When Taylor Swift embarks on the press tour to promote her new album The Life of a Showgirl, it’s safe to say she won’t be visiting “Hollywood Dish.”
When Swift hosted Saturday Night Live in Season 35 on November 7, 2009, she was just two weeks away from the 2009 American Music Awards, where she was the most-nominated artist. It was also just two months after the VMAs, when Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech for Best Female Video. Swift’s huge year included this sketch from her double-duty episode, in which she met chaotic celebrity interviewers Brady Trunk (Bill Hader) and Anastasia Sticks (Kristen Wiig).
As the sketch starts, Swift immediately claims to be a big fan of Brady, Anastasia, and their Hollywood Dish show. They’re flattered, but not flattered enough to go easy on the singer.
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“Six American Music Award nominations. Not bad!” may seem like an innocuous beginning, but Swift is quickly thrown by Brady and Anastasia’s unnerving facial expressions and synchronized head movements.
“I’m sorry, is everything okay?” Swift asks. “It’s just you’re nodding a lot, and I thought maybe you were trying to tell me something.”
“Oh, no, no, no! We just don’t want to talk while you’re talking,” Wiig’s character explains.
“It’ll screw up the sound,” Brady adds. “We just do that so you know we’re engaged.”
Ever the amiable guest, Swift plays along.
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Taylor Swift kept her composure while Bill Hader spit in Kristen Wiig’s face
Problem is, those active listening facial expressions get a thousand times worse. As Swift shares her nerves about performing live, they mime screaming. When she shares that she feels pretty good about winning at the AMAs, they shake their heads and whisper to each other.
Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader sitting next to Taylor Swift on Saturday Night Live Season 35, Episode 5.
“What do you think about Ellen joining American Idol?” Brady asks.
“American Idol? I don’t really watch it, honestly,” she admits — whereupon Hader spits his full beverage in Wiig’s face.
From there, they smear lipstick on their faces, eat ice cream, and even fall asleep as Swift tries to answer their questions, then leaves when it all becomes too much. Of course, that’s not what the final edit shows.
Watch “Hollywood Dish” from Season 35, Episode 5 above, and stream every season of Saturday Night Live on Peacock anytime.
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“Hollywood Dish” aired two more times with Jennifer Lopez and Scarlett Johansson
Swift starred in the first iteration of “Hollywood Dish,” but Anastasia and Brady returned twice in 2010 to interview Jennifer Lopez and Scarlett Johansson. They drove both stars to breakdowns, and they’ve never conducted another interview since, so it’s not a stretch to imagine that they might have finally been fired.
Hollywood Dish with Scarlett Johansson
Swift has only hosted that one time, but that episode resulted in plenty of memorable moments. In Digital Short “Firelight,” Swift channeled Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan in a romance with one of Frankenstein’s monsters, played by Hader. She also debuted her impression of Kate Gosselin in a parody of The View, complete with a wig that will be hard to unsee.