Bill Hader is leaving Saturday Night Live after eight wonderful seasons.  In all those years, Hader’s signature recurring character Stefon somehow never grew tired.  Hader and co-creator John Mulaney consistently kept the formula fresh, coming up with inspired club names, passwords, and characters for each new Weekend Update appearance.

In last night’s season finale—hosted by Ben Affleck, who also hosted when Stefon debuted—the writers of course had to bring back Stefon for a farewell appearance.  It puts a nice button on the romantic tension between Stefon and Update host Seth Meyers, and in doing so, assembles all the crazy characters (most of them midgets) Stefon has mentioned in his guide to New York nightlife.  Watch it after the jump.

The network upfront presentations are upon us, and one of the first big pieces of news to be announced concerns NBC’s late night shakeup.  The network previously revealed that Jimmy Fallon will be taking over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno next year, and rumors have been swirling for months that Saturday Night Live veteran and current head writer Seth Meyers might land the Late Night gig once Fallon exits.  Well NBC confirmed today that Meyers will indeed be taking over as the host of NBC’s Late Night when Fallon leaves the show next year, vacating his position at SNL.

Lorne Michaels, who produces both SNL and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, will stay on as executive producer of Late Night under Meyers’ tutelage, and Michael Shoemaker will remain the show’s producer.  This leaves the head writer slot at SNL open, and many have already been suggesting comedian/SNL writer John Mulaney for the job.  Also vacant at SNL will be the Weekend Update desk, so start those betting pools now.  Hit the jump to read NBC’s press release on the matter.  Late Night with Seth Meyers will premiere sometime in 2014.

Emboldened by the success of Valentine’s Day, Garry Marshall took another crack at the holiday-based all-star anthology in 2011, with similarly repulsive results. This time, though, movie-goers commendably ignored him (and hopefully quashed plans for Columbus Day or whatever the hell was coming next). Of course, it’s never a good idea to interpret the commercial failure of a terrible movie as anything more than an aberration. But in this case, there was an encouraging sense that the world had finally revolted against a sub-genre populated by cynical, bald-faced cash-grabs.

And indeed, New Year’s Eve is the romantic comedy distilled to its basest form; a film that trots out a dizzying array of A-listers and expects applause, while abandoning time-consuming chores like character, story and dialogue. Hit the jump for the full review.

A new red-band trailer for the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy The Dictator has gone online.  The clip is basically structured similarly to the other trailers, but it includes alternate takes and different jokes.  I was a big fan of Borat and admired the ballsiness of Bruno, but I’m starting to feel like The Dictator may be a bit one-note.  This is the first Cohen comedy that’s set up as a true narrative feature instead of a mockumentary, so it’ll be interesting to see how this outlandish character fares throughout a true story arc.  I liked the opening scene of the film so hopefully I’m wrong, but I’m not entirely convinced that I won’t tire of the character after 30 minutes of the film.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  We’ve also included an embed of a sketch from this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live in which Cohen appeared in character as said Dictator holding the actor’s Hugo director Martin Scorsese hostage.  The Dictator opens on May 16th.

We’ve been provided with 12 clips from Garry Marshall’s upcoming romantic comedy New Year’s Eve to share with our readers. The film features a ginormous ensemble and tells a number of intertwining stories that all take place on New Year’s Eve in New York City. The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino.

Hit the jump to watch the clips. New Year’s Eve opens December 9th.

New posters have been released for The Rum Diary and New Year’s Eve.  The former is kind of cute and almost makes the film look like a light comic spin on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is appropriate considering that Hunter S. Thompson was the author of both novels.  As for the New Year’s Eve poster, it perfectly encapsulates the cynical, greedy reason for the movie’s existence.  The point isn’t to convey a plot, but to jam as many stars into the film as possible in the hopes that you’ll like one or two of them enough to see the movie.  However, the stars you like will most likely be in the film for probably less than ten minutes total.  If you think watching a star you like play a poorly defined character is worth a dollar a minute, then you like wasting money.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  The Rum Diary opens October 28th.  New Year’s Eve opens December 9th.

A new trailer for Garry Marshall’s star-studded New Year’s Eve has been released. This trailer isn’t much different from the first one in that it’s basically a montage of all the pretty celebrities and their separate stories set to pop music, though this new look does include inappropriate Abigail Breslin flashing. If you enjoyed Marshall’s Valentine’s Day, then you probably don’t need to be sold on the pseudo-sequel, and if the February-centered first film wasn’t your thing then this New Year’s Eve trailer is probably more than a little cringe-worthy. It looks like Seth Meyers may be the only saving grace for the brave boyfriends who are forced to soldier through this one.

The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino. New Year’s Eve opens on December 9^th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

The first trailer for Garry Marshall’s New Year’s Eve has been released. The follow-up to Valentine’s Day stars every actor ever in the history of acting, whom I can only assume will appear for five minutes of screen time each. The trailer is basically a montage of all the actors making their New Year’s preparations and yearning for somebody to love. Nothing groundbreaking, but if you were a fan of Valentine’s Day it’s a safe bet that this movie is probably your kind of thing.

The cast includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Til Schweiger, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Josh Duhamel, and Carla Gugino. New Year’s Eve opens on December 9^th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

The first trailer for the Sarah Jessica Parker-starred I Don’t Know How She Does It has gone online. The romantic comedy, directed by Douglas McGrath (Emma) and written by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada), is based on the book by Allison Pearson, which tells the story of a working mom (Parker) trying to balance the many competing elements of her life. While it doesn’t necessarily look like a home run, the trailer seems a bit more promising than your standard “Kate Hudson is crazy but no one seems to notice” fare, if only because of the fantastic cast.

Parker stars alongside Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Kelsey Grammar, Christina Hendricks, Olivia Munn, Seth Meyers and Jane Curtin. The Weinstein Company will release the flick on September 16^th. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

Maybe it would just be easier to report who’s not going to be in director Garry Marshall’s New Year’s Eve. Seth Meyers and Jon Bon Jovi have joined the cast of this pseudo-sequel to last year’s equally star-studded Valentine’s Day. At this point, the cast for New Year’s Eve includes Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, Halle Berry, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Sienna Miller, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara and German actor Til Schweiger.

According to THR, Bon Jovi will play (surprise!) a successful rock star, whose ex-girlfriend (Halle Berry) turns up at the same party he attends. Meyers will play Biel’s husband, who’s trying to get her to deliver their baby on New Year’s Eve in order to win a prize of $25,000. The film is set to being shooting in New York soon, and will hit theaters on December 9^th, which is not New Year’s Eve.

Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Olivia Munn (Attack of the Show) and Seth Meyers (Saturday Night Live) are in talks to join Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, and Kelsey Grammer in I Don’t Know How She Does It.  The film adapts Allison Pearson’s comic novel about “a high-powered finance type (Parker) who’s also the mother of two young children and trying to balance the many competing elements in her life.”  According to 24 Frames, Hendricks and Munn will play a friend and colleague, respectively, to Parker

Doug McGrath (Infamous) will direct I Don’t Know How She Does It.  The Weinstein Co. production begins filming in January.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of Pearson’s novel.

Upon first inspection, it would appear that Will Forte’s recently reported departure from Saturday Night Live is warranting a trio of comedians to replace him. However, The New York Post’s report that three new rising improv comedians are joining the cast in September suggests that more veteran departures may be on the way. Of course this is only speculation, but getting three news cast members to join the sketch comedy series while only one is leaving just seems a bit excessive and unnecessary. So who are the lucky young comedians who will be performing live from New York? Find out after the jump.

When Rogue Pictures first announced they were making a MacGruber movie, I’ll admit to thinking it might not work.  After all, MacGruber is based on a very short Saturday Night Live sketch and I wasn’t sure he could make the transition to the big screen.  But based on the reviews out of SXSW where the film premiered, my nervousness was unfounded, as people loved the film and it’s currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes!  What I heard was it’s incredibly stupid but incredibly funny.  With a May 21st release date, we’ll all know if the film is as great as people are saying soon.

But if you’d like to get a look at a few scenes now, we’ve been given 5 clips and you can watch them after the jump.

When it was announced in the trades that funny ladies Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Rachel Dratch would be co-starring in a comedy about thirtysomething women going on spring break, I’ll admit, I got excited by the comic possibilities.

That was three years ago.

Since production wrapped in 2006, Spring Breakdown’s been sitting on Warner Brothers’ shelves far from any spring, summer – hell, even winter – light of day. To the Daily Variety crowd, this type of delay usually means creative breakdown, and since I position myself somewhere in this grouping, I was a bit wary of reviewing the likely disaster-piece upon its DTV release. So, I recruited my friend X-Tina (code name) to watch with me, since her excitement for the talent involved and ignorance about its delayed release saga helped renew my enthusiasm for Breakdown’s basic comic elements.