R
    Rachel Sklar

    Rachel Sklar

    Founder, TheLi.st

  • McCain on SNL With Tina Fey, Ben Affleck, and "The View" (VIDEOS)

    Last night John McCain had a cameo on Saturday Night Live, appearing in the opening sketch with Tina Fey reprising her role as Sarah Palin in an infomercial on the QVC network in a nod to Barack Obama's infomercial (but with far less of a budget). The most exciting cameo in this sketch, however: Cindy McCain! McCain also appeared on "Weekend Update" with Seth Meyers (anchoring Update alone, now that Amy Poehler is tending to a new baby), and did a riff on possible last-ditch campaign strategies (involving the word "maverick"). Ben Affleck — a noted Democrat — was the host, and his opening monologue joked about how the candidates he'd supported in the past had never won so he publicly endorsed John McCain (McCain did not join him for that).

  • God's Green Earth Pretty Much A Lock For Time's Person Of The Year

    YOU! Should recycle, but you probably already do — because lovin' Mother Earth has never been more front-and-center in the national — nay, global — consciousness...and you heard it from Time's annual "Person of the Year" panel first. Ah, but will it be a person?

  • Millionaire Call Girl? Spitzer's Hooker Rakes In A Fortune Online From Her Music

    Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the high-priced call girl at the center of the scandal that felled New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, may just have crossed that threshold — if the answer is "when you make a million dollars off your music." Since her identity was revealed on the New York Times website on Wednesday evening, the singer/lady-of-the-night formerly known as "Kristen" has reportedly seen her two singles downloaded off the internet music site Amie Street Music as many as two million times — which means that she's pulled in approximately $1.4 million in two days off her two songs, thanks to the Amie Street business model, which nets artists 70% of their online proceeds.

  • SNL Season Opener: If Lovin' Ahmadinejad's A Crime, Then You Probably Are Actually In Iran

    Though "Iran So Far" will be the biggest takeaway, though, it's not the only one — not by a long shot in a show that included a great hosting turn by LeBron James, surprise self-mockery by Kanye West and the kickoff to SNL's take on the presidential campaign.

  • New Yorker Fest Political Humor Panel: Pro Sarah Palin Jokes, Against Another Holocaust

    In a weekend of highlights this panel was a highlight, hearing this group of exceptionally sharp, funny people discuss the campaign and the coverage and the role of humor in shaping that.

  • Only In Alaska! Sen. Ted Stevens Debates Via Series Of Tubes

    How do you get two candidates together for a debate when one of them is stuck in Washington D.C. being found guilty of seven felony corruption charges — and the other one is in Alaska? Through the magic of the Internet, of course! And so, that is how Senator Ted Stevens today comes to Alaskans to fight for the sanctity of his Senate seat: Through the so-called "Series of Tubes" for which he will now forever known...along with being found guilty of seven felony corruption charges. CBS affiliate  KTVA 11 in Anchorage, Alaska is today hosting an online debate between Stevens and challenger Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, featuring individual videotaped responses to ten questions — five from KTVA and five from selected viewers — plus one more question, directed by each candidate to his opponent.

  • Brian Williams: "Good Day, And Good Squid"

    "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams had a cameo on "Sesame Street" today, introducing the word of the day, which was "squid." Just in case there was any confusion, he said the word "squid" 19 times. Thanks to Brian Williams, we now know that squids live under water and have two long tentacles and eight shorter arms. A Humboldt squid can grow to the size and weight of a hockey player.

  • Going Rogue

    It seems somehow fitting to be posting this at the very last minute on yet another hectic newsday where there was too much other stuff happening to focus on mere housekeeping.

  • Scene @ The Grill

    Back during the conventions, I spent a lot of time at the "CNN Grill" — CNN's on-site diner and gathering spot, bathing both Denver and St. Paul in the warm glow of red neon and deliciousness, and also camaraderie as journos, pols, delegates and campaign hangers-on descended for a milkshake or a plate of fries and the chance to hobnob with other lanyard-wearing people beneath giant flatscreens broadcasting the Best Political Team in Television. The milkshakes were good, but it was the hobnobbing which was the real fun, and which cemented the CNN Grill as the buzzy center of the action in both Denver and St. Paul.

  • Raaaaaaaaahm!

    If Obama has a mandate, how better to shepherd it through? Rahm Emanuel means business -- he keeps his goals in sight and he gets things done. That's the kind of guy needed to handle the fierce urgency of now. I'm sure he does fiercely urgent reeeaaaally well.

  • Time Flies

    Last December, I received a rather useful piece of holiday swag: A super-special desk clock from "The Page," Mark Halperin's election site at Time.com, which became nigh indispensable this election season. This clock featured not only the time and Time (branding!), but also the time left, in a clock that counted inexorably down toward election day, in hours, minutes, seconds and tenths of a second, so it was constantly running down the mesmerizing slip of time. Back when it arrived at my desk I took a photo for a planned post on holiday swag — that was on December 18th and there were 321 days left in the campaign — plenty of time for anything to happen before Hillary Clinton faced Rudy Giuliani on election day.

  • Election Night Vlog: Farewell, Sweet (And Crazy) Campaign

    My equally-non-voting partner in campaign crime, Glynnis MacNicol and I, Rachel Sklar, made a thoughtful and compelling vlog on the red, white and blue-dappled steps of Election Plaza at 30 Rock, but somehow my computer ate it.

  • Election Night, With One Thing Missing

    It wasn't long ago where the election-night tool of choice was a simple whiteboard, emblazoned with the words, "Florida! Florida! Florida!"

  • SNL's Presidential Bash: More McCain, Fey & Poehler, And A Surprise Palin Cameo

    Because the last SNL special aired last night — after starting the season early with just one week off and adding in three extra weeks of a half-hour special, they wrapped up the season last night with a two-hour recap of the best of the season and season's past — plus some little nuggets of surprise thrown in for good measure. Little nuggets like an address from Sarah Palin to the nation — for those keeping track, yes, it's still more time than she gave to "Meet The Press" — and though she once again gets the good sport award for showing up and playing, my oh my does she come across badly in it (threatening to take away NBC's broadcast license skates a liiiiiittle too close to the truth considering this — though we'd bet first on her list would be yanking CBS' license, considering this and this and this.

  • Liveblog! Election 2008

    For us, and for everyone, it all comes down to tonight. We know you have many options for your election-night media consumption, and we thank you for any time you might spend here with us, on this Night of Nights. Our liveblog is below. It's been our pleasure to share this incredible campaign with you.

  • Ben Affleck, Now With Double Meat

    Readers of this column may recognize Michael Terry as the Olbermann impersonator who isn't Ben Affleck. Terry posted a video spoofing Olbermann's "Special Comments" in September, as part of an audition sample for — yes — "Saturday Night Live." Since then it's gotten almost 75,000 views on YouTube (we heard that Olbermann liked it, too).

  • SNL's Awkward Goodbyes

    If you watched this weekend's SNL — featuring Democrat host Ben Affleck and GOP presidential candidate John McCain — all the way to the end, then you would have noticed at the traditional "goodbyes" were longer than usual, with more time to spy on the cast and guests milling around the stage, hugging and back-slapping and the like. It seemed — to this viewer, at least — that the handshake between Affleck and McCain was, well, awkward (and a little long, as McCain kept pumping enthusiastically away). Meanwhile, Tina Fey moved to Cindy McCain (having hugged her husband first) and gave her a nice two-handed clasp, leaning in for a word, but then there was a moment of...well, awkwardness, as conversation awkwardly dried up and Fey looked out and waved to the audience as Cindy stood by — yes — awkwardly.

  • Jon Stewart: Good For The Jews?

    The latest edition of Moment , the D.C.-based national Jewish current affairs mag, answers this question with a resounding yes in their cover story on Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, aka Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show for — yikes! — coming on a decade (Stewart's first show was in January 1999). It's a great addition to the Jon Stewart canon, particularly now that everyone's fretting that the Daily Show will lose some of its bite without the Bush administration to kick around anymore — this profile reminds us that Stewart is incapable of being anything but a wisecracker, and a zingingly smart one at that. Moment looks at what made him the host he is today — a man who found his calling late, starting the job of a lifetime at age 37 — going back to his Jersey roots with interviews with family members (including Stewart's estranged father), teachers and even a guy he played soccer with at William & Mary (where he returned to receive an honorary degree in 2004, joking "I came to William and Mary because as a Jewish person, I wanted to explore the rich tapestry of Judaica that is Southern Virginia").

  • Obama Camp: Robo-Calls? Feh! Try Rabbi-Calls!

    According to an email from the Obama campaign's Jewish Outreach program (jewishoutreach@barackobama.com), 20+ rabbis gathered in New York City (real America!) to make calls to Pennsylvania for getting out the vote — a special subset of the campaign's "Neighbor to Neighbor" Jewish Peer-to-Peer calling drive that has pinged undecideds in battleground states like PA, Virginia, Colorado, Ohio and — yes — Florida in an effort to convince waffling Jews that Barack Obama is their friend, despite the various mailings, calls and viral emails they've received. "This morning I had the privilege of participating in a Rabbi's Phone-Bank on behalf of Senator Obama. Over twenty rabbis from all the different denominations gathered together in the spirit of unity to volunteer for Barack Obama's campaign.

  • Separate But Equal? Maddow And BriWi Interviews Go Head To Head On MSNBC.com, Before They Even Air

    This is sort of interesting: Both NBC News star anchor Brian Williams and MSNBC rising star anchor Rachel Maddow interviewed Barack Obama today in Florida — and so far, both are online at MSNBC, on their respective web pages.