Mad Men, Season 3 Poster

Does it really get any better than this?

Jon Hamm on 30 Rock...Thank You Jesus

Jon Hamm, star of my favorite show, Mad Men, is starring on my second favorite show, 30 Rock, for three episodes as Liz Lemon's (Tina Fey) love interest. The first Jon Hamm-tastic episode starts Feb. 5th. He's the bees' knees. God, I cannot wait until the new season of Mad Men. I have serious Mad Men withdrawal. I recently got my mom addicted to the show, and she can't stop watching the season 1 DVD. It's a sickness, I tell ya!

Do You Like Websites?

The offbeat, but very funny comedian, Zach Galifianakis, interviews Mad Men star, Jon Hamm, and it's pretty ridiculous, not to mention hilarious.

There"s nobody that more consistently produces web video greatness than Zach Galifianakis (except maybe for this hamster). The previous episodes of his Funny or Die talk show Between Two Ferns were fantastic, and this new one with guest Jon Hamm may be the best yet.

(Via Comedy.com via Funny or Die)

Dick Whitman or the Guy from Simply Red?

This month's GQ has a really bad photo shoot with one of my all-time favorite leading men: Jon Hamm aka Don Draper on AMC's Mad Men. I sent one of my best girlfriend's, Jaime, two of the pictures from the layout, and as I had suspected, she didn't care for the pictures, either.

This was our e-mail:

Me: What's up with the placement of the hat?!

Jaime: What is up with My Friend Flicka in the background? You can totally tell this whole shoot was conceived by a heterosexual man who is sooo jealous of D-Drapes that he wanted to completely emasculate him and turn him into Huck Finn or by a homosexual male who thinks that what he is wearing is fetching in a hip incorrigible hobo sort of way and that all women love horses so yeah, let's throw a horse in the background and they'll go wild.

The last man a woman would want in her house is an unemployed dude with a horse. Does not matter how hot he is. Seriously, I'd take employed man with pot-bellied pig over homeless with horse any day.

I feel like Paul Rudd fills his inbox with this picture and alternate titles for it of varying levels of ridicule all day.

Me: I'm trying not to burst out laughing right now because nobody around me is going to think this is funny. I hope to God, Paul Rudd tools on him mercilessly because this is one of the worst photo shoots I've ever seen. You take one of the most ridiculously handsome men and turn him into a stable boy?!

Yeah, I think the photographer was going for the whole Dick Whitman motif, but failed miserably because even Dick Whitman wouldn't be caught dead wearing a ridiculous hat like this. And look at the way it's placed on his head! It's so 80s new wave band, I can't stand it. I feel as if he's going to break out singing "Come on Eileen" at any moment. Not sexy.

Umm, how about just throw the guy in a suit? He looks fantastic in a suit. Jon Hamm is the type of guy who was made to wear a suit. Instead, they put him in a porkpie hat, throw him in a field, and tell him to channel Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. He's a grown man! Throw Emile Hirsch in a corn field or James McAvoy, but not Jon Hamm!

Then, I sent her the 2nd picture.

Jaime: Okay, this confirms that it is actually a hetero man who set this up...stalk of wheat in the mouth?!!!! As evidence I will hearken back to every July or August cover of Playboy in the 1980s. Due to a poignant and predictable lack of imagination on the part of hetero male America, summer issues would always feature "Southern Belles" or "Texas Debs" and would inevitably portray these women in Daisy Dukes sprawled out over classic cars or taking a much deserved nude nap in a pile of hay. But the perennial accoutrement, the piece de resistance, was always stalk of wheat or straw or hay or whatever that sh*t is in the mouth.

Seriously, who in Viking hell would think chewing on straw is sexy. Goat-f##kers, that's who. Plus it's also so cliché. Let's do a "country-bumpkin" photo shoot and let's make him pose with some straw in his mouth to really tie the ribbon up on that package. I'm sure the next issue of this magazine features Amy Adams dressed up like 40s screen siren or Jim Carey as a sad clown because no one's ever thought to shoot them that way except for everyone who has ever taken a picture of them.

If I were Jennifer Westfeldt I would f'ing sue the photographer on this shoot for defacing private property.

Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women

Best sketch from SNL last night. Jon Hamm was the best host of the season. He was amazing. It didn't phone it in like a lot of actors and actresses. He made an effort, and it showed. Also, who would've known he did such great impressions!

It's a Mad Men Weekend!

This is an action-packed Mad Men weekend with Jon Hamm hosting SNL tonight and the season 2 finale tomorrow night. So, I figured I would make this an all Mad Men Colette's Love Bytes weekend!

- Tonight, Jon Hamm is hosting SNL. I'm super excited to see him because I think he's a fantastic actor, and unbeknownst to many, he has a terrific sense of humor. Just check out the August 2008 Interview magazine's interview with Jon, conducted by his good friend, Paul Rudd. Absolutely hilarious.

- NY Mag did a Don Draper likeability index using a period appropriate scale (likeable is JFK as unlikeable is to Nixon), starting from season 1 up until the last episode of season 2. Good stuff!

- And because NY Mag seems to be as obsessed with Mad Men as me, Emily Nussbaum wrote a great article on how Joan's rape ultimately changed the tone of Mad Men's nostalgic first season and how the women were portrayed. Joan started out as a strong, sexual character, but with her rape, she becomes a vulnerable and rather tragic person. Interesting take on it, and it's definitely worth a read.

- Alan Sepinwall, brilliant TV columnist for the NJ Star-Ledger,(his Mad Men recaps rock my world), interviewed Mad Men creator, Matthew Weiner about the season 2 finale. Don't worry he doesn't give away anything!

- The Simpsons annual Treehouse of Horror episode premieres on November 2nd, and it features a Mad Men-esque opening credits montage showing Homer falling through the sky, passing by skyscrapers covered in billboards and advertising imagery. The segment is cleverly titled "How to Get Ahead in Dead-vertising". This is why The Simpsons is so brilliant because it never stops satiring current pop culture.


- Ever wonder where the Mad Men locations are supposed to be in NYC? Well, thanks to Gridskipper, you'll find out where Rachel and Don met for their first client meeting, where Pete and Trudy's 2 bedroom apartment is located, and where Don and Roger have their booze and oyster-filled lunch. This is the ultimate Mad Men guide to New York.

- On the AMCTV Mad Men blog, each week Matthew Weiner does a short video called "Inside Mad Men", where he describes his analysis of the episode, each focusing on a specific theme. This is the one he did for last week's episode "The Mountain King":

Mad Men: The Mountain King

This past episode was fascinating for a few reasons: we finally got to see who Don had phoned in last week's episode (The Jet Set), we learned who the blonde woman was from the car dealership where Don used to work many years ago, the power vs. dominance theme threading through it, and the literary allusion to Peer Gynt. The name of the episode is called "The Mountain King, and "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is the name of the orchestral piece in the Henrik Ibsen play, Peer Gynt. This is the same piece that the little boy is playing on the piano at Anna's house.

A little about Peer Gynt: Peer Gynt is the son of a successful farmer named Jon Gynt. Jon Gynt blows all his money on and is forced to leave his family and become a wandering salesman. Peer is regarded as a failure in his family, thought to be foolish, and his mother scolds him for having an overactive imagination. She mocks him for losing his chances of marrying the daughter of the wealthiest farmer around. The daughter is to be wed the next day, so Peer goes to the wedding in hopes that he can still be with her. His mother follows him so she can prevent him from making a complete fool out of himself, but it is too late.

The wedding guests laugh at him. He is a joke. There, he meets a family of outsiders, and he is immediately attracted to their daughter. She wants nothing to do with him. He ends up running away to the mountains with the bride instead. Because of what he's done, he has to venture further into the mountains, as his mother and the outsiders' daughter searches for him. On his travels, he meets three lusty milk maids. He drinks with them all day, and the next day, he has to face his terrible hangover. He ends up bumping his head on a rock and faints, and this is the exact point in the play when his dream takes place, which will last through all of the second act.

In the dream, he meets a beautiful woman, dressed in green; she is the troll mountain king's daughter. She takes Peer to the mountain hall where her father, The Mountain King, makes a proposition: if he marries his daughter, he will make him a troll. Peer ends up turning down the offer and leaving. And his adventures continue. At the end of the play, Peer asks, "What is it to be one self?", and he discovers that the answer to his question is simple: "to overcome one's self".

Don Draper/Dick Whitman vs. Peer Gynt
- They are classic anti-heroes.
- They were both born on a farm and both ridiculed by family.
- They both ran away with the bride: Peer escaped into the mountains with the bride from the wedding, and Don married Betty to get away from his former life. Or, some could even say, he "married" the real Don Draper's wife, becoming a surrogate husband, providing her with the all the things she needed in her life, just so he could go on living his life as Don.

- The three lusty milkmaids could be compared to Midge, Rachel, and Bobbie. Peer drinks with them all day and has to deal with the consequences, in this case, a hangover. Don cavorts with them and then has to face the repercussions, in this case, the deterioration of his marriage and his family life.

- The "Mountain King" and his daughter are the European man, Viscount Willy Monteforte, and his daughter, Joy. If you also remember, the first time Don sees Joy, she is wearing a green dress. The troll mountain king's daughter is clad in green when she meets Peer.
- The Europeans (Trolls) offer Don a life to be one of them, in this case, nomads who wander the world. Having Joy would be just one of the perks, just as marrying the king's daughter would sweeten the deal of Peer becoming a troll.

- The theme of Peer Gynt is "the self", and one could say this is a major focal point in Mad Men.

Mad Men: The Inheritance

For all you die-hard Mad Men fans out there, what did you think of last night's episode? I thought it was really well-written, and I love seeing Helen Bishop's son, Glen (played magnificently by Matthew Weiner's son), interact with Betty Draper. At one point, he was wearing Don's white t-shirt, and he was sitting next to her, and it was almost as if he had taken on the role of her husband. It was sweet, especially the way Betty was on the couch next to him, sipping a Coke out of a straw and holding his hand.

It seems as if Betty is just a child, and sometimes Glen seems like the adult. It's a strange relationship, and there's so much sadness between the two of them. They are both lonely, and somehow they find comfort within each other. They are soul mates, in some strange way. I would love to think that in 15 years, they will somehow find each other again. I don't see her relationship with Don lasting. He obviously doesn't love her, since he cheats on her all the time; not to mention, he's completely in love with Rachel Menken. Betty deserves somebody wonderful and who will love her with everything he has. Maybe adult Glen could be that guy for her.

Also, did you see how Betty was snapped back into her adult reality when Carla and her children came back to the house? She let go of Glen's hand and changed back into adult Betty. That's when she called Glen's mother, Helen, and had her come to the house to get her "lost" son. He had wanted to "rescue her", and he told Betty how much he hated her, to which Betty said "I know." For one fleeting moment, Glen had Betty all to himself. She was his girl, and nobody could take that away from him.

Any thoughts on this episode?

Colette's Culture Bytes

Jon Hamm aka Don Draper from Mad Men will be hosting Saturday Night Live October 25. I'm jumping for joy right now. He's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see the Mad Men parody. (Via NY Mag)

SNL's "The Looker" (Fred Armisen does a great Penny Marshall impression). I thought it was the best sketch of the night. (Via Hulu)

Two guys pretend to passionately make out in front of Lehman Brothers in NYC and CNN is there. Ok, did anybody else realize that these two guys were from The Howard Stern Show?! It's Richard and Sal the Stockbroker. (Via Best Week Ever)

"The Way": a "god"-awful Christian, really frightening and embarrassing, dance number featured on The Soup. I love "The Mail Nurse" segment. (Via The Soup Blog)

Janet Jackson's new tour is all about S&M, and it's creeping me out. (Via Scandalist)

Hugh Hefner's #1 galpal, Holly Madison, is most likely hooking up with magician/cheeseball extraordinaire, Criss Angel. Apparently, witnesses saw them kissing last weekend in Vegas. She's going to get cut out of Hef's will, fo sho'. (Via Perez Hilton)

Why Mark Rothko Will Always Rock My World

I have been a huge Mark Rothko fan, since I took an Art History course in college. That's why I was so delighted to see one of his paintings (still trying to figure out which one) in Mr. Cooper's office on Mad Men. During this episode, Jane called the art "smudgy squares", but it's so much more than that. Rothko uses the juxtaposition of different colors to evoke an array of emotions and moods. As much as I love his brighter paintings, there's something so haunting and magnificent about his darker, moodier pieces. Some of you may just see blurry blocks of color, but from what I hear, the only way to appreciate one of these paintings is to see it in person. Somebody online described the colors "vibrating". If I were lucky enough to have any piece of artwork, it would be a Rothko. For some reason, his art moves me because I find it so breathtaking. I'm considering buying a print for my bedroom.

And, if anybody knows the name of the painting featured on Mad Men, please let me know.

Things I Watched This Weekend

Now that I have cable again (don't get me started...we still don't have DVR because Comcast is the worst fucking company ever), I'm able to watch all my shows again.

Million Dollar Listing was entertaining as always. I'm starting to like Josh Flagg more and more, not because I like him as a person, but he's so funny to watch. He walks like a butler; it's the strangest thing. He's so stiff and awkward. There's a scene where he's celebrating his birthday with "150 acquaintances", and then the next scene, he is back in his hotel room, in an oversized robe, blowing out the candles on his birthday cake by himself. He's so strange and weirdly robotic, but I love him just the same.

The Soup was really funny this week. They featured a Spaghetti Cat puppet.


I saw last week's I Love Money :The Spit Olympics, and it was great. The Entertainer ended up as Paymaster, and even though Meghan was on the chopping block, he sent the 30-something stripper, Heather packing because he thought after 12 Pack left, she had turned on him. Heather is looking rough these days. She needs to lay off the cigarettes and booze and go for a moisturizing facial ASAP. She always looks permanently hungover and dehydrated.

I rented the first season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It's such a funny show, and I'm sure not many people know about it. It's warped, politically incorrect, but the whole ensemble cast works really well together. The show is one of the funniest on TV right now, and I wonder how they come up with the scripts they do because they're so out there. Also, watch for Brittany Daniels as a tranny named Carmen. You will be shocked, horrified, but I guarantee you won't stop laughing.


Oh, and the piece de resistance of my weekend viewing: Mad Men. Each episode tops the next. As my good friend Al said: "This was a brutal episode." Don got called out on his affair with Bobbie Barrett by her husband, Jimmy, but not before Jimmy made the "Look at us at the kids' table," comment to Betty, and then said, "I wonder what happened between the two of them." Betty acted all shocked, but she knew it was true. "The Gold Violin" was such a pitch-perfect name for this episode. What did you think the "gold violin" was a metaphor for?

The VMAs were god-awful. Russell Brand was not funny, and at times, he didn't seem to even try to be funny. He was just hosting. J called it. He was terrible. The show was boring.

Mad Men: The New Girl Recap

I'm completely addicted to Mad Men lately, even more than usual. I came this close to buying a curve-hugging Calvin Klein black sweater dress yesterday because it looked like something Joan Holloway would wear. If I start smoking and drinking Old-Fashioneds at my desk, then please get me some help!

Ooh, this episode was really good! Don Draper receives a call from Bobbie who is getting trashed on martinis at Sardi's. Because Don has a weakness for women who want to jump his bones, he goes to meet her. She's there in a cocktail dress, drinking and smoking from one of those cool cigarette holders. Oh Bobbie, you're so glamorous, Dahhling! Although, I do find her annoying, I gotta give it to her in the seduction department. She reminds me of Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate.

At Sardi's, Don runs into the love of his life, and no, I'm not talking about his wife, Betty. His lovely ex-paramour Rachel Menken walks by their table with a man who turns out to be her (gasp!) husband. She looks beautiful, and Don looks as if somebody has just punched him in the balls when he sees her. He looks shocked and devastated. Good for Rachel! I'm glad she got married. What was she going to do? Waste her youth on a jackass like Don Draper who was never going to leave his wife?! She was smarter than that. And, telling him to hit the bricks was the best thing she could have possibly done. Needless to say, it is an uncomfortable moment between the two of them, and even Bobbie picks up on something. She makes some comment about how it got "cloudy in here,". Don shrugs it off, and they have dinner and more martinis. She starts asking him what he likes, and Don just sits there like a robot (I do not feel any emotion. Beep. Beep.) You would think that would be a rather easy question, but not for Don.

Talking to him is like pulling teeth. Bobbie tells Don that she has a cottage on the shore in Stonybrook(?), and she wants him to make passionate love to her on the beach. Don can't resist sex, so he agrees. In the car, Bobbie coos how she feels so wonderful right now, and then asks Don how he feels to which he says: "I don't feel a thing." (Beep. Beep. Does not compute. What are fee-lings? Beep.)Bobbie wants to make him feel something, so she starts kissing his ear and neck while he's trying to drive. Smart move, idiot. Don closes his eyes in ecstasy, and then CRASH! Big accident, and their car flips over.

They end up at the police station. The police had found an open bottle of liquor and Don had failed the sobriety test (quelle surprise!). He's ordered to pay $150, which must've been a lot of money back then because Ken Cosgrove gets $300 a week, so that's half his weekly paycheck. Don tries to give the cop $63 and some subway tokens, but the cop is not having it. $150 tonight or Don gets to stay in the drunk tank all night. Don makes a phone call and Peggy appears in the door. She gives him $110 to bail him out, and then she has to drive Don and Bobbie. Don goes home and Bobbie has to stay with Peggy. Lucky Peggy.

Peter and his wife are having difficulty conceiving, so they go to the doctor's, and he asks Peter a lot of questions like: "How old were you when your testicles descended?" Yikes. After some uncomfortable questions and a sperm sample analysis, the Campbells discover that Peter has healthy sperm (of course he does, he fathered a kid!)Trudy becomes upset because she knows it's now her fault why they can't conceive, and Peter is a total insensitive jerkoff in the situation. Way to be sympathetic toward your wife! He ends up yelling at her, when he should be giving her a hug, and telling her it will be alright. She folds and apologizes for making such a big deal out of it. Ugh. I hope Trudy finally realizes what type of guy Peter is, and leaves him. He's so inconsiderate to her.

Joan gets engaged. Roger is jealous. There's a new girl in the office, and she's Don's new secretary, and he could care less, ha. Some guy in Accounts comes out and unzips his fly to the tune of Mozart.(It's random, but very funny.) Ken tries to make a move on the new girl. He's so smooth, ha!

And, at the end, Peggy flashes back to Don visiting her when she had just had the baby, and she was mentally incapacitated. Don tells her to move forward and forget this ever happened. He says: "Move forward and pretend it never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened," - which speaks miles about Don and how he left his past and identity behind him. Now, it is clear why he called Peggy to come bail him out. They both have secrets on each other, and they've been there for the other. They are starting to have an interesting dynamic, and it looks as if Peggy is on her way to becoming Don's equal, whether he likes it or not.

Playboy Mad Men Photo Shoot

If you are as big of a Mad Men fan as I am, then you will absolutely love these photos from Playboy's Mad Men photo shoot.

This one is my favorite. It's so vintage 60's and Vincent Kartheiser (Peter Campbell) looks so great posing with the Playboy bunnies, the white convertible, and the sleek bachelor pad behind him. I love his bad boy smirk, as if to say: "I have it all, and you don't."

There's something so fantastic about the blue and grey tones. This photo evokes a feeling of frenzied desperation, as if he's staying up all night, writing copy for an early morning meeting.

I love the dark lighting, and the fact that neither one of them are looking directly at the girls. It's as if they're at a Hollywood party in the hills, and the girls are just part of the sexy atmosphere.

Mad Men Recap

I watched the most recent episode of Mad Men last night when I came home from work. I have to say: it was the best episode of this season, so far. Don and Betty are going through some kind of honeymoon phase. They're all over each other! Although, it could have something to do with how hammered they are in that household. Don has little Sally making the drinks, and stiff ones at that! Whoa, did you see how much vodka was poured into Don's Bloody Mary! It's no wonder he started dancing with Betty in the middle of the living room. They got so drunk that by evening, they had forgotten to feed dinner to their kids!

Then, there's Peggy making nice with some tall, dark, and handsome priest, played by Colin Hanks. What is up with Peggy always going after the forbidden fruit? There was definitely an attraction between the two of them, until her bitchy and mean-spirited sister told him in the confessional how Peggy had seduced an "innocent" married man and had a child out of wedlock. Innocent? C'mon! She acts as if Peggy tied Peter to a chair and had her way with him, as he protested over and over. Yeah Sis, it didn't go down like that.

Betty is trying to get Don to discipline the children, but he refuses. Something told me that Don was not into reprimanding his children, especially hitting them. He had a pretty bad childhood, and his father seemed like a real jerk (see The Hobo Code episode). After a fight with Betty where she pushed him, so he pushed her back, he told her that his father used to beat him, and then he made some comment about how it made him fantasize about the day when he would kill him. Okay, hold the phone! Did Don kill his father?!! It's not clear, and Betty kind of takes it like he's just come from a bad home. She doesn't seem to focus on the whole "I may have killed my father" thing.

The American Airlines deal falls through, and I'm sure Don is pissed off at Duck (nice name!)because he was the one who made Sterling Cooper drop Mohawk Airlines and put this whole meeting together. This makes Duck look really bad. Peter was wearing teeny-tiny tennis shorts, ha. Joan's boobs looked like torpedoes under her purple sheath dress, to which little Sally Draper, who had been brought to the office by Don, made a comment that she had "big ones". Kids are so perceptive! She also asked Paul if she "lays down" with his black girlfriend. Geez, Sally is a little perv! She must've gotten that trait from her father. She's going to end up a nymphomaniac with a drinking problem who smokes 2 packs a day. Oh, and Roger had sex with a prostitute, and then took her out for a nice dinner. He's such a gentleman.

The hot priest meets Peggy after Mass, and hands her an Easter egg, and tells her to "Give it to the little one." Oh, no he didn't! Peggy is left standing there, looking stunned and really disappointed that there won't be any hope of some steamy Thorn Birds action between the two of them.

Colette on BitchBuzz: 15 Things I've Learned from Watching Mad Men

This is a fun, little pop culture piece I did about the TV show, Mad Men for the newly launched site, BitchBuzz. So far, the feedback for the new site has been amazing! I'm blown away by the talent and wit of those fabulous ladies!

(Via BitchBuzz)

Mad Men: The Season Premiere

I'm a huge fan of Mad Men, the AMC series about a bunch of hard-drinking, chain-smoking, and soul-searching men and women who work for an ad agency in the 1960's. It's hands down the best show on TV right now, and if you haven't seen it, check it out on ON Demand - they're playing all of season one.

Last night's season two premiere met all my expectations. As the season opens, Don Draper seems to be stuck in some mid-life crisis, now that two years have passed, and he's 36 years old, still in the same job and living the same life. His doctor tells him he needs to slow down, not drink as much, and bring the smoking down to one pack a day. As he eats his breakfast in a dingy bar with a shot of Scotch, he notices the man next to him reading a book called: Meditations in an Emergency. Don is intrigued by the book. He asks the guy reading about the book, but after the guy takes one look at Don in his suit and tie, he writes him off as just another soul-less corporate guy. He tells him he probably wouldn't like it. Later in the show, you see Don reading it in his office. If anybody needs to meditate, it is indeed Don Draper.

We also see him take his beautiful, but emotionally broken wife, Betty out for a romantic Valentine's evening at a fancy hotel. He wisks her away to a hotel room, and they make love, but in the middle of it, Don has some performance issues. This brings up a lot of questions. Has Don lost all intimacy with his wife? Was it just the one time, or is this a recurring problem? Is Don in love with another woman? It was a sad moment. Betty blamed it on the drinking and that they hadn't eaten anything, but you could tell it was heartbreaking for her. She loves Don, but she knows he is unfaithful to her. All she wants is Don's undivided attention and love. However, Don is so lost as a person that he doesn't know what he wants. It always seems as if he knows he should really love Betty, but he can't, and he doesn't know why or how.

At the end of the episode, you see Don in a trenchcoat and hat, smoking a cigarette while walking the dog late at night. He looks as if he just stepped out of a film noir - a mystery man treading through suburbia on a cold winter's night. You see him mail something; it was the book he had been reading. He had written a little message in the inside cover, "This book made me think of you." Who could he be sending it to? Rachel? Midge? Or, is it a new mistress - somebody we haven't met yet?