Jenna Maroney

Infobox character


caption = Jenna Maroney
name = "Jenna Maroney"
first = "Pilot"
gender = Female
age = late 30s (probably 39 but claims to be 29)
occupation = Actress/singer
family = Werner Maroney (father)
Verna Maroney (mother)
Sister (name unstated)
religion = Judaism ("The Fighting Irish")
portrayer = Jane Krakowski
Rachel Dratch (unaired pilot only)
creator = Tina Fey

Jenna Maroney is a fictional character on the American television series "30 Rock", played by Jane Krakowski. Despite being credited as a regular, [ [http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Ally-Mcbeal/700004942 From TV Guide (August 16,2006)] ] the character does not appear in every episode, having been absent from five of the twenty-one episodes of the first season and three of the episodes of the second season. [ [http://www.buddytv.com/articles/30-rock/30-rock-jane-krakowski-talks-a-10386.aspx From Buddy TV] ] [ [http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/default.aspx?posting={5EF31484-C2D6-4498-A31E-DB4502EC5B8E} From TV Guide (April 20, 2007)] ]

Personal history

Jenna's father, Werner Maroney, was a burger server in suburban Santa Barbara. Apparently, he spurned Jenna's mother Verna for a "curly-haired" surfer named Roberta. Jenna still says she will "always be his little girl." She apparently has a sister who peed in one of her eyes when she was little, which caused it to not open all the way.

Jenna studied voice at Northwestern University and, apparently, when she first met Liz Lemon, Jenna was "slutting it up" to get car dealership owners to put her in their commercials. She later did theater works, including "The Jenna Chronicles: A One-Womyn Show" in 1996, "Con Air: The Musical" in 1997 and she once participated in a Gangsta rap contest in 2000. In the musical version of "Con Air", she appears to have played Rachel Ticotin's character. She was also once engaged to David Blaine. She was nominated for a CableACE Award for her work on HBO's "Arliss".

Jenna was the main star of "The Girlie Show", a sketch comedy series that was created by her friend Liz Lemon. Jenna's star billing would be reduced drastically when Jack Donaghy is hired as a new network vice president and brings in Tracy Jordan, a popular and unpredictable actor. And on top of that, Jack decided that Tracy is more a priority than Jenna so he orders the show's title change to "TGS with Tracy Jordan".

The move has Jenna furious because not only was she left out of the loop, but upset that Liz gave in to Jack's demands. In addition she finds herself at the mercy of Tracy's mentally unstable antics, the writing staff's constant pranks, and Jack's constant avoidance of her (his reason is that she is not promotable for the show). But despite all this, Liz assures Jenna that her future on the show is safe...for now.

When she is not doing the show, she also does films, having wrapped up filming "The Rural Juror" written by John Grisham's brother Kevin, which she was going to promote until Jack replaced her appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" with Tracy. In "The Rural Juror", she mentions that "The Rural Juror" would be her first starring role in a film.

Jenna sings as well, and she claims to be a popular Dance Pop superstar overseas, citing a track that became a major hit in a few territories in Europe (#1 in Israel and #4 in Belgium), "Muffin Top (feat. Ghostface Killah)." Unfortunately no one in the United States ever got a chance to see her perform the song because Liz had the number cut from the show without her knowing. She also sang Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All" when the crew surprised her with a birthday party, which was interrupted initially by Cerie announcing her engagement and a second time when Josh ran in announcing an antique car show out on the plaza.

One of her characters on the show is "Pam, the Overly-Confident Morbidly Obese Woman," for which she must wear a fat suit. In "The Rural Juror," she appears in a sketch as Paris Hilton, where "most of the jokes were about the nose."

While on the first season hiatus Jenna starred in the Broadway adaptation of "Mystic Pizza", was required to eat 32 slices of pizza on stage every week, and had gained a significant amount of weight by the premiere of season 2. [ [http://www.tvguide.com/News/30-rock-krakowski/070904-01 From TV Guide (September 4, 2007)] ] Jack's observation was she either needed to lose 30 or gain 60 pounds, because anything in between is not acceptable on broadcast television. She was unable to control her appetite, and bizarre crash diets, such as the Japanese Porn Star Diet, which involved eating only paper, was ineffective. She was equally successful at disguising the weight (drawing the eye up, not standing next to fit and attractive women, etc.). Dr. Spaceman suggested radical surgery and offered to prescribe her crystal meth, but instead changed her mind after doing a sketch that was written by Frank called "Me Want Food," which proved to be so popular with viewers that she decided to keep the weight. (In a case of life imitating art, the "Me Want Food" T-Shirt is also available for sale on the "30 Rock" website.) However, this phase didn't last long, as she soon lost her desire to eat, and lost the weight she had gained despite Kenneth's attempts to forcefeed her.

Jenna recently revealed that she had a threesome two years ago with Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold.

Personality

Generally, she fits into the "dumb blonde" stereotype as well as the stereotype of actresses being air headed and self-centered. Off-camera, she is conceited, frequently lies about her age and uses her "sexuality" (i.e., flirting) to get her way with men. She tries to seem smart to her fans and to the general public, even going as far as telling "Life and Style" magazine her favorite book is the Quran. Sometimes her views get her in hot water with the public, even when she is misquoted; when "Maxim" asked her about her view on the Iraq War, Jenna misheard and thought she was being asked about theatre troupes rather than "the troops." When she saw the article afterwards - in which a quote "I hate the troops" was printed - she and Liz were forced to do damage control by placing her on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" (accidentally confusing Barack Obama with Osama bin Laden), followed by doing a number about America, but in both cases the damage was made even worse than before (the sparklers didn't spin, and they inadvertently showed swastikas).

She also has a habit of spilling secrets, as evidenced in the episode "The Baby Show," when she told everyone about Liz's desire to have a baby, prompting everyone to volunteer to become Liz's sperm donor and surrogate.

She is shown to be overanxious about her acting career, which is apparently failing. Paranoid about losing her job, she proves to be any easy target for anyone who wants to mess with her head, since she tends to foolishly listen to whatever anyone tells her. Liz usually has to intervene at the last moment to bring her back to reality. Jenna also finds it tough to get along with Tracy.

In "The Baby Show," she celebrated her birthday. Ignoring the episodes' airdates, which tend to contradict with the show's timeline, and given the mention of Thanksgiving in "Tracy Does Conan" and the fact that in "The Rural Juror," the fictional film of the title, which was stated to have a December 18 release, is still upcoming, her birthday seems to be around late November or early December. According to Liz in "The Rural Juror," Jenna's hair is dyed. In "The Fighting Irish," Jenna stated that she was a follower of Kabbalah, which, in her words, "combines the fun part of Judaism with magic." She owns a condo in Clearwater, Florida, which implies she is also involved with Scientology.

Fictional filmography

*"The Girlie Show with Tracy Jordan" - Creator/Various Characters
*"The Rural Juror" - Constance Justice
*A show in the "Law & Order" franchise (most likely "") - a "lady rapist"
*ShopRite Supermarkets - Commercial Spokesperson
*"Arliss" - Received a Cable ACE Award nomination for a guest spot on the show
* "Mystic Pizza: The Musical" — Summer 2007 stage show Broadway and the 2007 film adaptation
*"The Mickey Mouse Club" (presumably the 1970s revival) - as a Mouseketeer

References