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The episode of Saturday Night Live aired on April 22, 1978, can stake a legitimate claim to being the best in SNL history. Hosted for the fifth time by a never-better Steve Martin, the episode re-teams Martin with Dan Aykroyd for their strongest “Wild and Crazy Guys” sketch. (The one where the swinging Czech brothers patiently explain to Garrett Morris Cliff that their hot dates are late only because they had to pick up their birth control devices at the Statue of Liberty.) Martin and Gilda Radner do their deliriously silly and romantic pas de deux to “Dancing in the...

A handful of Saturday Night Live sketches have been appropriated by time and loss. The long-running sketch comedy show has seen more and more casualties from the ranks of the hundreds of cast and crew members who’ve walked the stages and hallways of Rockefeller Center’s Studio 8H and has chosen to memorialize their deaths with representative pieces from their time on the show, with unerring acumen. Steve Martin responded to the death from cancer of original Not Ready for Prime Time Player Gilda Radner during his 1987 monologue, the emotional comic introducing a 1978 sketch where he and Radner, as...

“March goes in like a lion and out like a lamb.” SNL’s Chief Meteorologist John Belushi reports on how other countries view the month of March.

Cathy Smith, the onetime girlfriend of singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot who might have been best remembered for inspiring the hit song “Sundown” had she not met up with John Belushi at the Chateau Marmont on March 5, 1982, died Aug. 18 at the age of 73. Her death was reported by Canada’s The Globe and Mail. The longtime resident of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, had been on oxygen and in failing health the past few years, the newspaper said. Smith, who had been a back-up singer (and occasional drug supplier) to the Canadian rockers who would later become The Band (she...

Star Trek: The Last Voyage - SNL

For Page Six’s 40th anniversary, we unearthed a recounting of “SNL” wildman John Belushi’s first talk- show interview on “Midday Live” in ’77. Belushi had to be rousted out of bed and appeared unshaven and “on all fours, crawling onto the set.” He then threw a glass of water on host Bill Boggs, kicked over a table and said on-air of the female producer who intervened, “I don’t know who this person is, but she’s asking for sex.”

WOW!  And by that by that I mean the “War on Women” of course. Today is “Equal Pay Day,” which is an annual event to bring public awareness to the insidious “gender wage gap.”Even though some contend that the gender pay gap is nothing butt a myth, we never let facts get in the way of a good emotional argument that leads to “Executive Action.”So today we’re heading into battle once again: with our mighty pen.Although I must say, our battles are starting to sound increasingly small: In his latest effort to circumvent Congress and highlight an issue that he...

HARVEY, Ill., Illinois officials announced plans to demolish a suburban Chicago mall that served as a set for a famous scene in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers." Gov. Pat Quinn said Thursday the state is receiving a $4 million federal grant to demolish Dixie Square Mall in Harvey to make way for redevelopment to revitalize the area, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday. The mall, which has been vacant for more than 30 years, served as a filming location for the mall car chase scene in "The Blues Brothers." "Dixie Square has been a place that we know has to...

When a force of nature like John Belushi is lost, 25 years isn't time enough to ease the grief or erase the laughter. Actor-comedian Richard Belzer still dreams about him from time to time, the unselfish friend and "impish genius" who devoured life. John Landis, who directed Belushi in "Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers," is still angry at him for dying foolishly and young. "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels feels an obligation to "restate the obvious," that Belushi was profoundly talented and part of the show's creative DNA. By most measures, the round comic with the sharp edges...

A scientist has found a 100 million-year-old bee trapped in amber, making it possibly the oldest bee ever found. "I knew right away what it was, because I had seen bees in younger amber before," said George Poinar, a zoology professor at Oregon State University. The bee is about 40 million years older than previously found bees. The discovery of the ancient bee may help explain the rapid expansion and diversity of flowering plants during that time. Poinar found the bee in amber from a mine in the Hukawng Valley of northern Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Many researchers buy...

Bob Woodward is getting it from all sides. You've heard the uproar over the famed Watergate sleuth's taking two years to reveal that he was leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Now the widow of John Belushi has recruited a gang of the late comic's friends to pay back Woodward for "Wired," his grim 1985 bio of her husband. After the "SNL" player OD'd, Judy Belushi Pisano encouraged all of his pals to talk to Woodward, who, like John, had grown up in Wheaton, Ill. She now tells us: "Woodward was the wrong guy [to write that book]....

Belushi Sues Neighbor Julie Newmar Actor James Belushi has sued next-door neighbor Julie Newmar for $4 million in damages, accusing the actress of a "campaign of harassment" designed to drive him from his home. Belushi, 50, claims in the lawsuit filed Nov. 2 that Newmar destroyed a fence and landscaping at the home in the posh Brentwood neighborhood and repeatedly made defamatory statements about him to neighbors and friends. The lawsuit also claims that Newmar spied on Belushi's family from her residence and caused a nuisance by playing loud music directed at his backyard. "Newmar has engaged in a malicious...

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 6) - James Belushi has sued his next-door neighbor, actress Julie Newmar, accusing her of a "campaign of harassment" to drive him from his home. In a lawsuit filed Nov. 2, the 50-year-old actor claims Newmar vandalized his estate by destroying a fence and landscaping. He also contends she bad-mouthed him to neighbors and friends, spied on his family and caused a nuisance by playing loud music directed at his backyard. A telephone number for Newmar, who played Catwoman in the 1960s television series "Batman," was not immediately available. A call to Belushi's lawyers was not returned...

A John Belushi impersonator was charged with a pair of felonies on Wednesday after a strange incident that included a high-speed chase and a singing Elvis.

Police responding to a report of an Elvis impersonator down with convulsions at a veterans hall soon found themselves in a high-speed chase - of a man dressed as a Blues Brother. ``Man, just when I thought that I had seen everything in this business, you realize you haven't scratched the surface,'' Capt. Dave Oyaas said Tuesday. According to Oyaas: Officers were called about 11 a.m. Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in this Twin Cities suburb, where they found a man dressed as Elvis on the ground outside. He appeared to be in convulsions. When the officers...

John Belushi gets Hollywood star From correspondents in Los Angeles 02apr04 US COMIC and actor John Belushi has been immortalised on Hollywood's glamorous Walk of Fame, 22 years after he died of a drug overdose. The Blues Brothers actor's gilt-edged star on the famed walk was unveiled by his emotional brother, Jim Belushi, who asked Hollywood's Chamber of Commerce to honour the late comic. "It's a great, great day today," said the 49-year-old Belushi, whose big brother John would have been 55 if he had survived. "It's great to have this star. Today we are retiring John's jersey. He is...