puts the industry's paycheck writers in handy listicle format, which makes it easier to know where to direct your The Man anger. Taking the No. 1 spot is NBC News president Steve Capus, whose most recent accomplishment was afflicting morning people with Kathie Lee Gifford. Obvious choices follow: Fox News chief Roger Ailes, ABC News prez David Westin, NBC's D.C. bureau chief Tim Russert, CNN Worldwide/U.S. president Jim Walton/Jon Klein, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, CBS News prez Sean McManus, and, at No. 9, television rep powerhouse N.S. Bienstock.
And taking the No. 10 spot are a trio of comedians: Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart. These folks made the cut for getting the other members on the list to … START DOING THEIR JOBS.
Funny lady Sarah Silverman as Amy Winehouse? At least she's not doing Britney Spears' "lips" on national TV. The Matt Damon philanderer joins SNL types like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristin Wiig, and Maya Rudolph, and Chelsea Handler, Wanda Sykes, and Sandra Bernhard in April's Vanity Fair to defend against the argument from the magazine's scribe Christopher Hitchens that women aren't funny. See how Graydon Carter is making a publicity stunt out of his own publicity stunt? That's why he's paid the big bucks. [Popbytes]
As we approach Thanksgiving, the writers strike shows no signs of ending. The Week in Review, which usually features bits from late night monologues, has resorted to using jokes written in on their humor blog, Laugh Line. Dozens of shows have stopped production, and Lost might not resolve until 2009.
But those hams at SNL did not let the writers’ strike stop them from putting on a show. The cast performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater on Saturday night, while NBC resorted to broadcasting a rerun.
Michael Cera hosted the live act; Amy Poehler invited him earlier in the week via text message. We hope emoticons weren’t necessary to get him to perform. CONTINUED »
Actress/comedienne Maya Rudolph has dealt NBC a crippling blow by announcing that she will not be returning for another season of Saturday Night Live.
Rudolph, daughter of an African American singer and Jewish American composer, has long been one of SNL's most popular performers, and with Rudolph goes the show's entire ethnic presence (she is survived only by generic white girls Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig)
Her exit will undoubtedly leave SNL scrambling to hire a more racially diverse cast find someone else who can singlehandedly impersonate Condoleezza Rice, Oprah Winfrey, Donatella Versace and Jennifer Lopez.
"ABC announced this week that it has renewed Lost for a fourth season. Said the show's writers, 'Oh, crap.'"
– Amy Poehler, on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" [via People]
Besides wasting our weekend with CNN and Time, we spent an hour or so skimming through Justin Timberlake's SNL hosting routine, where our clicker happily stopped on Nancy Grace's holiday message, courtesy Amy Poehler. It's a shame the Duke rape scandal seems to be winding down; now the lacrosse stick we bought her as a gift is going to seem so out of place.
Amy Poehler's version of Nancy Grace is almost too entertaining for Saturday Night Live. This type of entertainment is more suited for, say, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Or Dateline: To Catch a Predator.
The big question in New York television these days is: who will be fired from Saturday Night Live? Well, Fishbowl New York has the inside scoop on at least two of the cast members. Looks like we are saying goodbye to (the adorable, hilarious) Chris Parnell and (the annoying, only funny to his cast mates) Horatio Sanz.
An informed tipster tells us Saturday Night Live's Chris Parnell — he one-half of the Lazy Sunday rap duo [above, right, with Andy Samberg] that became a cultural phenomenon and watershed moment for viral video on the Web — and Horatio Sanz are included among the four job cuts expected as the show enters its 32nd season.
Also, FBNY blabs, new head writer Seth Meyers (yes, he's still doing shit) will take the Weekend Update seat next to Amy Poehler. Making the show more or less officially fucked.
No Love For Narnia? SNL Job Cuts To Include Parnell, Sanz [Dylan Stableford, Fishbowl NY]
Update: The show's Will Forte is also exiting stage left. You know when most people hear your name and go "who?" you probably don't stand a chance at keeping your job on TV.
Because we have better things to do with our Wednesday nights (like watch Ryan Cabrera run around Liberty Island looking for friends) we didn't exactly plan time for the premiere of Bravo's ASSSSCAT: Improv.
Thankfully, we have interns whose duties extend beyond ensuring the proper espresso-to-milk ratio in our americanos. So we sicked Intern Molly on last night's Tina Fey-Amy Poehler collaboration, where she found the only thing worth laughing about was rape.
And rape's not funny. Unless it's Tina Fey making rape sound funny. And then it's funny. Says Molly:
About halfway through last night's premiere of Upright Citizen Brigade’s ASSSSCAT: Improv on Bravo, Horatio Sanz stars in a sketch as a man who has written a self-help book on breaking out of your "Shmold" (Shit Mold). Unfortunately, ASSSSCAT could use some Shmold-breaking of its own.
The full review after the jump.
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