Two months ago, Amy Poehler had a baby on a Saturday instead of going in to work at Saturday Night Live. We all thought that was the end of our love affair with Amy on the Saturday night sketch show, as she’d said she was going to quit after the baby was born. But we all got a happy surprise last week when the show was opened by Amy as Hillary Clinton. Even better, this week, we got a double dose of deja vu when Maya Rudolph joined Amy for an encore of Bronx Beat and in what was a final Weekend Update with Seth and Amy.

At the end of Weekend Update, which featured an interview with Fred Armisen as New York Governor David Paterson, Amy began a heartfelt, and very near tearful, announcement that it was her last show and express her gratitude for the “dream come true” that being on Saturday Night Live has been for her. Never a show to linger on the sentimental, however, a blind and somewhat confused “Governor Paterson” wandered into the shot just as it looked like Amy might start crying. It threw Poehler into a fit of laughter and made the rest of the thank you and goodbye bearable, both for us and for Amy.

Seth Meyer got to hug Amy goodbye at the end of Weekend Update, and I was jealous because I just wanted to hug her goodbye, too. For the first couple years Poehler was on the show, she wasn’t my favorite, but that had changed dramatically after she started co-anchoring Weekend Update with Tina Fey after Jimmy Fallon left. I loved Amy and Tina together, and Amy’s sketches started growing on me, too. I could watch Amy as Kaitlin or impersonating Sharon Osbourne all night.

Amy will be back sometime in 2009 with a new sitcom on NBC. At first it was reported to be a spin-off of The Office, but that has since been denied. Whatever it is, I hope it works out as well for her as 30 Rock has for Tina Fey. I wouldn’t miss it.

Note by Celebitchy: Here are the videos, which again are only available to US visitors. There’s a video with commentary of Amy’s departure that is available outside the US on YouTube.

Amy Poehler was scheduled to appear on Saturday Night Live last night, but she was a little sidetracked earlier in the day and wasn’t able to make it. Instead, Poehler and her husband, Arrested Development‘s Will Arnett, became proud parents.

Amy and Will welcomed Archie Arnett on the afternoon of October 24.

On behalf of Poehler and her husband, Will Arnett, “I can confirm that Amy gave birth to Archie Arnett on Saturday,” read a statement from Poehler’s spokesman, Lewis Kay.

The baby was born early Saturday evening in New York, weighing 8 pounds, 1 ounce.

Mother and child were “healthy and resting comfortably,” according to the statement.

[From MSN Entertainment]

SNL‘s Weekend Update just wasn’t the same tonight. Seth Meyers did a fine job holding down desk duties, but I missed Amy’s craziness. According to earlier reports, she won’t be returning either. So while I’m very happy for Amy and Will, I’m gonna miss that wild woman. Weekend Update was closed with a rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” with lyric changes dedicated especially to Amy. Maya Rudolph, making a guest appearance, and Kenan Thompson sang “We love you Amy, and we just can’t wait to meet your baby!”

Poehler reportedly was at rehearsals up until Friday but didn’t make it in on Saturday. I know after watching her dancing and rapping last week I couldn’t imagine how she was pulling it off. Her baby belly was adorably huge and her due date was late October. Archie is the first child for Poehler and Arnett.

Congratulations Amy and Will… and Little Archie!

Amy Poehler and Will Arnett are shown at the Emmy Awards on 9/21/08. Credit: Juan Rico/Fame Pictures

The long awaited appearance of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live began with Tina Fey. Tina started the show spoofing Sarah Palin at a press conference where jokes were made about Palin not answering questions and about the McCain/Obama debate on last Wednesday.

Camera-cut to Loren Michaels with the real Sarah Palin who pulled of a pretty decent joke with Michaels about 30 Rock not being well known enough for Palin to spoof Fey. Enter Mark Wahlberg angrily looking for Andy Samberg. It was no surprise that whole deal was a set up, but I’m really hoping it was set up with this much forethought: A whole week of taking everyone for a ride just to tie in to the next joke… when Loren directed him to Sambergs dressing room and he stormed off, Michaels explained to Palin that Marky Mark wasn’t happy with the show’s impression of him.

Palin kind of snorted and said “Tell me about it.”

Then, in an inspired cameo, Alec Baldwin came on, mistaking Palin for Fey, asking Michaels how he could possibly let their wonderful Tina Fey on stage with that horrible Sarah Palin. Feigning embarrassment when Michaels introduced him to Sarah, Baldwin recovered by telling her that she was way hotter in person, to which Sarah responded that Stephen was her favorite Baldwin.

Then, in what one could have feared would have caused the collapse of the world as we know it, Tina Fey and Sarah Palin passed each other, as Fey skittered offstage when told Palin was on her way on to announce that she wouldn’t take anyone’s questions and “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Palin didn’t say much, and certainly didn’t interact the way Hillary Clinton did, or show as much comedy talent as McCain, but she was understatedly amusing. She reminded me of my junior high school teacher humoring the 8th grade graduation crowd after taking a ribbing by the valedictorian in his speech. Clearly not thinking it was as funny as everyone else does, but not wanting to look like she doesn’t have a sense of humor about herself.

The introduction sketch wasn’t the last we saw of Palin on the show. During Weekend Update, Sarah reappeared. She declared she wasn’t going to do the bit they rehearsed, so Amy Poehler launched into the rap, obviously meant for her all along, that mentioned Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, “Drill, Baby, Drill”, the Bridge to Nowhere, and shooting moose. Cast members danced behind her, dressed as Eskimos, a moose (which was shot), and Palin husband, Todd. Sarah sat at the anchor desk bopping along to the music and doing that thing she does with her mouth. You know, when she pushes her top lip up with her bottom lip? Yeah, that.

Palin finally got her chance to imitate Tina Fey by using the sign-off Fey had delivered for years, ala Chevy Chase, as one of the anchors of Weekend Update, “I’m Sarah Palin. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.”

On a few Palin-unrelated notes, Adele was phenomenal live, Amy Poehler is hugely and adorably pregnant, and I’m pretty impressed with Samberg and Wahlberg pulling off this week long joke on the media.

Tina Fey’s name recognition has gone through the roof in the last month due to her amazingly accurate spoof of Republican vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Not that she needed it, her TV show, 30 Rock, is a hit and her movies have done very well, but most would feel whatever gets their face in front of more eyes can only be a good thing. Not so much for Fey, though. Tina has declared her intention to drop out of the part, and life on earth, if Palin is elected in November.

Tina Fey opens up about spoofing Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live!” “If she wins, I’m done. I can’t do that for four years. And by ‘I’m done,’ I mean I’m leaving Earth,” Fey tells TV Guide.

The “30 Rock” star says she’s taking her Palin impersonation week by week. “Election time is always good for [SNL] and this is a bonkers election. And that lady is a media star.”

[From Entertainment Tonight]

It’s universally accepted that Tina Fey was born to play the role, and even Palin supporters recognize the uncanny impersonation, so it would be at least 4-years of job security if there were a McCain/Palin administration. SNL parodies tend to get snarkier once a candidate is in office, too, and Tina is clearly not a fan, so she could really skewer Sarah if that were to happen.

Not that she hasn’t enjoyed the opportunity. She says she likes portraying Palin, and that Sarah is really fascinating and likeable. Fey says she especially liked doing the two sketches with Amy Poehler as Katie Couric and Hillary Clinton. But, it looks like Tina no longer subscribes to her “Bitch is the new black!” philosophy she had when she supported Hillary in the primaries. Who would have thought Tracy Morgan would have things figured out over Tina Fey?

Tina Fey is shown filming scenes for 30 Rock in NY on 10/6/08 with Peter Dinklage and Jane Krakowski. Credit: Bauergriffinonline.com

First Tina Fey exited, and now her good friend and writing partner Amy Poehler will leave Saturday Night Live for both personal and professional reasons. Poehler is due to give birth to her first child with fellow comedian, Arrested Development star Will Arnett, in November. At that time, she has stated she will not be coming back to SNL, but instead will focus on her new mom role, and will also star in a new spin off of the NBC hit show “The Office.”

Amy Poehler is spreading her small screen wings and flying away. She says she will take a break from “Saturday Night Live” after the November election to give birth to her first child.

“It’s gonna be really hard — Boyz II Men hard — to say goodbye to yesterday,” Amy says in the new issue of Men’s Vogue. ” ‘SNL’ was dangerous, late-night, last-minute and star-studded, but like any good drug, you need to know when to put it down.”

And it gets worse, or better, depending on your point of view. She’s not coming back to “SNL” after maternity leave. Instead Poehler is preparing to star in her own NBC series from the executive producers of “The Office.” At least we have that to look forward to.

And there’s always Poehler’s animated kids’ show “The Mighty B!” in which she portrays overachieving Honeybee scout Bessie Higgenbottom. We have yet to tune into it, but we may have to now.

[From The LA Times]

By the way – “The Mighty B!” is hilarious.

Fey and Poehler broke down some major gender barriers at “Saturday Night Live,” a show that has been a notorious Old Boys Club since day one. For decades, talented comediennes like Gilda Radner, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jan Hooks were relegated to second-banana status – until the Fey-Poehler writing powerhouse took over. With both of them gone from the show, it looks like the mantle will be passed on to funny lady Kristen Wiig to keep things going. Poehler will definitely be missed- her daffy characters, such as “Amber, the One-Legged Hypoglycemic” and her dead-on impersonations of such celebs as Hilary Clinton, Sharon Osbourne and “Project Runway” winner Christian Siriano are classics.

Amy Poehler and Will Arnett are shown The Fresh Air Fund “Salute to American Heros” at Tavern on the Green in NY on 6/5/08. Credit: Mark Dye / PR Photos

The Saturday Night Live alums were at The Baby Mama premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last night to support Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Among the familiar funny faces were Molly Shannon, Chris Kattan, and Rachel Dratch – who has found a job after mentioning her unemployment plight earlier this month. The film is about a career woman played by Fey who hires a goofy irresponsible woman, Amy Poehler’s character, to be her surrogate. There is some speculation that Poehler might be coincidentally pregnant since she’s wearing this flouncy dress, but I think it’s just the style of the dress. Poehler, 36, has been married to Arrested Development’s Will Arnett, 37, since August, 2003, and they have two dogs but no children yet. Her co-star Tina Fey, 37, has a daughter, Alice, who is two and a half.

Fey told People Magazine a funny story about how she gained weight quickly during her pregnancy by eating too many donuts:

“Somewhere during my pregnancy I gained something like nine pounds in two weeks and my doctor was like, ‘You know what it might be? Are you drinking a lot of juice?’ I was like, ‘Yeah. That must be it.’ ” said the 30 Rock Emmy winner, 37. “I was eating like a box a day of Entenmann’s donuts.”

[From People.com]

Here’s the trailer. It looks amusing but not incredible, and is getting mixed reviews.

Also shown at the premiere are Will Arnett, Steve Martin, Romany Malco, Sigourney Weaver, Chevy Chase, Annabella Sciorra, Dax Shepard, Chris Kattan, Kristin Bell, Maggie Grace, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Robert DeNiro, Fred Durst looking old, and Padma Lakshmi. Thanks to PRPhotos and WENN for these pictures.

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano thinks the recent Saturday Night Live parody of him was hilarious. The diminutive diva, 21, responded to the SNL skit featuring Amy Poehler in a dead-on impression, in an e-mail to People Magazine. Luckily, he has a great sense of humor in addition to a great sense of style.

Christian Siriano caught Amy Poehler’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live over the weekend and the Project Runway winner has just one word — an ‘F’ word — for the skit. And, no, it wasn’t “fierce.”

“I thought it was SO FUNNY,” the 22-year-old designer wrote in an e-mail to PEOPLE. “Amy [Poehler] looked exactly like me which is kinda scary, but fabulous.”

Known for his catty commentary and catchphrase, “That’s fierce,” the pint-sized designer wasn’t the only Project Runway personality to be parodied in the three-minute sketch about a hypothetical Runway spinoff, which features Siriano giving someone an apartment makeover. While Poehler played Siriano, the skit also featured guest host Amy Adams playing Runway host Heidi Klum and SNL castmember Bill Hader imitating Tim Gunn.

“The fact that they are even talking about me is so fierce, fabulous and flawless and is such an honor,” Siriano told PEOPLE. “[Poehler] was hilarious and little. It was so crazy that she looked just like me!”

And Poehler didn’t just nail Siriano’s sassy tone — she perfectly approximated his flat-ironed hair. “The hair was absolutely perfect,” Siriano wrote. “I don’t think I could have done it better myself. It was fierce!”

[From People]

I saw the video clip of the skit, and I agree- it was pretty funny. I have to give serious props to Bill Hader for his perfect rendition of Tim Gunn. His impression is even better than my boyfriend’s! Yes, it’s true- my entire family sits around and does impressions of the people on “Project Runway.” My Heidi Klum is FIERCE.

Note By Celebitchy: Thanks to Best Week Ever for the heads up and for the video clip above.