When SNL's cameras are off, the cast is never too far from
scandal. From a serious gambling addiction to grooming allegations,
these are the dark stories that Saturday Night Live doesn't want you to know.
Laura Kightlinger joined Saturday Night
Live as a cast member and writer for the 1994 to 1995 season. Kightlinger exited after that
sole year as part of a massive cast switchover but went on to create The Minor Accomplishments
of Jackie Woodman and write for 2 Broke Girls. She also penned an unproduced screenplay about a
woman who grows consumed with rescuing stray cats titled, We're All Animals. Kightlinger based the
script on personal experiences, such as installing feeding areas for unhoused cats at CBS Studios.
In 1996, she met an up-and-coming filmmaker named Mike White, who would later go on to create the
hit HBO series The White Lotus. During discussions about their respective ideas, Kightlinger shared
her goal to write a script about women who rescue animals. In 2002, she finished the screenplay
and showed it to White. As he later told the Los Angeles Times, he thought her script was "great."
Two years later, Kightlinger tried to get the script produced, but no studios were
interested. Then, in 2005, Kightlinger read that White had signed a deal to make Year of
the Dog — a film about a woman whose life is in disarray because she spends too much time
rescuing dogs. Although White maintained he based the movie on his own experiences,
Kightlinger accused him of lifting her idea and sued him. A court ruled in his favor.
After every episode of Saturday Night Live, the cast decamps to a restaurant or bar to party
into Sunday. According to David Spade on an episode of Norm Macdonald Live,
Norm Macdonald would often skip the festivities and use NBC's car service
to head to Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was there that the "Weekend Update" host
would gamble away his earnings. However, one stroke of good luck would ultimately turn into
a gambling problem for the comedian. Macdonald explained on Larry King Now:
"I was a casual gambler, you know, go and bet $25 on blackjack."
He then added:
"I hit a craps table and went on a gigantic run,
won, you know, six figures, and ever since then you can't go back."
And so he didn't. Macdonald decided not to cash in all the chips from that $100,000-plus win.
Instead, he kept the chips in his home freezer before gambling them all away. Ultimately,
Macdonald would go broke from gambling. Then, after building his savings back up,
he once again lost all of his money on gambling.
In the early 90s, SNL cast member Ellen Cleghorne made an indelible impression with
popular recurring characters like Zoraida the NBC Page and Queen Shenequa. Despite
SNL's ensemble format, Cleghorne was said to be egregiously under-compensated relative to what
her coworkers could command. On a 2022 episode of "Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David
Spade," Cleghorne brought up the rarely discussed topic of cast salary, revealing to the hosts:
"I'll tell you how much I started at — $245 an episode."
"Nothing extra if I got anything on, and nothing for writing."
Cleghorne then went on to reveal that in 1995 — her final season on
the show — her salary was just "$4,500 an episode."
As an original staff writer and occasional performer, Al Franken helped mold the format
and sensibility of Saturday Night Live over its first 20 seasons. While he'd
later occasionally show up for a cameo, Franken departed SNL in the mid-1990s to
focus on political satire. In 2008, he took his political leanings to the next
level and won the election to represent his home state of Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.
In 2017, during his second term, eight women came forward to accuse Franken of improper
conduct. Radio host Leeann Tweeden alleged that during a 2006 USO tour, Franken touched her while
she slept on a plane and also forcefully kissed her during a rehearsal — both without consent.
Franken publicly and privately apologized to Tweeden, and to some of his other accusers. In
response to the allegations, he resigned from his U.S. Senate seat in early 2018.
Following a distinguished run on Saturday Night Live in the 1970s, Bill Murray went
on to become one of the most reliable comic movie stars of the next few decades,
acting in films like Caddyshack and Groundhog Day, among others. In 1990, Murray starred in
and co-directed the crime comedy Quick Change opposite Geena Davis. However, 32 years later,
she accused him of enacting abuse and improper conduct toward her during the making of the film.
In her memoir, Dying of Politeness Davis alleged that she landed the
role following a hotel room meeting with Murray and other members of the
production. It was there that Murray tried to use a massaging device on her. Despite
her frequently stated discomfort with the idea, he purportedly persisted. Apparently,
Murray did this in a bid to see if Davis would be an obedient worker. She wrote:
"Pretty quickly, it was clear that this was a non-negotiable thing."
The experience ultimately left her shaken. Other coworkers also accused Murray of on-set
misbehavior. In 2022, filming ended on Being Mortal after a member of the production lodged
a complaint against the actor. Speaking to CNBC, Murray described the incident
as a clash of opinions and insisted that he was trying to learn from his mistakes.
In 2014, stand-up comic Pete Davidson
joined Saturday Night Live at just 20 years old. A longtime, open user of marijuana,
Davidson said in his stand-up special Alive From New York that his copious cannabis use
backstage at SNL earned the ire of guest host Louis C.K., who reported him to show producers.
"And I was like, 'Oh. So like am I fired?' And he was like,
'No.' And I was like, 'Why?' And he was like, 'I don't know.'"
In 2016, Davidson told High Times that he used marijuana to self-medicate for Crohn's disease,
with which he was diagnosed as a teenager. Six months later, in a since-deleted Instagram post,
he explained the reason for his brief absence from SNL and social media, writing,
"I quit drugs and am happy and sober for the first time in 8 years."
"They say quitting drugs is hard and that is true. But what they don't tell you is how boring it is."
Having enrolled in a rehabilitation program at that time, Davidson eventually came to
the realization that his weed use wasn't the problem. In an interview with Howard Stern,
the comedian revealed that he felt just as bad sober as he did using drugs.
During an appearance on Open Late, Davidson elaborated that at that time he'd also been
diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Experiencing an epiphany of sorts, the comedian
ultimately concluded that marijuana actually helped him manage his symptoms. Davidson said:
"I found out I had a mental disorder. I thought
I had a drug problem. It's a completely different thing."
Horatio Sanz, a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2006, was named as the defendant in a
2021 lawsuit, along with SNL Studios and SNL parent company, NBCUniversal. Per NBC News,
an anonymous woman accused Sanz of sexual assault and grooming while she was a minor.
The woman ran an SNL fan website and alleged that Sanz and his frequent sketch partner Jimmy Fallon
answered an email she sent in January 2000 when she was 15. She claimed that both comedians were
aware of her age. Later that year, she met Sanz in person at an SNL broadcast,
where he was accused of flirting with the young girl and showing her physical affection.
The woman furthermore alleged that she frequently attended SNL tapings and that Sanz would bring her
to cast parties. It was at these parties that she was served alcohol and engaged in drug use. The
lawsuit additionally accused Sanz of having groomed the young woman online, giving her
proprietary SNL news to break on her blog while also engaging in cybersex with her. She also
claimed that the comedian had sexually assaulted and harassed her in the presence of NBC employees.
While Fallon didn't comment on the lawsuit, Sanz's attorney accused the
plaintiff of requesting $7.5 million prior to filing in exchange for her
silence. In November 2022, both parties agreed to dismiss the suit, per NBC News.
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse,
please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline
at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.