Entertainment Weekly's Clark Collis spent much of this week with the newly-relevant, post WGA strike SNL as they put together tomorrow's episode with guest host Jonah Hill. What can we expect? From EW: ''And as far as prostitution-scandal-plagued New York governor Eliot Spitzer, ''I'm not going to lie, this is an absolute gift,'' says (headwriter Seth) Meyers. ''I really can't thank Spitzer enough. It is our fourth show in a row -- we have hit the wall. And then this comes along. I'm sure we'll do something about it, [but] I don't think he will be on. My guess would be that he will be too busy doing other things.''

Since the strike, the not-yet-ready-for-Prime-Time players have garnered in their debut a season-high 7.5 million viewers, they have been name-checked during a Presidential debate, and they have been credited with reviving a woozy, punch-drunk Clinton campaign in Texas and Ohio. SNL head honcho Lorne Michaels, though, denies that SNL is particularly pro-Clinton. Some of the takeaways of the EW cover story:

-- On the Fauxbama controversy: ''... (S)everal non-cast members auditioned for the role, as did Kenan Thompson, currently the SNL cast's sole African-American. But with less than a week to go before the Feb. 23 return, Michaels still didn't have his Obama. Then SNL producer Marci Klein suggested Fred Armisen, a six-season veteran known for his ability to morph into anyone from Prince to Steve Jobs. 'It just clicked,' says Michaels. 'Fred is so benign, both as a performer and as a person. It wouldn't have any strong agenda.' Michaels says he did hesitate before casting a non-African-American to play the man who could be the country's first black president: 'Then I thought, no one really complained when he did Prince.' Says Armisen, who is part German, Japanese, and Venezuelan: 'I tried not to think about [the race issue]. I didn't think about it when I played Prince. I just wanted to look like Prince.'''

-- Lorne Michaels, who according to HuffPo's Fundrace, donated to Senator's Dodd and McCain in 2007, does not think SNL will influence the Democrat candidate in 2008. ''Michaels rejects the accusation that SNL is biased toward Clinton -- pointing out Obama was a guest last year -- or that the show played a role in her victories: 'We can reflect something, but I don't think we affect the course of human events.'''

--''(W)riters know that if Michaels doesn't give them any notes, there's a fair chance that he has already consigned their bit to the waste disposal unit of sketch comedy history. Off camera, things happen fast, which may be why cast members are never more than a few feet from a caffeine dispenser. ('Coffee is definitely the 2008 SNL's cocaine,' explains cast member Kristen Wiig.)''

--''(Lorne) Michaels was so aggrieved at the comedic opportunities that had been lost to the show during the writers' strike that he resolved to broadcast four shows in a row for the first time since 1976.''

-- ''Lorne Michaels has another office, on the ninth floor of 30 Rockefeller Center. From here, thanks to a large interior window, the producer can literally oversee proceedings at SNL's broadcast base, Studio 8H. 'It was built for the NBC orchestra,' says Michaels on Thursday afternoon. 'The studio was built on springs so the subway didn't affect the orchestra.'''

And, a propos of absolutely nothing, SNL announcer Don Pardo is 90 years old. Check out the full story online here.

(image via entertainmentweekly)