Enfield's link to Emmy

Kinston's Jaime Pressly isn't the only Carolina girl with an Emmy on her shelf this year.

Pressly (best supporting actress in a comedy for "My Name is Earl") shares Tar Heel bragging rights with Enfield's Katreese Barnes, co-composer of last year's "Saturday Night Live" sensation, "D--- in a Box."

The '90s song parody in which guest host Justin Timberlake and cast member Andy Samberg (who shared in the Emmy) sang about, er, presenting a special gift to your girlfriend at Christmas, won the Creative Arts award for music and lyrics.

Thanks to her high-profile success, Barnes has recently been profiled in the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and People magazine, in which she talked about her breast cancer surgery in 2000. She has been cancer-free since 2002 -- thanks, she says, to alternative therapies.

Mostly, though, she has been talking about the pop culture phenom the parody has become.

"It seems like every day I'm doing some sort of interview about it," says Barnes, the show's band director for seven years, "It's been a pretty incredible two weeks."

The song hit YouTube right after it aired on "SNL" late last year, and it was virtually the biggest hit song in the country by the following Monday.

"I've been at 'SNL' for seven years, and I think that's the biggest 'hit' I've seen in terms of Internet activity," says Barnes. "It was just shocking. At the end of the week, I was really proud."

Barnes -- who writes music for all of the show's song spoofs, including the "Deep House Dish" songs -- says Timberlake was presented with a few other song concepts during a week of rehearsals, but didn't like any of them until he heard the slow pop-funk that would become "Box" on Thursday.

Barnes says that, from there, it all came together in about three hours.

"They just ran with it," she says.

Barnes, now in her 30s, grew up all over the United States as the daughter of an Army man before her family settled in Enfield, just north of Rocky Mount, when she was a teenager.

Katreese was awarded a music scholarship, and she finished her high school education at the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.

She and her brother Jerry were briefly signed to Epic in the 1980s as the band J.U.I.C.Y (Joint United Incredible Creative Youth). Jerry now lives down the street from her in New York City, and works as a bass player and producer.

Katreese worked as a backup singer for Sting before being hired by "SNL," and she had to choose between the two.

"I thought it was going to use more of my talent," she says of her decision.

Her parents, Milton and Katrina, still live in Enfield, in Halifax County, and mom was present at the Sept. 8 awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

"Man, I was excited," says Katrina Barnes. "It was really thrilling when she won."

One of Katreese Barnes' favorite memories of the night was of her and her mother being interviewed on the red carpet.

"We were proud of that, because we both made such an effort to look fabulous," she says with a laugh. "I was wearing a dress by Clifford Michael in New York. I think she was wearing something from Diane's in Rocky Mount. Everybody else is saying 'Versace' -- it's hilarious."

"Saturday Night Live" returns for its 33rd season at 11:30 p.m. Sept. 29, with guest host LeBron James and musical guest Kanye West.

Where to see Martha

Reader Sharon McKinstry points out that last week's Media Mix item about "The Martha Stewart Show" being dropped from NBC-17's morning schedule failed to include information about where else viewers can tune into the show.

It's on weeknights at 8 on the Fine Living Network. In Raleigh, that's channel 113 on Dish Network, channel 232 on DirecTV, and channel 151 on Time Warner Cable.

That's right, on TWC's digital tier right next to the new home of ... Travel Channel.

Gosh, we don't want to reopen that can of worms, now do we?