Aykroyd on SNL's Presidential Shake-Up

Saturday Night Live alum Dan Aykroyd (Blues Brothers, Coneheads) predicts that current castmember Will Ferrell's days of impersonating President George W. Bush on the NBC sketch comedy are numbered. "He's probably got about three more years... before the administration changes and Hillary [Clinton]'s president," the 49-year-old comic-actor tells TV Guide Online. "She's going to be president, there's no doubt about it."

Until that day arrives (for the record, Clinton reportedly has denied that she plans to make a run for her husband's old post in 2004), Aykroyd says it's been quite a joy watching Ferrell settle into his role as Commander in Chief. "[He] is really finding Bush," he enthuses. "All the gestures and the facial moves and the body language and the speech and accent... It's really being perfected.

"I'm a big fan of the show," adds the performer, who left SNL in 1979 after four seasons. "When I'm in New York in the fall, I go down there and watch [executive producer] Lorne [Michaels] pick the scenes that are going to [make the final cut]. It's great to be part of that alma mater."

Considering Aykroyd's busy schedule, it's amazing he can find time to watch SNL on TV — let alone in person. In addition to his House of Blues duties, he continues to rack up one big-screen credit after another. This summer alone he can be seen in Pearl Harbor, Evolution and Woody Allen's latest, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (opening Friday). And regarding his first-time collaboration with Allen, the funnyman reveals that he actually didn't have to beg the legendary filmmaker for a role in the pic.

"He approached me," explains the Oscar-nominated thesp (for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy). "He wrote me a letter and said, 'I've got this piece of material... Maybe you'll like it and maybe you won't. If you don't like it, we'll do something else sometime.' I felt like calling him and saying, 'Yeah, this isn't right, Woody. Send me the next one.'"