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In an episode of 30 Rock — a sitcom about a weekly live sketch show reminiscent of Saturday Night Live created by Tina Fey, former head writer of SNL — diva Jenna Maroney offers advice on photo shoots: “Avoid using props. They always insist on taking one funny picture, and then they use that, and you end up looking stupid.” Her recommendation: “Just open your mouth a little bit and try to look like Lindsay Lohan.”
Tina Fey
Mary Ellen Matthews, who has been creating “SNL” “bumpers” — the vivid portraits of the host and musical guest that flash onscreen before commercial breaks — since 2000, isn’t opposed to a rubber chicken, a giant martini glass, or a pony. Still, on a recent Thursday night, after shooting comedian Shane Gillis (prop: large scissors), Matthews mused over the phone, “I’ve given up on the rubber chicken lately.” She added, “I think the ultimate rubber chicken moment was when I said to Brian Williams, ‘I’m going to throw you something. Just be ready to catch it.’ ” She tossed the bird. “And the shot, just as he’s about to catch it, when he realizes what it is. He’s so surprised and stunned — so many emotions going on at once. He’s about to grab it by the neck.”
The image is not included in Matthews's new book, The Art of the SNL Portrait, for which she had to cull a significant portion of the nearly 4,000 portraits that have appeared on the show over the past twenty-five years. (She joked that the book could be called All That in Three Seconds.)
Steve Carell
Sourse: newyorker.com
