Goddess of the Geeks

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But in case she forgot what high school catfights were like, her young co-star provided a case study. During filming, Lohan, 17, got into a public feud over a boy with fellow teen diva Hilary Duff, 16. Fey, whose day job is mocking celebrities, cuts the girls some slack. "Sometimes I think Us Weekly should leave them alone," Fey says. "They're just kids. If notes I wrote about some girl in ninth grade were in Us Weekly, I'd be really bummed. Actually, I'd be really psyched." It's that hint of cruelty, that gleeful leaking of darkness that makes Fey so compelling. And she uses it, as Eddie Murphy used racism, to make sharp points about sexism. When touting her film, Fey, winking at how its star is a bit tarted up for a teenager, says, "You don't have to be a girl to like it. You can bring a girl. Or you can just be a person who's into looking at young girls."

Though she has got lots of attention for performing, Fey doesn't plan to do much more of it. A former member of Second City, she says she goes out for auditions but has never landed an acting part--the closest she has come being a callback for Down with Love. So in addition to keeping the writing gig she has had for seven years at SNL, she's also working on a sitcom-development deal at NBC. And she would like to write and direct movies in which she has small parts. "My role model is Harold Ramis," she says, referring to the writer of such movies as Stripes and Ghost Busters, who also appeared in them. "I want to sneak into movies. I have no pretensions of thinking people will pay to see me." Fey, of all people, shouldn't underestimate just how many geeky boys are out there.