There's a story that may be apocryphal about the casting of 30 Rock which claims that Tina Fey initially wanted her friend Rachel Dratch to be one of the stars of the show. Supposedly, NBC put the kibosh on the idea, forcing Fey to go with someone more "TV Friendly," if you get my drift -- which is why Jane Krakowski now has a steady, paying prime time gig while Dratch is kicking around doing nothing. Lending credence to this story is the fact that Fey cast Dratch in almost every first season episode of 30 Rock, as a different character in each -- supposedly to make up for dumping her at the last minute at the behest of the network.
It's admittedly kind of sad, since Rachel Dratch is actually pretty funny.
Now there's this: A blurb on New York Magazine's website in which Dratch laments not only being out of work but having been passed over for a spread in this month's Vanity Fair on supposedly funny women. Included in the shoot were cringe-worthy one-noters like Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph -- friends of Dratch who, needless to say, have the one quality Dratch lacks in that they look better opposite the lens of Annie Leibovitz. The choice of Wiig and Rudolph, as well as Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman and of course Fey herself lends a comically obvious subtext to the title of the spread and the accompanying article: "Who Says Women Aren't Funny?" The implication, of course, being: "Who Says Pretty Women Aren't Funny?"
It's ironic that in attempting to validate this pretend-feminist theory, Vanity Fair has, in fact, proven just how ugly the whole damn business is these days.
(New York Magazine Intelligencer: Unemployment's a Downer for Dratch)
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