Campaign '08: Who will you impersonate?
I like to run the age gamut with my characters. I would say Bristol [Palin] or McCain's mother, quite the spark plug for her age, would be my first picks, and anything and anyone in between.

What a year it's been for show biz. How did you deal with the 100-day writers' strike?
It really affected my personal couch potatoism, because I had to go and picket and put my body in motion, which I don't like.

Was there a bright side to the whole experience?
I came on the first show right after the writers' strike ended. SNL needed women. Maya Rudolph left during the strike to be with her baby. It was kind of [the] right place, right time.

How was it to work with Olympian Michael Phelps, Saturday Night Live's first host of the season?
I was trying to get a date with him. I showed up to the line readings with wet hair, wringing out my Speedo, saying, "It's so crazy, I was just swimming. Weird we have so much in common."

You're from Alexandria. Are there any advantages to being from D.C. and on a show that loves to poke at politicians?
My dad [Paul Wilson] is a political consultant. After a couple of cups of coffee in the morning, he e-mails me the rundown of what's going on in politics, as well as his ideas for funny sketches.

Are there pressures being from D.C. on a show so seminally New York?
None of the cast members were born there. It took these kids from the suburbs to bring life to satire.

You co-penned the screenplay for Bride Wars, opening in January 2009, and took to the big screen in a role yourself.
I try to be on every screen. The small screen, the cell phone screen, the big screen, the medium screen, computer screen. I'll take any screen.

Hudson vs. Hathaway. Who'd win in a Bride Wars match?
Too close to call. Right off the bat I might say Kate Hudson's scrappier, but Anne Hathaway … I wouldn't walk in a dark alley alone with her.

You star alongside Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in Nora Ephron's new movie, Julie & Julia, in '09. How was filming?
It took all my strength at the table reading with Meryl Streep not to lean across the table and kiss her. Actually, I looked down and mumbled my lines and didn't make eye contact. ... That moment isn't what you want it to be when you meet someone like that.