Tag: SNL

Loveship, Hateship, Kristen Wiigship

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Last week I had the great pleasure of seeing one of my most looked-up-to individuals at a movie screening/talk at the 92nd Street Y. As a part of the Reel Pieces series, my friend and I were able to preview the drama Loveship, Hateship (based off of Alice Munro’s short story “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”) and sit in on a discussion that Columbia Film Professor Annette Insdorf held with the film’s director, Liza Johnson and the star of the movie, Kristen Wiig.

Realtalk, I’m not much of a film expert (although I also finally watched Dallas Buyer’s Club and Nebraska this weekend — A+ to both!); this event had me at “Kristen Wiig will be there.” Poor blessed Annette Insdorf tried her best to ask Ms. Johnson questions that wouldn’t bore the audience to sleep and stay on topic of the film, but 90% of the discussion and questions were geared toward Kristen. And mostly about her work in comedy, which is NOT the genre of this movie AT ALL. Tell us about working for SNL. (Hard, but good.) What can we use from improv in our daily lives? (Yes, and to everything.) Where did the character Dooneese come from? (3am sleep deprivation) Who was your favorite person to write with on SNL? (Wouldn’t answer) Who was your favorite person to act with on SNL? (Wouldn’t answer) Will you be doing dramas from here on out now? (We’ll see! But of course, no.)

IMDB currently has Loveship, Hateship rated at a 6.1/10 while Rotten Tomatoes gives a less enthusiastic 44%. It definitely is a solemn, and at times awkward (shocker, it’s Wiig) film to watch. But as we watched it with an audience of, what I can only assume were Bridesmaids-heads, whenever Wiig gave but an inch of something very, very small that could in the slightest way be taken as funny, the audience took a mile and LOLed.

Although I’m a fan of some of Kristen’s other recent dramatic feats (i.e. Friends with Kids, Girl Most Likely), this was a little too depressing for me and overall kind of unimpressive. But, some say my taste in movies is awful (I hate The Wizard of Oz!), so you should check out Loveship, Hateship for yourself! Here’s the trailer:

OR. Just watch this thirteen times instead:

OR both, if you have nothing better to do with your time, a la me.

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A Weekend Recap

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I’m not one to feel the need to share current events, because if you read this blog, you likely also keep up the news, but a few noteworthy happenings occurred over the weekend:

  • The world began to mourn the tragic passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman at the ripe age of 46. He was such a talented actor; the perils of drug addiction are seriously no joke.
  • My Seahawks killed the Superbowl and everyone I know now owes me a beverage. Be on the lookout for a post of my favorite ads later in the week :)
  • I bought a pair of new jeans (yay) and they ripped the first time I wore them (boo). Offering that information just in case that makes anyone out there feel better about themselves (or just, better than me) for three seconds on a Monday morning.
  • And, my lastly, husband’s last SNL show. Here’s his pals sending him off:

Who’s ready for February 24th?! #LNSM

Lists, Loves & Links: Entertainment Edition

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It’s Wednesday! Which is actually the Friday of my workweek and I’m very much looking forward to utilizing my “weekend” now that I’m finally starting to feel like a mostly formed human again *knocks on wood*. Anyways, today’s list of mid-week links I love all share one popular theme. Any guesses?

lists loves and links smaller

WHO ELSE IS PUMPED FOR SUNDAY AT 8PM ON NBC? I CANNOT SUPPRESS MY ELATION.

My Thoughts on the SNL Diversity Debacle

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By now you’ve probably heard a little something about the heat Lorne Michaels has been receiving since (and really, before) Kerry Washington hosted the sketch comedy show last Saturday. The cold open poked fun at the recent press about the lack of black women who’ve been cast on the show. Saturday Night Live’s current male black cast members, Jay Pharoah and Kenan Thompson, have both famously refusing to dress in drag, stating that it’s time a black female is cast. While the show’s opening sketch was written in a light-hearted fashion, it seems to have spun further investigative efforts and even more articles about the show’s “lack of a diversified cast.”

I understand the benefits and importance of diversity. I chose to move to New York City from a small suburb in the midwest, after-all. I think a group of very diverse people, with different backgrounds of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, political preference and social class can bring a lot of opinions and creative ideas to a collaborative art-form, like the show. I, however, do not think affirmative action is a necessary practice in the casting of SNL.

Hiring someone “because she’s black, first of all” as Jay Pharaoh suggests is not really the answer to solving “the show’s diversity problem.” First of all, I think it should be noted that out of Season 39’s sixteen cast members, there are: six women, one gay woman, one Iranian-America, a few Jews and two black men. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. But diversity is not just a black and white issue. What about Asian-Americans? Hispanics? Gay men? Buddhists? AND out of all the shows on network television (i.e. How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, CSI) does SNL really deserve all of this negative press? IMO, it seems that the casting has always been based largely on talent. I choose to stay under the impression Lorne actively searches for the funniest sketch writers/performers that exist, and remains impartial to any of the aforementioned factors that could be an outlet of discrimination.

At the end of the day, people watch SNL to be entertained. Hiring funny people is priority. This season, it happened to be 83% white dudes. Oh well. They’ve had cast members and hosts of all kinds in the past, and that will continue. I’m sure most of us agree that it would be nice for ALL network shows to be a little more representative of what this fabulous melting pot actually looks like. We’ll get there, some day. But in the intermediate period, I think we should all have a little more faith in Lorne. He did just air a huge parody of his critiqued casting last Saturday. Call me crazy, but I think he knows what he’s doing.