Blah blah blah, writers' strike still going, no resolution in the foreseeable future, etc. etc….Oh hey, this is interesting: Conan O'Brien, a true gentleman and scholar, has decided to cover the salaries of his non-writing production staff—those disposable folks who, you know, actually make the show happen—by digging into his own personal bank account. It's an exceedingly generous move on his part; by contrast, the majority of the production staff at Saturday Night Live were shown the door this week (guess Lorne Michaels had better things to spend his money on).
Speaking of SNL, in all of the strike madness you've no doubt forgotten the one man hit hardest by its temporary hiatus: Chevy Chase, who was set to be a recurring guest on the show's Weekend Update segment doing "occasional pieces about politics"—but of course, now that dream has been cruelly snatched away. (All together now: Awwwww.) As to his first shaky (read: not funny) appearance on the show, Chase charitably blames the writers and his own massive celebrity ("[Chase] was thrown by the audience giving him a standing ovation. 'I didn't want to overshadow the new kids,' he says"). And people say he's an asshole!