Basket of Kisses

Mo Ryan has the scoop: Jon Hamm’s guest slot on 30 Rock begins February 5. Set your TiVo.

The “Mad Men” actor has a three-episode arc on the NBC comedy in 2009; he’ll play a potential love interest for Liz Lemon (Tina Fey). Hamm’s character is a doctor who lives in Liz’s building, and things went so well after he shot two “30 Rock” episodes last fall that he’s going to shoot another episode early this year, the actor told USA Today.

Need I say more?

We’ll get back to you on the date.

This was absolutely my reaction when I found out that Julie McNiven has a blog. Sooo cute. Julie (Hildy) is a vegan, and her blog is full of vegan recipes and also very sweet homey stuff like her engagement ring and her cats (love!).

And then I saw that Julie is babysitting for Rich and Virginia Sommer. And my head exploded. No, really, how cute is that? CUTE.

Today, January 5th.

Oh, Jan, have an amazing birthday.

Go on with your Golden-Globe-nominated self!

Kisses from the Basket!

Lionsgate, this is dedicated to you:
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I just posted Mad News like two minutes ago, but I didn’t want to leave this out, because it’s a big one: Jon Hamm is one of Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainers of the Year.

19. JON HAMM
Before Jon Hamm guest-hosted Saturday Night Live on Oct. 25, most people would’ve been surprised to learn that he’s a self-professed ”huge comedy nerd.” But by the time the 37-year-old Mad Men star busted out ”Jon Hamm’s John Ham: the ham you can eat in the bathroom,” it was clear that the real Hamm is — forgive us — a real ham. And then there’s the simmering intensity he brings to Don Draper, 1960s Madison Avenue adman extraordinaire, whose dark and mysterious life took an even darker and more mysterious turn this year on the critically acclaimed AMC drama. Says Hamm, ”It would be the most boring thing in the world to play a guy who’s just nice to everybody and only pets puppies and makes soup.”

It’s a cool few days in this department!

Yesterday, December 29th, was the birthday of both Patrick Fischler, who portrays the UTZ chomping Jimmy Barrett, as well as Alison Brie, our girl Trudy.

Today, December 30th, is the 11th birthday of Brandon Killham, who gives us a heart wrenching performance as young Dick ‘bowlcut’ Whitman.

And if that isn’t enough, today, the 30th, is the 10th wedding anniversary of our favorite Mad couple, John Slattery and Talia Balsam.

Birthday and anniversary kisses to all!

Hey all,

There’s been a lot of activity around here the last few days, so I just wanted to remind you of the interview with Joel Murray we just posted. I don’t want it lost in the shuffle.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner, know what I mean?

Yesterday, in response to a remark made by Joel Murray during the course of our interview, Basketcase Karl mentioned how fab it was that Joel was a Basket-lurker.

And we agree.

But we’ve had a few Mad Men stars de-lurk.

Read the comments for this post, where Rich Sommer and Michael Gladis nerd to the pain!

And in response to this post, the comments include ‘Some Random Reader of Your Blog’ who knew an awful lot about what Harry was doing in the scene at P.J. Clarkes (because it was in fact Rich Sommer), followed by a comment from Julie McNiven.

We hear that these guys read us, but their occasional participation in the fun is fun for all of us!

We’ve announced that we’ll be speaking to Bryan Batt. That should be coming soon, and we promise you, we will be talking with many more stars, both on and off-screen, in the coming months.

In the meantime, we’ve compiled a list of our fabulous Basket of Interviews:

And our little list of informal non-interviews:

Folks, we are thrilled to be doing this; bringing as much information and discussion and insight about this wonderful show together. The fact that those directly involved with the show support us as well is something we should all feel good about.

Thank you again for all the help you’ve given us. Seriously. Thank you.

Thank you MarlyK, Ms. Darkly, B. Cooper and hullaballoo, our Basketwriters, for taking on the crazy task of joining forces with the Lipps.

Have a perfect New Year.

Kisses–
Roberta and Deborah

Look for our exclusive BoK interview with Bryan Batt over the next few weeks. We think. (Not, we think we’re interviewing him. We are. We just haven’t scheduled yet, so it could be in the next few days, or not so much. We’ll get back to you.)

But yay!