LUCKY CLOVERS: Two things worth noting about
Ben Stiller's return to SNL this weekend:
- Yes, this is his first time hosting since October 24, 1998, but do you know why? Stiller was supposed to host the second episode of the 2001-02 season. After the September 11 Attacks, however, Stiller's agent called SNL producer Marci Klein late Friday of the week before (i.e., the day before the Reese Witherspoon/Rudy Giuliani season opener) to announce, without apology, "Ben is dropping out of the show." Why? Live from New York tells the story.
- It has led to strong rumors that his Tower Heist co-star, Eddie Murphy, will be joining him as well. It would be Murphy's first participation in anything SNL-related (show, reunions, documentaries, the Shales/Miller book) since 1984.
Just to be clear, LFNY tells Marci Klein's version of the story.
ReplyDelete/ Rashomon'd
NYT, 9-27-2001:
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<p>Mr. Michaels, clearly unhappy, said that the star scheduled for next week, Ben Stiller, did cancel last week. ''I thought he was a New Yorker,'' he said.
</p><p><span>¶</span>Mr. Stiller said in a telephone interview: ''It was a really hard decision for me. I didn't know how to be funny right now in the way it takes to do that show -- the amount of energy it takes.''
</p><p><span>¶</span><span>He also said: ''I do feel like a New Yorker.</span> <span>I lived in the city the first 30 years of my life.</span> <span>I love New York and I'm proud of New York.''</span>
</p></span>
well, there's was also stuff about his groomer or whatever. it got personal in Klein's retelling.
ReplyDeleteit's been a while since Ben Stiller's been funny, so I'm not sure we can keep blaming 9/11.
Tropic Thunder was not long ago, but there's a lot of Meet The's and Night at the Museums (Nights at the Museum?) and thoroughly forgettable *and* unprofitable stuff as well.
ReplyDeleteWhere's the guy who did Flirting with Disaster and TSA Mary?
Benner makes a good point that LFNY only tells one side of the story, but as someone who deals with this sort of nonsense on a daily basis, I'm inclined to believe Klein's side over Stiller's. Sounds like he was a drama queen with his rider and such and then when the release date got moved he believed SNL would roll over (because he clearly thought he was a bigger star than Reese) and they were like "screw off." Good for them. Reading that story I'm sort of annoyed that he's been invited back to host at all.
ReplyDelete(I should add I have zero inside information on how it all went down, just my unscientific opinion...)
ReplyDeleteI used to work in the "Biz" a long time ago, but I agree, reading between the lines that is my guess too for exactly what happened.
ReplyDeleteStiller was the absolute worst part of Tropic Thunder. Though Jack Black's character had a career a bit more like Stiller's than the "action star," Stiller seemed singularly unaware that the joke was on his character. That was either keeping in character as the talentless action star, but it's not an accident that every other character had the tongue firmly in cheek. Comedy though it was, I remember thinking I didn't really care if he made it out of the Thai drug prison alive.
ReplyDeleteman, that LFNY excerpt is brutal.
ReplyDeleteAs another biz veteran who's heard a ton of stories about Ben Stiller's borderline unhinged diva tendencies, I'm also going to give LFNY the benefit of the doubt.
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