Carrey out as Biden on ‘SNL’

It was with some fanfare that “Saturday Night Live” announced in the fall that it had recruited Jim Carrey to play former Vice President Joe Biden, then the Democratic presidential nominee and now president-elect. At the time, “SNL” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels went so far as to say that Carrey’s performance would be “stunning, and possibly transcend comedy.”

But Carrey’s exit from the role, which he had not played since November, was more subdued. In a tweet posted Saturday afternoon, Carrey wrote that his time playing Biden “was only meant to be 6 weeks” and that although he considered the assignment to be “comedy’s highest call of duty,” he was “just one in a long line of proud, fighting SNL Bidens!” (As longtime viewers know, the part had previously been played by cast members and guest stars including Jason Sudeikis, Woody Harrelson and John Mulaney.)

And by Saturday night, “SNL” had already lined up another cast member, Alex Moffat, to play Biden in the show’s opening sketch.

‘Ready Player Two’ tops fiction list

“Ready Player Two,” Ernest Cline’s sequel to “Ready Player One,” debuted atop the hardcover fiction best-seller list.

At No. 2 is another sequel, John Grisham’s “A Time for Mercy.” Rounding out the top 10 are “Deadly Cross” by James Patterson; “The Return” by Nicholas Sparks; “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett; “Daylight” by David Baldacci; “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens; “The Law of Innocence” by Michael Connelly; “The Awakening” by Nora Roberts; and “The Sentinel” by Lee Child and Andrew Child.