TV Guide - December 12-18, 2004
The Poehler Express
With her new gig as Tina Fey's coanchor on "Weekend Update," Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler steams ahead
BY BRUCE FRETTS


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If Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler looked nervous in her debut as Tina Fey's coanchor on "Weekend Update" earlier this season, maybe that's because she was. "I watched my first show, and I was holding on to my pencil so tight," says Poehler, calmly sipping coffee at a Greenwich Village pub six weeks later. "I thought I would eventually just crush it into a fine diamond."

You can't blame Poehler for feeling anxious about attempting to fill the wildly popular Jimmy Fallon's fake-newsperson shoes. "What I always liked about Jimmy on 'Update' was you knew he was having a lot of fun," Poehler says. "So I have to remember to look like I'm having fun."

To that end, pal Fey provided this advice: "If you have a really mean joke, just smile a lot so they don't think you're a bitch." Case in point: "Britney Spears is recording a rap song about the recent controversies in her life," Poehler happily reported. "'I can't wait to hear that,' said no one."

Clearly, there's no danger of SNL's first all-female anchor team letting its hard-news spoof go soft. "Tina and I aren't very girly," Poehler says. "But we do have 'Update' sleepovers every Friday night where we giggle and write boys' names in the cast we like on our jeans."

That slumber-party vibe springs from the genuine friendship between Poehler and Fey, who met doing improv in Chicago a decade ago. "It's nice that the gag on 'Update' isn't that we hate each other," says Fey, who also wrote a plum part for Poehler as a quasi-hip mom in the hit teen flick "Mean Girls." Adds Poehler, "Tina and I are a lot like Tina and Jimmy, except there's double the sexual tension. Also, Tina's the father of two of my kids, so there's a lot of history there."

After three hysterical seasons of impersonating everybody from Kelly Ripa to Michael Jackson in SNL skits, Poehler's tackling her toughest role on "Update": herself. "The other day, Amy said to me, 'Oh, you're so lucky you get to wear glasses because it's one little thing to hide behind," Fey says. "I told her she should start wearing a long fake nose." Admits Poehler, "It's hard not to hide behind a character or a wig. Well, I mean, I still wear a wig when I do 'Update,' but it's a very, very good one."

Actually, Poehler's showing off her roots--in more ways than one. The 33-year-old actress started doing improv at Boston College and built up her sketch-comedy cred by playing Andy Richter's little sister Stacey on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. She later made a name for herself as a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade, a cult-favorite troupe that headlined its own Comedy Central series from 1998 to 2000 and still performs at a downtown Manhattan theater.

Married to Arrested Development's Will Arnett (he plays frustrated magician Gob Bluth), Poehler guest-starred as his psycho spouse on several episodes of Fox's sitcom last season. "She begged me to do it," jokes Arnett, who often travels from Arrested's Los Angeles set to visit his wife in their New York City apartment. "I selfishly want her to come back on the show so that Fox pays for her to come out here."

But for now, she's busy settling into her SNL coanchor chair. "It's still evolving," says executive producer Lorne Michaels of Poehler's "Update" style. "If we can get the Amy who's around the office to show up on the air, we know it's going to be gold." Poehler cites a more modest goal: "Honestly, I'm just trying to hold on to my pencil."