EDDIE MURPHY: WHY HE BOYCOTTED SNL

Eddie Murphy, who made his television debut at age 19 as a regular on Saturday Night Live, has explained why he has not appeared on the show again in recent years. “They were sh**** to me on Saturday Night Live a couple of times after I’d left the show,” he told the upcoming edition of Rolling Stone. “They said some sh**** things. There was that David Spade sketch,” in 1989 in which Spade held up a picture of Murphy and remarked, “Look, children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish.” Murphy acknowledged that he “made a stink” about the sketch, presumably to producer Lorne Michaels, but that it only became “part of the folklore” of the show. The New York Post recently reported that Brett Ratner, who directed Murphy in the upcoming Tower Heist and was instrumental in his being named host of next year’s Oscars, recently “orchestrated a detente between Michaels and Murphy.” In his Rolling Stone interview, Murphy intimated that he had got over his hard feelings and might return as a guest to SNL.