Live From New York - James H. Miller [281]
Now if this is a “can money buy me love” question — no, it can’t. But then we all have that problem. I don’t have quite that much money, so I have to improvise.
ALAN ZWEIBEL, Writer:
I remember Gilda used to say that she would search through Lorne’s desk hoping that she’d find a note in there that said, “I really like Gilda.”
JULIA SWEENEY, Cast Member:
I came into the office one day at the end of my first year and said to Christine Zander, “Oh my God, I had a dream about having sex with Lorne last night.” And she stopped everything and her body froze and she turned to me, like suddenly it was so like in a cult, and she said, “Julia, we all have those dreams. And I just want you to know it doesn’t have anything to do with sex. It has everything to do with power. Maybe that will help you.”
ANNE BEATTS, Writer:
I’ve probably had more conversations about Lorne than anybody in my life other than my parents. He was a mentor and a very powerful figure in all of our lives. I do think that he tended to criticize more than to praise, in terms of a management style. But since that also reflected my father, I guess I felt fairly comfortable with that. Maybe he picked people who were dysfunctional in such a way that they did feel comfortable with that.
FRED WOLF, Writer:
I had a turbulent family life and my dad wasn’t around that much, and I just think Lorne is the greatest. I’d be furious at him and I’d be like really happy sometimes and other times I’d be sullen, but he’s just the greatest guy that I’ve come in contact with, certainly in my career. Some people can get away with everything with him, and some people he just would never give a break to, and you can never really figure out why.
VICTORIA JACKSON, Cast Member:
When we would sit in his office, we’d be on the floor and he’d be on the desk, like we were little preschool kids. From that sense, it’s kind of fatherly. He would never say, “You did a great show last week.” He would say, “Well, the show was okay. Do we have one this week?” So he didn’t play favorites and he didn’t compliment us too much. But I was used to that ’cause my dad doesn’t compliment me either. My dad was my gymnastics coach and he only said criticisms.
I never gained weight because I was on my toes all the time. Sometimes I walked down the hall and he would say, “Hi, Victoria.” And then the next time he would walk down the hall, I would say, “Hi, Lorne,” and he’d completely ignore me. I was one inch away from him, and he’d keep walking. It was a kind of scary, weird thing.
TINA FEY, Writer:
He’s not terribly effusive. He does not give it out so easily, and that just makes you want to get praise and approval from him more. I think that people who most adamantly deny that they would want that approval are probably the ones who want it the most.
MARILYN SUZANNE MILLER, Writer:
I read a thing in the Times about Tina Fey and she said something like, “Well, you really want to please Daddy,” with regard to Lorne. But Jesus, we thought he was Daddy when I was twenty-five and he was thirty. He was that strict father even when we were kids. You would always look to Lorne for approval. You wanted this father figure to say that was good. But I don’t feel by not saying that stuff he was hurting people. He wasn’t going, “I’m not speaking to you because your sketch didn’t go well.” He was that strict father who’d only tell you you did good when you did incredibly good.
I remember once he came up to me and said, “You did good,” and that was like him giving me a giant house in the Hamptons and a garage full of cars.
PAUL SIMON, Host:
That’s not true that he was a father figure. No, he wasn’t.