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Phil Donahue was more than a trailblazing talk show host, he was also a mainstay of Saturday Night Live. Donahue was one of the few non-political celebrities to be impersonated by three different SNL cast members. The first was Joe Piscopo, who embodied the host during a sketch that aired on Oct. 2, 1982. In the scene, Donahue negotiates peace in the Middle East between Israel’s Menachem Begin (played by Tim Kazurinsky) and Palestine’s Yasser Arafat (played by Gary Kroeger). Though topical, the sketch only generated minor laughs. Still, it established a formula for Donahue as a character, and his...

GLEN ROCK, NJ - Joe Piscopo weighed-in on Glen Rock's consideration to change Columbus Day on its 2020 Borough Calendar to Indigenous Peoples' Day. Piscopo, former Saturday Night Live comedian and an Italian-American who regularly talks about his heritage on his radio show, Piscopo In the Morning on 970AM The Answer, asked why Glen Rock "would do something like this?" "There are these great towns in New Jersey and then they do something like this?" Piscopo said. "You have to be true to your heritage," Piscopo said this morning on his radio program. "Now you're going to take it away....

TRENTON -- Former "Saturday Night Live" star Joe Piscopo will not run for governor of New Jersey, and will instead endorse the Republican front-runner, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. "We are going to support Kim," Piscopo told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday shortly before going on his morning radio show on 970-AM to make the announcement. Guadagno had made a pilgrimage to Piscopo's home on Saturday and asked for a sit-down, promising to address his concerns in her campaign if he would agree not to divide the party, Piscopo said.

TRENTON -- "Saturday Night Live" alum Joe Piscopo has decided he will not run for New Jersey governor as a Republican and instead is planning to declare he will jump into the race to succeed Gov. Chris Christie as an independent candidate, NJ Advance Media has learned. Piscopo made his decision because he did not begin the process of running early enough to run as a Republican, according to two sources close to the performer who requested anonymity because they did not want to publicly discuss an official announcement that could trigger state election laws on fundraising.

PolitickerNJ has learned that Comedian-Actor-Radio Host Joe Piscopo summoned Tony Perry to his residence in Hunterdon County last weekend. Perry is the Chief of Staff to State Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Middletown). Piscopo, the morning drive time host on AM970, became highly associated with the Garden State via his Paulie Herman character (“I’m from Jersey”) and Frank Sinatra impressions on Saturday Night Live. He has been frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for governor this year, either as a Republican or Independent. According to a source in Monmouth County Republican politics, no specific political roles were discussed at the meeting, which...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Joe Piscopo’s Frank Sinatra impression, made famous from his days on “Saturday Night Live,” has gotten an update. It’s no longer “New York, New York,” but “NJ, NJ,” the actor, standup comic and potential 2017 Republican candidate for governor is now crooning. Piscopo performed the updated song — lyrics included “my New York and Philly blues are melting away” — at a recent charity event for the Boys and Girls Club in New Jersey, where his flirtation with running for governor to succeed incumbent Republican Chris Christie when his term ends in 2018 is out...

Monday on AM 970’s “The Joe Piscopo Show,” pollster Frank Luntz suggested that since Republican presidential candidate and longtime Clinton friend Donald Trump refused to say he would endorse whoever got the Republican party nomination, it is a real “possibility” Trump is planning a third party run. This, as host Joe Piscopo pointed out, would allow Hillary to “walk right in” to the presidency and be an astonishing historical repeat, because Ross Perot’s third party candidacy is credited for President Bill Clinton’s victory over President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Joe Piscopo, appearing on the Hannity show tonight said, the stimulus needed is to bring manufacturing back to America.

Dennis Hopper should be hopping mad, some Hollywood actors said this week. Hopper, who organized The Creative Coalition's Ball after the Ball Thursday night as part of the activities surrounding President Bush's inauguration, apparently got a surprise phone call from the Presidential Inaugural Committee Wednesday night - telling him not to come to his own party. "I feel terrible that the White House inaugural committee that invited Dennis decided to disinvite him," "Sopranos" actor Joe Pantoliano told reporters at the event, where the entertainment - aside from mingling with some of Tinseltown's stars - was singer Macy Gray. Hopper reportedly...