Where Garofalo Roams

"Entertainment Weekly," by Bret Watson, August 4, 1995 "Honest to God, I don't work as much as you might think!" protests Janeane Garofalo, who is merely entering her fourth season as talent booker Paula on The Larry Sanders Show, and hosts Comedy Central's new Comedy Product, and is a correspondent for Michael Moore's revamped TV Nation, and will have an HBO Comedy Half Hour special in September. Oh, and she has upcoming movies with Uma Thurman and Bill Murray. Nah, Janeane Garofalo doesn't work a lot.

Even within the world of Larry Sanders, the actress gets an expanded role this season (Paula wants to have a baby, and falls for Larry's agent, Stevie). "I'm jealous of her in every category," says Sanders' Garry Shandling. "She's funnier than I am, more feminine than I am, and has a better career than I do."

But you can't accuse Garofalo, who quit Saturday Night Live last season, of gobbling her way up the Hollywood food chain. As Moore notes of his gonzo-journalism series: "If you're a careerist, TV Nation isn't the show to be on. She had the right attitude -- she didn't care if she ever worked again."

Garofalo, 30, is also content to remain unknown. "If you went out on the street, you couldn't find five people who know who I am," she says. "The only reason I'd like to be known is if a band, like the Afghan Whigs, comes to town, and it's sold out, I can make one call and get a backstage pass. Or if there's a movie I want to see and the line is really long, that somebody would say, 'Go right in.'" Assuming there's a movie out there she isn't already in.