Mad News May 29-June 3, 2009 (Updated)

Better late than never, I suppose. I stumbled upon this interesting blog post about advertising that uses Don’s Lucky Strike “It’s Toasted” pitch as its example.

Here’s a summary of the Mad Men-related items in Ausiello’s “Dream Emmy Ballot” series: Best Drama, Best Actress for Elisabeth Moss and January Jones (but no Best Actor for Hamm), Best Supporting Actress for Christina Hendricks.

EW’s Popwatch asks you to vote on the Must scripted drama of the summer.

As we’ve been discussing, AMC wants to make Mad Men two minutes shorter in Season 3 to make room for more commercials. We’ll be discussing that more in this space soon.

The New York Times is experimenting with cutting edge digital advertising, including a campaign for Mad Men.

AMC is also experimenting with something called “addressable advertising.”

My buddy Lee Pfeiffer of Cinema Retro posts on AMC’s controversial (=ridiculous) decision to squeeze two more minutes of ad time out of the show that made them what they are. I forgive Lee for misspelling the name of the show.

The Orlando Sentinel says that the Emmys have been moved up a week to September 13, so as not to conflict with football. They also predict a repeat for Mad Men and 30 Rock.

Rants of a Diva lists the 25 best performances of the past TV season. Elisabeth Moss and Jon Hamm make the list, which I cannot argue with, but surely their should have been room for the genius that was S2 January? (h/t to Film Experience.)

Vanity Fair polls for the world’s handsomest man. Jon Hamm is on the list. Apparently teen girls are their prime voters, because Robert Pattinson is way ahead.

In an article about the success of Mad Men, we learn that acclaimed writer Frank Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon) is in the writer’s room for Season 3 (h/t Basketcase S. Tarzan).

Mad Men-producer Lionsgate has sold 49% of TV Guide.

Lionsgate’s home entertainment revenues are way up due to Mad Men and Weeds.

Karl here with a few updates:

The L.A. Times reports on what a difference a season makes for the Mad Men cast:

“We’re all a little dumbfounded. I don’t think you quite prepare yourself to know how to respond to being part of the culture,” says Vincent Kartheiser, who plays weaselly accounts man Pete Campbell.

The Mad Men cast picks their favorite scenes from Season 2 for The Envelope.

Matt Weiner and John Slattery chatted with folks at Zap2It, including me:

K: Did either of you know as early as “Three Sundays” — where Roger & Mona discuss their wedding — that the marriage was doomed? I’m guessing Matt did, but did John?

JS: I can’t say I knew it was doomed, but given Rogers behavior , it wasn’t looking good

K: Has John done any of the commentary for the Season 2 DVDs? He and Jon Hamm were hilarious commenting on “Red in the Face”…

JS: I did commentary on “Six Months Leave”, with the great Joel Murray aka Freddy Rumson.

Also, Matt said that AMC’s proposal to trim 2 minutes of airtime was not a done deal, and saw no reason why people should not contact AMC about it.  Matt had funny and interesting comments about various topics, e.g., how much the characters’ wardrobe may change over time:

If we are on the air long enough, I hope to get our characters into the next trends.   But I can say that most people don’t go with styles or fads.   They dress the way they did whenever in their life they looked the best.   That’s usually highschool or right after college.