A lot of people were surprised that President Obama won a Nobel Prize this year, none more than I. Because I really thought Jane Lynch was going to get it. If you don’t know her name, you surely know her face ... because she’s everywhere. She’s the villain in television’s most celebrated new show, Glee. She played Julia Child’s sister, holding her own opposite Meryl Streep in the critical and commercial hit Julie & Julia, directed by Nora Ephron. She’s currently part of the ensemble cast of Nora and Delia Ephron’s off-Broadway play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She’s recurring on the consistently top-rated sitcom Two and a Half Men. She also starred in Post Grad, Spring Breakdown, Ice Age, Party Down, The L Word … and that’s just in 2009. Her work spans two decades and includes the films Best in Show, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, and [insert your favorite TV show here—she’s been on it: Friends, The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, JAG, Frasier, The X Files, Arrested Development—you get the idea].
I asked Nora Ephron to describe Lynch and received this answer: “How about ‘a genius.’ ”
Jane Lynch, genius, spoke to me by phone about her inner Angry Lady, why she didn’t come out of the closet until she was 31, her waning patience for the president, and the men’s parachute pants that haunted her dreams.
Faith Salie: You’ve said that you don’t have to dig deep for Glee’s deliciously evil cheerleading-coach character, Sue Sylvester. In your words, Sue is “not socially acceptable, so I don’t let her out too often. She’s this snarky person who loves to say heinous things—she’s horribly politically incorrect.” What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve said as Jane Lynch?
SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.
Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
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