The Boston Globe
May 11, 1990, Friday, City Edition

Michaels stays with Clay despite O'Connor's 'SNL' boycott

By Susan Bickelhaupt, Globe Staff


    "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels insisted yesterday
that the show will go on as he announced musical guests to replace singer Sinead
O'Connor, who bowed out of tomorrow night's show to protest the appearance of
comedian Andrew Dice Clay as host.

   Julee Cruise, a singer who was in the pilot of "Twin Peaks" and was also in
"Blue Velvet," will perform a song written by David Lynch.  Also performing will
be The Spanic Boys, a father-son duo from Milwaukee who sing and play guitar.

   Michaels acknowledged that neither Cruise nor the Spanic Boys have attained
national popularity yet. "But no one knew who Sinead was when we booked her,
either."

   When "Saturday Night Live" announced late last week that Clay was to be the
host tomorrow night, cast member Nora Dunn said she wanted no part of the show.

   Then O'Connor, who was invited three months ago to be the featured musical
guest, saw and heard some tapes of Clay and said, "No way."

   Clay's reputation is based on his comedy routines, which are laced with
expletives and feature jokes about sexual violence that have been criticized as
misogynist.

   O'Connor said in a prepared statement that it would be "nonsensical" of the
show's producers to expect her to perform on a show with Clay as the host.

   "I understand Sinead wanting to avoid controversy, and that's clearly her
right," Michaels said in a telephone interview yesterday. "But the problem was
when we booked her in January before her album came out, we made a commitment,
and if it hadn't succeeded she'd still be on the show. At no point was there any
mention of who would be hosting, so we were taken by surprise."

   He said, however, that just as he had committed to the singer, the show had a
commitment with Clay.

   "We would have loved it if she had come on, we're not asking her to endorse
Andrew Dice Clay, she could have sung her songs as an expression of her life,"
he said. "But I have to stand by Andrew Dice Clay; we made a commitment to him."

   As for Dunn, who pulled out of the show on Monday, Michaels said, "I only
wish she would have talked to me or the rest of the cast first." He said he
learned of her decision only when reporters called to confirm it.

   Clay had rehearsed four sketches with the cast as of yesterday afternoon, and
Michaels said he had been "very cooperative."

   "After all, he's not here to do his nightclub act."

   Still, MTV was burned last September when Clay gave his word that there would
be no surprises in his live routine at the video awards.

   Instead, his act was "totally inappropriate and laced with obscenities," said
Barry Kluger, an MTV spokesman. The rock video station then made a public
apology and banned Clay from any more appearances on MTV.

   With that in mind, Michaels said the network might decide to put the show on
a 7-second delay. That was done only once before, when Richard Pryor was the
guest host in 1975.

   All the other shows have been live in the East, although sometimes viewers on
the West Coast get a cleaned-up version. "That's happened about 25 or 30 times,"
he said.

   In the meantime, Michaels said, he'll carry on with rehearsals and hold his
breath.  "I think Clay is a volatile situation, and we can only hope things go
OK," Michaels said. "We'll know at 1 a.m. Saturday night."