Backstory: Back in late 2008, Jeremy Piven was supposed to star in a Broadway production of Speed-the-Plow. His costar was supposed to be Elisabeth Moss, otherwise known as Peggy Olsen of Mad Men. Jeremy Piven pulled out of the play at the last minute, claiming that he had mercury poisoning from eating too much sushi, an excuse that few people really believed.
So… Elisabeth was on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live last week and she played that “Plead the Fifth” game with Andy Cohen. Cohen asked her about the Piven situation all those years ago, asking, “What, besides eating too much sushi, caused Jeremy Piven to quit Speed-the-Plow?” Moss replied, “That’s a good one. I could go on and on. Being highly unprofessional. We were all surprised. It came out of nowhere. He just didn’t come back one day.” She goes to say that she saw him a month later at an awards show. Here’s the video (the “Plead the Fifth” part is around the 4-minute mark):
So, let’s get into last night’s Mad Men! First, let me do this…
SPOILERS SPOILERS for last night’s Mad Men!!!!!!!!!!!!
First, let’s talk about the Peggy stuff. I really liked Abe, and I liked that Peggy and Abe were together and that they were a modern couple living together in the 1960s. But is it crazy that I also loved that she stabbed him? Stupid faux-revolutionary hippie sneaking up on her in the night, he deserved to get stabbed. And I LOVED that he broke up with her in the ambulance. That was amazing and funny and bittersweet. I guess we’re supposed to feel sad that Peggy still goes into work and she thinks that Ted is going to be all “Oh, you’re single, then let’s get together!” and he’s just not. But I feel hopeful. Single Peggy is fun. Single Peggy has beatnik friends and maybe she’ll hook up with her BFF Stan Rizzo (who, I’m sorry, is HOT with that beard). Also, I loved when she told Don that Ted doesn’t ever make her feel this way and Don says something like, “Well, he doesn’t know you.”
As for Don… well, Don is the reason why I went from “watching Mad Men” to “hate-watching Mad Men”. Last week’s episode was just BEYOND. I was yelling at the TV, “Oh, just kill yourself, Don.” But the story really picked up this week so maybe my Hate-Watch will be downgraded. How much did you love that (SPOILER!!!) Don and Thin Blonde Betty hooked up and it was pretty much on her terms? I loved everything about that. I loved what they said to each other. I love the way they still understand each other. I love Betty’s comment about Megan: “That poor girl… she doesn’t understand that the hardest way to be with you is to be in love with you.” (Or something, I forget the exact wording). And I love that Betty was all, “Oh, hey, I’m with my new husband now, he adores me.”
I don’t even know what’s going on with Joan and that cute/creepy guy. I want to think Bob is just a nice guy with crazy ambition, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s something really shady going on. Like Bob is a serial killer or something. Joan has terrible taste in men, so it’s probably something awful like that.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
I hate-watch How I Met Your Mother. I used to love it. At this point, I can’t stand it, but refuse to completely drop it because I want to know what happens.
I couldn’t really get into Mad Men, and there’s just something about Elisabeth Moss that annoys me.
She is a scientologist maybe that’s why.
Can’t ever feel positive towards her again since I found this out.
I can’t understand why they have so many men coming on to her with THAT hair and those horrible clothes. I get it with thin Betty…her clothes are period-specific but still cool. I get it with sexy, racked-out Joan. I even sort of get it with Megan if she shuts her mouth…she wears cute Mary-Tyler-Moore-Circa-Dick-Van-Dyke clothes and her hair is shiny and she has a great body. But Peggy? She is just as asexual and vanilla as they come.
Because she’s ballsy and smart. Is she the best looking woman on the show? Would anyone be compared to Titsy Mcginger? But she’s cute, smart and confident in herself, which goes so so far.
She is smart. But she’s also quite a bitch to her underlings (as she likely has to be). And she’s a mealy-mouth to her superiors much of the time. Every now and then she shows a maternal side (except when she is ditching her own Pete baby, who I hope will resurface some day). I do not find her at all cute or particularly confident. She pretends to be confident, but she seems terrified most of the time.
I don’t know. That time when she and Pete had sex in his office, I thought she was hot and so was that scene.
She’s not conventionally pretty, but Moss herself has sex appeal and is a good actress. Peggy has never been fashionable but she is smart, independent, and confident.
Not everything is about physical looks or fashion.
Megan is pretty and stylish but also comes across as incredibly vapid and insecure. If I had to talk to her, I’d probably grit my teeth at her vapidness.
@ Cool Phosphorescent Shimmer says:
“She is just as asexual and vanilla as they come.”
I suspect that you don’t know the meaning of “asexual”.
I completely disagree. I totall get why men (although let’s be honest, it’s only been two so far: Ted and Stan, it’s not like the whole world is falling at her feet) find her attractive. 1) because she’s attractive and 2) because she’s smart and awesome. I also love most of her clothes.
Peggy as a character fascinates me and she’s the main reason I watch Mad Men. Her character has always been central to the show and imo Mad Men is mostly about Don and Peggy’s relationship.
I would watch Elizabeth Moss in anything.
Ahaha, maybe that’s it.
Agreed with both of you.
Yea, both Elisabeth Moss and Peggy irritate me. :-/
Maybe because she was that creepy girl in the Excedrin commercials? Wasn’t that her?
Yes! She was also Bartlet’s daughter Zoey on West Wing.
“The poor girl….she doesn’t know that loving you is the worst way to get to you.”
Best line.
Ever!
Peggy Olson is one of the most fascinating (if occasionally implausible, baffling, and frustrating) characters I’ve ever seen on a dramatic series. And Moss plays her brilliantly. Can’t imagine anyone else ever doing that part. It’s the stuff of tv legend, as far as I’m concerned.
That said, something tells me she is frightful as a person. Maybe it’s just because something about her reminds me of Jodie Foster, whom I perceive as narcissistic and unlikeable. (Also I may be a bit jealous 😉
She was on WWHL with Andy Cohen last week and was delightful and funny and pretty with her soft blond hair. I loved that she is a die-hard Bravoholic and Real Housewives super fan.
Oh really?! The fact that she’s a RHW fan could change my opinion entirely!! I will watch the clips of her on WWHL and re-assess….
But also I feel the need to mention: she *is* an actress. The personae they present to the public are not who they are at all, necessarily. Something about her makes me think she would be difficult to work with and/or be friends with. But yeah, I’m sure she’s charming as heck in an interview.
Anyway the truth is, I think (and know, in a few cases) that most actors are…well…so self-obsessed it’s like they come from another galaxy sometimes. Wouldn’t care to meet any of them in person, for the most part, even the ones whose work I admire.
Wow I have always liked and respected Jodi Foster! She’s smart, has never been a famewhore, has never had any stories written about her that suggest she’s anything but a real actress who works hard at her craft (as opposed to a body who works hard at her appearance and poses half nude in men’s magazines like all of the “actresses”out there today) and the people in her business all seem to love her. She doesn’t use her children for pap purposes and she seems to live a pretty normal life. She’s what I would consider the opposite of being a narcissist!
I have a problem with Moss ever since discovering that she is a Scientologist. Apart from that, I like her and I think she is absolutely correct about Piven. I’ve given up watching that mess of a show on PBS. He is so bad and stiff in the role of Mr. Selfridge. Terrible casting.
I agree Jilly,
I prefer The Paradise, they are on hiatus so my bestie begged me to watch it..I’ve avoided it because Piven is skeevy to me…well I didn’t enjoy it, but I could not put my finger on it.
When I tell her he’s too stiff, she’ll say “he’s being regal” LOL!
She was born into it. I won’t give any slack to Scientology, but I try to give a bit to Scientologists–it’d be damned hard to leave if you knew you’d lose access to all your family and most of your friends, plus some of your family might be emotionally abused for years on end for the fact that you left.
It’s a disgusting “religion”, but don’t blame the people who are trapped in it (unless they’re actively trying to recruit others or help solidify the hold the CoS has over its members.)
OMG!!!
she is a scientologist?? wow–no thanks to that one.
woooow!
Moss is a second-generation Scientologist – sometimes I feel like these kids don’t really have a choice. Plus she never flaunts it in your face, like, for a example, Erika Christensen from “Parenthood”. And Moss is a fine actress, with a potential to become a great one. So let’s give a girl a break.
After reading so many books about Scientology, I have to give second generation people a pass. They were born into it, they didn’t have a choice and really don’t know better. But she can’t be completely horrible if she watches Bravo shows.
She was raised scientologist….watch ‘Escape from Witch Mountain’
I hate watch Grey’s Anatomy. I’d say it was after the musical episode that I really started to loathe it but truthfully, it was when they brought Denny back AGAIN and sh*t all over my love for Jeffrey Dean Morgan. First world problems, eh? ;D
Grey’s Anatomy is my hate watch show too :).
How is that show still on? I used to love it back in the day but haven’t watched in a couple of years.
I occasionally hate-watch grey’s, with red wine and my husband, who is the only person I know who hates it more than I do. I initially gave up when Meredith (the WORST character in television, in my opinion) fell off the ferry boat or whatever and didn’t die (2007?).
I really wish Joan would just be with Roger already – and not just on the sly like they were. Don has really been batted around by the women this season, which is a stark difference. What was the point of the woman who broke in last week? I thought that would lead somewhere, what’s the purpose in that whole sub-plot if they just make it disappear?
I think the break-in had a few purposes. One, it showed Don and Megan to be TERRIBLE parents. Second, it showed the very real violence and danger in this world, even on Park Avenue…which has been an undercurrent with the political assassinations and with Peggy’s BF’s stabbing(s). Finally, it provided a crisis plot point for Don to enter the apartment and find his children safe after REAL peril…he has just come off a drug trip he wasn’t expecting, he’s been stalking his downstairs mistress…and now he finds the cops in his apartment and realizes (maybe) that real and scary things were happening while he was on a mind-bender.
Also, of course, it showed us that even Don’s kids realize he is a stranger, as much a stranger as the lady who broke in, almost…this woman’s story sounded as plausible as anything they’d ever heard before about their father, so why not go with it? His lies and deceit have come home to roost, and the next generation is in danger because of it. Just as his parents and step parents have screwed him up royally, so too is he helping to screw up his own children…royally.
The whole point of the break-in, in my opinion, was to show how absent Don was in his kids’ lives and how little adult supervision Sally and her brothers have in the city. They are not treated by Don like they are his priority. The last time the kids were with him (when he took Bobby to the cinemas), he was too drunk to actually spend time with them and woke up in the afternoon with a hangover. Great image for the kids to see, right?
Don left the back door open because he was moping about and stalking his ex-mistress’s hallway. He was able to make it home just to shower and change clothes without even seeing his kids the entire weekend. The next time he did see them, the police were there, Megan was looking guilty, and Betty was livid.
A scheduled weekend with the kids should be something Don knows in advance. Don standing up his own children just so he could try to win Sylvia back was incredibly pathetic and invited a freak incident to actually happen.
“Grandma Ida” could have seriously hurt Sally and her brothers, and Megan/Don would never have been aware because they were too busy with their own lives to actually care about the kids. Both were assuming the other was there with the children and nothing bad could happen.
Sally’s words to Don rang true: “And then I realized, I don’t know anything about you.”
Don’s absence in his kids’ lives and his fake identity have started to take on a note of danger. Not knowing anything about their father puts Sally in a position to be easily conned. Don also proves to be unreliable and untrustworthy. Sally used to see him as a hero and she would blame Betty whenever something was wrong. But now I think she’s seeing her father as a very flawed person who can’t be depended on to be a solid presence in her life.
If Don ever had a breakthrough it was last night. Betty actually reflected in a way that was useful to him. Maybe I’m betting o a slow horse, but I’m wondering if in some microscopic way DD didnt just turn a corner.
I agree. The fact that he even acknowledged to Megan that he hadn’t been present for a while was a big step for him. Granted, the impetus for that — sleeping with Betty and then realizing she had happily moved on with Henry regardless — was less than honorable.
I absolutely loved last night’s episode. Not only was Betty back to form but so was the show.
Last night’s was probably one of the all-time best and it came at the right time because this season has been dragging for me. Don & Betty make sense, they make the show. I always loved their scenes together. Jon and January just work.
Also, one more thing about Piven. There is never a nice story about this guy, which says something. I know, because he once bumped into me in a restaurant in Chicago. It actually hurt, as I ws nearly knocked over. He gave me a dirty look like it was my fault, even though he was running and not looking where he was going, and of course didn’t apologize. What a jerk!
This why I kinda believe gossip…when you’ve heard one too many stories about someone being a jerk, they probably are a jerk.
Piven’s jerkiness is the stuff of legend around Chicago. His mother ran a quality theater program and was well respected for her work. He, on the other hand, is well known for being a jerk. Sounds just like him to ram into you and act like you were in the way. If you had fallen to the ground he would not have offered a hand. Sad.
LOVE Elizabeth Moss.
As a Catholic-by-birth, I hope no one holds it against me personally that the Catholic patriarchal institution protects child rapists from criminal prosecution and treats women like second-class citizens.
Just sayin, lots of religions suck.
Agreed.
Hah. Love your perspective.
(And I love Elizabeth Moss’s blonde hair!)
Colin Firth (or any great English actor) should be playing the role of Mr. Selfridge. They ruined that series by casting Jeremy Piven.
Yeah, Piven is such a slimeball. Makes me cringe to watch him.
Yeah I tried to watch it for about 10 minutes and couldn’t stomach him. At all. Masterpiece made a big miscalculation in casting him, I think.
Well, the character is rather a poseur slimeball (and an American to boot), but I still can’t watch Piven in it. He’s so budget.
She’s so good in Top of the Lake; if you haven’t seen it yet give it a try
Yes, she was wonderful in that show. I never really knew much about her until I saw Top of the Lake and now I’m a fan. It’s a murder mystery set in New Zealand and she’s a detective. All of the actors were incredible. (It’s on Netflix)
I love, love, loved Betty last night. I love that she has finally ‘gotten’ Don. After everything she went through with him, she knows he is never really there. I also loved that it was all her. She was in control. I also loved the way she obviously made Don feel in the morning when she was having breakfast with Henry. Betty has always been one of my most favourite characters and she was in fine Betty form last night.
I felt bad for Peggy in the ambulance and I just knew that he’d deny her. Poor Peggy. Stan is frickin’ HOT with that beard and I hope she gets it on with him eventually.
I am thinking that Megan and Don will be done by the end of this season. I can’t see it going anywhere but downhill and I can’t see it carrying on like it did when he was with Betty.
Joan and Bob Benson. He seems creepy but I’m hoping he’s just a really, really nice guy. I think Joan should be happy. I think Joan should be in love BUT they have been playing this guy’s character with an angle since the beginning of the season so I doubt he’s as nice as he comes across. Serial killer? I doubt it. Closet homosexual? Possibly. When they were in Joan’s apartment getting ready to go to the beach I didn’t feel that there was a romance there, more like a friendship.
And really last night’s episode made me say, “Poor Roger” so many times!
I was thinking he was in the closet, too!! In the scene you described, I also felt there wasn’t anything romantic going on between them. Still waiting to see how Bob shakes out.
Last night’s episode was awesome though. Definitely my fave so far this season.
I think you’re on to something about Bob being a closeted homosexual. Actually hope he’s gay versus Joan inviting another creeper into her life. She really does have bad taste in men.
Hmmmm, could that be why Bob is all about Pete?
I buy that Bob might be gay but I think he’s out to impress Pete for professional gain rather than personal reasons. I do hope he’s not a serial killer.
Another thought is that he’ll blackmail Joan and/or Roger if he figures out Roger is Kevin’s father. Roger’s visit to Joan’s was odd and as much as Joan tried to brush it off you could tell Bob’s “spidey sense” was alerted.
Its possible he’s out to impress Pete. He’s never actually hit on Joan though, he seems to be more of a friend. I mean honestly wouldn’t most men at least first with her? As a straight female I think I would be tempted to even flirt with her. Don’t think he’s a serial killer, most don’t befriend their victims.
Bob Benson is Don Draper 2.0. He is like a benign genius of uptrading, like that guy that eventually kept trading from a toothpick until he got a house. Like last night, Joan mentioned that she wanted a summer place, Pete has one, so Bob is doing a favour for Pete.
At this rate, he’ll make partner before Harry.
He might have been spying for Ted (or Duck?) all along, who knows? Or his father owns that place that sells the coffee and Bob gets a cut of every cup.
However, it was creepy that last night he said that the nurse brought his father back to health, when early in the series, he told Ken that his father had died (which was why he knew things like deli platters were nice gestures).
So he’s a bit of a shape shifter, depending on who he’s dealing with, again like Don 2.0, only nicer (and with tighter shorts).
Elizabeth Moss is the CUTEST!
I didn’t like her new hair do in the pics I’ve seen but in motion it looks really pretty. Team Peggy 4 EVA!
Drat. I forgot that it’s against the law to be Canadian on the internet.
What do you mean?
It means you get banned from A LOT of American streaming sites. Ask a Canadian about Hulu and you might have to jump out of the way.
Jon Hamm and January Jones have mad chemistry together. Seeing them as Don and Betty felt so natural. I loved the way Betty handled it. She wasn’t interested in anything beyond a one night stand and gave Don the “Don Draper treatment” the next day. It was nice hearing her say she was happy where she is now. She realized that sex with Don is great, but she is very lucky that Henry loves and respects her and is devoted to her.
I think her remark about Megan being “that poor girl” was compassionate. She knows the position Megan is in now and is probably glad she’s not in it anymore.
Hamm has always had chemistry with a lot of his costars, except Jessica Pare. His acting seems so aloof with her and I’ve never found their sexy scenes hot. It’s just awkward, IMO.
And how bad is Jessica Pare? She is a dreadful actor. That shot of her laughing as Arlene left was so poorly acted. She looked so fake and contrived. She drags down the scenes and whoever is in it along with her.
Betty was in fine form last night, I loved it. Don also ‘gets’ Betty and she is probably the only one that really knows Don. When Don said Sally was like Betty not him, he was dead on. Plus, the best line of the season was ” That poor girl….”
Oh come on, that was totally sticking the knife in (like Miss Peggy in the parlour with the bayonet), only in a very pleasant and well-bred manner. I can only imagine how smug Betty is going to look the next time she’s in a room with Megan.
Though as others have pointed out, when Don had a housewife at home, he cheated with modern women, and now that he has a modern woman at home, he cheats with housewives.
I thought the line about family being the wellspring of these men’s confidence was great last night. While they neglected and betrayed their families relentlessly, once they broke them up (Don, Roger, Pete) they’ve all been floundering. I think Ted is smart enough to know he only wants to toy with the idea of that chaos, not engage in it.
God Elizabeth Moss is just gorgeous these days! Last night I felt myself slowly loving mad men again, like old times, starting with that perfect scene between Don and Betty. It made me wonder if that’s more common amongst divorced couples than we realize? Anyway, I’m glad you pointed out that HUMDINGER last night where don told Peggy “he doesn’t know you.” I literally felt a chill when he said that! Then again, I’m way too involved in these fictional characters’ lives. Sidenote: it seems like when it comes to Don and Peggy, Don always wins, doesn’t he?
I find Elizabeth very annoying and it has nothing to do with her religion. However, she looks cute with her blonde hair.
She’ll always be Zoey Bartlett to me.
I really like Elizabeth Moss and she plays Peggy perfectly. She is one of the few characters on the show that has grown over the years. Don is just as big a man-child as ever, but he does make good TV.
And I don’t want to sound shallow but sorry, Megan needs to get her teeth fixed. She would be absolutely beautiful if she did.
I missed last night’s episode but I’m pretty happy with the development that Peggy broke up with her annoying, self righteous boyfriend. I think Joan and Bob would make a great couple because he seems to respect her executive position unlike a lot of the other men around the office. He understood that she feels the need to appear to have everything under control at work (sneaking her out of the office when she was sick)and he was considerate about her son. I think her mother is right when she said that he won’t be intimidated by her position, but I’m wondering if it’s supposed to be because he’s younger, he’s a gold digger and opportunist, or because he thinks she’s an attractive woman and person no matter what her job is and that she makes more money then him.
As for Don, I’m tired of him. I never thought the day would come when he wouldn’t be hot even when doing the most despicable things but the bloom is off the flower. Maybe it’s because he’s doing horrible things to people that don’t really seem like they deserve it. I mean when he acted like a misogynistic jerk to Betty and cheated like he was on a sailor on shore leave, he looked like a jerk, but a virile and sexy jerk because Betty was often depicted as a childish, petty, and cold mother and wife. And when Don drank Roger under the table and made him throw up in their ridiculous machismo manly-man drinking competition, it felt like he was fighting fire with fire, because Roger is an idiot who likes to drink to excess and screw way too many young women to affirm his masculinity. But Don being a misogynistic, cheating jerk to his well adjusted, faithful, and just plain nice wife Megan is disgusting. And Don manipulating thoughtful, considerate, and professional Ted into feeling weak and insecure by losing his “manly” drinking contest was just childish and spiteful. I can’t stand Don and his narcissistic, disrespectful, and chauvinistic behavior anymore.
E. Moss looks great in these shots. I think she consistently hits it out of the park as Peggy, she’s so great in the role.
I’m trying to watch the show and like it and not just based on “biggie pants” – because that is dumb and lame…but, I dunno, the show seems aimless all in all. It’s okay, I guess, compared to other crappy drama sitcoms….definitely better than Grey’s Anatomy, of which everyone I know has loved that show. Puleeze. Anyway MM writing needs to improve with some more meat in it and not just Hamm.
I think Betty is the only one who really gets Don.
Elisabeth Moss rocked Sunday’s episode. I would not be surprised to see her get a best actress Emmy nod for Top of the Lake and a supporting one for Mad Men.
Such great chemistry between Don and Betty….she’s gorgeous and together they really sizzle. Absolutely nothing going on with new wife Megan…boring.
No spark there….time for Don to drift off.
Don’t care for the writing this season…silly and awkward. And those “love” scenes….enough already wih that neighbor. Disappointed in the show this year.