Over the last few weeks, Tina Fey has managed to parlay her slight resemblance to Sarah Palin into something that has eluded Fey for at least 10 years: fame. And you know who doesn’t like it? Her fellow Greek-American Pete Sampras!
I know, I had to Google him too. He used to be a professional tennis player, and now he’s… a former professional tennis player. The other night some kid from TMZ followed Sampras around the streets of Malibu with a camera, because that’s what TMZ does, and Sampras raised the kid’s ire by yelling, “Go McCain!” Here’s the ensuing conversation:
TMZ: Alright, so you’re, like, one of my first people to ever get… say they were a Republican, or goin’ for McCain and Sarah Palin. What do you think about, uh, Tina Fey playing her on Saturday Night Live?
Sampras: I, I didn’t see it.
TMZ: You haven’t seen it?
Sampras: No.
TMZ: It’s all over the Internet, man.
Sampras: Really? I don’t know Tina Fey. Is she a Greek gal?
TMZ: No, she just won, like, 20 Emmys the other night for 30 Rock.
Sampras: What’s an Emmy?
TMZ: [laughs] “What’s an Emmy.”
Sampras: Well, I don’t, I, listen, listen, okay? I’m an athlete. I win or I lose. I’m not objective in votes and all that crap.
TMZ: Right, it’s all based on your skills.
Sampras: You figured it out.
TMZ: So, what do you think about the acting role? You think that it’s not based on her skill at all?
Sampras: They’re very skillful. I admire all actors. I just don’t believe in their political views.
TMZ: You don’t believe in their political–
Sampras: I don’t.
TMZ: You think, uh, sports people should take more of a political view?
Sampras: No, I don’t. Watch the car.
TMZ: You don’t think sports people should speak out? Nobody should speak out.
Sampras: No.
TMZ: Kinda like Kid Rock. He recently said that he doesn’t value any of their opinions.
Sampras: I don’t.
TMZ: Alright, man, well… I wish–
Sampras: Got that? You take that to the bank.
TMZ: I wish you, John McCain, and Sarah Palin all the greatest luck.
Sampras: Hey. Experience.
TMZ: Experience. Alright, man. Have a good one.
I’m not even sure what the point of all that was, but I just spent way too much time transcribing it, so I might as well post it. Maybe TMZ is saying that if you’re a former pro athlete walking down the street, and some dude from a gossip site starts bugging you and puts it up on the Internet, that’s the same as doing a sketch on SNL? Well, why not. Makes about as much sense as anything else this election season.
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Hey wasn’t he on the Simpsons?
I’m a little confused. Who is the hypocrite here? Tina Fey was pretty famous before the Sarah Palin stuff. Not only was she great as the head writer at SNL but she has 30 Rock. While the dumb asses at NBC put it up against shows like Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy, her show chugs along with decent ratings and racks up emmy awards. Tina also had great success with Baby Mama recently. She’s no Madonna or Britney Spears but I think she is getting by.
As for her appearances as Palin, she and Lorne Michaels are still pretty tight. I think he had a hand in production of Baby Mama and is involved in 30 Rock somehow. Originally, Fey had begged off doing any more Palin stuff because she is super busy with 30 Rock but Lorne probably convinced her to do it as a friend.
SNL has done caricatures of political figures since the get go. Kristin Wiig’s impersonation of Nancy Pelosi was hilarious, as was Will Ferrel’s of Bush, Hammond’s Gore and Clinton, Poehler as Hillary Clinton, etc. And you know what? Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin is pretty hilarious too.
tips@deceiver.com
IMO, Queen Bee, Sampras is the hypocrite here for yelling “Go McCain!” and then saying celebrities shouldn’t go public with their political opinions. Or specifically, actors. Since they all hold one political view.
So walking down the street is the same thing as going on SNL?
Walking down the street, talking to the paps. If Sampras felt like talking about his presidential vote to TMZ, I think it makes him fair game.
As opposed to walking into a TV studio and talking to the country. Walking back to your car after dinner is the same as dressing up as a politician on national TV?
It just confused me because it seemed you started out by ragging on Tina Fey:
“Over the last few weeks, Tina Fey has managed to parlay her slight resemblance to Sarah Palin into something that has eluded Fey for at least 10 years: fame”
Then you gave us Pete Sampras’s take on things as he was being hounded by paparazzi. I don’t have video at work and my only frame of reference is seeing the videos of Britney Spears getting hounded by hundreds of paps. I doubt Pete merits such attention.
Yes, I’ve noticed that.
After making fun of him for being a has-been. Guess that doesn’t count.
My esteemed fellow blogger, I have to say, Tina Fey is a red herring here. She went on SNL to mock Palin for the sake of comedy, sure. And I too am mystified why TMZ even followed Sampras in the first place. But Sampras opened up that can of worms by shouting out his McCain endorsement, then claiming he hates when celebrities open their traps about politics. What he clearly means is he hates when liberal celebrities open their traps.
Did he say he hates it, or that he doesn’t agree with them?
And is it okay if he doesn’t have a perfectly formed statement about it? I mean, he wasn’t reading this off cue cards in front of a national TV audience. He was answering a series of not-exactly-coherent questions from some silly child with a video camera.
Ok, thank you for clearing things up for me. I is confuzzled a lot.
That cleared things up for you? All I got out of it was ‘Simon’s’ snarky insult when you told him that Tina Fey was already famous, which she was before impersonating a political bimbo with the IQ of a radish.
Funny how so many men online have this blind devotion for Governor Palin. She isn’t ever going to have sex with you, you know.
Mean Girls! Yeah.
That’d be a good rumor to start, though. Why not another one, there are like 80 of them.
“I’m an athlete. I win or I lose.” — Pete Sampras
That’s really all you need to know here folks. No hypocrisy here, none of this bipartisan garbage, nothing at all to do with anything but Mr. Sampras manages to lay out what it’s all about in 5 words. “I win or I lose.”
You don’t know who Pete Sampras is?
What are you, twelve years old?
filthyRichmond.com
Y’know, I flipping hate tennis and I know who Pete Sampras is.
Anyway, I’ll agree with him all the same – actors, atheletes, models, beauty pageant contestants and other like professionals whose assets are based on inherently superficial values should keep their mouthes shut when it comes to issues that require the use of a few brain cells. If your career path fall into any of these categories, you are dumb as a brick until proven otherwise. Of course, Mr. Sampras himself could benefit from his own advice, it seems.
On another note, did Sampras’s rant remind anyone else of Miss Teen North Carolina from a while back?
This is classic! “…. which she was before impersonating a political bimbo with the IQ of a radish.
Funny how so many men online have this blind devotion for Governor Palin. She isn’t ever going to have sex with you, you know.”
snapnhiss – Have you met Palin? Obama? McCain? Biden? How do you know what their intelligence level is? By some sound bites and how well they read a speech written a head of time? Or are you just refilling your cup with more kool-aid?
On topic: I totally agree with Sampras, I can’t stand hearing actors and athletes spout their political views. You’re an entertainer, just shut up and wiggle for me!
I don’t know about that Austin. I think as long as you are an American and you pay taxes you should be able to say whatever the you want about politics. I think it is a basic right of all people to criticize their government no matter how much money they make or how dumb you think they are.
There is a huge difference between What Pete Sampras did with a “go Mccain” and what a Sean Penn, or hell, even a Ted Nugent does.
He never once got preachy or told us why. He just supports McCain. So what? Did he tell YOU to go vote for McCain? Did he even tell you to go register to vote? No, he Said “go McCain”.
Woo-Hoo.
@ Whatever (from the Scalzi site, perhaps, where a similar discussion is moving along?)
Yes, you are right. Opinions and free speech are rights that everyone has, and they should exercise it. Perhaps I should rephrase my own knee-jerkiness here and say that it bothers me a lot how seriously people take celebrity political endorsements, when all evidence runs to show that celebrities as a class tend to not really know what they’re talking about; certainly many of them (Sampras included?) don’t seem to show the same kind of informed or balanced attitude that many journallists, commentators and other politically active observers display regularly.
And this isn’t to say there aren’t intelligent or informed celebrities, either. One of the best just passed away this last week, after all. What’s more to the point is that Sampras, along with many others featured on this site, should probably think before they speak.
I could probably use that bit of advice, too. D’oh…
You guys are obviously seeing Sampras saying something I’m not seeing. Rant? Hate? “They should keep their mouths shut”? All he said is that he disagrees with them. That’s still permissible, at least for the next few months.
“TMZ: You think, uh, sports people should take more of a political view?
Sampras: No, I don’t. Watch the car.
TMZ: You don’t think sports people should speak out? Nobody should speak out.
Sampras: No.
TMZ: Kinda like Kid Rock. He recently said that he doesn’t value any of their opinions.
Sampras: I don’t.”
Rant, perhaps not. But, I’m feeling surly today.
But there’s definitely a message of “STFU” for celebrities in there…
Tina Fey might be a babe, but I think she is only mildly amusing at best. You know who I always thought was funny? Ruth Buzzi.
Sampras thinks Palin=Experience? Oh, right. He’s a jock.
How’d he get Greek from Tina Fey? (I know she’s Greek, but her stage name doesn’t sound like it too much.)
Ummm hasn’t SNL been making fun of politicians for YEARS???
SoOoOoOo why so sensitive about Palin???
Does the Scowl-er have a soft spot for Mrs. Palin???
It’s Saturday Night Live not CNN… The skits are funny, people are obviously watching according to the ratings… Millions of hits for the skits on you tube & nbc.com! Sounds pretty impressive to me…
Why did this even get posted? Pete Sampras seems like a nice guy and Tina Fey is hilarious (and has been famous for some time). Sometimes I think this site stretches stories just to somehow fill some space.
tips@deceiver.com
WEeEeEel saAaAaAid.
Hey, you were right about the fame part. Tina was famous and she seems to be on the verge of extra famous.
For a while, former (and current) Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey has been urged to write a book by several publishers.
But, now that Fey’s gotten a bunch of Emmys and a ton of great publicity for imitating Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, her status as a big name celeb has gotten even greater and her requests for writing a book have increased.
Offers are coming in like crazy and it looks like Fey may cash in, BIG TIME.
One publisher has already offered her a $5 million advance!
And, according to sources, other publishers have started to offer even more, which has caused a bidding war.
The reported offer was then raised to $6 million.
An insider is saying there is no final proposal yet and that Fey has been too busy to meet face to face with any of the publishers.
As for the book, it’s not being pitched as a memoir, but instead as “nonfiction humor, more in the style of author, screenwriter and film director Nora Ephron.”
Either way, Sarah Palin is good for one thing. And that’s giving the 30 Rock star a huge boost in her career!
I certainly didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings by making fun of Tina Fey’s level of fame. Well. Maybe her feelings.
…How do you not know who Pete Sampras is, honestly?
i think it’s a little more than a slight resemblance. fey’s own kid saw palin on tv and said “that’s mommy.”
what exactly do you have against tina fey? she’s smart, funny, and successful.
off topic: in her sarah palin impersonation, it’s hard to see where the reality ends and the parody begins. her palin dialogue is almost verbatim.
in any case, i don’t understand why simon scowl gets so snarky with the commenters.
And therefore above mockery.
Why not?
you didn’t answer the question. and yes, i do believe people who do not deserve mockery are indeed above mockery.
and since you didn’t explain why you are snarky, i’ll conclude for myself that it’s because you don’t really know how to eloquently defend yourself of the criticism your blog entries provoke, so you resort to trying to make those commenters feel stupid.
Which one?
So Tina Fey, unlike every other person on the planet, is above mockery. Sounds good!
You’re doing fine.