NEW YORK: Actress Melissa McCarthy took her impersonation of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, to the streets of New York City on Friday, rolling through midtown traffic on a motorized lectern in an apparent shoot for “Saturday Night Live.”
McCarthy hosted the NBC television show on Saturday, when she revived her portrayal of Spicer as a gum-chewing shouter who berates and threatens journalists for asking probing questions.
The hour-long skit show has been broadcast live since it began in 1975.
Cellphone videos posted on social media showed McCarthy suited up shouting at cars to get out of the way as she cruised through traffic.
Spicer said in an interview with the news magazine show Extra in February that the impression was “funny,” although he also suggested she “could dial back” the performance somewhat.
He has also referred to McCarthy’s tendency, when dressed as Spicer, to drive a motorized lectern rapidly toward a reporter who asks an aggravating question.
“Don’t make me make the podium move,” he said to laughter at a news briefing in March in response to a pointed question about the latest employment figures.
Spicer’s boss, US President Donald Trump, has been a guest host on “Saturday Night Live” twice, in 2004 and 2015. He now takes a dim view of the show, which has also regularly featured an unflattering portrayal of him by Alec Baldwin wearing orange make-up.
On Twitter, Trump has called the show “unwatchable,” “biased,” “not funny” and “sad.”
Melissa McCarthy motors through NY dressed as Sean Spicer
Melissa McCarthy motors through NY dressed as Sean Spicer
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
