Amazing NY Times article/interview

Two different commenters found this for us: The New York Times has an extensive interview with Matt Weiner, behind-the-scenes at auditions and other production, and general article. It’s too amazing to pull out a quote.

Okay, here are the quotes that hint at season 2, but please, read the whole thing, because otherwise I’ll just quote the whole thing (Nothing is spoilery, because Weiner wouldn’t allow that, but I’ll put the quotes below the fold for those of you averting your eyes):

 

Curlers and rouge and steak in the pan. with butter.

One thing we haven’t gotten much of a look at is the women’s grooming process. We see them all look so perfect (or, occasionally not, like Carol the day she got fired and Francine freaking out over Carlton’s affairs).

For the most part all we see is the occasional lipstick application. But we don’t see what it takes to get Joan’s and Betty’s hair so flawless, or Helen Bishop’s face looking photo-ready.

 

Don gets caught cheating

A weekend quotation, only longer.

From Bablyon. Sunday night, Mother’s Day, Don and Betty are being playful in bed.

Don: What about Advanced Reproduction? How are your studies progressing in that?

Betty: Mmm… Completed. I got an A, actually.

Don: You did?

Betty: Yup I did.

Don: I flunked the whole thing.

Betty: Well that’s because you got caught cheating.

 

Upstairs, Downstairs

One thing that knocks me out on this show is the class distinctions.

Top of the list and most obvious (set up in the very first scene of the series) is white/black. The only blacks ever seen in the series, to date, have been in service roles; the busboy, elevator operator, household help, etc.

And the Jews… that’s almost a whole different hierarchy.

The women. It’s right there within that first conversation in Smoke, between Don and the busboy… Ladies love their magazines. And they both laugh; white and black, at the silly ladies and their silly magazines.

But what fascinates me is the secretaries.

 

EW.com is Mad Men Mad!

(Tip of the hat for ProgGrrl, who saw it first.) EW.com has a full five pages of Mad Men coverage, including five hot pictures (the cover, a posed backyard shot that I find kind of annoying because it’s so posey, 2 of the ones that we were all scoopy with, and one from the same series, with Betty in that plaid dress, that I hadn’t seen before).

There’s juicy stuff here. Sterling Cooper is working on an airline campaign when a deadly plane crash out of Idlewild (the original name of Kennedy Airport), throws them into a panic. Based on the description, the date appears to be March 1, 1962.

Apparently, we’re not done with the secret identity storyline:

”Here’s the issue: Don Draper’s doing great. Dick Whitman, not so,” Weiner explains. ”And we shouldn’t stop worrying about Don being discovered. His wife doesn’t know. Will she find out? Does it matter? There’s also this whole chunk of his life that we don’t know about.”

 

The rest of the Season 2, Episode 1 photos

Roberta can’t stand it. She wants them all posted.

This one is obviously the same day as the Francine picture (same outfit).

This one also appears to be from the same scene.

 

Pictures from Season 2 Episode 1!

We, the pretty sisters to whom people tell things, have scoopage. Big scoopage. In the form of these fabulous pictures that are making me tingle.

I am going to tease you with three pictures right now, and then we’ll have more later. Remember we were speculating about Betty maybe taking up riding, and maybe having an affair with a riding instructor or horseman or something? Of course you do! Well, here are shots of Betty that look very ridey to me (click for full-sized image):

 

Vanity Fair spread

As hullabaloo mentioned in a comment, this month’s issue of Vanity Fair has a nice little piece on Mad Men, written by Jonathan Kelly. And quite a photo (by Sam Jones).

His descriptions are killer:

Don Draper…, dark, mysterious, breathtakingly handsome, yet emotionally castrated…

…Draper’s wife, Betty…, is the gorgeous orchid, frozen in Eisenhower-era black-and-white.

And do NOT miss the behind the scenes of the photo shoot. Mostly just Kelly speaking about the show. Kinda like us. (Though he does refer to “Christina Hendrickson”. D’OH!)

 

Helen? JEALOUS? I think not.

A few thoughts about Helen Bishop in New Amsterdam.

She and Betty get pretty up close and personal, (though it pales in comparison with Glen Bishop’s version of up close and personal. But enough about that). With Helen and Betty you certainly never feel that they connect. Betty hears a lot about a marriage gone bad. It is probably the first time she’s ever heard these kinds of details from a divorcée.

Later in the episode, Betty tells Dr. Wayne, (aka “Mr. Personality”) that Helen is likely jealous of her.

Wait. Seriously? Umm… didn’t Helen witness Don walking out on Betty at Sally’s birthday party a few weeks earlier? More than witness it; she was part of the rescue committee, what with her Sara Lee cake.

There is this one moment I love; Don comes home late, sees Betty and Helen sitting on the couch, gives a very brief and polite hello and then slinks up the stairs. I found it hilarious. So much unspoken from Don—What the hell could they possibly be talking about? Damn, she’s my type. Wow, she knows I ran out on my kid’s birthday party. I am SO not allowed to talk to that woman.

And somehow I felt like Helen got all that subtext, and was unphased. Helen is a bit like Joan in her understanding of men and their responses to women.

 

Wow! Does Betty have an affair?

I found this tiny item in The Hollywood Reporter:

[Gabriel] Mann will play Arthur, a wealthy, educated man of privilege who becomes associated with Betty (January Jones).

Upon looking up Mann, I find he was born in 1972 in Middlebury, Vermont (a very patrician college town; he has that look). That makes him the right age for “associated with” to have sexual overtones.

When asked about Season 2, the only thing that January Jones said was that she’d been asked to learn horseback riding, but didn’t know how it would figure in the plot. (Thanks, Roberta, for reminding me.) So, does Betty take riding lessons or take up riding and meet “Arthur”?

Wow.