If it seems like Tina Fey is everywhere these days, well, it’s probably because she kind of is. Last week, she graced the cover of Vanity Fair to refute those ridiculous “Women Aren’t Funny” claims. This past Sunday, she was smiling up from your Parade magazine, cute as fresh-picked daisies. And, very soon, she’ll be delivering the funny in a theater near you with Baby Mama. A new featurette for Tina and Amy Poehler‘s odd-couple comedy hit the web recently, and the more I see, the more I can’t wait until April 25. The two-minute spot intersperses clips from the trailer with Tina and Amy talking about the film.
The two women play polar opposites who come together when white-collar Kate (Tina) hires working-class Angie (Amy) to be her surrogate. What ensures is what Tina calls “as close as you can get to seeing me and Amy in a movie version of Laverne & Shirley.”
Really, if you think about it, aside from those delightful schlemiel, schlimazel gals, the female buddy comedy is a rarity indeed. At this point, someone is probably going to bring up Thelma & Louise, but I’d argue that any movie that ends with our heroines taking gravity’s elevator to the ground floor of the Grand Canyon should, at the very least, be labeled a dramedy.
In her Parade cover story, Fey talked about what drew her to the film. The 37-year-old said the idea that women can have it all informed the film’s humor. Ever the funny feminist (no, that’s not an oxymoron), Tina recalls the exhilaration of growing up in the Title IX generation:
“We’re going to sign you up for coed baseball, and you’re going to play basketball …” It was a good time to be a girl. You know, watching The Bad News Bears – it was takeover time.
Just as deep-seated are Tina’s comedy roots. At the tender age of 7, she drew a picture of people holding hands and carrying wedges of Swiss cheese that read: “What a friend we have in cheeses.” Oh, man, that’s still good, even 30 years later. The Parade story also comes with a quiz that asks, “Are you a Tina Fey fan?” While I don’t want to be immodest about my Tina Fey obsession prowess, let’s just say I scored in the 11—15 range, which is lovingly described as “Your obsession with Tina Fey is unrivaled.”
Though, really, when she says stuff like this, how could your love for all things Fey not be unrivaled?
I think for women especially, you need to have a plan. I need to have some other ways to generate income, so I don’t have to stretch my face or lift the top of my head with surgery or something … I often feel like a complete fool. I’m here laboring over this tiny show so much, and around me people are making money by the fistful. It’s like, ‘Oh, man, how can I turn my personality into a line of crappy products?’ Rachael Ray sells, like, spoons. I could sell pencils.
Oh, Tina, I would buy those pencils by the truckload.
