Tina’s back to being mean on ‘Weekend Update’
TINA FEY PROVED teen comedies don’t have to be dumb by writing and starring in the movie “Mean Girls.” Now she’s back at work at “Saturday Night Live,” which kicks off its 30th season tonight, as head writer and “Weekend Update” co-host.
Fey took some time out to talk with TV Guide Online:
Q: Were you a mean girl?
A: I was a little bit of a mean girl. I was kind of a mean nerd. I was mean to the girls I was jealous of — girls that were better looking or going out with boys that I liked.
Q: Have things changed much from when you were in high school?
A: I’d say information moves at a much faster pace than when I was in school. Because of e-mail, cell phones and text messaging, a bad rumor spreads five times as fast.
Q: Are you excited about the new season of “SNL” or dreading it?
A: It feels like going back to school, and I always loved school, so I enjoy this part of the year. I got my new pencils, a New Kids on the Block Trapper Keeper, and now I’m ready to start work!
NBC rewards its pal “Joey”
“Joey” is doing OK without all those friends, so NBC has given the “Friends” spinoff a full-season pickup.
The network ordered at least nine additional episodes of the sitcom starring Matt LeBlanc, who moved over to his own show after “Friends” wrapped its decade-long run. Drea de Matteo (“The Sopranos”) co-stars.
Like Matt LeBlanc, for example?
A warning to celebrities: you’re not in the clear just yet.
“Punk’d,” hosted by Ashton Kutcher, will continue for three more seasons, MTV has confirmed. Kutcher and company will film 24 new episodes of the hidden-camera prank show, the first of which will air sometime next year.
Meanwhile, Kutcher and producing partner Jason Goldberg will unleash a new hidden-camera show called “You’ve Got a Friend” on MTV on Oct. 24.
It’s based on a British show in which people try to pass off an obnoxious undercover actor as their new best friend for a weekend.
The simple life: push play, and play
And now for a few things you’re not likely to see on your TV screen.
Yet another videotape of Paris Hilton having sex has surfaced, this time with several former flames including Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and Tommy Hilfiger model Jason Shaw. There reportedly are 12 hours in all.
And The New York Daily News says a Las Vegas man found a box of 90 home snapshots in actor Jamie Foxx‘s trash, many of them showing Foxx “engaging in sexual activity by himself and with a woman.” The pics are being pitched to the tabloids.
More baggage for poor Courtney
As if she didn’t have enough troubles, Courtney Love has been sued by a travel agency that claims she ordered nearly $50,000 in airline tickets, but wouldn’t pay.
New Act Travel seeks money for the tickets as well as service and bank charges, damages, court fees and $1,000 in excess baggage charges.
Love, the widow of the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, was sentenced to 18 months in a drug rehabilitation program in July after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor drug charge.
She still faces another drug case and assault charges for striking a fan with a microphone stand.
The birthday bunch
Singer Don McLean is 59. Actor Avery Brooks (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) is 56. Musician Sting is 53. Actress Lorraine Bracco (“The Sopranos”) is 50. Singer Gillian Welch is 37. Singer Kelly Willis is 36. Actress/talk-show host Kelly Ripa is 34. Singer Tiffany is 33. Rapper Big Proof (D12) is 27.