Basket of Kisses

Guess who landed on the cover of Rolling Stone?
That’s right. they did.

Rolling Stone

And so much more…here

Get him a walk-on role on Mad Men, please. Seriously, he’s brilliant.

Addendum:
And I know he’s brilliant because of his audition a few years ago. I’d have voted for him then, had I not been entered in the competition as well.

Okay I have to tell you, many of the ways that Freddy Rumsen related to Alcoholics Anonymous, and the ways that the people around him reacted to his relationship with AA, felt inaccurate for the period. As the title of this post indicates, I have no idea if I’m right or wrong here. It’s just what I think. Any old-timers, or children of recovering alcoholics from the early 60s, please feel free to chime in.

I believe that at that time, alcoholism was not understood by the masses, treatment was understood even less, and recovery through AA understood the least of all. People were simply not very informed, nor were they especially sympathetic.

Most of all, because of the heartiness with which alcoholics were stigmatized, there was no room in the workplace for recovery from it. Sobriety was not embraced. Regardless of the prior saturation point of the drunk-at-hand, complete sobriety was just plain weakness, and very suspicious behavior. What was accepted would have been more along the lines of Freddy’s got his drinking under control.

Peggy: Is everything okay?

Freddy: You can’t put two and two together?

Umm, no. She couldn’t. Unless Peggy had a particular insider’s view, like her father had been a recovering alcoholic who attended AA meetings. And even then, she might not have known–you hear stories all the time of kids whose fathers were recovering alcoholics their whole lives, or most of their lives, and the kids never knew it. The tv show Party of Five had such a storyline, and that was set much later. But at this time it was truly all under a cloud of secrecy . People knew about AA, they’d seen Days of Wine and Roses, but they didn’t really know–and they did not respect it or want to hear about it.

Freddy: Suffice it to say, the client and I are in a fraternity together.

I don’t think this kind of wink and nod really translated across the room—Roger didn’t have it in his consciousness that Freddy was in some kind of program of recovery. All he knew is that he wasn’t pissing himself anymore and that he was employable. And Freddy would not have expected Roger to get it—in fact, the less discussed, the better for everyone. (more…)

Jared Harris brings English civility to Mad Men, reports Reuters.

Alexa Alemanni gets a timely Q & A session with AMC. [Watch this space for an Alexa Alemanni Q&A with the Basket!]

Christina Hendricks talks about seasons 3 and 4 with the New York Post.  She also discloses she wants to do a movie where she would get to learn Kung Fu [because she cannot help but push the envelope of awesome --K]  Best Week Ever has her geeky goth high school pictures.  And to think she felt “invisible” in Hollywood prior to being cast on Mad Men. Also, she loves that Joan lightens things up at SCDP.

January Jones talks about the cast’s regimen of eating well and not working out too much.  JJ also talks to the Hollywood Reporter about Season 3′s drama and the Emmys.

Elisabeth Moss talks to New York magazine about Peggy’s new season, her new love interest and her new hairdo.

ABC talked to our Emmy-nominated trio of Mad Women.

(more…)

Look at Mr. Stewart
He’s the only person he has to fear
He’d only let himself get near
He don’t trust nobody
If he stopped bein’ so shady
He could have a nice young lady
– Sly and the Family Stone, “Life” (complete lyrics here)

(Video is music only with album cover art.)

Sly Stone, as least as innovative in his own field as Don Draper is in his, and who would go on to develop a very well-documented substance abuse problem that cost him his career, his marriage (to a woman he married in front of 23,000 concert-goers at Madison Square Garden!), and pretty much every dime of the millions he made, wrote and sang the above words about himself in 1968. (His birth surname is Stewart; he was credited as “Sylvester Stewart” as a songwriter.) Knowing where he was headed didn’t necessarily stop him from going there. The same can be said for Don.

Over the first two episodes of Season 4, we’ve seen Don behave in ways he would have thought unseemly just a year ago. We’ve seen him be sloppy drunk a number of times, so plastered that even women who would normally be putty in his hands have been turned off; we’ve seen him yell at clients and slam doors in the office; we’ve seen him use sex as a weapon against his secretary, who has never been anything but reliable and professional; and we’ve seen him swinging back and forth between grandiosity and palpable self-loathing. And what keeps popping into my mind is this:

Don is turning into Duck Phillips. (more…)

One week later, let’s discuss.

So for those following closely along, Deb and I missed this event last year. By a stroke of irony and a bumpy communication track, the only time we could schedule our visit to the Mad Men set was the Monday morning following the S3 premiere. I know, I know, poor us, right? But point is, we’ve never been to one of these. And it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

Our little party gathered together (fyi; Sephora is a brilliant meetup place in Manhattan, provided you are specific about which location–but it’s an easy place to gather, plus you can touch up da face) and headed over to the entrance of the event. AMC was gracious enough to have extended an invite into the VIP seating, not just to me and Deb, but to allow us a few guests as well. Of our writers, only Marly K was able to attend–we only had two days notice on the invite–but we are so glad she could join us! Along the yellow brick road we also picked up handsome bloggy buddy Nathaniel Rogers from the Film Experience. He did a terrific (and yes, more timely) writeup of the evening, and review of the episode, here.

By now you’ve seen these pictures of the event and read the basic lineup (we can be spotted in pic#3, in the exposed second row of the center section–me in the red dress and Deb to my right, your left, and also in pic#6, up in the left corner). Pretty much, awesome pretty period-dressed waiters and cigarette-girl types walked around handing us gift bags (nifty black hats and some other goodies courtesy of the Chase Sapphire sponsors) and schnacks. We were inside a roped off area, and mostly ran around (not ran so much as bounced) chatting with one-another, taking pictures, looking outside the roped area to see how the crowds were reacting, and seeing who and what there was to spot inside.

Me and Deb pounced on (not pounced on so much as approached) Chris March from Project Runway. We’re big fans; of the show and of Chris. He was there to judge the costume contest–I told him one of the dresses in the episode had reminded me of his work (for those who watched his season–go look at Bethany’s borrowed date dress and you’ll get it).

And hey, we’re no slouches. We managed to bring a little extra star-power of our own, the brilliantly talented and endlessly adorable Carol Hannah Whitfield, also of Project Runway fame.

Carol Hannah with my nephew, Arthur

The pre-show activities were a nice blend of onscreen preview-type stuff and live activities, featuring a 2-part trivia contest and the costume contest.

A short while before the 9pm screening time (that is one hour earlier than the actual airtime on the east coast), January Jones and Elisabeth Moss were brought out. They greeted the audience and said some words–they were both gorgeous–no fugging here. Then they surprised Lizzie with a birthday cake (her birthday had been the day before) and her mom came out for a hug. (more…)

Burning questions for S4 from the Washington Post.

Modernize your Mad Men fashion.

This might be worth saving for the archives: A map of all the bars visited in Mad Men.

Ten fictional businesses I wish were real mentions Mad Men in an unexpected way.

TV Guide’s weird TV of the week includes weird questions asked of Christina Hendricks. Christina answers more normal questions OntheRedCarpet.  The HuffPo has video of an KTLA news host reduced to incoherence at the thought of Christina taking a bath.  And she is declared an “absolutely fabulous” physical role model for girls by Lynne Featherstone, Britain’s new Equalities Minister.

Nerve compiles the best advice we’ve ever gotten from Joan.

Chris March (of Project Runway fame) didn’t love Public Relations. [I totally disagree, yet I still love him.--D]

Joe Bua, TV Junkie, is sort of crazy in love with Public Relations, and also with Basket of Kisses. The feeling is moooo-chual, dahling.
(more…)

AMC has decided to stop giving out screeners. This means critics, reviewers, and bloggers like us will no longer see Mad Men several days in advance.

I could slap Alessandra Stanley across the face about now.
(more…)

Matt Weiner is kinda spoilery with New York magazine’s Vulture blog.  [Et tu, Matt? --K]

Lionsgate and AMC are in negotiations for a possible sixth season!

The New York Times spoils the period of time covered in the upcoming Season 4 premiere. In that regard, there are blog wars about Mad Men and spoilers: Variety and Cultural Learnings weigh in.

The Atlantic Wire rounds up slightly mixed advance reviews for the premiere.

Double fug: Christina and Elisabeth.

Breaking news! Vincent Kartheiser has a toilet!

The Bygone Bureau has an interview with Mad Men Unbuttoned’s Natasha Vargas-Cooper.
(more…)

NYC locals know the free newspapers handed out every morning by all the major subways and bus hubs. Our buddy Rolando Pujol put together a wonderful collection for this morning’s readers in AM New York (starts on page 10):

http://longisland.newsday.com/gallery/galleries/amny/pdf/20100723.pdf

For those asking how we can at the Times Square event, I have no idea. We were supposed to be working with AMC for VIP seating for our group (including some Basketcases), but communications have been a little wobbly. We don’t know the setup, we don’t know nuthin’. We’re not bringing signs or anything, well, because we’re just not. It’s going to be 400 degrees and we’re just dealing with Times Square in July, and that’s plenty.

HOWEVER if we do figure out a way to meet up, me and my trusty iPhone will post it here on the blog.

The screening itself starts at 9pm, folks, not the air time of 10pm. Get there early–festivities begin at 7pm. Word on the street is Elisabeth Moss and January Jones will be there.