--- title: 'SNL' Depicts Lori Loughlin in Jail With Julian Assange description: High profile figures facing charges duked it out in jail to see who was the 'craziest' on 'Saturday Night Live' canonical: https://time.com/5570176/michael-avenatti-lori-loughlin-julian-assange-jail-saturday-night-live/ author: Alejandro de la Garza article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-14T15:01:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:37.769Z og:title: 'Saturday Night Live's Cold Open Depicts Michael Avenatti, Lori Loughlin and Julian Assange as Cellmates og:description: "I'm the scourge of the cleaning staff at the Ecuadorian Embassy." og:url: https://time.com/5570176/michael-avenatti-lori-loughlin-julian-assange-jail-saturday-night-live/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt776291964b843bdf/6989484886f68e43706ebab7/julian-assange-snl-court.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Julian Assange Appears At Westminster Magistrates Court og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Saturday Night Live's Cold Open Depicts Michael Avenatti, Lori Loughlin and Julian Assange as Cellmates twitter:description: "I'm the scourge of the cleaning staff at the Ecuadorian Embassy." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt776291964b843bdf/6989484886f68e43706ebab7/julian-assange-snl-court.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Saturday Night Live_'s Cold Open Depicts Michael Avenatti, Lori Loughlin and Julian Assange as Cellmates  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Apr 14, 2019 3:01 PM UTC  Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11, 2019 in London, England. Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11, 2019 in London, England.Jack Taylor—Getty Images  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Apr 14, 2019 3:01 PM UTC Would attempting to extort a sportswear company or paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get your child into college make for a more intimidating cellmate? That’s the central question of last night’s [_Saturday Night Live_](http://time.com/5565669/joe-biden-fails-sensitivity-training-on-saturday-night-live/) cold open, when [Michael Avenatti](http://time.com/5561882/michael-avenatti-fraud-charges-court/), [Lori Loughlin](http://time.com/5566852/lori-loughlin-money-laundering-college-scandal/) and [Julian Assange](http://time.com/5568626/julian-assange-charge-conspiracy-computer/) (played by Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon and Michael Keaton, respectively) competed in jail to see who was the “craziest.” “I paid $500,000 to a women’s crew coach to say my daughter was good at rowing,” said McKinnon-as-Loughlin, looming behind a group of prisoners. “I’m loco.” Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband [were recently indicted](http://time.com/5563799/lori-loughlin-felicity-huffman-court-appearances-college-scandal/) as part of a college admissions scandal, codenamed Varsity Blues. Not to be outdone, Davidson’s Michael Avenatti soon joined Loughlin to brag about his own alleged crimes. “I’m accused of crimes you can’t even conceive of,” said Davidson-as-Avenatti. “Like blackmailing a sneaker company and stealing taxes from a coffee shop to fund a race car team.” Last week, a federal grand jury [indicted](http://time.com/5568585/michael-avenatti-indicted-fraud-clients/) lawyer Michael Avenatti, known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Trump, on 36 counts of fraud, embezzlement and other financial crimes. He also faces federal charges that allege he attempted to [extort](http://time.com/5558238/michael-avenatti-charged-nike/) more than $20 million from Nike. But _SNL_ saved the most menacing figure for last — a bearded, black-suited Julian Assange played by guest star Michael Keaton. Recently [arrested](http://time.com/5568366/julian-assange-wikileaks-arrest-london/) in the U.K., WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had been under diplomatic protections in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012. “Here’s how crazy I am. I’m wanted in the U.S. and Sweden. I’m from Australia. I live in London, in Ecuador,” said Keaton-as-Assange. “You try figuring that one out.” Watch the full sketch here: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5570176/michael-avenatti-lori-loughlin-julian-assange-jail-saturday-night-live/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5570176/michael-avenatti-lori-loughlin-julian-assange-jail-saturday-night-live/"},"headline":"Saturday Night Live's Cold Open Depicts Michael Avenatti, Lori Loughlin and Julian Assange as Cellmates","datePublished":"2019-04-14T15:01:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:37.769Z","description":"\"I'm the scourge of the cleaning staff at the Ecuadorian Embassy.\"","url":"https://time.com/5570176/michael-avenatti-lori-loughlin-julian-assange-jail-saturday-night-live/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt776291964b843bdf/6989484886f68e43706ebab7/julian-assange-snl-court.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alejandro de la Garza","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt776291964b843bdf/6989484886f68e43706ebab7/julian-assange-snl-court.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Julian Assange Appears At Westminster Magistrates Court","caption":"Julian Assange Appears At Westminster Magistrates Court","creditText":"Jack Taylor—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5570176/michael-avenatti-lori-loughlin-julian-assange-jail-saturday-night-live/","name":"Saturday Night Live's Cold Open Depicts Michael Avenatti, Lori Loughlin and Julian Assange as Cellmates"}}]}] ```