(S32E08) I must preface this post by saying that I know virtually nothing about Annette Bening. She is married to Warren Beatty, she was in American Beauty, and... that's about it. So, if this episode was packed with Bening film references and I failed to catch them, I apologize.

Bening had a really strong performance. All her characters were totally solid and natural (I mean, as natural as they could be). However, she had a really tough time with the cue cards. It wasn't like her eyes darted from side to side... she just full-on stared at the cue cards most of the time. That always annoys me a little bit about hosts, but perhaps it's just a personal annoyance and not particularly fair towards Bening. After all, it's not like something a film star should be used to, right?

The writing was very funny at some points, but the rest of the episode was only "okay". Hey, they can't all be winners.

Saturday Night Live will have three new episodes, back-to-back, before breaking for the Christmas holiday. Here's the schedule of hosts and musical guests:

• Matthew Fox & Tenacious D, December 2
• Annette Bening & Gwen Stefani, December 9
  
• Justin Timberlake, December 16

I may actually watch the Matthew Fox episode just because I'm curious to see how they make fun of Lost. Let's hope it's not a Q&A monologue with rabid Lost fans. That's too easy. Plus, Tenacious D is always a hoot. Hopefully we'll see Jack Black in a few sketches (He would make a great Hurley!) The Justin Timberlake episode also intrigues me just because he seems to be up for anything the SNL writers throw at him. I expect we'll see the SNL holiday special on the following Saturday, December 23rd.