When I first heard Forest “Ghost Dog” Whitaker was hosting SNL this weekend, I thought meh. Then Jenn and I revealed a showing of Kevin Macdonald’s “The Last King of Scotland”. Whoa. I knew going in that Whitaker’s take on Idi Amin had gotten him nominated for virturally every best acting award under the sun, but for once, the buzz was right. Whitaker’s performance can only be described with words like insane, funny, bizarre, playful or scary - and that could all come from the same scene. Whitaker has a wide acting range and if SNL capitalizes on it, look out. This episode has potential to be the next “out of nowhere” episode, similar to Ian McKellen, early apperances of Christopher Walken or more recently, Jeremy Piven.

Making the episode even more unique is the music selection. With Keith Urban booked, SNL gives us the first country act the show has seen in nearly four years (the last being the Dixie Chicks in 2003). It seems like Urban’s personal life (last fall’s Betty Ford Clinic check-in and the 2005 marriage to Nicole Kidman) gets more headlines than his recent music, so maybe he’ll use this National TV gig as a start to reversing that. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of the guy, but like last week’s Lily Allen appearance, I’m sure he’ll be better than some of the season’s weaker guests: AFI, Stefani and Akon.

Da Bears! On January 22, The Grizz personally guaranteed a Bill Swerski’s Superfans sketch for Barrymore’s episode. With Super Bowl Sunday coming a day after this episode airs, I can’t think of a better sketch prediction. The only question is will they get Mike Myers, Joe Mantegna, Robert Smigel AND George Wendt (who just so happens to be Sudekis’ uncle) all back around one table. It has been just under 10 years since the last Superfans sketch (the last was when Farley hosted in 1997), and the time has never been better for a resurrection.

Joining Candice Bergen as the only other female member of the Five Timers Club this weekend is Drew Barrymore. Drew last hosted nearly three years ago on 2/14/04 to hype “50 First Dates”. The episode was mostly forgettable and marred by Drew’s constant smiles and giggling. This actually paved the way for Jimmy Fallon and Finesse Mitchell to have big nights, and c’mon, if those two are getting the most laughs, your episode is in trouble. Maybe the fifth time will be a charm.

On music detail is 21-year-old Lily Allen. Her debut CD came out last summer in the UK, and now MTV is prepping the American audience by hyping her as their Discover and Download artist of the month. A friend gave me a copy of her disc last Fall and I’m not going to lie, it didn’t leave my CD player for weeks. The first three tracks are extremely catchy and some of the lyrics remind me of Nellie McKay’s brilliant “Get Away From Me”, one of my favorite female artist albums of the 2000s. Still, Lily likes to talk trash about people in the music industry and was even voted onto BBC3’s Most Annoying Person of 2006 list. Whether you love her, hate her, or confuse her with Lady Sovereign, you can definitely bet she’ll be better than AFI was a few weeks back.