This week,
Advocate.com is going to highlight our remaining "People
of the Year", who range from activists to entertainers,
politicians to students. Today, we take a look at
comedian Tina Fey, Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham,
and Obama strategist Steve Hildebrand.
This week,
Advocate.com is going to highlight our remaining "People
of the Year", who range from activists to entertainers,
politicians to students. Today, we take a look at
comedian Tina Fey, Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham,
and Obama strategist Steve Hildebrand.
Tina Fey made us
laugh as co-anchor of Weekend Update on Saturday Night
Live, but made for plenty of watercooler fodder
with her eerily spot-on skewering of Republican Vice
Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Steve Hildebrand
was one of the masterminds behind President-elect Barack
Obama’s campaign, garnering millions of email
contacts, $650 million in donations, and eventually
356 electoral votes to clench the presidency.
With a perfect
dive and an adorably giddy celebration, 20-year-old
Australian Matthew Mitcham clenched Olympic gold in Beijing,
breaking a streak in Chinese dominance in the sport.
Tina Fey
If you asked Tina
Fey if her depiction of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night
Live helped sway the November’s presidential race,
she'd give you an unequivocal "No." In fact, if you
tried to credit her with just about anything she'd be
quick to disagree. Even after a year that included an
Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her work
on 30 Rock, the release of her female buddy comedy
Baby Mama, and a spot-on impersonation of
McCain's running mate on SNL, Fey still seems
hesitant to call herself an actress.
"Lorne [Michaels,
SNL’s creator] called and said, 'Think
about if you want to do this'," says the 38-year-old
of his request that she become Palin. Fey initially declined
the role with the rationale that she doesn't do
impressions. But people around her kept urging -- "I
felt like there was this angry mob at the door
insisting I suit up" --and she acquiesced. By the time she
had done three of the sketches, she started having
fun.
"I don't think I
would have had the confidence to attempt this five or
six years ago," she says. "I think some of it is 30
Rock and some of it is just getting older -- you kind of
don't care anymore." Self-deprecation aside, Fey is
one of the funniest actresses in film and television
and her portrayal of Palin was profound political
commentary. When male comedians like Bill Maher and news
pundits such as Jack Cafferty were calling Palin a "moron"
and chastising McCain for choosing an inept candidate,
they were called sexist. But when Fey -- hair twisted
into an up-do, glasses on -- said, "I can see Russia
from my house," she was able to mock Palin's
simplicity and escaped unscathed.
As a woman, and
safely in the realm of comedy, Fey could have Palin say,
"I tolerate gays. I tolerate them with all my heart." It was
a line written by Seth Meyers, SNL's head
writer, but it was Fey's delivery of Palin's homespun
patronization of gay people that had the whole world
laughing at her obvious intolerance.
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