Will Taylor go shirtless as he did for this recent GQ shoot?
When Taylor Lautner, who plays werewolf Jacob Black in the Twilight franchise, marks his debut appearance as host of tonight's Saturday Night Live, there a safe bet there will be plenty of jokes about: 1. his age (he's only 17), 2. his newly bulked up bod (as witnessed in the current box office bonanza, Twilight: New Moon and the November issue of GQ magazine image seen right) and 3. Taylor Swift (who, during her own recent SNL monologue, mouthed "Hi, Taylor" as she blew him a kiss).
While no details about skits were made available to the media, a press release from NBC and SNL stated, "We're thrilled to have him here." The statement went on to explain that Lautner and the show's cast and writers spent Tuesday night writing sketches and re-working them on Wednesday.
If the promos for his appearance are any indication, Taylor will most likely be featured in a skit alongside series regular Kristen Wiig as Lautner becomes the latest young object of lust inside Wiig's popular Cougar Den skit. The two have already been seen poking fun at Lautner's youth in one of the promos for the show. In the promo, Taylor tells Wiig he's excited to be working with her. He then adds, "Yeah, you kinda remind me of my mom."
Another promo for this weekend's SNL features Lautner and this week's musical guests, Bon Jovi. Jon Bon Jovi reveals that his daughter is a huge fan of Taylor's and says she wanted him to give the Twilight star something, with that, Bon Jovi reaches over and hugs Lautner.
SNL could reach back into the show's history and smartly feature Lautner in an update of the popular Pumping Up with Hans & Franz skits from the 80s that featured then-series regulars, Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon as a couple of muscle-bound Austrian gym-gods a la Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or we could see a combination of a Twilight spoof mixed with Dwayne The Rock Johnson's recurring Hulk-inspired character, The Rock-Obama in which he becomes a Hulked-out version of our Commander-In-Chief.
Don't be surprised if Lautner's girlfriend of the moment, country music it girl, Taylor Swift drops by SNL for a guest appearance tonight. Seems the singer, who turns 20 tomorrow, has been spotted in New York several times this week. She's been in the Big Apple rehearsing for last night's Z100 Jingle Ball concert. Swift made style headlines midweek when she was photographed while out on the town sporting straight hair instead of her trademark curls. After her successful stint as both host and musical guest on SNL last month, she'd certainly be a welcomed addition to this weeks' show.
When Swift co-hosted last month, in addition to blowing Lautner a kiss, she herself poked a bit of fun at his famous movie role by way of a Twilight spoof titled Firelight that featured a family of Frankenstein monsters instead of vampires and werewolves.
With this weekend's appearance on the 35-year old SNL, Lautner joins a select group of young Hollywood stars who all hosted prior to their 18th birthdays. Drew Barrymore hold the record as the youngest host of SNL. While starring in E.T. as Gertie in 1982, Drew hosted at the ripe old age of 7 years-old. Home Alone star, Macaulay Culkin hosted when he was 11. Fred Savage hosted during The Wonder Years at the age of 13. Jodie Foster was 14 when she hosted on the heels of her Oscar nominated role in Taxi Driver. Malcolm Jamal-Warner was a 16 year-old Cosby kid when he took to the stage at SNL. Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen were 17 when they hosted, as was Lindsay Lohan.
Having first gained national exposure for his starring role in Disney's The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl and the film Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Lautner then costarred alongside Christian Slater in the failed 2008 TV series My Own Worst Enemy. It was about the time that the series aired last year that Lautner was featured in Twilight. While his role as Jacob in the first installment was minimal, the current box office hit, Twilight: New Moon has brought about much more screen time for Lautner's lovelorn werewolf.
With the third installment of the Twilight Saga already in the can and set for a June 2010 release, Lautner isn't depending solely on the franchise. Between shooting New Moon and Eclipse, Lautner shot principal photography for his role in the upcoming ensemble comedy, Valentine's Day. It was while on set of the Garry Marshall-directed Valentine's Day that Taylor Squared first met, as country darlin' Taylor Swift is also part of the cast. Swift and Lautner's chemistry was so appealing on film that Marshall reportedly had the duo reshoot scenes just last week.
Up next for Lautner; he's just been cast in the title role of Max Steel, a feature film about 19 year-old Josh McGrath. About the character: Josh McGrath is an extreme-sports athlete who is exposed to nanotechnological machines which become part of him. Think Transformers meets Spiderman. Max Steel was first introduced in 1999 as a line of action figures, then subsequently turned into a CGI animated series that ran for three years. Due to the popularity of the character, Max Steel was also released as a video game, a number of animated movies and as recent as 2008, Cartoon Network aired a series of one-minute episodes titled Turbo Missions. Produced by Paramount, the live action movie is set for a 2011 release date.
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