Smile, You're on SNL!

Fans of the late-night comedy show, which is celebrating its 35th season this year, have had a lot to enjoy of late. This past weekend was Betty White's universally applauded guest host appearance (prompted by a grassroots Facebook campaign, which succeeded in making her the show's oldest host ever). Then last night, an exhibit of the star portraits used during commercial cut-aways was unveiled at the John Varvatos store on the Bowery.

Taken by photographer Mary Ellen Matthews, who has been with the show for a decade, the images capture more than just likenesses....they ooze whimsy, almost always in hyper-saturated colors. Tina Fey as a Robert Palmer back-up girl. Will Ferrell peeking through a thicket of daisies. Alec Baldwin channeling Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. These photos are no mere snapshots. They are gorgeous pop art, a fact made clear when viewed close-up and in a frame rather than as pixels on a TV set.

And thus, a delightful selection of these images is now on view at John Varvatos, the former home of CBGB. Among the SNL SNL stars who turned up to salute Matthews at last night's opening included Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen.

The exhibit runs through August 3, so you'll have plenty of time to catch it before the next season of SNL starts. In the meantime, don't forget to check out the season finale this Saturday, which will star guest host Alec Baldwin. For more pix from the party, click here.

Fantastic Founders

"It's like 1999 all over again in here... Except that I don't recognize any of the faces." New York Insider overheard this baffled comment in the Hearst Tower last evening, on our way to the pre-summer cocktail party for the Founder's Club, the periodic gathering of Silicon Alley's most enterprising personalities. The speaker should be forgiven for feeling déjà vu about the pre-bubble-burst Internet era. However, this, as we all know, is the age of Web 2.0 and happy (if slightly less heady) days are here again. Somewhat ironically, get-togethers of the Founders Club have taken place in some of the most iconic halls of old media—from the set of Saturday Night Live to the studios of Good Morning America. Last night's event, held at the Hearst Tower, home of magazines from Esquire to Town & Country, was no exception. Still, by the end of the night, the consensus in the room was that the new media types are the ones really know how to have a good time.