Sarah Palin says former Saturday Night Live cast member Tina Fey owes her big – for helping to catapult the actress' career.
In a new edition of
"Live From New York" by James Miller and Tom Shales, due out next month, and excerpted in
The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday, Palin reflects on the comedic pounding she took on Saturday Night Live during the 2008 presidential race when she was Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s running mate — including an iconic bit in which Fey, impersonating Palin, appears with fellow SNL cast member Amy Poehlner, who plays Hillary Clinton when she was vying to become the Democratic nominee against then-Sen. Barack Obama.
"I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy," Poehler says as Clinton, to which Fey,
acting as a foreign-policy naive Palin, replies, "And I can see Russia from my house!"
"A Nonpartisan Message From Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton" in October 2008 drew national attention and got Fey an Emmy for her impersonation,
The Hollywood Reporter notes.
Fey reprised her Palin impersonation three more times.
Palin herself appeared in a sketch with Poehler in November 2008, explaining to the authors:
"I know that they portrayed me as an idiot, and I hated that, and I wanted to come on the show and counter some of that," adding:
"If I ran into Tina Fey again today, I would say: 'You need to at least pay for my kids' braces or something from all the money that you made off of pretending that you’re me!'" Palin declared. "'My goodness, you capitalized on that! Can't you contribute a little bit? Jeez!'"
Palin previously railed at the mocking
in a 2009 interview with filmmaker John Ziegler for his documentary "How Obama Got Elected."
"I did see that Tina Fey was named entertainer of the year and Katie Couric's ratings have risen…. That's a little bit perplexing, but it also says a great deal about our society," she told Ziegler.
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