Saturday-Night Sizzle

By Richard Zoglin

He dresses in a rhinestone-studded leather jacket, fills his routines with obscenities and has offended more people than any other stand-up comic since Lenny Bruce. The perfect guest host for NBC's cutting-edge comedy series Saturday Night Live? Well, Andrew Dice Clay may have looked good on paper. But when the Diceman cameth, two performers bowed out, and the show endured perhaps the most tumultuous week in its controversy-filled 15-year history.

The boycott began when Nora Dunn, a cast member since 1985, announced she would not share the stage with Clay, in protest against his foul-mouthed material denigrating women, homosexuals and minority groups. Two days later, singer Sinead O'Connor, whose song Nothing Compares 2 U is No. 1 on the Billboard charts, backed out of her guest appearance. Said O'Connor: "It shows disrespect to women that Saturday Night Live expected me to perform on the same show as Andrew Dice Clay."

The show went on, but only after a hectic week of damage control. Other musical guests, the Spanic Boys and Julee Cruise, were hired to replace O'Connor. The writers pulled all-nighters to come up with new material playing off the controversy. Just before airtime on Saturday night, police had to clear chanting protesters from the lobby of the NBC studios. Clay, after fending off some hecklers during his opening monologue, promised to mind his mouth: "What do I need -- more p.r.? I couldn't get more p.r. if I took out my penis and wrapped it around a microphone stand." However, during one sketch in which he played a father counseling his son about sex, several words were bleeped out (the usually live show was broadcast with a five-second delay).

The thuggish comic has been filling arenas with his raunchy stand-up routines. Last September, after a four-letter appearance on the MTV Video Music Awards, he was banned from the channel for life. He was tapped as SNL's guest host, according to insiders, only after other candidates (including Kyle MacLachlan of Twin Peaks) were not available. The producers defend Clay's appearance, however, as being in SNL's tradition of adventurous comedy. Says producer James Downey: "We don't feel we're endorsing everything he's ever done by having him on this show."

While women's groups praised Dunn's protest, neither of the show's other female performers, Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks, joined Dunn in walking out. "It was the unilateral manner in which she did it that offended people," says executive producer Lorne Michaels. (Dunn has only two shows left on her contract, and is not expected to return next season.) But Dunn emotionally defends her move. "I think it is morally wrong to provide Andrew Dice Clay with a legitimate arena," she says. "This man is a hatemonger."

Throughout the brouhaha, Clay (who will star in the summer film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane) maintained his customary off-camera swagger. Commenting on Dunn's walkout, he told Entertainment Tonight, "I think she's just doing this because I am the hottest comic in the world today." Not true, but for one week he came awfully close. Alas.

With reporting by Naushad S. Mehta and Stephen Pomper/New York