Another week, another issue of The Envelope — this one focused on funny business. So if you’re in the dog-day doldrums, let our comedy issue be a salve. Read on for the top contenders in the category and plenty more besides.
Cover story: Jessica Williams
(Ryan Pfluger / For The Times)
As a function of my trade, my personal style is closer to “Spotlight” than “The Devil Wears Prada,” but when 6-foot-tall Jessica Williams stepped onto the set of this week’s cover shoot sporting a vinyl jacket, sunglasses and statement jewelry, I actually muttered aloud, “Oh, hell yeah.”
Williams has always known how to make an entrance, according to cover story contributor Maureen Lee Lenker. “I’ve known her since we were 12 years old, awkward adolescents in Marcia Barryte’s Dodson Middle School drama class,” Lenker writes. “As we catch up, I remind her of a PG-13 scene she caused in eighth grade science class during an earthquake drill. … While the class collected our backpacks, she broke into an award-worthy performance, wailing about not wanting to die a virgin.”
OK. So the cover outfit wasn’t quite that loud. But it grabbed my attention!
Digital cover: ‘Hacks’
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
As a fan of both “Hacks” and “Love Story,” imagine my delight last week when my phone began to ping with social media posts about Megan Stalter and Paul W. Downs’ “fight” in a New York park, reenacting the famed Bryant Park blowout between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
Even better, it came just as I had put the finishing touches on my edit of this week’s digital cover story, by contributor Margy Rochlin. Reading her interview with the duo, it’s hard not to conceive of them in terms of the other great comedy pairings — the Burns and Allen of the red carpet, the Nichols and May of celebrity culture, the Stiller and Meara of tabloid excess.
They’ll have to stick together beyond “Hacks” for those comparisons to pass muster, though. Or give us the Kayla and Jimmy spinoff we’re clamoring for. I’m not picky.
The ‘DWTS’ renaissance
(Eric McCandless / Disney)
Once a reality TV series has been on long enough, it risks a certain complacency — both in its format and in Emmy voters’ motivation to nominate it. But as contributor Gregory Ellwood points out in his story on “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC’s 21-year-old dance competition bucked the trend this year, earning high ratings and its first series Emmy nod in a decade.
What’s the secret? Capitalizing on social media trends, finding committed cast members, tapping into nostalgia and much more, as Ellwood reports. (And, if I may editorialize a moment, an Aussie hunk becoming your big winner certainly doesn’t hurt.)
