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Woman to Watch: Kristen Wiig

Kristen WiigWHY SHE'S ON OUR RADAR: Saturday Night Live's white-hot wiseacre cuts up as Ricky Gervais's inept doctor in the I-see-dead-people comedy Ghost Town. "I play his surgeon," says Wiig. "He dies and then comes back to life. It's pretty much my fault."

 

HER SHTICK: Dead-on impressions, like the excitable Target clerk and jacket-loving Suze Orman.

 

ALSO SEEN IN: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Semi-Pro, and Knocked Up.

 

FUNNY FACES: "Aunt Linda was inspired by a lady I saw on a plane who was confused by the in-flight movie," says Wiig, 35, of her daffy film-critic character on SNL. "She just kept saying, 'What's going on?' So I wrote a sketch about a woman who was watching The Matrix and kept asking, 'What are they doing? Why are they flying?'"

 

MONKEY BUSINESS: "It's the little things that aren't meant to be funny that make me laugh most, like bad fight scenes in old movies with dummies thrown around that we're supposed to think are people, or a gorilla that's clearly a man in a suit. I think every old TV show borrowed that same suit."

 

TINY DANCER: "I was always a closet performer," says Wiig. "If we had a babysitter, I'd sing and dance for her. I was also a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, but I broke character to wave to my mom."

 

HELL ON WHEELS: Up next, Wiig skates opposite Ellen Page in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It!, about Roller Derby dolls. "I can definitely skate," she says. "I spent hours of my childhood at Overlook Roller Rink." --Thelma Adams


UNDER THE KNIFE: "I'd make a terrible surgeon. The fear of blood? Very high on my list."

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jihan thompson

Jihan

I'm an editorial assistant in the features department, I'm addicted to the New York Times crossword puzzles (Monday only!), figuring out how to save a little money in the country's most expensive city and bad reality television.

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Abigail

Abigail Pesta is a journalist who has lived and worked around the world, from London to Hong Kong. A highlight from her travels: bar-hopping in Shanghai with a minor-league Mafioso in his hearse-like limo. A lowlight: getting attacked in Cambodia by swarms of flying cockroaches, each one the size of your thumb. She writes short-short stories for her website, Fine Words Butter No Parsnips (butternoparsnips.com)

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Jessica

As Associate editor of the Radar section, I obsess daily over movies, television, celebrities and music. A southern girl at heart and Brooklyn by address, my skill set also extends into witty asides, vintage shopping, planning themed parties, brunching, entertaining, applying eyeliner, dancing, concocting bourbon mint iced tea, gift giving, movie quoting, coffee drinking and Elvis spotting. I love conversations that begin with "remember the time...", am still paying off my student loans (and then some), and have fallen madly in love - with my DVR.

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