In Case You Needed Another Reason to Watch Seth's New LATE NIGHT...

...then you've got it! Fred is joining Seth's LATE NIGHT show as the house bandleader. How great is that?!




Fred Armisen to Lead Seth Meyers' 'Late Night' Band

Lorne knows exactly what he is doing! He is a force to be reckoned with!

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Although Elisabeth Moss has always been a standout as proto-feminist heroine Peggy Olsen on Mad Men, we didn't get to see much of Moss's real-life personality until her notoriously messy split with Saturday Night Live (now Portlandia) funnyman Fred Armisen. After their marriage of only 8 months, the two divorced amongst rumors that he had been having an affair with his younger SNL co-star Abby Elliot, who he continued to date once he and Moss were officially broken up.

Refreshingly, Moss didn't indulge in the Hollywood fakery of "amicable" breakups and the "we're still friends" rigamarole we're used to. When asked shortly after their divorce about Armisen, she replied: “He’s so great at doing impersonations, but the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person.” (A+ response, in my book.)

Elisabeth Moss Talks Lessons Learned From Fred Armisen Divorce, Is Awesome

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Moss has been raised a Scientologist since a kid but seems at odds with the church involved in anti-gay causes. Check out Armisen's interview on Stern where he somewhat goes into the break-up. He seems like the typical savant-like music nerds I knew. Seems nice enough but he was never my favorite on SNL (really generous to bring him up as a sort of specific taste like Wiig, not even in the same stratosphere for me). Portlandia's good but that is mostly because unlike his other network TV appearances and SNL, he is not resorting to being some ethnic stereotype. I did like his Joy Behar though.

Disclosure: A friend of mine worked with Moss on a film she did in New York and says she one of the most ego-free people he has met.

Updated On: 2/12/14 at 07:12 PM

If anything, PORTLANDIA feels like an unleashing of Fred's actual, niche sense of humor that SNL never really figured out. He was a game utility player on SNL but rarely deserved more of the spotlight. Plus, without the SNL spotlight, he seems to have branched back out to his musical background which I've really enjoyed more than anything he did on SNL, too.

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