Lily Allen returned to "
Saturday Night Live" with a highly staged performance of "
Madeline" from the breakup album "
West End Girl", using the theatrical
Madeline persona to process her separation from
David Harbour and shifting views on monogamy and infidelity.
Dakota Johnson embodied the other woman on the "
Saturday Night Live" stage, lounging behind gauzy curtains in a lace black dress and sheer bedazzled robe while reading imagined text messages that cast the affair as purely physical before stepping forward to kiss Allen on the cheek and sign off with "Love and Light,
Madeline". The collaboration, on an episode hosted by
Josh O’Connor, has fueled pop culture discussion about Allen’s marriage ending, Johnson’s "girls’ girl" image and late night fashion presence, and how "
West End Girl" turns a very public breakup into narrative performance on mainstream television.