Amy Poehler's new series is from the creators of The Office, but it's not an Office spin-off, OK? The show's executives are really hammering that home. So, what's the best way to distinguish the two? Correct: Cast ex-Dunder Mifflin employee Rashida Jones to star on the new show!

Here's the part that's the same: The show is a documentary-style sitcom by Greg Daniels.

Here's the part that's different: Jones will not play paper saleswoman Karen Filippelli; she will play a nurse named Ann.

You might remember Jones from the puppy/kitten PSAs she did recently with Natalie Portman. Or the doomed series Unhitched. Or, she might be forever etched in your mind as the final stepping stone in the path of my most beloved television couple, Pam Beesly and Jim Halpert. … continue reading

The American election that would not end has finally come to a close. This is our final piece of election coverage here at AfterEllen.com, and it's about the other winners — the women who scored a resounding victory during the buildup to yesterday's historic election.

6) Amy Poehler
Those of us who lived through it will always remember Poehler's Hillary Clinton on sexism: "An issue I'm frankly shocked to hear people suddenly care about." We'll think back fondly on her turn as the rapid-blinking Katie Couric. But what our collective consciousness will forever be seared by is the sight of third trimester Poehler rapping between Eskimos and then busting a cap in a "mother-humping" moose. That is the moment she slipped out of Tina Fey's shadow forever.

5) Katie Couric
She didn't have it easy when she left the Today Show for the CBS Evening News. In fact, lots of people forgot about her altogether -- until a woman news anchor was needed to bat down the "sexism" cry and ask Sarah Palin some tough questions. It was excruciatingly necessary, like a root canal. In the end, Couric's interview was one of the top ten Google searches of the entire election. … continue reading

Amy Poehler had me at, "I'm not like a regular mom; I'm a cool mom." And she claimed me forever with, "Shoot a mother-humpin' moose eight days of the week!"

This summer, I was so stoked when word leaked from the TCA press tour that Poehler was to headline the mythical Office spin-off. That turned out to be only a half-truth. While Poehler will be starring in a new NBC comedy produced by Greg Daniels and written by Mike Schur (both from The Office), it's an entirely new series that has nothing to do with staplers or paper clips.

Mum has been the word on Poehler's new comedy until just this week.

E! Online's Kristen Dos Santos busted up an event at the Paley Center for Media when the Office writing team was there on Wednesday. … continue reading

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin earned some points tonight for being a good sport by making a cameo on Saturday Night Live, in which she mocked Tina Fey mocking her. Tina Fey scored some points for letting her show 30 Rock be mocked by Palin. And Amy Poehler ran away with the game with her Sarah Palin rap.

Who lost points for this? Whoever wrote the skit, which seemed haphazardly assembled, not very funny, and a huge waste of an opportunity. Tina Fey and Sarah Palin in a skit together, and you can't wring more than a couple of laughs out of it? Really?

Watch their skit below, or just skip to the next videoof Amy's rap...

Great lyrics, great delivery, and the moose wandering through the set was inspired. (Jason Sudeikis's Todd Palin impersonation was pretty funny, too.) … continue reading

Tina Fey was back on Saturday Night Live tonight with her hilarious and eerily accurate portrayal of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin, re-enacting with Amy Poehler Palin's now-infamous interview with CBS news anchor Katie Couric last week.

Watch it here now (and if you missed Fey's first Palin imitation on SNL, watch it here):

The most salient point made by the skit was showing how Palin ducks difficult questions by rephrasing the question as the answer, using half-finished thoughts, or acting "increasingly adorable." (Even conservative Republican columnist Kathleen Parker wrote this week that Palin "filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there.")

But the best/scariest aspect of the skit? Several lines of Palin's (Fey's) answers — on topics like how she and McKain would spread democracy, and how exactly Palin has gained foreign policy experience by living near Russia — weren't even made up, they came directly from her interview with Couric (watch and read transcripts here and here).

But let's set aside the accuracy of the spoof — since that will be covered everywhere else — and get to the funny.

Favorite Fey/Palin hand gesture(s)? Pretty much all of them.

Favorite made-up line? On visiting the U.N. for the first time: "... I was disheartened by how many of them were foreigners. I promise that when Sen. McCain and I are elected, we're going to get those jobs back in American hands!" Brilliant summary of America's myopic foreign policy approach over the last 8 years.

Second favorite line? "Katie, I'd like to use one of my lifelines now." I'll bet she would!

What was your favorite line/moment/gesture? And, aside from the fact that Tina Fey is a Democrat who stands against, and is repugnant to, almost everything Republicans believe in, is there any reason the Republicans shouldn't dump Palin and make Tina Fey McCain's running mate? I mean, not to belabor the point, but can you give me even one specific reason?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that lesbians love funny women. So when this week's Rolling Stone showed up at Scientistics headquarters, we were beside ourselves with merriment, because Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman and Amy Poehler all made the cover (front, back and pullout) of the golden age of comedy issue.

Inside the magazine were loads more of our favorites: Mindy Kaling, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes, Phyllis Diller and Julia Louis-Dreyfus — an all-star comedy list!

We couldn't help but notice that the funny guys got lots more coverage that the funny gals. How much more, you ask?

We didn't dwell on that, though, because there was research to be done. Below we've condensed the content to help us determine which woman is funniest. … continue reading

Talk about your good news, bad news, good news days. Fresh off her snarky and brilliant performance as Hilary Clinton (opposite Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin), Amy Poehler has revealed that she is leaving Saturday Night Live in November.

Oh, Amy, please don’t go.

But, as Amy said in the new issue of Men’s Vogue, it is simply time to say goodbye:

It’s gonna be really hard — Boyz II Men hard — to say goodbye to yesterday. SNL was dangerous, late-night, last-minute and star-studded, but like any good drug, you need to know when to put it down.

But if that’s the bad news, the second round of good news is that after her maternity leave is over, Amy will star in her own previously-announced NBC series from producers of The Office. The TV gods taketh, and they giveth back. While details about the new show are scarce, it’s great to hear that another talented, funny, deserving SNL alum will have her chance to shine on the small screen, though Amy is already producing an animated children's series, The Mighty B!, for Nickelodeon. … continue reading

On last night's season opener of Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey returned to play Alaskan Gov. and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, while Amy Poehler reprised her dead-on impression of Hillary Clinton, in one of the funniest skits I've seen on SNL in a long time (and alas, one of the only funny skits of the night).

Palin and Clinton joined forces to send a "nonpartisan message" asking for an end to sexism in the presidential campaigns. Watch it here (or on NBC.com):

Palin's shotgun pose and enthusiastic pronouncement that "I can see Russia from my house!"? Hilarious. And Clinton's comment about sexism in the media being "An issue which I am frankly surprised to hear people suddenly care about" was genius — and very, very true. … continue reading

Saturday Night Live has always been classified as a variety show by the folks who make the Emmy laws (yeah, I have no idea who those people are either). This year, however, a rule change pushed SNL to the comedy category, and the only Emmy contender left standing was Amy Poehler.

Poehler is up against Kristin Chenoweth from Pushing Daisies, Jean Smart from Samantha Who?, Vanessa Williams from Ugly Betty, and Emmy favorite Holland Taylor from Two And A Half Men for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at this year's Emmy Awards.

She chatted with L.A. Times award guru Tom O'Neil this week about her chances of winning in such a tough category. "There may be some last-minute injuries," she told O'Neil. "There might be some Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya Harding thing coming your way. You never know. Maybe I'll reject the award on behalf of someone. I'll think of something controversial. It's better to burn out than fade away, right?" … continue reading

There was so much exciting information spinning out of the TCA press tour last week that it was kind of like being on a 12-day sugar buzz — especially because so much of the news revolved around some of my favorite former Saturday Night Live ladies. Let me condense a week's worth of information for you: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Molly Shannon will be lining up side-by-side with their own NBC comedies this year.

Tina Fey will, of course, be back as Liz Lemon for the third season of 30 Rock. She'll return to the set with her TCA award for for individual achievement in comedy, and probably at least one more Emmy. In April Entertainment Weekly asked, "Is it hot in here or is just Tina Fey's career?"

It is hot in here, Entertainment Weekly, but it's not just her career.

Molly Shannon will be staring alongside Selma Blair in NBC's remake of the popular Australian comedy Kath and Kim about a dysfunctional mother-daughter team. NBC's hopes, it seems, are even higher than mine. They've slated Kath and Kim to anchor their legendary Thursday night of Must See TV. … continue reading

I was never one of the kids who went away to a traditional summer camp, so I had to live vicariously through the kids on my TV screen. Summer camp movies are a fun genre that have several staples: water sports, boy/girl awkwardness, and camp fires. I'm not sure why this resonates within so many of us (especially with that whole "boy awkwardness" bit) but it seems to be a popular theme for several summertime films.

While so many of the camp films are of the horror variety (Sleepaway Camp, Summer Camp Nightmare, Friday the 13th), there are also the funny ones that tug at the heart strings. Summer camp means friendship and crushes, at least that's what I've learned from my favorites:

Camp

If you're looking for an all-out gay summer experience, musical theater camp is surely the place for you. Unfortunately, the guys have most of the fun in Camp. But Ellen Lucas (Joanna Chilcoat) at least gets to make out with camp hottie Vlad before he hooks up with everyone else, and she also does a great performance of "And I'm Telling You" in a production of Dreamgirls. Though the cast of this 2003 film was largely unknown, it was endearingly sweet and fun to watch, like a queer singalong.

Camp Nowhere

When you're young, movies where kids take matters into their own hands are always a hit. Creating your own summer camp with your parents' money? Far-fetched, yes; ideal, totally. A young Jessica Alba has a cameo in this ensemble film that starred Jonathan Jackson and Andrew Keegan. But the real prize of the film: bikini-clad Marnette Patterson, brilliantly named Trish. … continue reading

We're still anxiously awaiting the premiere of Season 1 of The L Word on Logo, and it's left us no choice but to go see movies. This week, we were all to happy to fill the seats for our girls Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on the opening day of Baby Mama.

In case you haven't already heard, Baby Mama is about wealthy business woman Kate (Fey), who discovers that she's infertile and then hires zany working-class gal Angie (Poehler) to be her surrogate. Hijinks ensue when circumstances force junk food-eating, karaoke-singing Angie to move in with health food snob and control-freak Kate. It's like The Odd Couple, but with breast pumps.

So in our special Baby Mama edition of WGN, we review the film, talk about why we love Fey and Poehler, and display some frightening photos of the children we "made" with the "Baby Mama baby maker" program on the Baby Mama website. Watch and decide whose "baby" is the ugliest. Is it mine and Jill's? Dara's and Jill's? Mine and, gulp, Dara's?

Warning: Minor Spoilers

Your morning bowl of Froot Loops is about to taste even sweeter: Amy Poehler is coming to Nickelodeon's Saturday morning cartoon lineup. Now instead of waiting until 11:35 p.m. for your weekly dose of Poehler, you can have a colorful, animated version of Amy, bright and early, beginning this weekend.

Poehler’s new gig is the voice of Bessie Higgenbottom, a lovably annoying 9-and-¾-year-old with a substantial lisp and an overactive imagination, in The Mighty B!

Your basic run-of-the-mill hyperactive youngster, Bessie is a devout and loyal member of the Honey Bee Scouts (think Brownies or Girl Scouts) with an obsession for earning Bee badges. She has a can-do (albeit extreme) optimism that will hopefully rub off on the young girls who watch the show, teaching them that girls can do anything.

When I was a young tot, female cartoon leading ladies were few and far between. Sure, we had some 'toons to look up to: The ever cheerful Rainbow Brite immediately comes to mind, and I would be remiss if I did not mention the "truly outrageous" Jem, but they were such, well … do-gooders that it made them kind of stale. We never had a Dennis the Menace or a Bart Simpson; we had Wilma, Betty and Thelma, and let’s face it: They never got the roles or the dialogue they deserved, so I cannot in good consciousness credit them with knocking down any barriers for the women's cartoon movement. I think it’s long overdue that an animated character like this one has come around. Bessie is the feisty and funny cartoon we have been aching to see. … continue reading

If you happened to be one of the thousands grounded last week by American Airlines, at least you got a pleasant surprise once you got on the plane.

Is Amy Poehler adorable or what? She's been in the news quite a bit lately because of her new movie with Tina Fey, Baby Mama, and her dead-on spoof of Hillary Clinton.

Fortunately, we reap the benefits of all of this press and get to learn more about one of our favorite funny people. In the American Way interview, for example, Poehler tells us she's as much of a loudmouth in real life as she is on Saturday Night Live. … continue reading

For me, the only thing better than a funny woman is two funny women. So, you can imagine my excitement about the April 25 opening of the Tina Fey–Amy Poehler odd-couple comedy Baby Mama. To further whet our appetites, the film has launched the new Baby Mama Babymaker website where you can see the virtual fruits of your (or anyone's) loins. The best thing about the site? Same-sex couplings are not only encouraged, they're prominently displayed.

So, naturally, I had to make my own faux lesbian coupling offspring. The results, um, well. Straight up, I'm not going to lie. These are unquestionably the ugliest babies I have ever seen. In fact, some of them scare the bejesus out of me. I mean it. They're truly, truly terrifying. There, you've been warned.

First I thought I'd match two of the smartest women in entertainment together. Behold the love child of Tina Fey and Jodie Foster. Actually, wee JoTi is almost cute. Almost. … continue reading