Dionne Warwick Reacts to SNL Parody and Praises Ego Nwodim's Impersonation: 'You Are a Star'

"This was a hilarious birthday gift," wrote Dionne Warwick, who celebrated her 80th birthday on Saturday

Dionne Warwick, Saturday Night Live
Dionne Warwick and Ego Nwodim. Photo: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Dionne Warwick received the best birthday gift this year from Saturday Night Live.

As Warwick turned 80 on Saturday, the long-running comedy program lovingly celebrated the legendary singer — who’s been making headlines this month for her hilarious Twitter posts.

In addition to highlighting some of her viral tweets, the sketch also poked fun at some back-and-forth critiques between Warwick and Wendy Williams, which stemmed from comments the television host recently made about the singer’s social media behavior as well as an old marijuana charge.

In the “Dionne Warwick Talk show” sketch, cast member Ego Nwodim portrayed the singer — whose interactions with her guests always seemed to circle back to Williams.

“One last question Harry Styles,” she says in the sketch. “Why is Wendy Williams being a bitch to me? She started beefing and now she’s acting like she can’t finish.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who Wendy Williams is,” answered the singer, who was played in the sketch by SNL host Timothée Chalamet, to which Warwick replied, “Yeah, I knew I liked your ass.”

Another interaction with singer Billie Eilish, played by cast member Melissa Villaseñor, ended with Warwick asking, “Billie Eyelash, you’re spooky. Can you put a hex on Wendy Williams for me?”

Hours after SNL aired, Warwick took to social media to share that she enjoyed the sketch — and Nwodim’s impression of her.

“This was a hilarious birthday gift. Thank you, @nbcsnl. That young lady’s impression of me was very good," she wrote, adding in another post directed at the actress, "You did a wonderful job, baby. You are a star."

Nwodim went on to share that Warwick's kind words made her emotional. "Tweets are not my own but they are making me cry, and thus, have found their way to main," she wrote. "Extremely touched by Ms. Dionne’s kindness and generosity of spirit. so glad I did her proud 🙏🏾."

Warwick also received another special birthday message from Jennifer Garner.

"I wanted to personally share this wonderful message from my new best friend Jennifer Garner! I’m looking forward to creating fun things with you in 2021," Warwick wrote alongside the heartfelt video.

Earlier this week, Warwick sent a stern message to Williams.

"A friend alerted me that Wendy Williams was spending a lot of not nice time speaking on me," she wrote in a series of tweets on Wednesday. "I tuned in to her show to catch the last few minutes of her speaking about me and as in the past, she seems not to be able to speak without maliciously made comments."

"My hope is my name will refrain from being spoken or thought of by her as this conversation was held a few years ago letting her know there was, nor would be any need, for her to say the name Dionne Warwick for any reason," she added. "There’s an old saying, 'You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!' Try it Wendy you might like it. 🤡🙂."

In a lengthy segment from her show, Williams called Warwick a “beautiful woman” before bringing up a video in which the singer, who has credited her niece with helping her draft her messages, talked about sending her own tweets.

Williams then brought up a past instance in which Warwick was caught carrying marijuana, alleging the singer still smokes today. (Warwick faced marijuana charges in 2002, but claimed she was framed, according to Billboard.)

"I totally believe that she is doing her own tweeting, but I think that Brittani is her right hand," Williams commented. "After Aunt Dionne does what she wants, after midnight, maybe after some bud."

Dionne Warwick, Wendy Williams
Dionne Warwick, Wendy Williams. Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty; Mike Pont/WireImage

Williams, who it has since been announced will be taking some time off from her talk show following the death of her mother, ended the segment by saying that she loves the singer and that "we're only having fun with you."

"Aunt Dionne knows how to stay relevant and Brittani is right there giving her all the filters and checking it over before she sends [it] and I think that's a great thing," she added. "I think if you're a person of a particular age, you need social media and you need to get down sometimes and talk at these kids, not to them, at them. But you did need someone in your family to make sure that you're coming off correct."

Warwick's niece also responded to the segment. "I’m not commenting on anything else, but @WendyWilliams gave me some props for socials today," she wrote. "Thank you! it’s fun to teach Aunt @_DionneWarwick new things. Can’t stop, won’t stop."

Warwick replied, "Let’s do tick tock [sic] then," referring to the viral video app, TikTok.

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