Gilda Radner News

When Second City, the Chicago-based comedy theater troupe, marked its 50th anniversary this past weekend with an alumni reunion, the event drew as many stars as a Hollywood premiere.

On a frigid Wednesday night in December 1959, a revolution in comedy began here, almost unobserved.

Colin Mochrie, right, and Pat McKenna, left, both detail some of their fond memories of starting out in Toronto's Second City troupe.

Here are a few of this week's new-to-DVD movies, led by the late Gilda Radner's 1980 concert film.

Recommended THE MOVIE: During the summer of 1979, during her hiatus from Saturday Night Live , Gilda Radner performed a live Broadway show featuring many of the popular characters she had invented for the subversive late-night comedy series.

Almost every famous hilarious comic got his or her start at Chicago's Second City , a training center, theater and overall jokester factory.

Is it fair to say there would be no Lady Gaga if not for Peaches? The outrageous Lady Gaga is all the rage these days in the dance clubs, but anyone who's followed the outlandish career of Peaches knows that the Canadian rapper/singer/provocateur has been pushing the same gender-bending sexual boundaries for more than a decade.

Cheers for ongoing efforts to create a Gilda's Club in Evansville. The local effort was started by former television reporter Ann Moore, who died earlier this year of cancer, and her husband Randy, a television news anchor.

OK, we love . Barneys Creative Director discussed the "Have a Witty Holiday" campaign the other day, which will stroll down memory lane with mannequins reliving such classics as the Coneheads; John Belushi as a killer bee; Steve Martin as King Tut ; Martin and Dan Akroyd as Two Wild and Crazy Guys; Molly Shannon 's Mary Katherine Gallagher; Gilda ...

The concept has since gone from merely a Windy City-based cabaret theater to an additional outpost in Toronto and training centers in those cities and Los Angeles.

Bob Dylan. Daryl Hall and John Oates. Gilda Radner. Eric Clapton. The "Saturday Night Live" band.

Molly Shannon, the kooky comedienne with the twinkling blue eyes and elfin grin started out as a mid-season replacement on "Saturday Night Live" . By the time she left in 2001 to pursue a film career,.... Molly Shannon, the kooky comedienne with the twinkling blue eyes and elfin grin started out as a mid-season replacement on "Saturday Night Live" ...

Jenn Sommermann never suspected that cancer lurked inside of her. "When I was 42, I was running triathlons and in the best shape of my life," said Sommermann, 45, of Freeport, N.Y. "But one day, I felt a lump in my belly and realized I'd been experiencing some bloating, weight gain and fatigue.

Junior Noel Hoffman is attending the prestigious Second City comedy improvisation school this semester.

For a show that brought fame to fame such stars as Gilda Radner, Cheri Oteri and Molly Shannon and Amy Phoeler, "Saturday Night Live" has had a tough time filling its female cast slots of late, letting Kristin Wiig take just about every role in recent years, especially after Amy Poehler pulled out of the second half of last season.

I KEEP WAITING for a clarifying "Emily Litella moment" to calm the country so that all the crazy talk about the public health insurance plan can stop.

It's Always Something By Gilda Radner Simon and Schuster 286 pp., $14 Originally published in 1989, Gilda Radner's autobiographical account of living - and dying - with ovarian cancer has been reprinted with a new introduction by Alan Zweibel, her collaborator in writing Saturday Night Live .

In a perfect world, kids shouldn't need an outlet to escape their worries. But in this imperfect world, more and more children are searching for an everyday release.

In a perfect world, kids shouldn't need an outlet to escape their worries. But in this imperfect world, more and more children are searching for an everyday release.

I had to read a book to learn about sex. My poor mother couldn't even say the words.