Tina Fey enrolls in 'Admission'

January 11, 2011

It was only a matter of time before Tina Fey — an actress whose comic sensibility has become synonymous with smart – ended up in academia. Now the Emmy-winning creator of “30 Rock” has made it official: She’s heading back to college as the star of director Paul Weitz’ adaptation of Jean Hanff Korelitz’ hit novel, Admission, about an over-achieving Princeton admissions officer whose tightly-coiled life unravels when she gets involved with a misfit high school student.

This is just the type of intimate dark comedy we’ve been dying to see Fey inhabit on the big screen. While her TV career has been flourishing: She is the rare smart, sassy female protagonist on a network sit-com who gets to be both the romantic heroine and the comic relief. Unlike all those other so-called comedies, 30 Rock refuses to pander and allow the shlubby guy to run away with all the best lines and (mystifyingly) while basking in the glow of endearing eye-rolls from his pretty wife.

We love Fey because she’s always been an icon to legions of grateful women who, because of her trail-blazing comic persona, were liberated to flaunt their quicksilver comebacks and smart-girl glasses the way previous generations wielded push-up bras and fishnets. This why we’ve been eager to see her ditch the big milquetoast rom-coms, like last year’s “Date Night,” and take on a movie role in a small, off-beat indie like this one, where she can let fly with her most subversive comic impulses.

Our dream role for Fey is to star as the arch protagonist of of adaptations of one of Lorrie Moore’s books, ideally a “Short Cuts“-like assembly of her short story collection, Birds of America. Now that our wish list is on the table, it’s your turn: What’s your fantasy literary vehicle for Ms.Fey?

Photo by: Ali Goldstein/NBC

Tags: 30 Rock, Admission, Birds of America, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Lorrie Moore, Tina Fey

Lorrie Moore

1 Comment

Mick says:

January 12, 2011 at 10:13 am

I agree; would love to see TF take on some Lorrie Moore. Either a novel, a collection, or even an individual short (Who Will Run the Frog Hospital could be adapted, I think, by the write screenwriter).

I’d love to see Fey in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad if it gets picked up and adapted. Would be a great vehicle for her, if cast correctly and, of course, adapted correctly.

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