Observer » Rachel Dratch

What Fresh PR Initiative Is This?: Literary Greats on the Current Attempt to Reengineer the Algonquin Round Table

Laura L. Griffin — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:50:29 -0400

“This hotel is exactly how I would have imagined the Algonquin transforming itself in the 21st century,” announced Penguin Books CEO David Shanks to an attentive crowd last week.

A single person clapped and, realizing they were all alone, stopped.

Mr. Shanks continued, “It exudes the grandeur of Gotham and the dazzle of the iconic Mad Men design gone modern.” Mr. Shanks cleared his throat. “It’s really amazing.”

Last Monday, a group (of “top hotel and publishing executives as well as media industry influencers,” per a press release) was gathered at a private party to celebrate the grand reopening of the gut-renovated hotel and the launch of its new partnership with Penguin Books.

Scheduled to coincide with Book Expo America, a massive publishing trade show that forces attendees to trudge all the way to 11th Ave., three evening readings and panels were to take place in the lobby.

These readings, called the Penguin Preview Series at the Round Table, will continue on a quarterly basis. Another aspect of the new partnership is the Night-table Reading promotion, in which books and galleys from Penguin’s recent releases will be distributed to hotel guests each night.

It’s all a concerted effort to reclaim the “rich literary history” (a phrase repeated ad nauseum through the night) of the hotel, where, during the 1920s, the Algonquin Round Table met for lunch to exchange jokes and barbs, where The New Yorker was born in 1925, and where Dorothy Parker said that thing about leading a horticulture (you can’t make her think).

Penguin authors abounded: Elizabeth Gilbert, Ron Chernow and Simon Doonan milled around, Rachel Dratch chatted with John Hodgman in another corner, and Andrew Ross Sorkin, who dropped by on the late side.

We asked Mr. Hodgman if a literary salon could be revived in this way. Can there be another Algonquin Round Table?

“Salon culture still exists, but it’s online now. Writers don’t need to get together in an actual place any more,” Mr. Hodgman mused. “Though writers would benefit from a meeting place, because there would be alcohol and table service. Writers love hotels because they are the living rooms they cannot afford themselves.”

Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz responded to the same question with characteristic flourish, but no optimism. “An incubator for personalities supremely attuned to this socio-cultural moment—it would be a wonderful thing for human circuitry. But communities have diffused and moved into the thinnest splinters,” he said.

Marion Meade, biographer of Algonquin patron sinner Dorothy Parker, clutched a glass of white wine with both hands, and proudly gestured toward one of her books, displayed in a glass cabinet in the lobby.

When asked if the spirit of the place could be revived simply by hosting readings and stuffing a new novel next to the Bible in each bedside drawer, Ms. Meade replied with an acerbic pragmatism.

“They are probably the only hotel in New York that has this kind of literary history. If they don’t use it, they’re pretty stupid, and they’re not stupid. Whether they can keep it up with Penguin, who knows, but I give them credit for trying.”

What would Dorothy Parker think of this latest campaign to capitalize upon the hotel’s literary pedigree?

“She’d think it was bullshit,” came the answer.

To Do Sunday: Dratch Entertainment

Daniel D'Addario — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:45:24 -0400

Rachel Dratch (Getty Images)

Sure, going out on a winter Sunday is a drag—but who wants to watch 60 Minutes when Rachel Dratch is saluting the writer of Hugo? Tonight’s Writers Guild of America Awards are simultaneously going on at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles (fancy!) and the B.B. King Blues Club in New York City (sure!). Ms. Dratch, the former Saturday Night Live actress, will be an apt host for the East Coast proceedings on an evening at which four-fifths of attendees, upon losing their award, will become Debbie Downers; fellow presenters are to include author-about-town Jonathan Ames, theoretical comedian Jimmy Fallon and indefatigable interlocutor Steve Kroft. We’re rooting for Bridesmaids!

B.B. King Blues Club, 237 West 42nd Street, doors open at 7:15 p.m., ceremony at 8 p.m., after-party at 10 p.m., “festive blues club attire.” Tickets available at wgaeast.org.

Mango Pickle! Former SNL-er Chris Kattan Debuts in Mumbai Miniseries

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:30:33 -0400

IFC’s miniseries Bollywood Hero premiered on Tuesday, August 4, at the Rubin Art Museum. SNL alum Chris Kattan plays the leading man in this (surprisingly) funny new show, co-starring Miss India USA Pooja Kumar and real-life Bollywood starlet Neha Dhupia.

Edward Norton walked around outside the screening room, looking at artist Pablo Bartholomew’s vibrant photographs of the Nagas hill people of India, before taking a seat near the front, and Seth Meyers blew kisses to former SNL co-star Rachel Dratch.

The screening of episode one showed off Mr. Kattan’s (again, surprising) versatility in what appears to be his most grown-up venture yet. He plays an exaggeration of himself, hanging with SNL co-stars Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg, and lamenting the, ahem, rather low-brow films he is consistently offered in Hollywood. There are plenty of jabs about Kattan characters Mango and Mr. Peepers, and a few more about Corky Romano, but it takes an appearance by Keanu Reeves to lead him to the decision to go to Mumbai and take on a Bollywood film.

“It’s refreshing to be proud of something that you’re involved in,” Mr. Kattan told the Transom. Of the humor, he said: “It's dry but it’s not gross and we will say the f-word but we don’t talk about the vagina a lot. It’s real, and it’s not offensive. I think the best comedies are the kind that last—that tell a story. As opposed to, like, this is so frickin’ funny, but then two months later someone outdoes that joke, and you don’t even remember the movie but it made $200 million anyway. We’re not in it for the money, we really wanted to create something memorable.”

Shot on location in Mumbai, the show contrasts begging children and garbage-strewn beaches with jasmine gardens and Mercedes-driving chauffeurs. “That’s the reality of being in India,” said Ms. Dhupia. “Fortunes are made overnight—people hit rock bottom instantly, and people at rock bottom shoot up. It’s a crazy country—in a good way!”

In true Bollywood style, the show features song-and-dance numbers, choreographed by Longinus Fernandes, who also choreographed dances in Slumdog Millionaire. Unfortunately for fans of the Butabi brothers, none of the dances feature Night at the Roxbury signature head-bobs.

“He’s got a style, he’s very unique,” Mr. Fernandes said of Mr. Kattan’s dance skills.

When asked for her thoughts on Mr. Kattan’s dancing, Ms. Dhupia replied, “Oh my God! Do you want me to be honest?” with a laugh. “With Chris, he had the right attitude—he made every wrong move look right!”

“He’s hilarious and he’s so talented!” gushed Ms. Kumar of her co-star. “Because of him I’m going to take improv classes!”

“It has cultural significance and Chris Kattan was dancing, so it had everything I wanted!” Mr. Meyers told the Transom after the screening.

“I liked how it didn’t fit many stereotypes—like American sitcom kind of things,” Ms. Dratch said. “He made his own sort of genre there!”

Morning Memo: Wedding Bells For Jay-Z and Beyoncé; Zac Posen Waxes On

Irina Aleksander — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:35:38 -0400

Jay-Z and Beyoncé really did get married on Friday! Well, we think. Mary J. Blige supposedly confirmed the news to her fans while performing in North Carolina over the weekend and witnesses have been leaking details to US Weekly and People.com. [NY Daily News]

Socialites coping with recession: Ivanka isn't the type of person to buy Ferraris and large hats, Claire Bernard will walk her own dog, Arden Wohl thinks it's one big lie. [Intelligencer]

Former Saturday Night Live funny girl Rachel Dratch is out of work and would work with George W. at this point. Dark recession days are upon us, it's no lie Arden! [Intelligencer]

George Clooney talks about loving Obama, his girlfriend Sarah Larson ("Her grandmother had posters of me") and his charm. [New Yorker]

Jerry Seinfeld's cars keep breaking down. [P6]

Zac Posen apparently showed up to stylist Christopher Niquet's birthday party at Le Royale last week attended by Natasha Lyonne, Genevieve Jones, and Leelee Sobieski and pulled out some karate moves on the dance floor. [P6]

Meet Four-Eyed New Sex Symbol, ‘Weekend Update’ Anchor Tina Fey

Jason Gay — Mon, 05 Mar 2001 00:00:00 -0400

Shortly after it was announced that Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey would take over as co-host of the "Weekend Update" news segment this season with Jimmy Fallon, fellow writer Paula Pell cornered Ms. Fey in the labyrinthine NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center.

"Paula pushed me up against the wall and threatened to beat the crap out of me as soon as she saw any change in my behavior," Ms. Fey recalled. "She said, 'As soon as you start acting crazy, I will beat you.'"

Ms. Fey paused briefly. "She hasn't beaten me yet."

Still, Tina Fey has changed since last August, when Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels gambled and gave the 30-year-old–who had only appeared on SNL as an extra–one of the show's most prominent roles. In the ensuing months, Ms. Fey has undergone a caterpillar-like transformation from a schlumpy, sweatpants-wearing writer to a comedy princess, praised in TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly, and yabbering with Conan and Larry King. Naturally, there is a reverential fan Web site, dedicated to the "brilliant … Tina Fey."

On "Weekend Update," Ms. Fey is the embodiment of the sexy, smart girl–you know, a real New York type, the Seven Sisters femme capable of reciting Yeats from memory but unashamed to read Jane or rump-shake it to OutKast. This effect is amplified not only by Ms. Fey's hormonally charged zingers (in her first newscast, she confessed she'd gladly make out with Dirty-Boy-in-Chief Bill Clinton) but also by her thick, Williamsburg-issue glasses, which give her a mysteriously comely look that may be described as Winona Ryder meets Velma from Scooby-Doo . Don't buy it? Check the SNL message boards: In a scant six months, Ms. Fey has become the comic actress of choice for sensitive, brooding guys (and gals) who contemplate Lewis Lapham and listen to Aimee Mann albums with the lights off.

"She's transformed herself into a total hottie!" said SNL featured player Rachel Dratch, who has known Ms. Fey since the mid-1990's, when the pair performed together at the Second City in Chicago. Mr. Michaels is more succinct: "Intelligence is sexy."

The real-life Ms. Fey is not so far from the cerebral chick she plays on TV. On a recent afternoon in her cramped 17th-floor office, which is decorated with a nearly nude portrait of Blaze Starr and a dripping candle clipped from departed cast member Cheri Oteri, Ms. Fey spoke about her recent public transformation from writer to on-air performer, and the assortment of unexpected pressures it has wrought.

"Sometimes, if I'm going off to the gym, I think, 'Oh, God, I guess I should really make sure to shave my legs,'" Ms. Fey said, shaking her head. "Just in case somebody goes, 'Oh man, is she that girl ? She should shave her legs.'"

In person, Ms. Fey is skinny and slight, almost wispy, with a tousled mane of brown hair and large brown eyes; a small scar runs from the left corner of her mouth. She has a nervous habit of crouching in her chair and tucking her feet under her behind, which is probably why more than one writer has referred to her as "birdlike," an adjective that still had Ms. Fey slightly befuddled. ("Do I have a birdlike, hawklike nose?" she asked. "Maybe it's because I shit all over the floor.") That afternoon, she was wearing standard writer's garb: a comfortable red fleece sweater, blue jeans, sneakers.

Alas, no glasses. The thick-rimmed spectacles are a stage prop, owned by SNL (even though Ms. Fey, who wears contacts in real life, does need them to read cue cards). Still, she understands the appeal. "One time I didn't wear them because I was going to be in a sketch, so I had put in contacts," she said. "The Internet did not like that. The four teenagers on the Internet wanted me to put my glasses back on."

Ms. Fey is not a comedy-biz extrovert. She speaks softly and carefully, so much so that, at times, a cassette recorder only a few inches away can barely register her words. In a profession studded with hams, that makes Ms. Fey something of an anomaly. "She would never be one of those loud people in a restaurant," said Ms. Dratch, recalling the sometimes raucous SNL staff dinners. "She's more like sitting off in the corner … and then, under her breath, she'll say some line that brings the house down."

Ms. Fey's family is used to her quiet-but-deadly sense of humor. "[Our] father says that Tina has the kind of humor where she'll basically rip the heart out of your chest and hold it up in front of you–and you won't know it until five minutes later," said Ms. Fey's older brother, Peter, a freelance writer for corporate publications.

Ms. Fey's journey to Studio 8H was relatively straightforward. Growing up in Upper Darby, a middle-class Philadelphia suburb (where Ms. Oteri also is from), she watched episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus with her parents and imitated SNL sketches with her brother. After high school, she attended the University of Virginia, where she wrote a short comic play. "I remember … sitting back in the back of the theater … watching people laugh. I was like, 'Oh my God, this is really cool," she recalled.

Hooked, Ms. Fey applied to a graduate theater program at Chicago's DePaul University, but opted not to go. She went to Chicago anyway, where she held down a glam job folding towels at a YMCA while she took classes and performed in a local improv comedy troupe.

Ms. Fey eventually found her way to the Second City, the famed comedy ensemble that launched the careers of Bill Murray, John Candy, Martin Short and countless others. She began as a performer in the theater's satellite traveling company, but it wasn't long before the late Second City artistic director Martin de Maat brought her to the main stage. In what would be a prelude to her SNL rise, Ms. Fey's jump was seen as precocious; at first, Ms. Fey was overwhelmed.

"You never feel like you're funny enough," said Jeff Richmond, Ms. Fey's fiancé, a theatrical director who was Second City's musical director at the time. "She went through a period where she would come home and she'd cry and say, 'Oh, I'm not making it.' [But] of course, she was."

Ms. Fey had only done two main-stage shows with the Second City when SNL beckoned in the summer of 1997. She had sent several spec scripts to New York at the request of Second City alum Adam McKay, who was head writer at the time. Mr. McKay liked what he read, and Ms. Fey was hired following a meeting with Mr. Michaels. ("She was very modest … and funny, and clearly very smart," Mr. Michaels recalled of the then 27-year-old.) Ms. Fey moved to New York and got a walk-up apartment on the Upper West Side.

Like she had at Second City, Ms. Fey initially struggled at SNL , but it was only several weeks before her first sketch made it to air, a Sally Jessy Raphaël satire featuring an enormous baby played by the late Chris Farley. Ms. Fey went on to write a series of cutting parodies of the inane ABC talk show The View . Later, when Ms. Dratch joined the show, the two would write the popular "Sully and Denise" sketches, featuring a pair of beer-soaked Boston teens with a phonetic aversion to the letter R. (Ms. Fey was also one of the people who recruited and wrote for Monica Lewinsky when the former White House intern made her surprise SNL appearance in May 1999.)

Ms. Dratch, who co-wrote the two-woman show Dratch & Fey with Ms. Fey, described her friend's comedic style as subtle yet purposeful: She will insist on writing a sketch that has an underlying point or payoff, as opposed to just riffing on a single joke or character. In writing sessions, Ms. Fey is something of a disciplinarian. "She is all business," said Ms. Dratch. "It's not like we're giggling, wearing those arrows on our heads while we are writing … There's not a lot of room for hanging out and pillow fights and stuff."

Such qualities make for a good manager, so when Mr. McKay stepped down as head writer in 1999, Mr. Michaels tapped Ms. Fey for the post. She was the show's first female head writer, and considering SNL 's history as a notorious boys' club ("It does help when writing humor to have a big hunk of meat between the legs, I find," the late SNL writer Michael O'Donoghue once said), it was a significant breakthrough. "I just have enormous respect for her," said Anne Beatts, one of SNL 's first female writers, who met Ms. Fey when they collaborated on a "Fernando" sketch for Billy Crystal for the show's 25th anniversary special in the fall of 1999. "I'm very jealous!"

Two years later, Ms. Fey broke through again with her "Weekend Update" performances. Thanks to good old-fashioned chemistry, Ms. Fey and Mr. Fallon–a messy-haired budding star in his own right–have the segment crackling again in a way that it didn't during the Colin Quinn era. Mr. Michaels, who auditioned other performers before going with his Fey-Fallon hunch, said that the key to a successful pairing is a delicate kind of symbiosis. "In the Astaire-Rogers combination, you were happy to see both," said the man who had successfully paired Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin on "Update" more than two decades ago. "The old Hollywood thing was that she gave him sex and he gave her class … the rhythm and timing of that is just a chemistry thing: either it works or it doesn't …. We saw the beginnings of that working."

The success of "Update"–not to mention a humdinger election season–has disguised the fact that this is a transitional year for SNL . The departures of the talented Ms. Oteri and Molly Shannon, in particular, have left a void. Ms. Fey, who does not rule out the possibility of expanding her on-air role, is one performer who will be increasingly looked upon, along with established players like Ana Gasteyer, to shape the show's female sensibility. "She's definitely a very big part of that," Mr. Michaels said.

Because of her "Weekend Update" duties, Ms. Fey now shares the head-writing credit with Dennis McNichols. But her schedule remains grueling. It is not uncommon for Ms. Fey to toil until daylight; after finishing her writing duties late Thursday, she'll work deep into Friday, polishing her "Update" cracks. NBC's decision to place a Saturday Night Live segment after Friends during the February sweeps made life even more hectic; every day for those weeks, Ms. Fey said, she was up until 5 a.m.

"Even now, Tina says, 'I wish I had a little craft shop somewhere in Florida,'" Mr. Richmond said. "Every job she has had has been a great job–they are dream jobs to people–but they are also very hard."

Ms. Fey's coming week wasn't going to be much easier. There was a Feb. 24 show to write for Katie Holmes, the Dawson's Creek cutie trying to Julia Roberts-ize her image, and a "Weekend Update" to plot with Mr. Fallon and the segment producer, Robert Carlock. After that, SNL would have a week off, but Ms. Fey and Ms. Dratch were headed to Aspen, Colo., to perform Dratch & Fey at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. (Mr. Richmond was also going; he's the show's director.) On top of it all, there's a wedding to plan; Ms. Fey and Mr. Richmond are to be married in June. "There's no room for anything else," Ms. Fey said of her schedule. Mr. Michaels was more direct: "It would be much easier if she was taking more time off."

If Ms. Fey is teetering on a star trip, she doesn't show it. Paula Pell can check her blows. Ms. Fey admitted it has been hard to shed her dumpy writer's wardrobe; she was only half-joking when she said the best part about the "Update" promotion is getting her hair and makeup professionally done. Indeed, some people, like Ms. Beatts, think Ms. Fey is still too buttoned-down. "My message to her is to take off those glasses and open your shirt! Work it, baby!" she cried.

Despite her growing popularity, Ms. Fey said she doesn't get noticed on the street. She wondered if perhaps this is a reverse Clark Kent effect, since she doesn't wear her glasses in public. Her life with Mr. Richmond, who recently moved to New York, remains low-key. "Am I clubbing with J. Lo?" Ms. Fey laughed and shook her head.

So no J. Lo. But if some people think that Tina Fey, the writer, is also a Saturday Night Babe, well, that's just fine.

"She must be psyched about it … anyone would," said Ms. Dratch. "But she doesn't walk around thinking, 'I'm hot!' I think it's kind of new for her, being a sex symbol."

Tonight on NBC, that other brainiac sex symbol, Allison Janney, hoodwinks the dimwitted press on The West Wing . [WNBC, 4, 9 p.m.]

Thursday, March 1

So Survivor is beating up Friends . Boo-hoo. Someone stick Matt LeBlanc on a spit. [WCBS, 2, 8 p.m.]

Friday, March 2

So, Mr. Bill Nobody-in-the-Elite-Media-Loves-Me O'Reilly, you finally got to play patty-cake with David Letterman last week … you're profiled in The Times , The Washington Post , New York magazine … you even got on Charlie Rose . What's left to gripe about? Hey, Elaine, get this guy a table. He's in! The O'Reilly Factor . [FNC, 46, 8 p.m.]

Saturday, March 3

Tonight, Saturday Night Live airs a repeat of Jennifer Lopez's Feb. 10 appearance. To maintain the feel of the original telecast, NBC cooperates by allowing tonight's L.A.-New York-New Jersey XFL game to run 45 minutes into overtime. [WNBC, 4, 12:15 a.m.]

Sunday, March 4

Tonight's double-episode premiere of The Sopranos features a very creepy special-effects gimmick using the face of the late Nancy Marchand. Later, the CBS News at 11 features a very creepy special-effects gimmick using the face of Ernie Anastos. [HBO, 32, 9 p.m.]

Monday, March 5

Rick Schroder, you've worked so hard to drop the Y and get some acting cred on NYPD Blue , only to have those jerks at Nickelodeon run a nine-episode marathon of Silver Spoons . We'll say it for you: Thanks a lot, Nick! [NICK, 6, 8:30 p.m.]

Tuesday, March 6

Last week, in our favorite shameless stunt of February sweeps, WB News at 10 reporter Kirsten Cole blew the lid off … S.&M .! Now, if only the WB can get weatherman Irv (Mr. G) Gikofsky in leather underwear and a dog collar …. [WB, 11, 10 p.m.]

Colgate, Old Spice Ads Disrupted as Actors Picket Madison Avenue

Jason Gay — Mon, 05 Jun 2000 00:00:00 -0400

It was just after dawn on the morning of May 25, and Mercer Street in Soho was already bustling with activity. A commercial for Colgate was scheduled to shoot that morning, and a team of burly crew members began to arrange lights and cameras for the production. Across the street lingered a gaggle of casually dressed actors, but these actors had no intention of smiling for the camera. They were on strike, they were angry and they were about to get rowdy.

When the cameras began rolling, the striking actors let the commercial crew have it, unleashing a noisy torrent of shouts, honking horns and whistles. Especially targeted were the non-union actors on the set–a group of handsome, clear-skinned men and women in their early 20's, most of whom seemed to have little clue about the commotion around them. The picketers startled some of the actors by calling out to them by name, urging them not to work a non-union shoot. Promises were made to help them join the Screen Actors Guild if they walked off the set. "This won't be your big break–this will be a big mistake," the actors chanted at one point.

The commercial crew pressed on, but one teary-eyed extra eventually walked off the set, as did one of the commercial's male principals, who bolted across Mercer Street to the cheers of picketers and into in the arms of Lisa Scarola, the president of the New York branch of SAG. "I just felt like I came to New York to be a professional actor and these aren't the kind of conditions I wanted to work under," said one of the actors who abandoned the set.

The official bargaining stance of the New York advertising industry is "business as usual." But protests like the one in Soho have disrupted other commercial shoots throughout New York City, turning the month-old commercial actors' strike into a major headache for the city's ad community.

"I wouldn't recommend shooting in New York to any of my clients," said Stephanie Seligman, the New York executive producer of Villains, a bicoastal production company that counts Fargo 's Ethan and Joel Coen among its commercial directors. "It's too distracting with the picketers."

Indeed, concerns over confrontations with actors from SAG and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists have prompted some major advertisers to send their work on the road.

"Because New York is a hotbed of union activity, we are taking more work outside of New York to avoid being disrupted," said David Perry, director of broadcast production at Saatchi & Saatchi. "Sometimes we're even taking it out of the country."

The commercial actors are striking over the issue of "pay per play," the old system whereby actors are paid residuals for each time an advertisement is aired on a broadcast network, such as ABC or NBC. The actors' unions, noting the increased influence of cable television, want "pay per play" expanded to cable, replacing the current flat-fee system. The ad industry, however, counters that the rise of cable has diminished the impact of broadcast TV, and wants to do away with pay per play altogether, replacing it with an entirely flat-fee system. The industry's position is that there are so many channels in the cable (and, eventually, Internet) universe, there's more work than ever before, and actors' overall wages will not diminish.

The unions and the industry are deadlocked, with both sides acknowledging that emotions are high and progress has been low. Ira Shepard, counsel to the Joint Policy Committee on Broadcast Talent Union Relations, which represents two of the nation's largest advertising associations, said there have been "no substantive discussions, none whatsoever" between the industry and the actors' unions. Actors insist they are prepared for a long haul. "Any kind of romance about this [strike] got out of people's veins early on," said SAG picket organizer and actor Rob Keith.

Meanwhile, major ad agencies have tried to find ways around the work stoppage, such as shooting overseas, or using younger actors who are less likely to be union members.

But here in the city, the impact is felt, as ads for everything from Old Spice to Singapore Air have been targeted by picketers. "Business has definitely slowed down," said Ms. Seligman.

Michael Karbelnikoff, a commercial director who has shot spots for Sprint, Visa and Dell, among other clients, said the strike has affected casting–especially for advertisers that rely on celebrity talent (many celebrities are SAG members and are honoring the strike) and older dramatic talent. "It's just difficult, if you're looking for speaking parts especially," Mr. Karbelnikoff said.

There are also indications that the strike is affecting the creative side of the ad industry. "I haven't seen any slowing down [of business] but I will say that I have been casting more campaigns that have less speaking in them," said New York casting director and film producer Amy Gossels. "It makes me wonder whether agencies are taking a slightly different creative direction, as far as developing campaigns that aren't as actor driven, but more driven by faces."

Ms. Gossels said she wasn't taking sides in the labor dispute, but she took exception to some of the "scare tactics" that the actors have used during the strike. She said union members showed up at one casting session and copied down the Social Security numbers of the actors who showed up. And while a SAG spokesperson said the union has instructed its members not to threaten non-union actors by telling them they won't be able to join SAG should they work during the strike, statements like "This will be your last job!" were heard a few times at last week's toothpaste shoot.

Mr. Shepard blasted such tactics. "We certainly understand that SAG has a right to picket, and they can exercise that right, but they don't have a right to issue threats," Mr. Shepard said.

Still, New York's striking actors remain vigilant, saying that the protests are necessary to get their message out, and prevent the advertising industry from breaking their union. Though some expect the protests to die down during the heat of the summer, actors insist otherwise. Picket lines of whistling actors might not sound as intimidating as striking dock workers with baseball bats and bicycle chains, but they have been making noise and getting notice–especially here in New York.

Fired up by the strike? Tonight on TBS, tune to WCW Wrestling . You can watch the commercials–or not. [ TBS, 8, 9 p.m. ]

Thursday, June 1

This week, CNN begins its 20th anniversary rah-rah with Twenty Years of Stories: This Is CNN . [ CNN, 10, 9 p.m. ]

Friday, June 2

ABC adds a touch of Hollywood to its prime-time lineup next season. Gabriel Byrne will star in a new sitcom, as will the long-legged Geena Davis. Andre Braugher returns to TV for a medical drama, and the cigarette-inhaling Denis Leary is set to star in an ABC cop caper.

But one big name has been overlooked amid all the ABC hype:

Parker Posey!

No, not the brown-eyed, big-foreheaded indie film queen, the one starring with Matthew Broderick in the Broadway dud Taller Than a Dwarf . ABC has signed up a different Parker Posey. Parker McKenna Posey.

This Parker P. is four years old, likes potato chips, Will Smith and slasher horror movies.

Parker McKenna Posey–a Hollywood native whose mother is white and father is black–will play Damon Wayans' daughter in My Wife and Kids , a sitcom scheduled as a midseason replacement for ABC's fall lineup.

Yes, she's heard a lot about her given name.

"All the time," said Ms. Posey's mother, Heather Stone. "Even before I put her in [show] business, people were like, 'Parker Posey, isn't she …?' And I was like, 'Yes!'"

But Ms. Stone said her daughter isn't named after the famous Parker P. She's named for her father Rodney Lewis Posey's late great-aunt, still another Parker Posey.

Ms. Stone said that she was five months pregnant when she learned there was an actress named Parker Posey. She said she was standing in a grocery store checkout line flipping through a copy of People when she came across a photograph of Ms. Posey. She nearly had a nervous breakdown, she said. "I said, 'You know, Parker is an odd name for a girl to begin with, but for her to have the exact same name [as someone else] is strange, too.'"

Indeed, while Parker McKenna Posey isn't the first person to share a name with a famous person, she does share a name more curious than most. The older Parker Posey was named after the 1950's supermodel Suzy Parker. As the story goes, Ms. Posey was born prematurely and was not expected to live, and her mother, Lynda, wanted her to have a strong name, a fighter's name. (The older Ms. Posey did not respond to a request to be interviewed.)

Ms. Stone, an actress who has since split from Parker McKenna's musician father, said that once her daughter started auditioning for commercials and TV, she considered giving her a new name. "And I said, you know, I can't do Parker McKenna Stone, because her initials would be P.M.S.," Ms. Stone said. "And then I didn't want to do Parker McKenna Stone Posey, because that's just entirely way too long."

Ms. Stone settled on Parker McKenna Posey, her daughter's given middle name. Asked if she ever uses the full name at home, Ms. Stone said: "We do when we get mad."

Ms. Stone put the young Ms. Posey on the phone. NYTV asked Ms. Posey if she knew there was another actress with that name. "Yeah," Ms. Posey said, shyly. Has she seen any of her movies? "Yeah," she said.

How's the sitcom going so far?

"I colored my picture," she said. "I played with Tisha [Campbell-Martin, the actress] and Damon. I call him Damie."

Ms. Posey gave the phone back to her mom, who revealed that these days, Parker McKenna Posey prefers a different name altogether, a nickname:

Mookie.

Tonight, the older Parker Posey, not Mookie, is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Conan O'Brien . [ WNBC, 4, 12:35 a.m. ]

Saturday June 3

Rachel Dratch has been performing in comedy for more than a decade now, but it took her getting a featured role on Saturday Night Live for some folks to start paying serious attention to her work.

"It's funny, when I was slaving away in Chicago [as a member of the Second City comedy troupe], I was having a lot of fun, but my relatives didn't know what I was doing," Ms. Dratch said the other day at the Algonquin Hotel, where she and S.N.L. head writer Tina Fey met to talk about their upcoming two-woman comedy show, Dratch & Fey . "Then I get on S.N.L. , and everyone wants to talk about it. It's cool, but it's weird how TV legitimizes you."

Indeed, now that Ms. Dratch is on the tube, all kinds of weird stuff has been happening. Later this month, the 34-year-old actress will be the keynote speaker at her high school alma mater in Lexington, Mass.

"I think that the president of the class' mom ran into my mom at the supermarket or something," Ms. Dratch said. "Now I have to write this speech."

Ms. Dratch joined S.N.L. last fall. Ms. Fey, her friend and writing partner–also a Second City performing vet–has been a writer for the show for three years. The just-wrapped 1999 to 2000 season was Ms. Fey's first as head writer. The 30-year-old Philadelphia native is the first woman to hold that big-cheese title.

"I was happy to have Rachel there," Ms. Fey said. "At first, when she was auditioning, I felt like I was her mother, very protective. Once she got in the door, I was fine, because she had the ability to do good work. And we did write together a lot."

One of the running S.N.L. skits that Ms. Fey and Ms. Dratch co-wrote together (along with another S.N.L. writer) was "Sully & Denise," which features a bunch of hard-partying suburban Boston kids dropping the R's from their syntax. Ms. Dratch also scored with her impression of the hollow-cheeked Calista Flockhart, TV's Ally McBeal .

Ms. Dratch is a featured performer on S.N.L. , not a full cast member, and doesn't know for certain if she will be back next fall. She was asked if she did anything crazily desperate to stand out in the last few weeks of the season.

"Like that kid in Cider House Rules !" Ms. Fey said, laughing. "'Take me! I'm the best one!'"

No, Ms. Dratch, like everyone else, finds out her S.N.L. fate in July. In the meantime, Dratch & Fey has been a fun distraction. Ms. Dratch and Ms. Fey originally performed the live sketch comedy show last summer in Chicago, where it was praised for being ha-ha funny. It bows in New York on June 7 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater on West 22nd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

Tonight on S.N.L. , a repeat. Host: Joshua Jackson. [ WNBC, 4, 11:35 p.m. ]

Sunday, June 4

Ridley Scott's overrated Blade Runner tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel. [Sci-Fi, 44, 9 p.m.]

Monday, June 5

On May 31, CBS' Survivor, a megahyped voyeur-TV series about a bunch of rat-eating castaways living on a desert island, each trying to win a million bucks, makes its debut. Viewers preferring old-school voyeur-TV (and old-school rats) watch CSPAN's Public Affairs tonight. [CSPAN, 38, 8 p.m.]

Tuesday, June 6

It's pretty much summer now, so you're not supposed to be watching TV. Case in point: NBC drags out the rotting carcass of Veronica's Closet . [ WNBC, 4, 8:30 p.m. ]

– With Matthew Pacenza