There’s an ‘SNL’ Easter Egg in Hilaria Baldwin’s ‘DWTS’ performance, and it ties back to Alec Baldwin
All 'Saturday Night Live' fans were surely bobbing their heads when Hilaria Baldwin took over the 'Dancing With the Stars' stage on Tuesday night. In the latest episode of 'DWTS' Season 34 titled 'One-Hit Wonders Night,' Hilaria and her pro partner, Gleb Savchenko, performed a tango routine to 'What Is Love' by Haddaway. Way back in 1993, this particular song peaked at number eleven on the Billboard chart before experiencing a revival a couple of years ago due to an Emmy-winning sketch show. This song also holds a special place in the life of Hilaria and her husband, Alec Baldwin, a mainstay on 'SNL' for decades.
'SNL' viewers will always link Haddaway's 'What Is Love' to a series of 'Roxbury Guys' sketches, which featured Will Ferrell and former 'DWTS' contestant Chris Kattan as Steve and Doug Butabi. In the skit, the Butabi brothers, who love to hit the club and (unsuccessfully) hit on women on the dance floor, have a signature move: bobbing their heads in unison as the love song plays in the background. The popular characters appeared on the legendary NBC show nine times between 1996 and 1998.
These two characters were such a hit among viewers that they even got their own spinoff movie, 'A Night at the Roxbury', released in 1998. In one of the 'Roxbury Guys' sketches, aired on February 22, 1997, the two clubgoers were joined by Alec Baldwin, a record-holder for most 'SNL' host appearances. In the last two decades, Alec has hosted 'Saturday Night Live' 17 times. For his seventh appearance on the show, the 'It's Complicated' star delivered a meta monologue that showed him going through hair and makeup to play a third Roxbury guy. Later on, Alec joined Ferrell and Kattan for the actual sketch.
Meanwhile, following the dance performance on 'DWTS', Hilaria and Savchenko received good feedback from the judges. When Derek Hough was asked to share his views on the duo's tango, he referred to it as "amazing." On the other hand, Bruno Tonioli said it was a "wonderful blend of power and elegance with a hint of fun." Ultimately, Hilaria and Savchenko bagged a score of 21 out of 30 points. During the episode, Hilaria had all seven of her children supporting her from the audience. However, Alec was nowhere to be seen. During an interview with Fox News Digital, Hilaria revealed the real reason behind his absence, saying, "So, Alec is doing a movie right now. He's doing a movie, he's doing a show, he's been traveling so much. He'll be here next week, but we're juggling."
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Hilaria was joined by her husband, Alec, during the grand premiere of 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 34. Alec had stopped by Hilaria's dance rehearsal to take a twirl with his wife's dance partner himself. According to Entertainment Weekly, while shedding light on Hilaria's hip injury that happened in 2009, Alec went on to say, "This was her life until she got injured, so she's just going to give it everything she has. And I'm proud of her, very proud of her."
