John Oliver Talks Legal Battles, Late Night Turmoil and Clapping Back at His Owners

Incest, MAGA, and Lorazepaaam: A terrific oral history of #TheWhiteLotus season 3 with Mike White and full cast, from @laceyvrose @mikeyoconnell

Expertly reported & written by @ThatRebecca ⬇️

For @THR’s first Creators A-List Issue I embedded with @jakepaul at his Puerto Rico compound as he prepares to take on @MikeTyson in the ring Nov. 15 on @netflix. https://t.co/Z8znNFF0ol

UPDATE: CBS News has invited self-described “mental health expert, DEI strategist and trauma trainer” Dr. Donald Grant to moderate conversation on this issue in an all-staff meeting tomorrow.

I’m done now. Thanks for reading!

Also, Lorne’s life is … wild. He’ll be 80 this year, + Colin insists the dude’s still up til 3, 4 am nightly — in fact, he says, lorne “has certain people he knows are always up then too, & they’ll have communication between 2 + 4am — just a regular noon conversation but it’s

Lorne reveals the host that he tried (and tried) to snag and never did. For the record, Jost suggested I ask Lorne this question, and guessed that he’d say Jack Nicholson. Spoiler: He didn’t.

Cast members don’t always love it (!) when the show brings in non-cast members to play high-profile politicians — and yet, Lorne says he see the first batch of election episodes as a good chance to bring back ….

Some criticize SNL for its left-leaning comedy. Others balk when they bring on republicans and joke about Biden. I’d paraphrase Che’s thoughts on this, but frankly they deserve to be read in their entirety.

Shane Gillis came up because, well, of course Shane Gillis came up - Lorne called the backlash to his casting a “stunning” “overreaction.” There’s more where that came from:

And, as Colin Jost noted, none of the potential successors who often factor into said rumors want him to retire — nor do they want to have to follow him. In fact, Che seems pretty certain it won’t be a job of one man (or one woman) ever again.

Back to my piece, I think we can all hit pause on the “Lorne’s retiring” rumors for the moment. As he tells me, he may be delegating more, but he isn’t going anywhere.

Btw, you should also read Harper & Will’s NYT interview, which I’m referencing above. It’s funny and powerful and just read it:

I was curious what Lorne had made of Harper Steele’s recent comments about the politics of drag as comedy fodder — and Will Ferrell’s about his regrets about playing Janet Reno on SNL.

Speaking of Trump, I dare you to keep a straight face as Che compares him to a blacked out, heckling, penis Santa at SantaCon. I’ll admit, I couldn’t….

Lorne loved James’ Trump, but that was “a diminished Trump,” he says, and the caricature will need to “reinvented” for season 50.

Ahead of SNL’s 50th, I spent time with a remarkably chatty Lorne Michaels and his Weekend Update duo, who also nailed their photo shoot. The highlights are as follows….

25 years to the day after The West Wing debuted, I’m resurfacing our juicy oral history of the heady, liberal, poli-sci fantasy, which includes the fact that Sidney Poitier was the 1st choice for president. In fact, he’d been offered the role.

“People think (superhero movies) are laid out in neat phases for 10 years. Then you hear about producers on set having 8 versions of the same script open, and they go through each, cherry picking lines, and then they Frankenstein a scene out of nothing”