Unlike, say, Barack Obama, Saturday Night Live had no problem filling that Rahm Emanuel spot during this week's broadcast. Because although there is only one African-American cast member right now on the show, there's at least 50 Jews hanging out in the green room.
In honor of Thanksgiving, Sarah Palin performed one of our favorite traditions, pardoning a turkey. That's great and heartwarming and all, until she conducts a post-pardon interview with turkeys being killed in the background. Fantastic.
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David Letterman, still irked that John McCain chose to go on Katie Couric instead of his show, calls up the perky CBS news anchor and demands an explanation. Her excuse? McCain never mentioned that he was supposed to be on The Late Show.
What a liar! Also, keep ridin' that zeitgeist, Dave!
The geniuses behind South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have set their sights on a new group of people to offend: Mormons. The duo will work with one of the creators of Avenue Q to produce a Broadway music based on the lives and loves of the religious group, set to run in 2009. The title? Mormon Musical.
Broadway heartthrob Cheyenne Jackson is already booked to star in the show, which he describes in the most predictable way possible: "It offends everybody but does what South Park does best, which is by the end it comes around and has something great to say."
Aaaaaaand here come the trolls.
Now that there's no more election (or Tina Fey or Amy Poehler), Saturday Night Live got back to the basics this weekend: Surprise celebrity guest stars and men in women's clothing. For this episode (featuring adorable host Paul Rudd), Justin Timberlake showed up to seem likable for five minutes during a skit involving a Beyonce music video shoot. The former boy bander has become quite the tool as of late, but he always manages to be fairly awesome when he's on this show, so we approve.
Jennifer Aniston took some time out from calling Angelina Jolie "uncool" to guest star on 30 Rock. Get this: She played a deranged stalker who is in love with a man who's no longer interested in her. Crazy, right?
Anyway, she did a decent job because there's a select few characters at which Aniston excels — and this is one of them. It still feels like she's playing Rachel at all times, but it worked in this scenario. Unfortunately for the show, her appearance failed to boost ratings in the wake of Oprah's legendary guest appearance from last week. Cue the Brangaloonies and Perez Hilton, who will surely say this is all Jen's fault and she can't do anything right.
How much do you love Anderson Cooper? He's a great news anchor, making a valiant attempt to stay neutral and simply report the news instead of bullying his guests into submission (ahem, Bill O'Reilly), and he manages to take time in his day to enjoy what really matters: reality TV.
Coop stopped by to visit with Jay Leno last night about all things Obama-related, but the main highlight (around 3:10) occurred when he brought up his love affair with The Real Housewives of Atlanta's NeNe. If anyone can get the Silver Fox to do some reality television commentary for Mollygood, let us know.
Meet Michaela Watkins, newest member of the SNL troupe, doing her Arianna impression. And ha! It's pretty good. Especially how she incorporated her dorm room or whatever into her audition tape.
But if Lorne Michaels was going the political route for the rest of the season and trying to keep cashing in on the post-election viewership, why not hire a guy who looks reasonably like Obama? Not that there is anything wrong with Fred Armisen, but he just plays it so straight, and it brings up that issue of how do you make fun of a guy who represents real change and hope for our country? Blah bah. You guys know what I'm talking about.
But hey, at least Michaela will make a good Michelle Obama? And her Arianna is still way better than Tracy Ullman's.
Ryan Reynolds appeared on Rachel Ray's daytime talk show today to discuss running the New York City marathon earlier this month and show off his winning sense of humor and stunning good looks. When asked about his main fear of bleeding nipples, he responded that "all three nipples are fine": "I was really concerned because I was at the finish line two years ago, and I watched these people coming in and it was like watching the music video to 'Thriller.' It was really horrifying to watch, and I thought what am I going to do about this? … I was like, should I wear a running bra? Will people know?"
Michael J. Fox also made a surprise appearance on the episode, which nearly brought tears to our eyes. Don't ask why; Reynolds just has that power.
I'm afraid I have some bad news, you guys. Brian, the accidental star of our weekly feature Reality Bytes, was eliminated on last night's episode of VH1's d-bag competition The Pick Up Artist. Take a moment to honor him in silence, please.
OK, now that the mourning process is over, let's celebrate Brian's time on our television sets. The happy-go-lucky contestant who had terrible luck with women used his weekly exposure to introduce some fabulous new phrases that we now employ in our everyday vernacular. He also truly wanted to change and learn how to present himself in a way that is attractive to women. Unfortunately, his constant need to admit that he loves pickle juice signaled his demise on the show. This led to an emotional departure in which Brian announced he was finally ready to kiss someone "instead of a mannequin … or a guy." Good for you, Brian. Good for you.
After the jump: Our top five favorite quotes from the man of the hour. He will truly be missed. CONTINUED »
More proof of the election's mental and emotional damage: There's a man out there who is seriously in love with Condoleezza Rice and is on a quest to meet her. We have no idea when this film/documentary, Courting Condi, is going to be released, but the trailer looks simply amazing. Even better? The main star is Buzz from Home Alone. There are no words.
The great thing about all these Real Housewives series is that every city is home to a different breed of women. The Orange County ladies are botoxed and over-tanned into an orange oblivion, the New York City women are sophisticated and pretentious beyond belief — but the Atlanta housewives are truly glorious specimens to behold.
In the clip above, meet one of the delusional stars, Kim (not Anderson Cooper's favorite, NeNe, unfortunately), who genuinely thinks she is meant to be a professional singer. We can't say much more than that — just watch the scene and cover your ears.
Anderson Cooper is rapidly becoming the one person, living or dead, with whom we would choose to have dinner. Not only is he hilariously sarcastic when it comes to politics — telling Ellen Degeneres, "I'm not sure I existed before [the election]" — he also focuses on what really matters: Reality television. The former Living Lohan critic revealed his current obsession with The Real Housewives of Atlanta, most notably resident crazy NeNe. When Ellen admits she hasn't watched, Anderson asks incredulously, "What have you been doing?" before giving the show the hard sell: "It's good … or something." Swoon.
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Oh, I see. When Russell Brand prank calls someone it's considered basically a federal crime. When some schmo over at a Quebec radio station does it to Sarah Palin, pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy, it is all in good fun.
To be fair, Palin takes it like a champ, so it's hard to tell whether she buys it or not.
John McCain's last-ditch effort to garner support from undecided voters was successful on the humor front, but we won't know until tomorrow if it won over enough Americans to get him elected to the White House. He was a good sport, appearing alongside Tina Fey's Sarah Palin and making fun of his own campaign, even admitting the only celebrity endorsements he has are Jon Voight and "Heidi from The Hills." Granted, celebrity endorsements shouldn't matter, but knowing he has a nitwit like Heidi on his side surely won't help.
Our favorite Baldwin brother, Alec, chatted with David Letterman last night about his stint on SNL with national joke Sarah Palin. He has great things to say about the lady, although he admits he doesn't want "her hand on the nuclear button." Sounds like someone's been talking to Matt Damon.
He also shows off his not-as-good-as-Tina Fey Palin impression and reminds us how senile his Bible thumping brother, Stephen, has truly become.
Just to make sure he squeezed the most TV time he possibly could out of the day, Barack Obama made an appearance on last night's episode of The Daily Show. It's fun watching politicians and journalists get interviewed by comedians — they never know how to respond to their jokes.
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