Imported humor

A Canadian sketch show has suggested that "Saturday Night Live" plagiarized a skit about a Mohammed cartoon contest in its May 9 broadcast. Two writers from "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" called out the NBC show on Twitter: "Really liked the @NBCSNL Muhammed sketch when @jwPencilAndPad wrote the exact same one for @22_Minutes," said Bob Kerr. "This has happened a few times both ways but this is the closet [sic] I've ever seen," added Mark Critch. "SNL" recently faced similar accusations from the Groundlings comedy troupe about a Tina Turner sketch. An "SNL" source attributed that incident to "parallel thinking."

Oscar bait times two

Natalie Portman will be buried in research in the coming months. She's set to portray two very different real-life women: Jackie Kennedy in "Jackie," which focuses on the four days after JFK's assassination, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the biopic "On the Basis of Sex." … "Colossal," in which Anne Hathaway battles a giant lizard in her mind, is billed as "Godzilla" meets "Lost in Translation." … Javier Bardem will play drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in a new film; wife Penelope Cruz will co-star. … Josh Boone ("The Fault in Our Stars") will direct the "X-Men" spinoff about the New Mutants. … Diego Luna and Felicity Jones have been cast in the "Star Wars" spinoff "Rogue One."

Keeping up with the Kardashian casting

Selma Blair will play Kris (Kardashian) Jenner opposite David Schwimmer as former husband Robert Kardashian in "American Crime Story," based on the O.J. Simpson trial. … CBS has canceled "CSI" after 15 years. … Chris Rock, Alicia Keyes and Lenny Kravitz will guest-star on Season 2 of "Empire."

Plenty of Berlanti

The 2015-16 television season will henceforth by known as the season of Greg Berlanti, who will oversee six prime-time network shows. The man behind "Dawson's Creek" and "Everwood" has a hand in the new shows "Blind Spot," "Supergirl" and "DC's Legends of Tomorrow," adding to his current stable of "Mysteries of Laura," "Arrow" and "The Flash." Even Shonda Rhimes can't match that!

CYNTHIA DICKISON