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Tag Saturday Night Live
No One Can Resist His Schweddy Balls
I have gratuitously included this video of one of the funniest Saturday Night Live sketches of all time as a cheap way of segueing into this link to the profile of Alec Baldwin by Ian Parker in this week’s New Yorker.
It’s a long piece, but I really enjoyed it. You can see that Baldwin is a really intelligent guy but is plagued by the actor’s curse of complete narcissism and heightened self-absorption. It’s a volatile combination and worked against him for a long time. Now, though, as he stars in “30 Rock”, it not only works to his advantage, it may be that it has given him the role that he will be best remembered for. And he knows that. But, as his brother Billy says, he always has “something to fucking whine about”. Most actors are either sufficiently unaware of their own vanity or fully aware and simply don’t give a shit enough about it to behave any differently. Baldwin seems to play with it like watercolors. Worth reading.
Or, you can just watch the clip and laugh yer ass off, totally your choice.
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In Related News, Laraine Newman Is Apparently Still Alive!
Of the original cast of "Saturday Night Live", Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman were the cast members who did not vault to stardom as the show became a huge hit in the mid-1970s. Both left the show because they felt under-used and unappreciated, but were never able to capitalize on that opportunity. Garrett Morris eventually found a variety of roles in other TV shows, mostly guest appearances, with the occasional supporting role. Laraine Newman wound up with a very busy career doing cartoon voices, with occasional TV work. When the appallingly bad "Coneheads" movie came out in 1993 (which I actually PAID to see in a movie theater), Laraine did not reprise her role as Connie Conehead (which is probably just as well for her), but, ironically enough, Garrett Morris DID appear in the movie.
One of the contributors at Mental Floss, David, posted this excellent interview with Laraine Newman today. She talks a little bit about the SNL years, about how she got on with her career afterward, and about working in animation. Very interesting piece and a nice glimpse at someone who fell out of the limelight a long time ago.