Elizabeth Banks, who you may know from 40-Year-Old Virgin, Zack & Miri and W, has signed on for a four-episode run for 30 Rock.

Banks will reportedly play a love interest to Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy and it seems to have the promise to be another hilarious cameo on Tina Fey’s NBC show.  This seems like a really good move for Banks as well, considering she hasn’t had a noteworthy role over the last year.  A guest run of episodes on 30 Rock should keep her in the minds of mainstream comedy fans.

Read more about the story here.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, check out RipcordNews.com.

Alec Baldwin recently said that he will stop acting when his 30 Rock contract expires in 2012 in an interview with Men’s Journal.

“I don’t have any interest in acting anymore,” Baldwin said. “Movies are part of my past. It’s been 30 years. I’m not young, but I have time to do something else.”

The reason Baldwin feels like retiring is partly because he has – by his standards – lacked success with acting in movies.

“It’s a difficult thing to say, but I believe it: I consider my entire movie career a complete failure,” he said.  “I’ll tell you why. The goal of moviemaking is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that.”

That’s true, but Baldwin is one of the hottest actors in the Hollywood right now and if he wanted a part carrying a film, I think he could land it.  Then again, acting is typically a young man’s game and for someone to advance past 30 years in the business is extremely rare.  So we’ll see if he actually goes through with it.

In the interview, Baldwim discusses many things, including thoughts of suicide and the custody battle with his ex-wife over he and Kim Basinger’s daughter.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, check out RipcordNews.com.

I’ve been really into Late Night with Conan O’Brien lately, and it’s mostly been by accident.  Unlike many of the TV shows that I normally watch, I don’t plan on watching Conan, but I always do.

This was the case last night, when Alec Baldwin was the first guest.  While I enjoy 30 Rock – especially the first 10 minutes of last night’s episode – I think Baldwin is pretty annoying in interviews.  He comes across as pompous and seems like he would be excruciating to have as a friend or family member.

So I wasn’t planning on tuning into Late Night, but did because the Dallas-Boston game was over.  And what happened between Baldwin and Conan last night was historical (and quite funny).

First a little back story.

Since Conan O’Brien is taking over for Jay Leno on The Tonight Show at the beginning of August, Conan is moving out to Los Angeles.  There’s many reasons why this is happening, but what it means is that many of the New York-based guests (Brian Williams being the biggest one that comes to mind) that frequent the show won’t be able to talk to Conan any more.

Alec Baldwin falls into this category.  So, Baldwin told Conan that the way to solve this was to kill him off.

“I’ve been a character on your show,” Baldwin said. “I feel that the only way to go on these kind of shows, is to be killed off.  And I would like to be the first person to be killed off a talk show.”

Conan obliged, calling on Tony Sirico, in character as Paulie from The Sopranos, to take out Baldwin.  He did – choking the Emmy winner until he fell on the floor.

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For more talk-show slayings, follow Eric Van Dril on www.twitter.com/isthisitx

30 Rock is on a roll lately.

First, they snagged Jennifer Aniston, and then the queen bee of celebrities in the United States, Oprah Winfrey.

Tina Fey, the show’s creator, head writer and star, also convinced Alec Baldwin to stay aboard the show over the summer while impersonating Sarah Palin and convincing Steve Martin to guest star.

Now Reese Witherspoon said that she would like to guest-star on 30 Rock.

“Oh, sure. Yeah. I love Tina [Fey], and I think she does such a great job,” Witherspoon tells E! News, “and she really understands comedy for women.”

So keep your ears pinned and eyes open for more news on 30 Rock, Reese Witherspoon and a potential fusion on one of TV’s best shows.  In the meantime, do you think this would work and/or actually happen?  Or do you think that Witherspoon, like most smart actors, is just keeping her options open?