Amy Poehler

We've had a number of problems with the path The Office has taken over the course of the past two seasons. Nearly everything, from making Michael into a clownish cartoon character to the totally stillborn love triangle between Dwight, Angela and Andy (a story arc that just stinks of time filler), has felt wide of the mark that was hit so routinely during the halcyon days of seasons two and three. However if you wanted to pinpoint the exact moment when we think the show started losing its considerable steam, look no further than the exit of Rashida Jones' Karen Filippelli. As Karen, Ms.  read more »

Amy Poehler debuted her Web show, Smart Girls at the Party on On Networks today.

The first episode features "The Writer - Cameron," a young New Yorker who likes to write about "paranormal kind of stuff," as she told Ms. Poehler in the video. "Wow, mysteries and ghost stories. Scary stuff," Ms. Poehler replied.

The former SNL star plays Charlie Rose (with a dash of James Lipton) during the interview, which takes place at a round table where she asks Cameron about her process and how she deals with writer's block. Cut to clips of Cameron reading stories on a park bench and in her bedroom, surrounded by teddy bears and baby dolls.  read more »

Amy Poehler was such a titanic presence on Saturday Night Live that it's going to take two women to replace her. Starting with the broadcast this weekend, hosted by Paul Rudd, Michaela Watkins and Abby Elliot will be joining the cast in featuring roles. Both women have sketch comedy experience, having previously worked in Los Angeles--Ms. Watkins with The Groundlings, Ms. Elliot at the UCB Theater. And if their names ring a bell, that wouldn't be surprising either. Ms. Watkins has appeared on many television shows, most recently in a guest-starring role on The New Adventures of Old Christine, while Ms. Elliot is the daughter of former Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Elliot.  read more »

Q: For years now, shows like Meet the Press have been broadcasting clips of an SNL sketch, a spoof of political reality, to have a conversation with their audience about the actual political reality. How are you getting to the core ingredients of what’s going on in a way that people like Tom Brokaw can’t seem to articulate?

A: I think they’d like to make sarcastic comments about candidates, but their role as news people prevents that, so I think showing our clips permits them to let us make the point.

I think it would be awkward for even some of the people on cable to be as out-and-out mocking as we can be, and I also think it sort of makes their shows more entertaining—they can do it for free.  read more »

We're less than a week away from the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, which airs Sunday night on ABC. And in preparation for this joyous event, we thought we'd give you a jump on your office pool. Here's our Emmy preview!

First up: the Supporting Actresses.

Supporting Actress, Comedy: Kristen Chenowith, Pushing Daisies; Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live; Jean Smart, Samantha Who?; Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men; Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

Who we're pulling for: This is the first year that Saturday Night Live cast members are eligible for Emmy Awards consideration, so we think it would be quite fitting if Amy Poehler went home with the trophy.  read more »

Here's a question that we found ourselves asking during the laborious season premiere of Saturday Night Live: after an entire summer off, this is the best they can come up with?

With the exception of the hilarious cold open, a press conference with Hillary Clinton (Amy Poehler, with clenched jaw perfection) and Sarah Palin (Tina Fey, predictably hilarious), the season premiere felt like a dress rehearsal. There wasn't one skit that followed even worth cracking a smile over. As one of our friends, who texted us a little after midnight, so eloquently put it: "Wow, this is awful."  read more »

Lots of entertainment blogs (including us) and respected news sources have been buzzing about Amy Poehler being cast in an Office spin-off. Looks like we goofed. Amy Poehler is ditching SNL to star in a new NBC comedy that will air alongside The Office, and will be produced by Greg Daniels, the creator of America's version of The Office. But, it's not actually the Office spin-off that NBC has been gabbing about since their announcement in April.

All of this Office spin-off business has us dizzy!

Ms. Poehler's show will be "stylistically" like The Office (sorta faux-documentary like), but you won't necessarily see Ms.  read more »

Variety is reporting that Amy Poehler is in "final negotiations" to join the new Office spin-off show. Ms. Poehler will leave a glaring hole in the SNL line-up, but, after seven years, it's just about time for her to move on.  read more »

Attendees expected to attend the Democratic Convention in Denver include Kanye West, Wyclef Jean, N.E.R.D., Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ed Norton Jr. [WashingtonPost]

Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are fighting to keep St. Vincent's hospital from expanding onto West 12th Street, three blocks from their home. [P6]

Brooke Shields says she got very emotionally involved with the Project Runway contestants when she filmed her upcoming guest judge spot. [The Cut]

The 10 finalists for this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund were announced late yesterday and included: Richard Chai, Alexander Wang, Irene Neuwirth, and Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock of Vena Cava.  read more »

Christopher Hitchens has some drinking advice for you: order by brand. [P6]  read more »

We caught up with Tina Fey last night at the Museum of Modern Art. The room was littered with teddy bears and letter-blocks in honor of the just-ended premiere of the movie Baby Mama in which she stars. How'd it go, Tina?

“It was a disaster! People ran out!” she exclaimed. “Just kidding! It went great.” Zing!  read more »

Baby Mama opened the 7th annual Tribeca Film Festival last night at the Ziegfeld Theater, and the temple of Hollywood in New York was packed full of celebrities tramping a red carpet that snaked down 54th Street almost to Sixth Avenue.

It was a comedy-loving crowd, judging from the laughs that started even before the film did, during the pre-movie Tribeca Film Festival promo short about a man as a film junkie (it’s actually funnier than it sounds), and when the lights went up you could see the proof: Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Chris Kattan, and Molly Shannon were all there to bask in the easy charms of Tina Fey's slight comedy.  read more »

Lou Reed secretly married his long-time girlfriend Laurie Anderson in Colorado on April 12 and then celebrated back here in New York with friends like Julian and Olatz Schnabel and Richard Belzer of Law & Order. [P6]  read more »

The Tribeca Film Festival kicks off its seventh year tonight at the Zeigfeld Theater with the big sparkly premiere of Baby Mama. The movie is about a single and successful businesswoman (Tina Fey) who hires a working-class woman (Amy Poehler) to be her surrogate. Can you believe we’ve gotten this far along in life without a wacky surrogate movie?  read more »

If Hillary Clinton doesn't make it this week, SNL's Amy Poehler will begin doing Ralph Nader impersonations instead. She's already been practicing, you see. This sounds funny, like the movie Baby Mama! [NY Daily News]  read more »

In case you missed it, here's Hillary Clinton's appearance on Saturday Night Live, complimenting Amy Poehler's impression and asking for her earrings back.

It seems that most urban sophisticates these days, from politicians and celebrities to coworkers, have a profile on Facebook, the social networking Web site. The C.I.A., I.R.S., Time Inc., even MySpace, Facebook’s ostensible competition, have job networks there. To the site’s enthusiasts—and there are many; the site has 60 million users so far, with 200 million projected by the end of the year—there is no reason not to partake.  read more »

Chevy Chase says he was asked to have a recurring role on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update,” but that was before the W.G.A. strike. Recalling his recent debut appearance on the sketch show’s mock-news segment, for which he was apparently paid scale, the Caddyshack actor said he was disappointed by the poor writing. He also blames his poor performance on a standing ovation from the audience. “I didn’t want to overshadow the new kids," he told Fox News, referring to co-anchors Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, adding: "I was shocked." According to Mr. Chase, 64, who was only on SNL for its first season, famed musical composer Leonard Bernstein nearly hosted an episode during the show’s inaugural year on the air. “The idea of John [Belushi] and Danny [Aykroyd] coming out doing a number from that show cracked us up," Mr. Chase said. But when the comedian and writer Tom Schiller visited Mr. Bernstein backstage, the West Side Story creator got fresh with the wrong guy. “He put his hand on my knee. When we were leaving, he kissed me full-on, on the lips,” Mr. Chase remembered. “I wagged my finger at him and said, ‘No, no, no.’ And that was the last we ever heard from him."

Fresh from their splendorous turns as ice-skaters Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg in Blades of Glory, the funniest couple in Manhattan has made a multimillion-dollar condo upgrade.  read more »

"I am a social debutante, and I'm here looking for a lady caller," said Kenan Thompson of Saturday N  read more »

Andrew Kozinn, the owner of Saint Laurie, the men's tailor and clothier at 51st and Park Avenue, sou  read more »