In my preshow comments for the Julia-Louis Dreyfus episode back in March, I pointed out that an emerging trend this season has been Lorne falling back on familiar hosts - probably as counteraction to his slimmed down cast. Scarlett Johansson, who last hosted under 1 ½ years ago, held her own during her SNL debut, but by no means did it warrant such a hasty return. Johansson was likely booked for this weekend to promote “The Nanny Diaries”, but that film has since been pushed to a September release. With this in mind, perhaps she should have been moved to musical guest to support the long-rumored “Scarlett Sings Tom Waits” album instead?

Reasoning aside, a quick revisit of her 1/14/06 episode does bring back fond memories. Johansson handled live comedy very well, but it was strong writing that took center stage as we were given the wonderful “Live Duluth” and “Once in a Lifetime Jewelers” - the later of which is still ranked as an example of Sudeikis‘ best work. If Scarlett once again gives 110% and the sketch caliber is matched, this episode should come out on top of last weekend’s dull Shia LaBeouf outing.

Another guest making her sophomore visit to SNL this weekend is Björk. She first appeared with host Brendan Fraser way back on 10/18/97 - an episode now noted for the first appearance of Chirs Kattan’s Mango. Maybe it was America’s immediate fascination of Kattan’s sexually ambiguous foreigner, but Björk was limited to only one song that evening (for the curious, it was Bachelorette from her not-yet-released-at-the-time “Homogenic” album). With a new CD set for 5/7/07, I’m hoping for two songs this time.