If I Were Tina Fey's Business Manager . . .

Ever since Gov. Palin was announced as Sen. McCain's pick, speculation turned to whether or not Tina Fey would play her on SNL.

She's not on staff anymore, but given the resemblance, she'd be a natural for the part, and poking around the interwebs, it seems expected, and if there isn't a Fey as Palin sketch in their first week back, I think folks will feel cheated.

What does that smell like? Smells like leverage, and lots of it. Lorne Michaels is a cheap bastard, but he's a smart cheap bastard, and he knows that for the duration of the election season he'll need Tina Fey to come in and deliver a sketch a week as Palin.

Don't know if they've ever solved their Barack problem, their first attempts were terrible, and I have no idea how they'll handle McCain, he presents them with some problems as well.

I'd say it's worth watching to see what happens, but we are talking about Saturday Night Live, and 'worth watching' and SNL really don't go together that often. Plus, they won't play fair with the politics, so whatever they come up with for Fey as Palin will be so absurdly offensive that the backlash from the first attempt might prevent any future appearances.

They could get away with offensive absurdity when they were a hip young show back in 1976, but now they are a venerable institution, a cash cow for NBC/Universal, and habitually play things safely, so I don't expect much from them.

But in the mean time, if Fey's business manager is at all competent, Fey will hold out for an unseemly pile of loot before coming back to the show temporarily. Afterall, she's a working mom with a wee one at home, so if she's going to give up a few rehearsals and Saturday evenings while also shooting 30 Rock, she's going to need serious compensation.