Also boarding the project are Dermot Mulroney, who will be seen in the upcoming feature J. Edgar, and Sarah Hyland of Modern Family.

The project, which Brian Dannelly is directing, opens when Colfer’s character is struck by lightning and then, in flashback, tells the story of how he blackmailed other high school students to contribute to a literary magazine.

Allison Janney also heads the cast, which includes supporting actors Angela Kinsey, Allie Grant, Ashley Rickards, Polly Bergen, Brad Henke, Robbie Amell and Carter Jenkins.

David Permut is producing alongside Rob Aguire and Mia Chang. Colfer and his manager Glenn Rigberg will exec produce with Jason Michael Berman.

Hendricks is repped by CAA and Kritzer Levine Wilkins Griffin; Mulroney is repped by ICM; and Hyland is repped by WME and Richard Konigsberg Management.

ICM, along with Doug Stone of Stone, Meyer, Genow, represented Camellia Entertainment, which is providing financing for the project. ICM will co-represent its North American sale with Traction Media.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Mad Men was nominated in a total of 14 other categories, including Outstanding Drama Series, Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Jon Hamm), Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Elisabeth Moss) and Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (John Slattery). Impressive! I believe congratulations are in order to the cast and crew all around!

The 2011 Emmy Awards will be held on Sunday, September 18 and will be broadcast on FOX.

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Kelly Macdonald, Boardwalk Empire
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Michelle Forbes, The Killing
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Margo Martindale, Justified
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife

Adored by men (and envied by women) for her hourglass figure, Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks is loving every minute of her success. She talks to Lina Das about relishing her curves, marrying ‘the best husband ever’ – and modelling Vivienne Westwood’s new jewellery collection

Can there ever have been a more magnificent TV creation than Mad Men’s Joan Holloway? The indispensable office manager of Sterling Cooper and its breakaway ad agency, Joan is a woman capable of filleting secretaries with a single glance and subduing men with her incredible embonpoint (‘How does she not fall over?’ one potential client enquired).

Her majestic curves and waspish pronouncements seem to give Joan all the approachability of a lipstick-wearing crocodile, so it’s a pleasure to find that Christina Hendricks, the actress who portrays her, is not only approachable
but fun and girlie, too. ‘I love playing Joan because she’s such a departure from who I am. In season one I thought, “Oh Lord, this woman is terrifying – I couldn’t be her friend!”, but now I think I would be friends with Joan because she’s so strong and pretty wonderful,’ says Christina, adding: ‘I’d just ask her not to tell me what she really thinks all the time.’

But while Joan radiates impenetrable glamour, Christina herself is even prettier – softer and fresher (and at 5ft 8in, taller than you expect), but still exuding the creamy voluptuousness that has caused fans of both sexes to sigh in disbelief. Today her Mad Men wardrobe of fitted skirts and pillbox hats has been replaced by jeans, purple heels and a cream top (with cinched-in waist, naturally). Though it took her a while to get used to putting on Joan’s accoutrements, Christina is now a seasoned pro. ‘I was huffing and puffing into those things initially,’ she says, ‘but now I’m flipping on the garters with ease. It’s so great at the beginning of each season to see what’s in our characters’ wardrobes!’

We meet in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles in a charmingly unassuming café far from the glam environs of Beverly Hills, hours before Christina, 36, is due to attend the opening of a new Vivienne Westwood boutique. She’s a longtime fan of the British designer, ‘because her clothes allow you to show your waistline and shoulders and accentuate your bust,’ she says. ‘As a woman with curves, I love that her clothes unapologetically celebrate women.’

It appears that the admiration is mutual, as Christina, described as the ‘embodiment of beauty’ by Dame Vivienne, has now joined forces with Westwood as the new face of her Get a Life palladium jewellery collection. ‘Vivienne is doing a lot of eco-conscious work these days,’ says Christina, ‘and if you look, each piece is a symbol of the earth. I love that she uses symbols such as the oak tree and acorns and hearts to represent strength and inspire change. They’re reminders that we must stay conscious about making our environment better for the future.’

The collection makes dazzling use of the precious white metal palladium, ‘which I didn’t know anything about before,’ Christina admits, ‘but it comes from the same family as platinum and is so light and so beautiful. There’s a kind of laurel wreath that I loved so much, I was thinking: “Is this too much for the supermarket?”, because I wanted to wear it all day. I’m a big jewellery fan anyway – I love the fact that we have adorned ourselves like this for centuries. It’s such a ritualistic act.’

For ritualistic adornment, one need look no further than Mad Men – a show that is positively fetishistic in its attention to the detail of the 1960s it inhabits. It’s a show that, Christina freely admits, ‘changed my life, and it’s opened doors for more and better work [including last year’s hit film Life As We Know It opposite Katherine Heigl], which is ultimately what you want as an actor. Saying that, I’d be happy if the show never finished,’ she adds. ‘Before I got the role, I was a little jaded – I’d worked on series that I’d loved but which didn’t go [forward] and when I got the script for Mad Men, I was also offered another project. You can never predict what’s going to be successful, so you have to do the one you really love and I picked Mad Men. When my mum came with me to watch the pilot we shot, she said: “I don’t know if I like the fact that Don Draper cheats on his wife”, and I said: “Well, you’re going to be in trouble then, because he does that a lot!”’

Ah, Don Draper, a man who could unhook a bra while wearing a straitjacket. Played by the divinely handsome Jon Hamm, Don perennially has an eye for a pretty lady, which rather begs the question why he and Joan have never had an affair. ‘Well, I think they have a mutual respect for one another,’ says Christina, ‘but because they’re both very good at reading other people, they’ve sort of got each other’s number.’ Can Christina herself see the appeal? ‘Who wouldn’t? I mean, come on!’ she laughs. ‘Jon feels more of a brother to me, but listen, I’m a woman and I can look at that man and say he’s astoundingly talented and astoundingly attractive. But so are all the guys on the show. I mean John Slattery [who plays Roger Sterling, Joan’s sometime lover] – he’s dashing and charismatic as can be.’ And are the Dons and Rogers of this world Christina’s type? ‘No, I’d run a mile! I like a man with a nice, self-deprecating sense of humour.’

Christina married a man with a nice, self-deprecating sense of humour two years ago, and her face lights up at the mere mention of his name. Actor Geoffrey Arend, best known for his role as the geeky best friend in (500) Days of Summer starring Zooey Deschanel, has been described as ‘the luckiest man ever’ on various websites (and, it must be said, by Geoffrey himself), but listening to Christina talk, it’s clear the luck runs both ways. ‘I [did] a production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company in New York,’ she says, ‘and even though my husband got offered a very nice job at the same time, he turned it down, saying: “I’m not missing your Broadway debut”. I mean,’ she grins, ‘he’s just the best husband ever.’

The couple met after being introduced by Mad Men actor Vincent Kartheiser (who plays Pete Campbell), and though it wasn’t love at first sight, ‘because we were both coming out of other relationships and weren’t in that mindset, I loved his energy and his spirit and I was always saying to friends: “You’ve got to meet my new friend Geoffrey – he’s so much fun”. Then my friends invited him to dinner and he was late – he’s always late – and they asked me if I wanted to save the seat next to me for Geoffrey and I went: “No, no – it’s not like that”. Of course, as soon as I said it didn’t matter, it suddenly did matter. I think my brain just had to catch up with my heart.’

His proposal sounds like, well, something out of a movie. ‘I moved to New York as a teenager when I started to model, and there was a restaurant called Il Buco which was filled with gothic-looking chandeliers that had weird apples and flames coming out of them. I’d been trying for years to get the owner, Donna, to sell one particular chandelier to me, but she wouldn’t. Geoffrey and I went there one New Year’s Eve and I happened to point it out to him. Then months later, I came home and every inch of our dining room was filled with flowers. Geoffrey was on one knee, so one part of my brain was registering that he was proposing, but then I looked up and saw the chandelier, so the other part of my brain was going: “How the hell is that chandelier in our house?”. He’d commissioned the artist to make Donna a replacement, so she finally relented and sold it to him. I was just crying so much when he proposed. I mean,’ she smiles, ‘what can you say about a man like that? He’s just so old-fashioned and kind and dreamy.’

The couple, now based in Los Angeles, haven’t yet decided whether children will feature in their plans, ‘though I probably need to think about that soon because I’m getting older, but I’m not letting that determine any decisions. I’m on this wonderful show with all these opportunities,’ says Christina, ‘so it seems crazy to jump out of it. I want to really experience the career for a while, and then I’ll see what happens.’ Joan Holloway – now Joan Harris after marrying the frankly undeserving Dr Greg Harris – did end the fourth series of Mad Men pregnant, after an illicit romp with old flame Roger Sterling. ‘She’s been very naughty and I was shocked when I got the script,’ says Christina. ‘My first fear was that she’d quit her job, but also I wondered, if she did become a stay-at-home mum, how would she manage that? Maybe she’ll carry on working – just strap the baby to her back and carry on bossing people around!’

For Christina herself, it’s been a long journey to the glamorous offices of Madison Avenue’s Mad Men. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, she is the younger of two children to parents Robert and Jackie Hendricks. Her British-born father (originally from Birmingham but now an American citizen) worked for the US forest service and the family would move every few years as he worked from state to state. ‘I started doing community theatre as a way to make friends,’ says Christina, ‘and that was when I caught the acting bug.’

Her school days, she admits, ‘were not a happy time, and I’m always amazed when people say they loved their time in high school. My husband did, but he attended the LaGuardia school for the performing arts – the Fame school! – and had dance class instead of PE, so no wonder he had a great time. But I went to a very mean school and was bullied like crazy. I was a bit of a goth with purple hair and I was also part of the drama group, which was filled with actors and writers and wasn’t really accepted by the rest of the school. There was a long corridor with lockers on either side and kids would sit on top of them and spit on you. It was like something out of Lord of the Flies, but if I learned anything it was to remain true to myself and not to conform for the sake of it.’

Fresh out of school, Christina was persuaded by her mother to enter a competition to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine. Though she didn’t win, her photos so impressed modelling agencies that, at 19, she headed off to New York to pursue her career. ‘I’d always felt awkward,’ she says, ‘and having those pictures done was the first time I really felt pretty. I loved the idea of travelling and having a new world open up, so I took advantage of the opportunity. I’d done ballet for years and was tiny then, a size 4 [UK size 8], so I didn’t have any problems about conforming to a certain body type. As you get older your body changes, and I’ve tried to embrace how I look at every stage. But I loved modelling. I lived in London for a year during the Britpop period when there was a real energy in the air and the fashion was [Alexander] McQueen. I did a season of shows there – one with Tyra Banks and Björk. I lived near Holloway prison, which was not nice, but was clearly a foreshadowing: if I could survive living next to Holloway prison, I’d get to play a fantastic character with the same name,’ she laughs. ‘Modelling taught me how to be professional and responsible at a young age. Plus, you experience a lot of rejection and criticism, which is a great boot camp for Hollywood.’

Christina embarked on an acting career in her mid-20s, working steadily in series such as ER, and the Joss Whedon-penned drama Firefly and Life, featuring our own Damian Lewis. But then Mad Men came along and life changed for ever.

She admits it’s been ‘the first time I’ve felt appreciated, because it’s the first time I’ve been on a show that people have been so excited about’. And Christina has elicited adoration from all quarters, including, bizarrely, our own Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone, who giddily pronounced her curvaceousness ‘absolutely fabulous’ and decreed that, ‘we need more of these role models’. ‘That was incredibly flattering but very, very strange – you think no one knows who you are and then a British politician says something like that,’ she says.

It was reported this year that there had been a sharp rise in breast augmentation in the UK because British women were longing to look more like Christina, though she says: ‘I hope I’m not encouraging that. If there’s anything to be learned from me it’s that I’m learning to celebrate what I was born with, even though it’s sometimes been inconvenient. Having larger breasts has made it harder for me to shop throughout the years, but I’ve learnt to love it. It’s so bizarre that people are constantly asking if my breasts are real or fake,’ she adds. ‘They’re so obviously real that anyone who’s ever seen or touched a breast would know.’

With films coming up such as I Don’t Know How She Does It alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Drive with Carey Mulligan, there seems little danger of the adoration for Ms Hendricks abating any time soon. And Christina even has her own Joan Holloway Barbie doll to play with in her free time. ‘I have one in my office,’ she says, barely concealing her excitement, ‘but Mattel are also making a one-off Christina Barbie for me too – wearing what I wore to the Golden Globes last year. I mean, how awesome is it to have your own Barbie?’ she smiles. Pretty awesome, actually. Even Joan Holloway would be impressed with that.

Source: Daily Mail

But the deal almost didn’t happened. “I walked away from it 4-5 times in the last few days,” said Weiner who had been objecting to several proposals made by series producer Lionsgate TV and network AMC, including shortening the episodes’ running time from 47 to 45 minutes to make room for more commercials, introducing more product placement, potentially reducing the number of regulars on the show and pushing Season 5′s premiere to March 2012. “It’s never been about money,” Weiner said. “I wanted to do the show I wanted to do and the show the audience has come to expect.”

On the cast: “The cast is safe from financial concerns” for all 3 seasons, Weiner said, adding that he reserves the right to cut actors “on creative basis.”

In terms of product placement, Weiner said that there will be no changes to the series’ existing policy. He noted that there have been only 3 instances of product placement Mad Men‘s first four seasons. “I don’t want the audience to feel they are been sold on the show,” Weiner said.

Additionally, Weiner will be able to continue to do 47-minute versions of Mad Men‘s 13-episode Season 5 for VOD, DVD and all auxiliary platforms, though on AMC, Episodes 2-12 will air 45-minute cuts made by Weiner.

The only thing Weiner and AMC couldn’t agree on was the return date for Mad Men. Weiner had insisted on a 2011 Season 5 premiere but he said AMC had informed him back in October that, because they have 4 series to launch, no premiere before March 2012 would be possible.

While the pickup of Mad Men is for 2 more seasons, Weiner’s 3-year deal with Lionsgate makes that essentially a 3-year renewal. “These will be the last 3 seasons” of the period drama, Weiner said. “I’m going to take it one year at a time and without the distraction to ever have the go through this again,” he added, referring to the long, tense renegotiations. “I’m incredibly grateful for the the outpouring of support and overwhelmed that I get to finish telling the stories I want to tell.”

Source: Deadline

This paves the way for the much-delayed season 5 of Mad Men to finally go into production.

All together now: HOORAY!

Here is the joint AMC/Lionsgate release:

AMC and Lionsgate today announced the return of the iconic series Mad Men for seasons five and six with series creator Matthew Weiner back on board as showrunner. Concurrently, it was announced that Weiner has signed a new long-term deal with Lionsgate, extending into a possible seventh season. The announcements were made by Charlie Collier, president of AMC, and Kevin Beggs, president of Lionsgate Television Group.

When AMC debuted Mad Men in July 2007 it quickly became one of the most talked about series on television. Set in 1960s New York, Mad Men is a sexy and provocative original drama that follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising. Produced by Lionsgate, Mad Men has made television history as the only cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama and the Golden Globe for Best Television Series-Drama for three consecutive years.

“I want to thank all of our wonderful fans for their support.” said Weiner. “I also want to thank AMC and Lionsgate for agreeing to support the artistic freedom of myself, the cast and the crew so that we can continue to make the show exactly as we have from the beginning. I’m excited to get started on the next chapter of our story.”

“AMC’s original programming began with a mission to create bold storytelling of the highest quality, and Mad Men was the perfect expression of that commitment. We’ve been proud to support this show from the day we read Matt’s ground-breaking pilot script and have loved building it with Matt and Lionsgate into the cultural phenomenon it has become,” said Collier. “For everyone involved in the show and its passionate fans, we are thrilled to announce that the series will continue on AMC under the exceptional vision of Matt Weiner.”

“We are proud to continue our successful relationships with AMC and the brilliantly talented Matt Weiner, whose vision has created one of the most distinguished series on television,” said Beggs. “We also appreciate the passion and patience of Mad Men fans around the world who have been awaiting this good news, and we believe they will be rewarded with many more seasons of this extraordinary and groundbreaking series.”

Mad Men’s award-winning ensemble cast includes: Golden Globe-winner Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Jared Harris, Rich Sommer, Aaron Staton, Robert Morse and Kiernan Shipka.

Source: Deadline

With news that Season 5 of Mad Men won’t debut until 2012 because of negotiations between series creator Matt Weiner and AMC, all kinds of speculation is leaking out. And right now it’s just speculation because until the two sides publicly talk about what’s going on, I wouldn’t trust a word that anonymous sources are leaking to people who regularly get the facts wrong.

But whatever the price tag Weiner’s asking for, whatever the changes he’s being asked to make — more commercial time or reduction of characters allegedly among them — it’s all beside the point now. AMC and Lionsgate balked two years ago at Weiner’s salary demands and here we are again. Apparently there’s been too much distance — and too much success — at AMC to remember where they were before making Mad Men.

They were nowhere.

AMC was a second rate movie channel (and that’s being generous) until Mad Men put it on the map. No Mad Men, then probably no Breaking Bad (which itself was partly a free gift from FX). So any discussion of Mad Men‘s worth goes far, far beyond the value of the actual show as it relates to the money it brings in.

Just the amount of hype Mad Men has generated for AMC is worth every penny Weiner is asking for, because it created brand awareness in one of the most crowded and competitive businesses. Even if AMC spent $15 million in 2007 trying to point viewers to where it was on the dial, most probably wouldn’t have found it or cared to go looking. Mad Men not only gave them a reason to search, it’s greatness continued to generate what was essentially free advertising and a repeated hammer to the head of late adopters.

How much is that worth? Mad Men is AMC’s seminal hit, its tallest flag on a crowded map of cable channels. What’s more, the quality of the series never lagged. It got better. It got more and more hype. It created stars. It became a pop culture phenomenon. It won Emmys. How much is that worth, AMC? Maybe someone should go count the headlines. Measure the magazine stories and compare that to the price for an ad. Count all the times the stars were on talk shows or in photographs. Do a search for how many times AMC has been mentioned since summer of 2007 and then compare that to how many times it was mentioned prior — go back a decade if you need to. Mad Men may not be the most watched series on television or even on AMC, but it’s the greatest loss-leader in the history of television. While that was happening, Weiner was under his old contract. Underpaid? Relative to the industry and his impact on it — hell yes.

What has happened since the last contract? Well, Breaking Bad has given AMC a one-two punch (in any order) of the best two series on television. As great as Breaking Bad is, it doesn’t generate the same hype as Mad Men, despite its healthy ratings. AMC has had some misses, to be sure — the remake of The Prisoner didn’t work and Rubicon didn’t catch fire. But Breaking Bad and then the massive hit that was The Walking Dead really established the channel. The Killing, AMC’s next effort, is fantastic (but nobody knows yet what the ratings will be like). Regardless, it’s pretty clear that AMC is a major player in high quality scripted drama.

And yet the niche channel is clearly forgetting that none of this would be possible without Mad Men. I don’t begrudge Weiner anything he’s asking for because in all likelihood, this is his biggest ticket. The former Sopranos writer is extremely talented and will no doubt go on to other successes. But like David Simon, the creator of The Wire who moved on to Treme, it’s not about how brilliant one person is. It’s about catching lightning in a bottle and cracking that bottle over the head of the culture in a way that essentially lives on in history books forever. Now that is hard to repeat. So don’t begrudge Weiner whatever it is he’s getting for four brilliant seasons of Mad Men.

The key here is not to blame him. AMC is already making it look like it’s all Weiner’s fault. People who don’t care about negotiations or the minutia involved will only be upset that they won’t get to see Don Draper and company until sometime in 2012. They’ll be looking for blame. Perhaps Weiner should, as AMC has already done, release a statement giving some insight to his side. He’s already going to have enough pressure — as there is each season — to make Season 5 as brilliant as the four previous. And if he doesn’t, what will people say about his pay raise? That’s a lot of pressure, especially for a man who doesn’t like to delegate and whose fingerprints are all over everything in the show.

By the way, there is no Mad Men without him. It’s his baby. And if anything, people should be less worried about monetary figures and more worried that the hassles of negotiating are going to make Weiner cut the series short by a season or two. It would be hard to blame him if he did. For a channel that has done so much right, it’s a shame that AMC hasn’t realized that Mad Men isn’t just a series you negotiate over. It’s your reason for being.

Pay the man.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Here is the full statement:

AMC has officially authorized production of season 5 of Mad Men, triggering our option with Lionsgate. While we are getting a later start than in years past due to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations, Mad Men will be back for a fifth season in early 2012.

Source: Deadline

Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks has signed on to star in Seconds of Pleasure, which Mike Figgis is directing from a Neil LaBute script. The story takes place on an airplane and connects the lives of people on the plane through vignettes. Hendricks plays a wife who catches her husband in a compromising position. Brendan Fraser plays the husband, and Julia Stiles, Matt Dillon and Kristen Scott Thomas also star. LaBute is producing, with production to begin this summer in the UK. Hendricks, also shooting the Doug McGrath-directed I Don’t Know How She Does It with an ensemble cast that includes Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Jessica Parker, is repped by Paul Kohner Agency and KLWG Entertainment.

But what does that mean for Hendricks and Mad Men? HitFix.com says:

The fate of Mad Men is still very much in the air, as weeks have passed without updates on the state of negotiations between Matthew Weiner and producer Lionsgate. Even if a deal were somehow reached tomorrow, it’s unclear when the writers would be able to begin writing, much less when pre-production and filming would be able to start. Even if everything were magically accelerated and Mad Men somehow began production by the early summer, presumably the vignette nature of Seconds of Pleasure wouldn’t have any impact on the return of Hendricks’ Joan.

Here’s to hoping that the Mad Men negotiations will come to a resolution soon… The wait is simply torturous!

Westwood, known for her bold design aesthetic, created a collection that won’t disappoint her loyal fans. The over-sized heart pendant and Grecian-inspired tiara Hendricks donned for the promotional campaign are not only fashion forward, but eco-conscious as well. Drawing nature as an inspiration, “Get a Life” hopes to raise awareness for the future of the environment.

“Christina is the embodiment of beauty [and] she has proved to be the perfect model for the campaign,” Westwood said.

Hendricks, who will star alongside Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan in this fall’s Drive, is eager to scoop up some of the designer baubles: “I cannot wait to wear them on the red carpet!”

Source: Hollywood Reporter

The challenge Hendricks and Arend are involved with will be appropriately ’60s themed, harkening to Hendrick’s role on AMC’s period drama. Dishes from the ’60s will no doubt provide lots of ways for the reality competition series’ producers to have fun with the yet-to-be-announced celebrity chef contestants — the names of dishes from that era alone are a blast. (“We’ve got oysters Rockefeller, beef Wellington, [a] Napoleon,” Roger Sterling (John Slattery) once said on an episode of Mad Men, trying to persuade a lady-friend to stay for a meal. “If we leave this lunch alone, it’ll take over Europe.”)

For this third season of Masters, Bravo has announced that former host Kelly Choi will be replaced with Australian celebrity chef and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Curtis Stone. The network has yet to announce the show’s premiere date or celebrity contestants.

Source: EW