Live, from New York it's Sarah Palin

The Good Sport Express cruised through Rockefeller Center over the weekend, as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin turned up on

Saturday Night Live

to let the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, and a handsome movie star, make some more fun of her.

She stood smiling in the hallway with SNL chief Lorne Michaels, as Alec Baldwin pretended to mistake her for his 30 Rock costar Tina Fey, who was onstage mimicking her, dismissing polls that show her ticket behind and saying the only one she cares about is the North Pole.

Though the women were onscreen together for only a moment, the bit worked because Fey and Palin looked exactly alike.

"Hey Lorne," Baldwin said, "you can't let Tina go out and stand there with that woman. She goes against everything that we stand for. . . . You want our Tina to go out there and stand there with that horrible woman?"

Palin smiled politely and continued to smile when Michaels informed Baldwin - oops! - that he was standing next to the vice-presidential candidate, not Fey, and the actor told her, "You are way hotter in person."

The derision jumped several levels during the "Weekend Update" segment later in the show, as Palin busted a move while sitting at the desk and listening to an Amy Poehler rap, supported by mock Eskimos; cast member Jason Sudeikis goofing on her husband, Todd; and somebody in a silly moose suit, who got shot.

"In Wasilla, we just chill, baby, chilla, but when I see oil, it's drill, baby, drilla," Poehler chanted. "McCain-Palin, we're gonna put the nail in the coffin of the media elite."

"She likes red meat," sang the Eskimos.

Palin kept her own verbiage to a minimum. "I'm not going to take any of your questions," she told the pretend reporters who had been grilling her funny alter ego. But she did get to deliver the standard show-starting shout-out, "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Heady stuff for a small-town gal. If she doesn't make it to Washington, she'll always have SNL.

Palin's appearance was well-publicized in advance, but not by the show. Stung when Barack Obama changed his mind about a widely rumored appearance on the season premiere, Michaels would not confirm the booking beforehand.

She did it for him, telling syndicated radio host Neal Boortz on Friday that the plan was set but that she had no idea what her appearance would entail.

Appearing Friday on The Late Show with David Letterman, Fey said she understood that it was the McCain campaign, and not Michaels, that had been actively lobbying to get Palin on SNL.

It was taking a page from a time-honored political playbook. Richard Nixon started this sort of thing 40 years ago, saying, "Sock it to me!" on Laugh-In to demonstrate what a regular guy he was. Concerned about his dignity, Nixon's opponent, Hubert Humphrey, declined to go on the show. Executive producer George Schlatter said Humphrey later told him that move might have cost him the election.

At SNL's close, where everybody stands on stage and hugs and waves to the audience, Fey started to approach the woman she has so brilliantly satirized the past month, but the cameras turned off before America could see how they interacted.

Maybe they hustled off together to another legendary SNL after-party. Working mothers with young children, it's more likely they went off to bed.