McKinnon reveals why she left ‘SNL’
Kate McKinnon was one of several cast members to step away from “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year. It wasn’t an easy decision for McKinnon, who had been a mainstay on the NBC sketch comedy show for 10 years after joining in season 37.
But speaking with Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa on Thursday on “Live
With Kelly and Ryan,” she stressed it was time for a change.
“I thought about it for a very long time, and it was very, very hard,” McKinnon said. “All I ever wanted to do in my whole life was be on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ So, I did, I loved it, I had the best decade, and then I was just like ‘my body was tired,’ and I felt like it was time.”
Seacrest then asked what she’ll do now on Saturday nights, but McKinnon is still figuring that out.
“I don’t know what I will do,” she said. “I don’t know that I can watch the show yet because it’s too emo because I miss everyone so much. It’s my family, it’s too emo. So I think I’m just going to tape ‘The Bachelorette’ and watch it.”
McKinnon holds the record as the longest running female cast member in “SNL” history.
In May, Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney also departed the NBC show.
Kahlo to be subject of musical:
Frida Kahlo, whose art is as immediate and unsentimental as her own fight with adversity, will be the subject of an upcoming musical with music by Mexican composer Jaime Lozano and lyrics by playwright Neena Beber.
The musical has the blessing of the Kahlo
family — universal rights owners of the Frida Kahlo estate represented by Alfonso Duran — alongside BTF Media and theatrical producer Valentina Berger. A workshop is planned for 2023.
The planned musical — called “Frida, The Musical” — will follow Kahlo’s journey from Mexico City to Paris and New York, and finally back home to the house of her birth. Producers call it “a full-throated celebration of Kahlo’s joyous spirit of creativity and her unmatched gift for transforming physical and emotional pain into breathtaking beauty.”
Actor Blacque dies:
Taurean Blacque, an Emmy-nominated actor who was known for his
role as a detective on the 1980s NBC drama series “Hill Street Blues,” has died at age 82.
Blacque’s family announced in a statement Thursday that Blacque died in Atlanta following a brief illness.
The actor portrayed the streetwise detective Neal Washington during the entire run of “Hill Street Blues,” from 1981 to 1987. Blacque earned an Emmy nomination for best supporting actor in a drama series in 1981.
Blacque also starred with Vivica Fox on the NBC soap opera “Generations,” and had guest roles on television series such as “Sanford and Son,” “What’s Happening,” “Good Times,” “Taxi” and “The Bob Newhart Show.”