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Jay Pharoah, 27, joined “Saturday Night Live” in 2010 and introduced his Obama impersonation in 2012.
“Saturday Night Live” aired its season finale last night, and funnyman Jay Pharoah thinks he made it through another year unscathed.
Pharoah, who impersonates President Obama, Jay Z and Kanye West, says his targets don’t seem to mind the mockery.
“If they like it, they like it. If they don’t, then I will hear about it on Twitter,” the 27-year-old comedian told Confidenti@l at the M&M store in Times Square while backing the Red Nose Day #MAKEMLAUGH campaign.
Pharoah, 27, from Chesapeake, Va., joined the show in 2010, but it wasn’t until 2012 that he introduced his impersonation of Obama to the “SNL” audience. He also impersonates Hollywood hunks Jamie Foxx and Denzel Washington as well as former “Saturday Night Live” star Eddie Murphy.
“I haven’t heard any bad things. But for the most part it is positive and I keep it like that,” said Pharoah. If anyone does have issues with him, it’ll be a one-sided fight.
“I don’t have any beef with anybody,” he adds.
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President Obama at the White House Correspondents dinner last month.
Pharoah explains that getting into character is second nature for him. He says he’s been a crowd-pleaser since age 6.
“Everything that I do that (viewers) see is in the wheelhouse. Nothing I do, do I think, ‘Oh, this is hard to do.’ … It’s just all relative to me.”
One of Pharoah’s favorites is a skit he gets to do with on-air pal Kenan Thompson.
“Shaquille O’Neal (Pharoah) and Charles Barkley (Thompson) is fun for me. I love playing that character even though it hurts my eyes when I do it, because I cross them and keep them crossed.”
O’Neal doesn’t seem to have a problem. He tweeted last year, “Jay Pharaoh is the man, lol.” No doubt that was a welcome tweet from Shaq, who stands 7-foot-1 and weighs 325 pounds.
“SNL” closed its milestone 40th season Saturday with Louie C.K. as host and Rihanna as musical guest. It was the fifth time RiRi rocked the stage at NBC’s Studio 8H.
The cast and crew always make it a priority to party hard when the lights dim, and Pharoah confirms this year will be no different.
“We’re family, so it’s like having Christmas dinner,” Pharoah says of the annual season-ending bash. “Every year, getting to the next year is a celebration.”
FACINELLI AND ALEXANDER A HOT DATE
“Twilight” hunk Peter Facinelli and his fiancee, “Thor” actress Jaimie Alexander, were spotted dining at Gerber Group’s Irvington on a recent date night, where they were entertaining the staff, we hear.
While feasting on chorizo croquettes and drinking Bulleit bourbon, the duo were overheard complimenting one hostess for hair so gorgeous she could be in a shampoo commercial. Facinelli was such a fan that he returned the next day to sip on Irish coffee solo at the bar.
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Gigi Hadid is down in the dumps about her recent breakup with Cody Simpson.
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“Real Housewives of New York” cast member Heather Thomson says LuAnn de Lesseps (pictured) really annoyed her this season.
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Mireya Acierto/Getty Images
“Thor” actress Jaimie Alexander was spotted with fiancee Peter Facinelli at Gerber Group’s Irvington on recent date.
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GIGI’S SUFFERING FROM BAD BREAK
Gigi Hadid has been “beyond sad” about her recent breakup with singer Cody Simpson, we hear.
The model was downtown recently on an all-day photo shoot, where she was seen crying behind the scenes. “There were tears and weeping due to missing him,” our source said. Hadid, 20, is keeping busy with work, and soon will star in Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” music video. Simpson, meanwhile, will soon release his album, “Free.”
COUNTESS IS CALLED A ROYAL PAIN
“Real Housewives of New York” cast member Heather Thomson didn’t hold back when we asked who annoyed her this season. “LuAnn (de Lesseps),” she said. “Because she’s not LuAnn anymore, she’s the countess, so I don’t find that at all attractive or something that interests me at all. Someone looking down their nose at people and, ‘Dahling you must!’ That’s not a side of her that I was ever really attracted to.”
NEW DINING ON VERY FAR EAST SIDE
Midtown eatery Beautique will open a Hamptons outpost on Memorial Day. The popular Central Park restaurant has fed hungry stars including Mick Jagger, Martha Stewart and Kevin Spacey.
No doubt the hotspot will draw people to Southampton’s Capri Hotel locale come summertime. Beautique owner Jon Bakhshi, who pioneered Manhattan nightclubs Greenhouse, Guest House and Juliet Supperclub, said the newplace will be “an alternative to the club scene for a discerning crowd.”
THE PARTY’S IN POWER AT SCANDAL
“Scandal” First Couple Bellamy Young and Tony Goldwyn even act close off screen, giving Confidenti@l an interview together at the Paley Center, where Goldwyn called their friendship “organic.”
“We just got in the elevator at the same time,” Goldwyn laughed. “We love each other, all of us. We like to roll in a pack, a ‘Scandal’ family.”
Goldwyn told us he appreciates the job of the President more now that he’s been playing the fictional version on the hit ABC show.
“I do. I’m so humbled to have to think about what that job actually is and I’m more certain than ever that I would neither be qualified nor included to do it,” he said. “It’s the hardest job in the world.”
The actor, who plays Fitzgerald Grant III, revealed that people tell him the show is closer to reality than viewers might think.
“It’s not that far off,” he said.
Young added she soon may have a plot that parallels the life of Hillary Clinton.
“I wish I had met Hillary in my personal life, but I just will say, I’ve always been astonished, even from when she was First Lady, and was the first person to try to do something of substance in addition to holding up her area of style in the White House,” she said. “I’ve always been in awe. So I can’t wait for next year.”
IN FROM THE O-ZONE!
It’s Opppraaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!
The lovable talk queen turned network owner poked her big, beautiful head out of her limo on her way to “The Late Show With David Letterman” at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Midtown. Oprah, who was making a final appearance before Letterman officially retires on Wednesday, long ago buried the hatchet after a feud that Oprah said she didn’t really understand.
AN ALTARED STATE GREAT FOR REED
Newly married Nikki Reed hit the Maybelline 100th anniversary party at the IAC Building, where the actress partied as a married lady and was the belle of the ball. “This was Nikki’s first appearance since her surprise wedding to Ian Somerhalder,” said one spy there. “She was inundated by congratulations, requests to see wedding photos and her wedding ring. She remained a trouper.” The duo tied the knot on April 26.
COP BIODOC IS FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Erin Lee Carr’s HBO documentary, “Thought Crimes,” about so-called Cannibal Cop Gilberto Valle, which took two years of reporting, was the topic on Pat Dixon’s podcast, “New York City Crime Report.” “It was very difficult to have people look into the more nuanced aspects of the case when all they have heard was about … (his) plan to stalk and eat women,” Carr said, citing the issue of free speech and “a man caught in the middle with his most private fantasies exposed.”
EMMA’S ROLE A BREEZE
Emma Stone has a crazy hair day in the wind at the Cannes Film Festival. The actress, on a break from boyfriend Andrew Garfield, attended the photo call for Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man” and posed for photogs while her unruly hair went wild.
LEA AND A GREAT MINNIE SKIRT
Lea Michele channels Minnie Mouse, donning ears while kicking up a leg at Disneyland in Anaheim. Michele was at Mickey’s Toontown at the park. Footage was just released for her starring role in “Scream Queens,” which centers on a college sorority haunted by murders. Ariana Grande and Emma Roberts also star.
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