03:59 PM EDT 05/21/2012
Mad Men
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Jessica Paré: What to Know About Mad Men's New Star
Originally posted 04/02/2012 09:45AM
Jessica Paré appeared only at the end of Mad Men's fourth season as Megan, but her character certainly kept busy in the hiatus, marrying Jon Hamm's Don Draper.
By the end of the season 5 premiere, the Canadian actress had created a sensation – on TV and on the Internet.
Clad in a black mini-dress, the sexy Paré, 29, belted out a killer performance of "Zou Bisou Bisou" for Don's birthday in an episode of AMC's hit show. Suddenly, Google lit up with searches for the French song.
Here are five things to know about Mad Men's newest lady on the block:
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Mad Men: Did Don Draper Make the Right Choice?
Originally posted 03/25/2012 11:10PM
When Mad Men's season 4 wrapped up nearly a year and a half ago, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) was on the precipice of a major life change. He had proposed to his young secretary, Megan (Jessica Paré) after taking her on a trip to Disneyland with his children.
As in seasons past, Sunday night's premiere episode has been shrouded in secrecy – with nary a plot point revealed. (Not even the year in which the season is set!)
So, if you haven't seen the season 5 premiere yet, stop reading! There are spoilers ahead …
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Mad Men: PEOPLE's 4-Star Review
Originally posted 03/25/2012 05:00PM
Off the air since October 2010, the retro-1960s hit launches season 5 with a two-hour premiere that radiates fresh, intriguing fissures through Don Draper's icy gravitas. Will these grow into bigger cracks?
Ad genius Don (Jon Hamm) is turning 40, and although you might have guessed that he's been middle-aged since 12, it appears unlikely he's going to mellow out no matter how groovy the times get. He reacts to a surprise birthday party with barely concealed disgust, like a shark offered a choice of cake, chocolate or white.
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New Mom January Jones: Returning to Work Was Tough
Originally posted 03/25/2012 09:40AM
About seven weeks after the birth of her son, Xander, January Jones was back to work in the role that made her both admired and pitied, the former Betty Draper, now the re-married Betty Francis, on AMC's Mad Men.
With her baby still "really little," says the actress, 34, returning to the set "was tough with the long days. But work made it really comfortable for me."
As it was, "Every season I have a little kind of first day of school nerves. The first episode I'm always finding my way back into my character's shoes. … But then after a few days, I'm able to fall pretty easily back into her, and find her voice and her body language and everything that I do for her," says Jones.
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Jon Hamm Cannot Be Tricked – Though Mad Men Cast Tries
Originally posted 03/24/2012 03:00PM
You wouldn't mess with Don Draper around the office at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. And you shouldn't mess with Jon Hamm, the man behind those suits and ties, on the Mad Men set.
But his costars thought about it.
John Slattery, who plays troubled executive Roger Sterling, and Elisabeth Moss, who plays secretary-turned-ad copywriter Peggy Olson on the AMC series – whose season 5 premiere is Sunday – attempted to play a prank on Hamm when he was making his directorial debut for the show's April 1 episode.
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Mad Men: A Look Back Before Season 5 Premieres
Originally posted 03/22/2012 08:30AM
AMC's Mad Men is back Sunday after an absence of more than a year, and its maniacally intense fans are anticipating what new developments are in the pipeline at the chilled offices of 1960s ad agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Mad Men is too subtle to resort to cliffhangers – people here live or die according to what account gets signed over a business lunch lubricated with drinks – but season 4 ended with everyone poised on the brink of ... something.
Something maybe good, possibly bad. Maybe neither. It's that kind of show. Ominous, but incrementally so.
Before Sunday's premiere, here's a refresher as to where the show's main characters were when we left them:
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Jon Hamm: I'm Not as Handsome as Brad Pitt or Ryan Reynolds
Originally posted 03/19/2012 11:50AM
People swoon over Jon Hamm. And that leaves him … a little perplexed.
"I don't necessarily think of myself like the handsome guy. That's reserved for Brad Pitt and Ryan Reynolds and those guys," the Mad Men star, 41, tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Not that he's complaining.
"It's certainly nice when people say nice things about you, don't get me wrong," he says. "I guess I never really thought of myself that way. I just wanted to be a regular person and try to portray parts as varied as I could."
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Jon Hamm to Kim Kardashian: My 'Stupid' Remark 'Not Personal'
Originally posted 03/14/2012 12:05PM
This week's war of words between Jon Hamm and Kim Kardashian has reached a ceasefire, at least for the time being.
"It's surprising to me that it has become remotely a story," the Mad Man star, 41, told E! News about his unflattering quotes to ELLE UK about the reality star, whom he labeled "stupid."
"I don't know Ms. Kardashian," Hamm continued. "I know her public persona. What I said was meant to be more on pervasiveness of something in our culture, not personal, but she took offense to it, and that is her right."
As E! notes, this sounds more like an amplification rather than an apology.
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Elisabeth Moss Says Ex Fred Armisen Is Not 'Normal'
Originally posted 03/08/2012 12:00PM
Elisabeth Moss has something to say about her ex-husband Fred Armisen, and the funnyman might not be smiling at her remarks.
"One of the greatest things I heard someone say about him is, 'He's so great doing impersonations. But the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person.' To me, that sums it up," the Mad Men actress, 29, tells Page Six Magazine.
She adds: "I've never told anyone that. And I don't want to waste any more of my life talking about it."
Biting comments indeed, and Moss knows it.
Jon Hamm Explains Mad Men Set Injuries
Originally posted 03/03/2012 02:00PM
His taste for ties and perfectly pressed suits earn Don Draper serious style points week after week on Mad Men.
But Jon Hamm, who plays the advertising titan on the AMC period drama, can recall one accessory that didn't exactly stand out for the right reasons in his wardrobe on the show: a removable cast.
Hamm, 40, had to wear the cast when he broke his hand on-set the first season, just one of the three injuries he told David Letterman about on Thursday's Late Show with David Letterman.
"I have this sort of bear-claw swollen hand," said Hamm of the damage, sustained while rehearsing a war flashback scene.
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