Deseret News | Tina Fey is one hard-working mom

Tina Fey is one hard-working mom

TV show, movie and family keep actress, producer very busy

By Karen Heller
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008 12:33 a.m. MDT

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NEW YORK — On "30 Rock," the NBC comedy Tina Fey created, writes and produces, she plays Liz Lemon, a competent television producer whose personal life is a catastrophe.

In "Baby Mama," Fey portrays Kate Holbrook, a competent Philadelphia organic-food store executive yearning for a baby whose personal life is a catastrophe.

The central difference between Liz and Kate is that the latter sports tighter skirts and higher heels. Amy Poehler, Fey's former "Saturday Night Live" "Weekend Update" deskmate, costars as her working-class surrogate mother from Jersey.

So here sits Fey, 37, the woman who in real life has it all: the hit show, the new movie, the husband, the 2-year-old daughter, some Emmys.

"Things are going good. My life is not terribly angst-ridden. I have a lot of support," Fey confesses, sitting on a hotel sofa. "And I don't do anything else."

Nothing?

"I don't — and this is not an exaggeration — have time to put lotion on," she says. "If I get enough time in the morning to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth and put on the clothes that I wore the day before, that's it. The idea of putting lotion on my legs, that's not happening."

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The first female head writer in "SNL's" history, Fey was chosen as one of Time's "100 People Who Shape Our World," People's "50 Most Beautiful People," Entertainment Weekly's "Entertainers of the Year," and Glamour's "Women of the Year," besides winning Emmys, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild award and a Peabody award, all while making women who wear glasses feel better for wearing them.

Fey's humor is fresh, dry, clever and smart, doesn't self-denigrate — as women like Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers did — and is devoid of rancor. It's the triumph of a shy, witty woman who becomes lovelier with success.

Her appearance reflects the wondrous alchemy of being Fey, alarmingly competent yet refreshingly unaffected. The hair and makeup are perfect, the work of others, presenting an idealized self to the camera. The attire, her own, reflects her true character, a T-shirt, black pants, worn brown Nikes.

Fey wrote the 2004 hit "Mean Girls," back when Lindsay Lohan still acted, giving herself a supporting role. "Baby Mama," penned and directed by Michael McCullers, Fey's former "SNL" officemate, was sold first as a vehicle for Fey and Poehler, then developed through story pitches. "This was the situation that worked best where we could be funny and sabotage each other," Fey says.

Seemingly a plot anachronism in the 21st century, pregnancy has become huge in such recent movies as "Knocked Up" and "Juno." While those pregnancies are unintended, "Baby Mama" is their complete opposite, with a woman who will do anything to have a child.