You Might Remember Me The Life and Times of Phil Hartman by Mike Thomas

Author:Mike Thomas [Thomas, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250027979
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Phil as Bill Clinton on SNL, 1992. (Credit: Makeup by Norman Bryn, www.makeup-artist.com, photo copyright Norman Bryn, all rights reserved)

On October 12, 1992, during the second episode of season eighteen and shortly after Phil filed paperwork in L.A. to legally change his last name from Hartmann to Hartman, controversial Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor appeared as SNL’s musical guest and sang Bob Marley’s protest song “War” a capella. “We have confidence in the victory of good over evil,” she intoned, staring directly into the camera with an I-mean-business expression. As she uttered the word “evil,” O’Connor held up a photo of Pope John Paul II and tore it two, four, then eight pieces before tossing the shreds toward a stunned audience and proclaiming, “Fight the real enemy.” On orders from the show’s director, Dave Wilson, the applause sign remained dark and silence enveloped Studio 8H. Along with many others, Phil thought O’Connor’s actions were uncalled for and distasteful. Not only did she disrespect the Catholic faith and its adherents, she cast a pall on whatever comedy came after—including a sketch called “Sweet Jimmy, the World’s Nicest Pimp.”

At dress rehearsal, O’Connor had used the picture of a child, thus setting up her live shot. Then, on air, she whipped out the Pope glossy to audience gasping. Phil was standing in the wings with the next week’s guest star, Joe Pesci, watching it all unfold on a monitor. “Fuckin-A!” he exclaimed when the Pope shredding commenced. Pesci was equally floored, hissing, “What the fuck is the matter with that bitch!” Smigel was in the wings as well and remembers everybody “just avoiding her” afterward. Besides inappropriately flaunting her religious and political views, he says, O’Connor broke one of live television’s unofficial rules: Don’t surprise the producers. “If that happens too many times, then there won’t be a live show. That’s how we looked at it and I think that’s how Lorne looked at it. It’s something that’s precious and rare, allowing something to go on totally live and to live with the kinks and the flaws. And I think Lorne was really afraid that it was going to inspire copycats in musical acts—that kind of thing.”

When the show ended and everyone gathered onstage during the closing credits, as per SNL custom, Phil stayed back in the shadows. At the time, he wasn’t quite sure why. In retrospect, it became clearer. “I realize that in her country it is very repressive in regards to women’s rights, and I understood her motivation,” he told journalist Bill Zehme a year afterward, in an unpublished 1993 interview. “But I do think it was just ill placed. The Church, for better or for worse, represents a moral absolute. It’s a moral touchstone, and I don’t think you should attack that.”

Appearing on the Letterman show that same month, Phil’s thoughts on O’Connor’s desecration began on a serious note and devolved into shtick: Proclaiming he had been “hurt and offended” by her pushing a political agenda, he nonetheless

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