Steve Martin’s out on playing Tim Walz. Jim Gaffigan, you’re up

It’s a warm(ish) afternoon, not too bad for August, though I’m sure we’ll hear the dog days barking again soon enough. Which is probably why I’ve spent the last half hour staring at photos found in our latest margaritas guide, lingering over each frozen concoction (I prefer blended, just like my pal Rick Dalton), thinking that, yes, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. Time to find the Cointreau.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and the guy looking forward to seeing what happens when Harrison Butker tries to make a tackle in about a month. Let’s look at the week’s news.

Why Steve Martin won’t be playing Tim Walz on ‘SNL’

A couple of days ago, I was speaking with Steve Martin for an upcoming profile when he mentioned he’d just got off the phone with Lorne Michaels, the creator and producer of “Saturday Night Live.”

Was he calling to ask you to play Tim Walz?

“Yes,” Martin replied. “I wanted to say no and, by the way, he wanted me to say no. I said, ‘Lorne, I’m not an impressionist. You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses.”

By that criterion, we both agreed I would have been a candidate too before my recent eye surgery. The self-effacing Martin is too modest to come out and say that he would have been a terrific choice to play Walz, the Minnesota governor just selected to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.

But he told me he didn’t want the job, in part because it would involve an ongoing commitment. He’d have to be in New York pretty much every weekend from “SNL’s” Sept. 28 premiere date through the election cycle.

“It’s not like you do it once and get applause and never do it again,” Martin said.

My colleague Meg James brought up another point later, telling me maybe he just didn’t want to stay up past midnight every Saturday for several weeks running. The show is aired live beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET, ending at 1 a.m. Martin, who will turn 79, next week, wouldn’t be getting to bed until around 2.

So who should play Walz? I’d give Jim Gaffigan, a fine stand-up comedian, Illinois native and a guy who knows his way around Midwestern foibles a call. He’d deliver.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan.

(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

‘The Bear’ is coming for all the Emmys, but watch out for ‘Hacks’

Watching last year’s Emmys (which, thanks to the strikes, actually took place this year in January), you would have been able to follow along quite capably if you had simply watched three shows — “Succession,” “The Bear” and “Beef.”

OK ... you’d have felt really in the know if you had a penchant for limited series about serial killers (Paul Walter Hauser won for “Black Bird” and Niecy Nash-Betts for “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”) and kept up with Jennifer Coolidge’s nutty exploits in “The White Lotus.” John Oliver won a couple of Emmys too, as will happen, and Quinta Brunson took comedy lead actress for “Abbott Elementary.”

But, mostly, it was “Succession,” “The Bear” and “Beef.” Rinse and repeat. September’s ceremony might sport a bit more variety. You may need to watch, oh, five series to feel in the loop. Two of them are comedies. (Well, they are competing in the comedy categories, at least.) What are they? Read this column, in which I predict the Emmys’ comedy races, to find out.

Hannah Einbinder and Jean Smart in “Hacks.”

(Jake Giles Netter/Max)

Andrew Scott just wants to sing

“So you gonna go have another beer in this beautiful light? Let’s see what the light looks like.”

Andrew Scott moves over to the window. It’s early evening. Early summer. We’ve been talking for more than an hour at Sunset Studios, where Netflix has set up an Emmys FYC space. To be clear, Scott hasn’t been drinking. Maybe later. He’s going to be participating in a panel for “Ripley,” the streamer’s acclaimed adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s crime novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley” in which he plays the striving, cunning psychopath of the title. Me? I’m availing myself of the bar that’s already open.

The Dublin-born actor has visited Los Angeles eight times already this year, and while he loves hiking the canyons and swimming in the Pacific, the thing about the city that he finds extraordinary is the quality of light this time of day, the last hour before the sun sets over the ocean or, in the direction we’re looking right now, the Hollywood Hills.

“When you go for a walk when the day is over in L.A., there’s nothing like it,” Scott says. “And I know people don’t walk a lot here and people definitely think I’m ...” He pauses, searching for the right word. “Like, almost mad. But I walk a lot here. I like a good walk. You need nature. You just need it.”

There’s one other thing Scott needs right now. Maybe needs is a bit strong. But as he made the rounds promoting his Emmy-nominated lead actor turn in “Ripley,” Scott took every opportunity to plead his case that he has been taken far too seriously for far too long as an actor (not that he’s complaining) and what he’d really like to do is — cue the fanfare — star in a musical.

Can you picture it? Did you see him dancing at one of Taylor Swift’s London concerts? Do you need more convincing? Check out the rest of my conversation with Scott, a lovely human being and star of a movie I covered extensively in this newsletter last year, “All of Us Strangers.” He didn’t win the Oscar for that film, but he most certainly should take the Emmy for his work in “Ripley.”

Andrew Scott, an Emmy nominees for “Ripley.”

(Ryan Pfluger / For The Times)