Dana Carvey Says Lorne Michaels Texted Him About Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively After ‘SNL50’
When Saturday Night Live great Dana Carvey mysteriously missed the show’s 50th anniversary special earlier this month, fans wanted answers from Lorne Michaels — answers to questions like, “Was Nicepool really a Justin Baldoni diss?”
Now that the dust has finally settled on SNL50 and its most controversial exclusions, Saturday Night Live creator and veritable comedy kingmaker Michaels can finally breathe easy and blow off some steam, possibly by perusing the most recent issue of The Hollywood Reporter and its controversial cover story about the scandalous legal and PR battle between Baldoni and his This Ends With Us costar Blake Lively. As the don of the most pop-culture-entrenched comedy show in TV history, it’s practically a job requirement that Michaels stays abreast of the biggest entertainment news, so, when Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds showed up to Studio 8H on Sunday, February 16th, you just know that Michaels was dying to ask the power couple who launched a high-powered, highly publicized harassment lawsuit whether they’re satisfied with their legal representation.
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During the post-SNL50 episode of David Spade and Dana Carvey's Fly on the Wall Podcast, the pair of SNL veterans reflected on Reynolds’ brief but headline-making cameo in the anniversary special, with Carvey revealing that Michaels was more interested in Reynolds’ row with his wife’s old boss than Carvey coming down with the flu and missing the show:
As anyone who follows show business drama knows — and as Michaels knows most of all — Reynolds and Lively are involved in fierce litigation and fiercer PR sparring with Baldoni over the deterioration of Lively and Baldoni’s working relationship during the making of the successful romance/drama film It Ends With Us, which premiered earlier this year. When Tina Fey and Amy Poehler asked Reynolds how he was doing during their Q&A, the Deadpool & Wolverine star said “Great,” glibly adding, “Why? What have you heard?”
Immediately, celebrity gossip-obsessed internet users launched wild speculation about Reynolds’ throwaway line, even going so far as to suggest that the A-lister improvised the response, a notorious no-no in Michaels’ house. During the Fly on the Wall episode, Spade and Carvey agreed that the suggestion of improv at SNL50 is ludicrous — but not crazier than the Baldoni versus Lively/Reynolds battle itself.
“The Baldini/Lively (sic) extravaganza was all over the show,” Carvey said of the half-century celebration that he allegedly had to miss due to illness. “I texted Lorne afterwards, ‘I wish I could have been there,’ and instead of talking about the show, he just goes, *spot on Lorne Michaels voice* ‘Baldini will now countersue, I think that Lively will probably get a new attorney.’"
Taken aback, Carvey made another attempt to talk about SNL50 itself with his old boss, recalling, “I said, ‘Boy, that Tom Hanks was great, and what about that monologue with Steve?’ and he goes, ‘I don’t know where Ryan Reynolds is on this, but certainly they have deep pockets.’” Carvey summarized, “So, it really, it was big at that 50th.”
Curiously, SNL hasn’t done a single sketch about the It Ends With Us scandal, and Reynolds’ cheeky reply is, so far, the only SNL joke about the front-page-making legal battle that’s made it to air. But if Michaels really is so deeply invested in the controversy as Carvey reports, it can’t be long until SNL blows the entire story wide open with a revelatory cold-open that could very well close the case. Michaels just needs a couple more all-nighters to work out the beats.
