Hillary Clinton Was Not Happy With ‘Saturday Night Live’ Portrayal of Teenage Chelsea
Hillary Clinton was not pleased with how Saturday Night Live depicted daughter Chelsea in 1993, as revealed by former cast member Julia Sweeney during an interview on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast.
Sweeney and the hosts recalled how after she played a teenaged Chelsea in a skit alongside Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks, Clinton “wrote a letter” to SNL creator Lorne Michaels to express her disapproval.
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“People were saying how unattractively I was playing Chelsea, and all I did was not wear makeup and put braces on,” Sweeney said. “If you say that, you’re saying I’m unattractive! I just didn’t wear makeup and put on braces. That was it, and a wig. A long wig.”
Sweeney added, “I understood what Hillary was saying, especially now that I’m a parent. It’s like, yeah f— off. I mean, don’t play kids. That was wrong. She was right, that was wrong.”
The sketch appeared in a January 1993 episode hosted by Harvey Keitel. Following its airing, Sweeney never played Chelsea again, although SNL continued to spoof on the first daughter.
Later that year, the late-night show featured a “Wayne’s World” sketch where Mike Myers and Carvey’s characters suggested Chelsea wasn’t as attractive as Al Gore’s daughters. Michaels and the cast were forced to issue an apology, and Myers reportedly sent the Clintons a letter afterward.
“We felt, upon reflection, that if it was in any way hurtful, it wasn’t worth it,” Michaels said at the time. “She’s a kid, a kid who didn’t choose to be in public life.”
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