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Vanity Fair's New Cover: Funny Is the New Sexy!
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler by Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com
Vanity Fair has released pictures from its upcoming April issue featuring funny ladies Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman and Amy Poehler on the cover. They look more like Greek goddesses in flowing gowns than the "tomboy" garb they're usually photographed in on the job the point being that women can be funny and hot. Just take a look at the VF site for yourselves. Me-ow!
The inside article, "Who Says Women Aren't Funny," discusses why comediennes continue to carry a stigma. The mag tries to shatter that image and demonstrates (through multiple amazing Annie Leibovitz photos) just how many talented ladies we have that make us laugh every day.
What does Ms. Fey, the brains behind 30 Rock and many a golden year at SNL, think about the idea that one has to trade looks for humor? Happily, she thinks that the trend on TV is now about "normal"-looking people. "In the '90s, it seemed like every person on a sitcom think of Friends was really foxy. I know our show and The Office have normal people. If anything, its shifted back." Erin Fox
Who are your favorite sexy funny ladies?
Watch 30 Rock or The Office on our Online Video Guide.
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Mar 4, 2008 4:26 PM
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Who are your favorite sexy funny ladies?
Anybody who fails to list Lauren Graham alongside Tina Fey need not respond. ![]<img border=](http://community.tvguide.com/images/emoticons/devil.gif) ">
Und zo . . .
In descending order of preference:
Lauren Graham
Tina Fey
and then, aways' back:
* Kristen Wiig
* Amy Poehler
* Julia Ling
* Connie Britton (s1 of FNL is hee-larious due to Britton's sass -- and sass-minus-the-first-s -- as Tami)
* Autumn Reeser
* Rachel Bilson (will no one besides me admit to having ever watched The OC anymore?)
* Liza Weil
* Jennifer Aniston minus the Pilates and the tanning booths (I will not explain that one)
* Marcia Cross (even though I despise the rest of DH)
Oh, and Christopher Hitchens -- always has been an elitist hack with indefensible politics -- so it was no surprise to me when the original VF article (that this one responds to) hit last year that he turned out to be a misogynist on top of everything else.
Anyway, the existence of Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Tina Fey disprove every single notion that Hitchens has ever had about women and humor.
-- Rob
ETA the last paragraph and to fix a typo
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Mar 4, 2008 10:52 PM
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Besides Fey, Poehler, and Wiig, I'd like to add former SNLers Christine Ebersole and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Ebersole was quite funny and sexy in her only season of 1981-82 and I'm a bit puzzled as to why she didn't last longer. Ms. Louis-Dreyfus took a little while to catch on but when she did a talk-show spoof called "The Julia Show" and talked about just herself even with Eddie Murphy and host Jamie Lee Curtis as guests, she found the funny in her that carried her into "Seinfeld" and now "The New Adventures of Old Christine", a show that I definitely hope gets renewed for next season.
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Mar 5, 2008 1:24 AM
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I can add two to the list:
Both Jamie Pressly and Nadine Velazquez (Joy and Catalina respectively on My Name is Earl) really crack me up.
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Mar 5, 2008 9:28 AM
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I know it's easy to overlook Jane Krakowski (especially after her dramatic tour de force in The Rural Juror), but she's pretty dang funny, too.
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Mar 5, 2008 9:44 AM
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I'd like to submit these funny women for consideration:
- Wanda Sykes
- Kathy Griffin
- Melissa McCarthy and Christina Applegate ("Samantha Who?")
- Maya Rudolf
- Leisha Hailey ("The L Word")
- Becky Newton ("Ugly Betty")
- the cast of "Designing Women"
- Eva Longoria ("Desperate Housewives")
- Jenny McCarthy,
- Sandra Oh ("Grey's Anatomy")
- Jane Krakowski ("30 Rock")
- Cheri Oteri
- Swoosie Kurtz & Kristin Chenoweth ("Pushing Daisies")
and the aforementioned
- Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls") PLUS Kelley Bishop
- Julie Louis-Drefuss
I giggle as I write their names  !
And OMG - how can I forget the cast of "Golden Girls" and of course, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Ellen DeGeneres and Sarah Silverman!!!
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Mar 5, 2008 10:05 AM
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And OMG - how can I forget the cast of "Golden Girls" ~tvforever
 ">
Whaaa??? LOL! Sorry, its a stretch for me to consider Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty as "sexy". Funny, yes... sexy, no. So, I'm not sure why they made it to your list. But I guess sexy is in the eye of the beholder. 
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Mar 5, 2008 10:29 AM
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OK - I forgot the rules asked for "sexy" - I was thinking strictly funny...
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Mar 5, 2008 11:34 AM
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Christine Ebersole was among the least funny people to ever appear on television much less on SNL so she is way off my list. And I find Lauren Graham's history as a series-wrecker (NewsRadio)and her rather grating peronality (IMO) way too off-putting but,ShutUpRob, I am responding anyway.
tvforever I like most of your list but have to agree with RachelScribles and add that Wanda Sykes (who I love)and Kathy Griffin (you have got to be kidding) and Swoosie Kurtz aren't remotely sexy. A pity in Sykes case because she has everything else going for her. And Griffin isn't always that funny usually just mean. And boy RachelScribbles are you right about Jamie and Nadine. Both are so sexy that I prefer to see them together onscreen because each is so sexy (and funny)as to make me forget one whne the other isn't around.
Chelsea Handler makes my list. So does Lauren Tom. Knocks me out.
Have to say that Tina Fey is the industry standard. Sexy funny and smart. I am helpless around women like her.
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Mar 6, 2008 4:52 AM
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Oh.. I forgot:
Jan Hooks
Madeeline Kahn
Laurie Metcalf
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Mar 7, 2008 2:17 AM
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Ohh yes, Madeline Kahn, good call, DaMess. A funny/sexy combo pioneer!!! Well, in my generation anyway. I'm sure Mae West was a hoot too but I don't know much about her since I'm in my mid-40s, so I don't know much about the true funny/sexy combo pioneers.
And speaking of funny/sexy pioneers and Madeline Kahn in the same sentence, I would be remiss if I failed to mention Teri Garr as well. I about die laughing every time I think about Young Frankenstein (Fraahnkenschteeeeeen) and her barn scene saying "Rrrrroll, rrrrroll, rrrrroll in ze hay." Bwwahaaa!
So, this leads me to add the question to the original TVGuide blog post...
Who are your favorite "non-current" funny/sexy ladies?
Lucille Ball comes to mind because she was quite pretty back in her I Love Lucy days but her comedy always seemed to outshine her physical appearance. Also, Mary Tyler Moore and Elizabeth Montgomery... Who else?
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Mar 7, 2008 11:58 AM
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Great thoughts, Rachel. I agree with every one of your choices. Man, did I love me my Samantha Stevens!
Teri Garr was at her absolute funniest when she and David Letterman used to chat on his show. Hysterical chemistry between the two of them. Oddly, I also remember one appearance on Dave by Madeline Kahn that made me fall for her, too!
Of all of those classic ladies, right now Tina Fey is just about the only current woman I would slide into that group. She's classically funny and alluring.
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Mar 7, 2008 12:18 PM
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Good question RachelScribbles. For TV actresses I'd have to say that the almost forgotten Joan Davis comes to mind as does Audrey Meadows. Although maybe Meadows was more a good actress who was in a funny series.
But the first name and face that come to mind for funny women of earlier days comes from the movies in the person of Myrna Loy. Her work with William Powell up through her last couple of films with Burt Reynolds (The End) and Ali McGraw (Just Tell Me What You Want)showcased her great comic timing and her intelligent sexiness.
Loy could hold her own with the most magnetic of male co-stars like Powell, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum,Tyrone Power, Clark Gable and Cary Grant. She was sexy and appealing and drew the eye even next to beauties like Gail Patrick, Ella Raines, Debra Paget and Olivia DeHaviland and another extremely funny sexy lady, Jean Harlow. There really was no one like her.
Harlow and of course Carole Lombard would certainly have a place on this list. So would Ann Southern.
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Mar 10, 2008 2:37 AM
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