Mad News, October 20-23, 2008
- None of the Mad Men stars have contracts. Fox News tells us that Jon Hamm, John Slattery, and the rest of the cast have yet to sign for a third season. ARGH!
- However, a couple of days later, AMC came out saying Jon Hamm does have a contract, and viewers shouldn’t worry.
- And Alan Sepinwall gets the money quote from Matt Weiner:
“I love the show and I love the characters and we just started (negotiating),” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I have every intention of being part of this show forever. I love doing it and I love the experience and I love working with everybody I work with. There’s no crisis.”
Paste that to your bathroom mirror and read it over and over.
As with every Weiner interview, virtually every word is quotable, so go read.
- Bryan Batt interview with Richard Jay-Alexander.
- Buzz Sugar asks readers what they want from a third season of Mad Men (other than, y’know, JON HAMM).
- Stickers and Donuts shows you how to buy everything Mad Men and basically gives lessons in fan-type worship. Woo!
- The Gotham Independent Film Awards nominated Rosemarie DeWitt (Midge Daniels) as a Breakthrough Actor of 2008, and nominated her film, Rachel Getting Married, for Best Ensemble Performance. So, that’s like two acting noms from one award-giver-entity-thing. (Thanks to Basketcase Bartender Noah.)
- Liz Kelly of the Washington Post does a lengthy sit-down with Bryan Batt. He’s Interview Boy this week!
- Mad Men is getting a Simpsons send-up on their Halloween episode (November 2).
- The Frisky hopes that “gray rape” such as Joan experienced will become more rare.
- …and she also tells you what kind of TV men to avoid (included the Don Draper type).
- Tim Goodman tells AMC and Lionsgate to give Matt Weiner everything he wants fer the luvva GAWD.
- Dyna Moe dined with Mad Men.
- The New York Daily News has seen the season finale and gives it, like, fifty stars (out of five).
- Mad Men drink recipes. Bookmark this site.
- TV by the Numbers has the entire season’s viewership.
- The Socialist Worker loves Mad Men. The review is not (mostly) about socialism, but an appreciation of Mad Men such as anyone else might right. Nonetheless, they absolutely get it that Mad Men is not nostalgia.
IF THE world of the working-class woman is harsh, that of the middle-class housewife is claustrophobic. Don is married to a former high-end model, Betty (January Jones), whose dream of wedded bliss progressively disintegrates into stultifying domestic routine. As the old adage goes, it begins when you sink in to his arms, and ends with your arms in his sink.
- Leading feminist blog Pandagon discusses the women-loving-jerks-such-as-Don thing.
- Mad Men: Bigger than its ratings.
- USA Today gives us a loving tribute to the past two seasons that felt like it might get spoilery, so I stopped reading.
- New York Newsday has a charming, bubbly video interview with Elisabeth Moss, and a brief (favorable, duh) review of the season finale.
- Fugging! Yay!
- You know how I said Weiner’s interviews are always great? Here’s Variety:
Q.What will be the date on Don Draper’s desk calendar when season three begins? Will we miss seeing Peggy’s reaction to the Kennedy assassination or The Beatles’ arrival in New York ? — Hercules T. Strong
A. I’m going to say that I don’t know, because it’s really true. And I love that they’re excited about another season because I don’t even know what it is yet. But I know one thing, which is that I think everybody’s seen enough of the Kennedy assassination. I know I have. It’s certainly going to affect the show and their lives and I guess we’ll see their reaction. But I definitely don’t want to go through that dramatically.and also…
The whole thing about Betty being molested – that story was drawn from my great grandfather. I heard this story about them riding on a bus and him introducing my grandmother (his daughter) as his wife and some inappropriate behavior on a bus – they had a big fight and were kicked off a bus. Big brouhaha. And I’d heard this story from my grandmother. To me this was just a symbol of someone who had no touch with reality. They (dementia patients) become hyper-sexual, angry, belligerent, overconfident and they cofabulate.
Here are some screen shots.
October 24th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Okay, I have to call foul on Maggie Siff’s fugging. She was in costume. A costume by Janie Bryant, no less. And she was supposed to be Rachel — or, rather, the Las Vegas ring-a-ding-ding lounge version of Rachel Menken. I’m working on the write-up now, which, hopefully will explain the whole thing.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Okay, so not molested.
Probably.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Oh, and here’s and interview with Elisabeth Moss in Playbill.
Forgive my sister for not posting about it; she couldn’t get the link to work.
When asked if she is able to reveal anything about upcoming episodes (this is not a brandy new article:
October 24th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Playbill not exactly known for scoops.
Interesting Mr. Weiner’s feelings about the Kennedy assassination. In the end I’d have to agree. It’s kinda so big that to show it would distract from the stories he’s telling.
I had thought that instead of skipping 1963 entirely maybe he’d start S3 on Nov 22 ‘63, as a jumping off point for the season and 1964.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I love that Stickers and Donuts article! Last week, I almost bought that typewriter from Urban Outfitters that is shown.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Hull, the Fug Girls totally said that they couldn’t tell if it was a costume or not, although they are not above fugging costumes.
Coop, we’ve had Basketcases say exactly what Weiner said; that the Kennedy assassination has been SO DONE, it can’t be anything but trite anymore.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I have a feeling this Simpsons parody will be about as funny as gray rape, which is to say not very. Also, I disagree that Mad Men isn’t about nostalgia. It’s at least 50% nostalgia.
Kind of like how The Sopranos simultaneously glamourized and denounced the gangster lifestyle.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I definitely get nostalgic when I see artifacts from my childhood, hear outdated expressions, etc. But that is surface stuff. The meat of the series is the stuff we’ve (thankfully) left behind, and also how much hasn’t yet changed.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Wow Deborah! This was really chock full with information, Thank you. I have spent the last hour and half reading everything.
I’m just nervous about the crossroads Don and Betty are at. For some reason I want them to try to work it out. They both must change, we’ll see.
I’m looking forward to SNL with Jon Hamm, hope they have some good laughs last weeks was awful.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I’m not sure this is news–feel free to move it if it doesn’t fit here:
http://www.culture11.com/article/32737
October 25th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Season 3 starts in 1964
I’m not going to read every blog to see if this has been posted or not but last night Brian Batt spoke in NYC and said that Matt Weiner plans to skip 2 years from season to seaon, hoping to make it to 1970 where we will see the world of 1960 turned updside down. Imagine Joan in a pantsuit!
October 26th, 2008 at 1:10 am
CANNOT…STOP…LAUGHING…SIMPSONS………
October 26th, 2008 at 2:25 am
1965, hi.
A) Weiner has been saying for awhile that this is his vision. However his vision is not set in stone. He said really recently (maybe even in one of the interviews linked in this post, but I make no promises) that he hasn’t decided when S3 will begin.
B) Bryan Batt spoke in NYC last night? I’d be all mad for not knowing if I wasn’t out meeting Elisabeth Moss and shit. But, do tell.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Here’s my Bryan Batt story:
background first…
Both Bryan and I grew up in New Orleans. I first met Bryan back around 1981 when we were “groupies” to a local pop band called “The Cold”. I remember pogo-ing up and down with him and dozens more to the music. Fun times… As it turns out, Bryan was finishing his degree at Tulane at the same time I started mine. I got to see him in a couple of plays, but I forget the names. I remember Bryan because back then I was coming out to myself and my gaydar picked up that Bryan was like me. Also, Bryan’s family owned the city’s only amusement park, Pontchartrain Beach, which made him part of New Orleans royalty.
So this past Friday at NYC’s LGBT Center (the Gay Center for short), Bryan was interviewed as part of the series Out Professionals hosts each year. Much of the Mad Men cast was in town to attend Elizabeth Moss’ opening night in Speed the Plow. (By the way, I’m sure everyone got to see her, John Slattery and Jon Hamm on Saturday Night Live last night). Bryan talked about his acting journey which included encouragement from Helen Hayes who visited New Orleans while he was tasting the waters with local theater. Miss Hayes years later sent him a telegram on the opening night of his first Broadway show, Starlight Express. Bryan also appeared in Cats. He got the coveted part of Darius in Paul Rudnick’s play and film, Jeffrey. He appeared as the DJ in Saturday Night Fever, the musical. He started getting offers to be the understudy to lead roles in major shows like Sunset Boulevard, but in accepting these gigs he began to get type cast as “the understudy.” Eventually his partner Tom and he decided to open a home design store Hazelnut in the trendy shopping district of Magazine Street in the uptown part of New Orleans http://www.hazelnutneworleans.com.
Getting the part of Salvador was destiny, since Bryan turned down the first audition to keep a commitment he made to his God daughter in gratitude for all that she did for his family when Katrina hit. About the show, he repeated much of what we already know from reading the blog. Bryan said that he personally doesn’t follow the blogs but that Matt Weiner and some of the others do. He says tonight’s finale is in his opinion the best show of the season. It will turn some situations upside down. Apparently January will have an amazing scene.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I don’t know where else to put this, but I came across it today and it seemed worth sharing.
http://www.filmthreat.com/blog/?p=1251