When Saturday Night Live returns this weekend for its 39th year, executive producer Lorne Michaels won’t be fretting. “We’re gonna do a good show,” he said. “Every time Tina has come back, the show’s been great.” He’s talking about former SNL regular and frequent guest Tina Fey, back again to host the season premiere. Joining Michaels for a phone interview on Tuesday, Fey laughingly labeled “a coincidence” her presence on any good shows she’s guest-hosted. But she offered a couple of ways she might be serving SNL well this week. “One, I have nothing to promote,” she said, “so we’ve got plenty of time for other things. … Two, I’m always happy to play straight person, so, hopefully, the cast will get to do more than when they have other kinds of hosts. You might get to see those new guys more. Although I’m not promising their parents anything.” The “new guys” are the half-dozen rookie cast members - Beck Bennett, John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, Mike O’Brien, Noel Wells and Brooks Wheelan. Michaels agreed that neither their parents nor any other viewer should count on them making a splash on opening night. Their only sure sighting? As members of the troupe when it convenes at the end to say goodnight.
William Boyd has left James Bond stirred, if not shaken. The British writer has taken on the fictional spy in Solo, a new 007 novel that balances fidelity to Ian Fleming’s iconic character with subtle changes. Bond fans will find much they recognize, along with some surprises - one of which is that in Boyd’s mind, James Bond looks like Daniel Day-Lewis. Boyd says Fleming once described the spy as “looking like the American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Daniel Day-Lewis looks like Hoagy Carmichael.” Solo is set in 1969, and takes the suave British spy from London’s plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-ravaged West African country and on to Washington on a perilous lone mission. “Even though he’s this handsome superspy, when you read the books you realize that he’s haunted,” Boyd said Wednesday. “He’s not a cartoon character. Fleming gave him all his traits, his tastes, his likes and dislikes - and his complexes. Bond has a dark side. He’s troubled sometimes. He weeps quite easily. And he makes mistakes. That’s what’s so interesting about him.” Solo hits British bookstores today and will be published Oct. 8 in the United States and Canada.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 09/26/2013