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By Nicki Gostin – Newsweek Magazine – March 13, 2006 issue This Friday, Conan O'Brien airs his fantastic Finnish jaunt, where he hobnobbed with his look-alike, Finnish President Tarja Halonen. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Nicki Gostin. How did this all start? It was completely organic—we couldn't have made it up. We started to notice a lot of Finns in the audience and I started making jokes—you know, "I'm a giant in Finland." Then an audience member said, "Are you aware that you look just like the Finnish president?" We decided to do a split screen and I've never gotten a laugh like that. Then it turned out she was in the middle of an election, so we started making ads for her. I had no idea what her politics were, but I like that she looks like me. It's not a compliment for a woman to be told she looks like a man. Maybe I look like a woman. That's the angle I was pulling to get in the Presidential Palace, that in my country I have long been considered a very attractive woman. Do you think you helped her win? She ended up winning by 3 percent. I either helped her to win or almost caused her to lose. You actually got to meet her. The whole thing was choreographed like a state visit. I felt like I had gone into a weird 1960s Peter Sellers movie. The strangest moment was walking out afterwards and the crowd erupted into cheers as if I was Chamberlain coming back with a peace pact. Did you eat reindeer meat? Yeah, I had reindeer tongue. Which basically means I got to second base with a reindeer. Who's more Irish-looking, you or Teddy Kennedy? Teddy. Right now he's got that Mardi Gras-float head that all Irishmen prize. Mine will puff out as the years go by. |