Comedian Kevin Hart hosted Saturday Night Live for this first time over the weekend, an achievement he described as “one of the biggest moments” of his career. During his opening monologue, Hart reminisced about his attempts to join the cast of SNL over a decade ago.
Asked if he did impressions, Hart said he created three for his audition, with poor results. His attempts at emulating Robert De Niro, former NBA legend Avery Johnson and Denzel Washington failed to earn him the job. Years later, when SNL offered Hart the opportunity to host, they again asked him, “Do you do impressions?”
To which Hart happily replied, “You bet … I do impressions!”
In last night’s episode, Hart played a variety of roles, including that of nine-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis, who was named the new pope in an early sketch.
The sequester was the topic of the show’s opening skit with President Obama announcing that the first lady would now be restricted to just four television appearances during the week because of budget cuts in Washington.
Music icon and SNL veteran Justin Timberlake will host his fifth episode of the show next week.
While SNL still does well on the weekends, NBC may be looking to shake things up on weekday nights.
Tonight Show host Jay Leno has been a part of NBC’s late night programming for over two decades, but rumors suggest that the 62-year-old may be on his way to retirement. Anonymous sources from within NBC claim that the network plans to make the 2013-14 season Leno’s last, and move Jimmy Fallon into the 11:35 p.m. time slot. The formal announcement is expected to be made in May, but NBC denies the claims.
In other entertainment news, a civil lawsuit filed by Katherine Jackson against entertainment conglomerate AEG Live is moving to trial. Jackson believes that AEG was responsible for the death of her son, pop legend Michael Jackson, blaming them for the negligent hiring of Dr. Conrad Murray.
Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his role in Jackson’s death in 2011. Attorneys for AEG claim that Murray was not directly employed by them, and that it cannot be proven that the promotion company could have predicted the danger that Murray created.
