Lorne Michaels auditioned Obama impersonators last week, he tells USA Today. The SNL exec producer says the job is so tough because he's "truly a heroic figure." [USA Today]

The creator of Saturday Night Live, Michaels has been producing the show for more than three decades.

For whatever reason, 23/6, the long-gestating humor blog collaboration between Barry Diller's IAC and The Huffington Post, has gone live on the HuffPo website. (The 23/6 domain itself remains password-protected.) The production has been described as "an online alternative to NBC's 'Saturday Night Live' or Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show'" but if what we're seeing here is any indication, we're pretty sure that Lorne Michaels isn't exactly crapping his pants in fear right now. Every joke feels strained, obvious, and rewritten to the point that all the humor has been drained from it (which is, we guess, the "Saturday Night Live" model): The whole thing makes VH1 webortion 24Sizzler read like a model of Lenny Bruceian comedic brilliance, and that site is such a disaster that the mentally retarded are suing to ensure that no one thinks they're its intended audience.

Perhaps sensing a chance to finally seize back some of the attention lavished on Aaron Sorkin's behind-the-scenes-at-SNL drama Studio 60, nonfictional late-night variety show strongman Lorne Michaels made public some behind-the-scenes drama at the actual, constantly churning SNL, announcing that longtime cast members Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz, and Finesse Mitchell won't be back for the new season. (But unlike the recently departed Tina Fey and quickly demoted and recast Rachel Dratch, it doesn't appear that they've got gigs on NBC's other behind-the-scenes-at-SNL series, 30 Rock, to cushion their departures.) For those looking to keep their scorecards up-to-date, surviving the annual, bloody player-purge are Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson and Kristen Wiig, with Meyers potentially taking over Fey's Weekend Update chair. The story gives no indication how Michaels plans to eventually fill the Straight Man, Fat, Ethnic-Enough Guy, and The Other Black Guy roles vacated by Parnell, Sanz, and Mitchell, but the cost-cutting network probably prefers that he find a single, shape-shifting Groundling who will work for scale to plug those holes in the pared-down ensemble.

• Unattractive Rachel Dratch replaced by considerably more pulchritudinous Jane Krakowski. Tabloid Baby thinks it's a move foisted on juiceless Lorne Michaels by a shallow, lookist business; we're of the opinion that it's nice of NBC to think about its audience for once. [Tabloid Baby]
• A butterfly flaps its wings and Jason Binn is branded a douchebag. Works for us. [Copyranter]
• If you missed last night's performance art piece on the whole Stadtmiller/Dick contretemps, here's the transcript. [BMcB]
• A lad mag progenitor looks back, pines for the days when features could be about bacon sandwiches and house music. Ah, were we ever that young? [Independent]
• Thanks to some goddamn activist judge, fey LES hipster boys will soon be smoking "Parliament Slightly Less Cancery" cigarettes. [AdAge]
• This weekend in Washington Square Park: silent disco! How will you know the difference? [Club free Time]
• Guy comes home from work and says, "Great news, honey, I just won the lottery! Start packing!" Wife says, "Oh, how wonderful! Should I pack for the beach or for the mountains?" Guy says, "I don't care, just get the hell out!" [FishbowlDC]

On Wednesday, SNL mastermind and 30 Rock executive producer put a positive spin on the decision to demote star Rachel Dratch from a lead character to a "wide variety of roles," telling Variety, "The way it's been rewritten, it's a much funnier part." Of course, what he meant to say was, "The way it's been recast, it's a much blonder, more conventionally bimbonic part." Reports today's THR:

We blame Andy Dick's wandering tongue for making us miss yesterday's Variety story on Rachel Dratch's new role—or roles, as the case may be—on NBC's upcoming series for those who'll find Aaron Sorkin's 60-minute treatment of the behind-the-scenes zaniness at SNL too demanding, the comparatively bite-sized 30 Rock, but we still think it's worth pointing out even in its unacceptably stale, day-old form. (The internet news cycle is a cruel, unfeeling bitch.) Reports Variety:

Send tips to tips@gawker.com
· Sunday afternoon, Paul Simon and Lorne Michaels walking together in Central Park, listening to the annoying 'Guitar Man from Central Park' peform Simon's own 'Homeward Bound.' A few moments later, Treat Williams came by on Rollerblades to listen to a few bars of 'Eat at Joe's.'"
· Electroclash band member spotted in Williamsburg!!! "Jd Samson of LeTigre, 11:40am, Grand St. L train stop..."
· "Robert Verdi of Full Frontal Fashion Monday afternoon on the downtown R train. I think he caught me sneaking looks at him in the window reflection, and must've thought I was a deranged stalker, though I only wanted to check out what he was wearing. And no, I didn't ask; 'where'd you get that?'"