Molly Shannon - Brief Article

SMALL SCREEN TO BIG SCREEN WITH LAUGHS ALL THE WAY

Molly Shannon's comic creations don't just love life, they LOVE LIFE!!! Whether the Saturday Night Live veteran is high-kicking it as legendary Hollywood dancer Ann Miller or as "joyologist" Helen Madden, Shannon is stepping into the tap shoes of someone who's squeezing every last drop out of life's lemon, then making lemonade. "Sometimes I'm doing versions of my dad, actually," says the Cleveland-born laugh-getter. "He doesn't see it that way," she adds, laughing herself.

Molly's mayhem is so full-throttle it makes sense that it's found its way to the big screen. Having made her Catholic schoolgirl character, Mary Katherine Gallagher, a Superstar--sniffing one's own armpit residue has never been so joyous--she now turns up this month in an update of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas as the holiday-crazed Betty Lou Who. Says Molly, "Betty Lou's obsessed with everything being perfect. She's like a crazy Christmas lady." Molly's also in Serendipity, a romantic comedy set for next year with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.

The serendipitous one might be leaving SNL in the next few months, but her zesty characters won't die in the memory. "The flip side of these people," she explains, "is they can be dark. You're just seeing the manic side."

Michael Musto is a New York-based writer.

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