Handsome Mad Men actor Jon Hamm recently sat down with The Advocate's Brandon Voss for a little homo heart-to-heart.
In addition to discussing the requisite "man crushes" - MM writer Matt Weiner and costar John Slattery - Hamm talks advertising, his fictional character Don's forte:
BV: How would you create a Mad Men ad campaign geared specifically to the gay community?
JH: Well, it’s a very high-drama show, and it’s very stylish. Three things that the gay community responds to are attitude, sexiness, and style. We’re a prime property for a big gay following—I love it.
BV: We’re an easy sell, Jon — just show us some skin.
JH: [Laughs] I don’t know about that. I don’t know if you want me anywhere near any kind of skin thing — that’s a nightmare.
Mr. Hamm, we respectfully disagree…
Almost everyone’s heard the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Hell, Senator Hillary Clinton loves that saying so much, she used it for a book’s title - and in stump speeches! Well, if that adage proves true, then one could say it takes a nation to birth a party platform. And it may be as painful.
As we speak, operatives and politicos on both sides of the aisle are hammering out their final philosophy, the document that will guide them to November and, they hope, to the White House.
Rather than keeping the drafting internal, both party’s are trying to reach out to voters, the Republicans with a website and the Democrats with community drafting committees. These structures, set up by Barack Obama and spread across the land, give ordinary citizens a bit more say in the matter. But, as with all civil negotiations, everyone wants a piece of the political pie.
Too bad no one ever said democracy’s fair - or, if they did, had never heard of the Rolling Stones.
Things could get sticky at this month’s Democratic national convention!
Senator Hillary Clinton told supporters that she would not rule out having her pledged delegates heard at the nominating event, which should be all about Barack Obama.
Ah, the Fourth of July!
A day to celebrate alcohol, explosives, and tasty grilled meats. Oh, yeah, and something about our independence from England.
Below, some things we think you may enjoy this Independence Day. And, no, there are no babies, fireworks or red coats involved. There are, however, drag queens, Asian filmmakers and the unavoidable hipster.
God bless America!
CONTINUED »
Hilary Rosen may very well be Wonder Woman.
The New Jersey-born activist acted as the Recording Industry Association of America’s chairman for five years, acted lesbian social networking site Ourchart’s president, served as Human Rights Campaign’s interim executive director back in 2004 and currently serves as Huffington Post’s political director, a gig she accepted earlier this year.
With all that experience under her belt, you can be sure Rosen, who previously endorsed Hillary Clinton’s campaign, has scads to say about the current electoral climate, including the increasingly “blurred” lines between press and politics, her feelings on Clinton’s departure, sexism in the press and how the lived experience shapes one’s political views.
So much for youth being able to multi-task and be more efficient. Studying "news consumption patterns of young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 in Britain, India and the United States," the Associated Press found that young people "experienced news fatigue, meaning they were overloaded with facts and updates and had trouble connecting to more in-depth stories. Participants yearned for quality and in-depth reporting, but had difficulty immediately accessing such content. This experience was common across participants’ race, gender and geographic location. Additionally, the anthropologists noted that the news habits of the young consumers were dramatically different from those of previous generations." Perhaps because they're being conditioned to treat their Facebook News Feed like the New York Times.
You know that part in Breakfast at Tiffany’s where Holly Golightly’s telling super-boring Paul Varjak about the mean reds, and she says, “When I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's”?
Well, for intern Anastasia, Mars Bar is just as good as Tiffany*. Nay, better!
She explains it all, after the jump…
[*Don't you hate it when people call it Tiffany's, like in the movie?]
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That's Rich. After months of stalling, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton have released seven years of their joint income tax returns. And they're rolling in it: $109 million of it, actually. [Hillary Clinton]
New York: where things happen! And not just sometimes, but every week! In “Here Is New York,” Intern Anastasia tells you about one of those things. Apologies to E.B. White.
This week: The Chinatown Garbage Tour.
She's a brave, brave girl - and most likely caught an infectious disease.
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Which high-profile fashion editor misplaced this book? He must be worried about the end of Times…
Last night we finally picked up the New Yorker. Jonathan Lethem’s story was weird, and frankly if the New Yorker didn’t run an excerpted version of Fortress of Solitude, which admittedly made us cry back then, there’s no way, no way, it would have gotten into this issue.
Lizzie Widdicombe had another classic Talk of the Town piece. Just because she’s good doesn’t mean we resent her any less for regularly publishing in the New Yorker 18 months after graduating Harvard.
And Malcolm Gladwell was back to his pre-Tipping Point days in his piece on I.Q. tests. In other words, we enjoyed him again. But apparently we were mistaken. CONTINUED »
A good friend once described the New Yorker’s approach to news as such: “News isn’t reported in the New Yorker; the news is that it’s in the New Yorker.”
The same could be said for Slate. As one of the oldest online-only news sources that puts a premium on good writing, Slate has never claimed to be a “get it first” source. The main feature usually updates just once a day, which is a glacial pace online.
So along with “bucking conventional wisdom,” Slate writers often just write about whatever interests them, no news peg required.
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Whoever says octogenarians don't know how to party has never been to former Time managing editor Jim Gaines book party. We have and, let us tell you, it's quite a "time."
Gaines and his well-preserved pals gathered at - where else? - Elaine's last night to celebrate Gaines' new tome, For Liberty and Glory. A riveting look at George Washington's friendship with the Marquis de Lafayette, Gaines told us he hopes his book will "remind Americans how much we owe the French." Trés intriguing.
Even more intriguing, the cast of characters who showed up to fete Gaines. And by "intriguing" we mean "Who are these people?"
To spice things up, we pretended to know the hunky Tad Smith, CEO of Reed Business Information, publisher of Variety. After introducing ourselves, Smith made us swear all his comments would be off the record. "What?!" we said. "You mean we can't tell the world you think [redacted]?" Shame …
CONTINUED »
Today, CBS announced that CBS News VP Paul Friedman has been promoted to Senior VP, effective immediately. TVNewser has the reasoning behind the decision, according to CBS News chieftain, Sean McManus.
This is a recognition that Paul has become my principal deputy, even beyond his primary responsibilities for hard news coverage, the CBS Evening News and our Special Events and political coverage," Sean McManus says. "I look forward to working with him even more closely as we continue to aggressively rebuild and move CBS News forward."
Which is just a fancy way of saying "Not only are we permanently locked into third place, but we just pulled in our lowest ratings ever. But with Katie Couric raking in $60 million, and the money we spent replacing our exec producer with Rick Kaplan, this was pretty much the best we could do."
CNN had the photo 24 minutes later. Jon Klein is gonna be pissed, probably fire another female anchor just for sport.
About 9:15 this morning in the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan, the men responsible for moving the U.S.S. Intrepid for the first time in 24 years will find out if they thought of everything.
So says today's Times. Reports NY1: The Intrepid is stuck. Conclusion: Nope, everything not thought of.
If you're wondering whether you saw this on Entourage, then yes, yes you did. But when a rapper gets shot in real life for a stab (hah!) at notoriety, at least you won't have to deal with Ari Gold's temper tantrum in the next scene. Fabolous ("That's F-A-B-O-L-O-U-S"), known to his mother as John Jackson, was shot early this morning in a parking garage after dining at Diddy's restaurant Justin's. An "unidentified man" approached the rapper and three members of his entourage (hah!), opened fire (shooting Fabolous in the leg), and fled. Fab and his boys hopped into their Dodge Magnum, sped off, ran a red light, and attracted the attention of the NYPD.
Normally sympathetic to black men bleeding from gunshot wounds, the officers were instead more interested in the two loaded (and unlicensed) guns found in the car. They arrested the foursome — foiling Fab's fullproof plan to get shot, make headlines, and sell albums. An arrest on gun charges? That's only good for moving, like, 10,000 units. But the worst part? The shooting and subsequent arrest didn't make it in time for deadlines at the News or the Post.
An update on the Upper East Side plane crash: New Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle is said to be the owner of the plane and rumored to be among the four confirmed dead. His passport was found on the street below, as were two bodies, with one body strapped into an airplane seat. Thus far, four deaths and 11 injured. Lidle most recently played in the Tigers playoff game.
One – of many, we'll assume – examples of unfortunate advertising attached to today's Upper East Side plane crash story. Leave it to the Drudge Report, however, to bring us the most disturbing so quickly.
• Tina Fey brings the glory of Rockefeller Center to the small screen. Tune in — if only for the slight chance 75-time SNL host Alec Baldwin will do something funny. [Gothamist]
• Oh, to live on one of the top 50 blocks of New York. We don't think Prospect Avenue in Brooklyn even makes it into the top 800. [Curbed]
• Smoking is not glamorous. Unless of course you're a New York musician/rocker named Cat Power and then smoking is totally hot. [FBNY]
• We already told you about the aircraft/small plane/helicopter/bird/Super Man which crashed into a building but … well, that pretty much trumps all other news at this point, so we're telling you again. [NYT]
• What are these UPS people thinking? Can't they deliver their packages without getting in Donald Trump's way? Uh, hello, people. He's rich and powerful. Don't annoy him. [Page Six]
Editorial Director
