It’s 8:30 p.m. Saturday night on the West Coast. What else is there to do but watch Saturday Night Live. Wait a minute – or a split second – who is that ultra-handsome older man giving us some medical advice about the coronavirus?
Why it’s none other than Brad Pitt playing Dr. Anthony Fauci!
It turns out the good doctor several weeks ago stated on CNN during one of his many television appearances as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that he would like to see Pitt play him on SNL. Hold on now, a vast majority of us, of any gender, would probably love the exact same thing.
Almost as much as Fauci, Brad was nearly as many places in early 2020 BC—Before Coronavirus. During the condensed movie awards season which culminated with the Oscars on February 9 (and wasn’t that lucky?) Pitt was out and about promoting the Quentin Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.”
Appearing alongside the respected director and often with co-star Leonardo DiCaprio (Rick Dalton) and sometimes Margot Robbie, who played actress Sharon Tate, Pitt made the rounds at film festivals, junkets, talk show interviews and industry events promoting his role as Cliff Booth, Dalton’s stuntman and best friend in the film, set in the Hollywood of 1969 just before and including the infamous Manson murders.
Between his earnest and well-received appearances, but likely in large part to him whipping off his shirt as he repaired a television antenna in an iconic scene, it was generally assured that Pitt would win the Academy Award as best supporting actor for the role.
Despite the quality of the competition, which included cream of the crop actors Al Pacino, Tom Hanks, Joe Pesci and Anthony Hopkins, there was never really any doubt that Pitt would be taking home the little gold man, his first for acting. The statuette can keep company with the other he’s won as a producer for 2014’s “12 Years a Slave.”
So after it was all said and done and reporters were still clamoring to get a piece of Pitt, who had modestly and charmingly accepted the ultimate accolade in showbiz, he kept saying this: “I’m going to go away for a while.”
No one could have known how true that statement would presage the near future, just barely more than a month later.
So it’s gratifying to see Pitt come out, first as a weatherman on John Krasinski’s Some Good News, episodes of which have been running on YouTube, and now on SNL.
It’s almost like having a party in—or with– the Pitt, to which we say more, more, more!
So let’s nominate him to host in the very near future. (It would technically be his first time, believe it or not.) After all, among his many other talents, the man shows some promise as a comedian.
