Anne Hathaway once again proved her chops as both an actress and comedienne on last weekend's "Saturday Night Live," featuring the beautiful brunette as returning host alongside Florence & The Machine, who delivered goosebumps-inducing performances of her own. Not bad for a show we were having trouble justifying actually tuning in for a mere three weeks ago.
Shockingly, the political cold-opens are 2-for-2 now, with Abby Elliott employing a great Rachel Maddow impersonation against Kristen Wiig's less-caricaturous Nancy Pelosi (but she kept the death-ray eye gazes, thankfully) and Kenan Thompson’s Charlie Rangel, which was far too kind to the walking cartoon. Hathaway’s opening monologue ran a bit long, but focused on the apparently copious amounts of nudity in her upcoming film Love and Other Drugs, so it was a bit hard to gripe about a gorgeous woman discussing her suddenly increased need for nudity in every skit (at least according to the horny male castmembers).
Hathaway's deeply underrated ability came leaping out during a hauntingly, hilariously precise impersonation of Katie Holmes on Vanessa Bayer’s recurring Miley Cyrus impersonation bit (which is awesome, by the way). This was the best Miley moment yet, with the toothy country bumpkin introducing Hathaway’s Holmes as having starred in Dawson’s Creek “back in the 1900s” and showing her audition tape for the new Batman movie, which I'm still laughing about two days after the fact.
Cheers to SNL for bitch slapping the TSA "gate rape" pat-down policy throughout the show: what looked like a phone sex ad became an ad for the professional gropers, and Seth Meyers was relentless in his takedowns on a particularly strong “Weekend Update.” Meyers' best bit was "Come On, Dictionary" where he questioned Oxford Dictionary's decision to include "refudiate," the phrase Sarah Palin accidently coined. Bobby Moynihan’s heavy-handed Guy Fieri impersonation went on too long, to the point where we couldn't decide whether we'd rather punch the actual guy or the impersonator, but the production was rescued when Jay Pharoah delivered an assortment of Thanksgiving song snippets through the voices of Jay-Z, Drake, and Biggie Smalls, each with diminishing effect.
Speaking of music, a skit on the soundtrack to a Disney-esque kids film called Horse Play featured Wiig as Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries, Andy Samberg killing it as Robert Smith of the Cure and Hathaway’s overdone Alanis Morissette. Melodic melodrama upstaged the spoofers, however, when Florence & The Machine took the stage for two performances as musical guest. The first was a full-throated run-through of the breakthrough hit "Dog Days Are Over," while looking particularly fetching in a leggy dress and sky-high heels. Hathaway looked about to burst with adoration as she introduced her:
Watch her superior second song, her cover of The Source’s “You’ve Got The Love". Truly a great performance:
Hathaway gave us another dose of her powerful singing chops as well, suiting up as Judy Garland in a “lost scenes” skit from The Wizard of Oz that captured Garland’s voice impeccably. Anne's ability to electrify a scene shone brightly throughout the night - hers were the strongest laughs in a fake ad for “Black Friday at Mega-Mart,” featuring her in just a few seconds onscreen as a far-too-caffeinated customer. You don't need to spend the 3 minutes watching. Just look at this:
"Camel Tame" is a skit that feels like it should've happened years ago, because it's so damned funny it's shocking nobody's thought of it yet. With the new Camel Tame, a sizable bulge replaces that pesky bunching, making every lady in town look like she's packing serious meat heat. Hilarious.
Another stellar female-led night for SNL - almost gets my hopes up that they're beginning to realize the importance of freshness and compelling host interaction on the show. But I've watched it my entire life - I know better.
