When we first met Mona, I immediately liked her. She also felt familiar to me.
It’s Talia Balsam’s birthday today, and so I checked out her creds again.
Okay, so I think we mostly know, but I live to remind, that she is married to John Slattery.
She is also the daughter of Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten. So she’s also niece and cousin to like, twelve bazillion Van Pattens.
Please look at her tv/film career. And this of course doesn’t include stage work. She never doesn’t work.
So what catches my eye is that she was Paige in two episodes of thirtysomething.
It’s killing me; I can’t remember who Paige was, but I promise you, that is why I recognized her. I was as big of a thirtysomething fan as I am of Mad Men. I’ve seen, multiple times, the episodes she was in. I just. can’t. quite. remember. It’s a little bit killing me.
Okay but enough about me. Happy birthday, Talia!
March 5, 2008 at 1:11 pm
She’s an amazing actress. I watched her on K Street when John starred on that show, yet they were never in any scenes together at all. So it’s great to finally see them act together on screen on Mad Men. The scene from Long Weekend was amazing in the hospital. John said it himself before that he probably would not have been able to show emotion like that so easily if he was acting with someone who he wasn’t so connected with.
I can’t wait to see what happens between Mona and Roger on the show.
Happy Birthday to Talia!
March 5, 2008 at 1:14 pm
She’s had little opportunity to stretch so far, but I do believe we’ll see more of the secondary characters in Season 2.
March 5, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I’m looking forward to it.
I’ve seen Talia in so many other things b/c like you said, she’s always been working, so it’s neat to see her on this show.
Mad Men is so dynamic in every way shape or form.
But we already knew that.
March 5, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I have went most of my life thinking that Joyce and Dick Van Patten were spouses, not siblings. This is, um, awkward.