Surrogate motherhood comedy starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler has Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver

By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 4/24/08 – “We’re very excited to be doing something together that is a story about two women who are not somebody else’s girlfriend in a story,” says Tina Fey, who won an Emmy for ‘30 Rock’ last year as Outstanding Comedy Series.

“Tina and I were very excited about the idea of doing a film together,” says ‘Baby Momma’ surrogate mother Amy Poehler. “It’s very much like ‘The Odd Couple”. How are these two people going to get along? It’s an unlikely marriage.”

“We hit on the idea of a surrogate mother, of Amy having Tina’s baby, and that made us laugh,” says ‘Baby Momma’ writer-director Michael McCullers. McCullers, Fey and Poehler met over a period of a few months to discuss ideas for a film. “Somewhere in those meetings Tina said, ‘What about a sort of ‘Baby Boom’, the Diane Keaton movie?’.”

“It’s so great to have these very pretty, very funny women driving the story,” says Sigourney Weaver, who plays the head of a fertility clinic in ‘Baby Momma’. “I love everything she’s done, and ‘Working Girl’ was a huge influence on this film, with the idea of that kind of class difference,” says Poehler.

“It’s particularly disturbing and ironic that my character, at an advanced age, seems to get pregnant through positive thinking,” laughs Weaver.

Tina’s boss in ‘Baby Momma’ is Steve Martin, the hippie turned ultra-capitalist CEO of Round Earth Organic Market, who maintains an Earth-friendly credo while killing his competition in the natural foods business. “It’s such an honor to be able to do scenes with Steve,” says Fey.

“I continue to be nervous around Steve Martin because he is one of my idols,” says Poehler. “I can’t quite really believe that I got to do a scene with him.” Steve Martin has hosted ‘SNL’ more often than any other performer.

“Steve is an enormous fan of ‘30 Rock’ and of Tina’s,” says ‘Baby Momma’ producer Lorne Michaels. “We were on the phone and I said, ‘There’s this part.’” Michaels is the executive producer of ‘30 Rock’ and was the producer of ‘Saturday Night Live’.

‘Baby Momma’ is Michael McCullers first film as director. “He had a baby in the middle of this movie,” says Greg Kinnear. “So he really gets into the roles as a director. I’ve never seen that sort of commitment before!” Kinnear plays Fey’s love interest.

“I never knew Greg was so good at pratfalls and physical comedy,” says Fey. “When you see ‘30 Rock’, you know she has great talent and confidence,” says Kinnear. “It’s amazing to me that she hasn’t been acting that long.”

“What’s so great about Amy and Tina is that they’re writers as well, and have a lot to do with creating their own characters,” says Michaels. “They’re unique, really fresh and not typical romantic-comedy women being funny.”

Films starring two female comedians are now rare compared to when Poehler and Fey were growing up. “Lily Tomlin, Bette Midler, Teri Garr, Shelley Long did these great movies,” says Poehler. “Tina and I have worked together for a long time. We’ve always been the two women in the group of guys. It’s nice to see female leads carrying a film.”

Robin Rowe is a co-founder of ScreenPlayLab (www.screenplaylab.com).