Tina Fey.

If there's an upside to the homophobia coming from state legislatures, the Vatican, and the White House, it's been that TV comedians have stepped up their good material to take on these bigots. One of the funniest sources for anti-antigay retorts has been Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" and its coanchor (and SNL co-head writer) Tina Fey. In addition to providing her witty commentary, Fey is malting a name for herself as a screenwriter--she received a Writers Guild of America nomination for writing the queer-inclusive 2004 hit Mean Girls. During a hectic day of getting the week's SNL into shape, Fey cracked wise about TV news and her favorite preparations for going on the air.

Were you aware that queer audiences dig you?

Not really, but I'm very proud to hear it. Now, when you say "Big Gay Following," do you mean gays over 200 pounds? [Laughs]

"Weekend Update" has been having a lot of fun lately with the never-ending stream of antigay news. Who's a better supplier for that--Bush or the pope?

I feel like the pope is stepping it up, like he feels like the American right has been beating him at his own game. He's written a book just to say, "By the way, I've been against tiffs for a long time. I invented homophobia." Isn't this the most hilarious red herring, the most giant fake problem?

We're the new communism, I think. You guys and The Daily Show are the big fake news experts. But now that we have gay prostitutes pitching softball questions at White House press briefings, is it getting harder to tell the real fake news from the fake fake news?

The real news is fake news now: You've got all these pundits on Fox editorializing and saying it's the news, and even poor old Dan Rather screwing up the way he did.

Like the heroine of Mean Girls, did you have a gay best friend in high school?

I did have a very good friend--I did a lot of theater, but I had a good friend named Damien who allowed me to base that character on him. He's cool with it.

And lesbians, of course, loved that you named one of the leads Janis Ian.

The whole time I was writing, I kept referring to that character as "this Janis Ian type" because of the song "At Seventeen." And then I thought, Well, you know what, I'll just name her Janis Ian. The kids will not recognize the name, sadly, and adults might enjoy it. It's weird because when you mite a movie, the name has to clear, but it only has to clear in the place where the movie is set. So in Evanston, Ill., there's nobody named Janis Ian.

If a drag queen wanted to do Tina Fey, beyond the glasses, what would he need?

Hmm. It'd be such a make-under for a drag queen. A blue suit, a little bit of padding to make him a bit pear-shaped on the bottom, and some sneakers. And I try to do a manicure every Saturday with a sheer pink.