Late last week, it was announced that two of the most gifted comediennes of Saturday Night Live were abruptly fired. The two ladies were Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins, and their replacements were named the same day – two young talents named Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad. The firing of Casey and Michaela caused a stir for several reasons – first, they were both really, really talented. Michaela’s Hota Kotb is eerily dead-on, and she also does an amazing Barbara Walters. As for Casey Wilson, she seemed like a really funny Gennifer Goodwin – and her “cougar” in the “Cougar Den” was particularly brilliant. Her comedic timing and delivery are flawless, and I had both Casey and Michaela pegged as two more Amy Poehlers or Tina Feys.

Michaela was the only one to speak out about the firings, telling Entertainment Weekly that she was “shocked” but she was told by SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels that “he felt deep down that I should have my own show. And I agreed. SNL was a dream come true for me. It was a fantastic year. I don’t have any regrets… What he said is he’s trying to get what’s best for him and best for me. He said it had nothing to do with talent. And I’m just going to go on that. That was his only explanation. He’s looking at the whole mix of the show and maybe he feels that what I bring would be better served on a sitcom.”

While Michaela was talking, Casey Wilson was not. Now Ted Casablanca at E! News has a interesting take on why Casey was fired, and why she hasn’t said anything so far. Basically, Casablanca claims Casey was fired because she couldn’t or wouldn’t lose 30 pounds. I should say – Ted Casablanca is usually full of crap. But there’s something about this report that really seems like it could be true:

There’s some seriously unfunny stuff happening over at Saturday Night Live. First up, just like last year, they’ve added two pretty white chicks to the mostly white cast.

These gals might be deserving, but there are plenty of hilarious black and Asian and nonwhite comedians out there who would give the show more diversity. Not to mention, casting a black actress might mean they wouldn’t have to keep flying in former castmember Maya Rudolph to play Michelle Obama these next four to eight years.

Producers made room for these two predictably attractive babes by firing Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins. Watkins has been vocal, and pretty cheerful, about her exit from SNL, but Casey’s been completely quiet on the matter.

Could it be because of the totally bitchy and sexist way in which she was ousted from the sketch show?

Our inside comedy sources tell us SNL producers told the curvy Casey to lose 30 pounds during the show’s summer hiatus. They pretty much demanded it. And whether Wilson just couldn’t drop the weight or she just only wanted to give her middle finger some exercise, she didn’t drop a damn pound. And that’s when she was axed, we’re told.

The comedian was already on thin ice, since she never really developed a hit character on the show or struck a nerve with audiences during her two-season run. Case was aware she was one of the show’s least popular players—she even made a Funny or Die video about people not finding her funny (which, coincidentally, we find hilarious).

But insisting she drop pounds to be another stick-thin star? How pathetically prehistoric could Lorne Michaels & Co. possibly get? Casey was pretty much the only female castmember the show’s had in years who wasn’t a size 6 or smaller (a pregnant Amy Poehler notwithstanding). Whereas SNL’s been famous for highlighting obese men—John Belushi, Chris Farley, Horatio Sanz, Bobby Moynihan, to name a few.

Did Will Ferrell have to look good in a bikini for people to laugh at him? Hell no! So why should the women be treated any differently?

We’ve asked for a comment from the folks at SNL on this weighty issue, but they’re keeping mum for now.

Personally, we’ve seen Case play foul and ugly characters onstage live at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in H’wood, and the furthest thing from her mind was worrying if people found her sexy. Good for her—what’s so friggin’ funny about a perfect-looking woman anyway? Lorne needs to wake up and realize we tune in to SNL to laugh, not get turned on.

[From E! News]

If this is true, it is abhorrent. Of course I noticed that Casey wasn’t stick thin – but she’s still a very pretty, attractive, and most importantly, funny comedienne. If Lorne Michaels or one of SNL’s producers told – or ordered – Casey to lose weight, and she was fired because she failed to do so, I say she should sue. This isn’t the Zeigfeld Follies, and not every woman has to be built like a showgirl. The American people can handle one comedienne in the SNL cast who is larger than a size 6. The all-white stuff bothers me too – but as Casablanca points out, it’s not as if they fired two white comediennes so they could fill out the cast in a more racially diverse way. That, I might be able to understand. But this is just nasty.

UPDATE: An NBC spokesperson denied E!’s report to The Wrap, an industry website. Spokeswoman Sharon Pannozzo says, “There’s absolutely no truth at all to the rumors regarding Casey Wilson… Her contract was simply not renewed.” Oh, so… it wasn’t that Casey was fat, it was that she sucked, I guess.

Here’s Casey Wilson at the New York Premiere of ‘Bride Wars’ at AMC Loews Lincoln Square in New York on January 1st. Images thanks to WENN.com and Fame Pictures .