Most emotionally satisfying episode of Mad Men this season: YES/NO??

( SPOILER )

Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) and Jack Huston (Outlander) have joined the cast of the second Twilight sequel Eclipse. Oscar-nominee Moreno will play the vampire Maria, a character from Jasper's (Jackson Rathbone) past, while Huston will play Royce King II, a man who lived during the Great Depression. Add them to the star-studded casting of the other vampire elders, I'm excited, despite myself. [imdb]

Maggie Q. (Live Free or Die Hard) has joined Priest, and will play a priestess and vampire hunter who teams up with a warrior priest (Paul Bettany) as he tracks down a band of murderous vampires who had kidnapped his niece. Cam Gigandet also stars. (THR) [imdb]

Watch Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig in the trailer for the romantic drama Cairo Time. Is that anything like "Arab time"? i.e. one hour late. [imdb]

Trailer for the alien abduction film The Fourth Kind starring Milla Jovovich and Elias Koteas. [imdb]

Chris McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) will write the script for the Wolverine sequel. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story line will take its cue from the early 1980s Chris Claremont/Frank Miller miniseries, which is set in Japan and features Wolverine dealing with ninjas as he struggles whether to follow his animal killer instincts or the life under a samurai's code of honor and respect. (THR)

Jefferson Robbins' Mad Men video essay.

A sneak peek of Lawman a new FX series starring Timothy Olyphant (via):

Vanity Fair has a feature article on Mad Men.

Jennifer Ehle (Possession, Pride and Prejudice) has been cast as Lady Catelyn Stark, wife to Ned Stark (Sean Bean), in HBO's A Game of Thrones. (THR)

Trailer for Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, starring John C. Reilly, Chris Massoglia, Ken Watanabe, Salma Hayek, Patrick Fugit, Josh Hutcherson, Ray Stevenson, Willem Dafoe, and Jane Krakowski. Any vampire film that can joke about biting people's necks, I approve. [imdb]

Trailer for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, based on the Anne Sebold novel. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci and Susan Sarandon. [imdb]

Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin have announced that they are engaged! This should make things 200% more awkward when Sookie and Eric finally get it on in True Blood. Also, a new recurring character has been revealed - ( *spoiler* ) - who will turn up in the last two episodes of season 2.

First look at Paul Bettany in the horror Western flick Priest. [imdb]

Peter Berg (The Kingdom) talks about the feature film version of Dune he's hoping to direct:

"[The book] was much more muscular and adventurous, more violent and possibly even a little bit more fun," Berg said. "I think those are all elements of my experience of the book that can be brought in without offending the die-hard fans of the Bene Gesserit and Kwisatz Haderach. There's a more dynamic film to be made."

International trailer for The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, and Jim Broadbent. From director Jean-Marc Vallée and writer Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), a dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's (Blunt) rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert (Friend). [imdb]

Peter Weir's (Master and Commander, The Truman Show) next film, The Way Back has brought on board Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement). They are in final negotiations to star in the fact-based story of a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942. The film is based on the memoir by Slavomir Rawicz. Farrell plays a tough, tattooed Russian; Harris an American; and Sturgess portrays a young Polish inmate. Ronan will play a Russian on the run who meets up with the fugitives. (Coming Soon) [imdb]

Kristin Scott Thomas has joined the cast of the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, directed by visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood. Aaron Johnson (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) will play the young Lennon while Anne-Marie Duff (Shameless) will play his mother. (THR)

Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell are in talks to star as villains Whiplash and Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2. (THR)

International trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's action thriller The Hurt Locker, featuring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes. [imdb]

Being Human cast interviews. Now this is more like it. Not sure what Mitchell's doing in a bright yellow t-shirt though.

From the AMC press tour: Mad Men is getting a third season and will be back next summer; The Prisoner reimagining, starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan, will premiere in November. (via Alan Sepinwall)

5 seasons of The Wire in a 5-minute rap.

I'm so proud of you, Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Golden Globe nominees for Best Television Drama: Dexter, House, In Treatment, Mad Men, True Blood.

That's 2 for HBO, 1 for Showtime, 1 for AMC, and 1 for FOX. And for perhaps the first year EVER, I actually watch, and love, every one of those shows.

MAYAKOVSKY

1
My heart's aflutter!
I am standing in the bath tub
crying. Mother, mother
who am I? If he
will just come back once
and kiss me on the face
his coarse hair brush
my temple, it's throbbing!

then I can put on my clothes
I guess, and walk the streets.

2
I love you. I love you,
but I'm turning to my verses
and my heart is closing
like a fist.

Words! be
sick as I am sick, swoon,
roll back your eyes, a pool,

and I'll stare down
at my wounded beauty
which at best is only a talent
for poetry.

Cannot please, cannot charm or win
what a poet!
and the clear water is thick

with bloody blows on its head.
I embraced a cloud,
but when I soared
it rained.

3
That's funny! there's blood on my chest
oh yes, I've been carrying bricks
what a funny place to rupture!
and now it is raining on the ailanthus
as I step out onto the window ledge
the tracks below me are smoky and
glistening with a passion for running
I leap into the leaves, green like the sea

4
Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.


FRANK O'HARA

*

Featured in the season two premiere of Mad Men on July 27, Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency shot to No. 1 on Google's "Hot Trends" list for that day and is out of stock on Amazon.com (LA Times via choriamb). David Kronke talked to Matt Weiner about how the collection came to be used.

Charlie Rose with Matthew Weiner, Jon Hamm, John Slattery of Mad Men.

Trailer for the ensemble drama Winged Creatures, about a group of strangers who form a unique relationship with each other after surviving a random shooting at a Los Angeles diner. Directed by Rowan Woods (Little Fish), it stars Forest Whitaker, Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Embeth Davidtz, and Jennifer Hudson. [imdb]

Trailer for Appaloosa, a Western starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, and Renee Zellweger. It's directed by Ed Harris (Pollock). [imdb]

Trailer for Gregor Jordan's The Informers, based on Bret Easton Ellis' book of short stories which captures a week in L.A. in 1983, featuring movie executives, rockstars, a vampire and other morally challenged characters in adventures laced with sex, drugs and violence. The cast includes Billy Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Austin Nichols, Brad Renfro, Jon Foster and Rhys Ifans. [imdb]

Helena Bonham Carter reveals that she will play a villain in Terminator: Salvation. [imdb]

Joss Stone will join the third season of Showtime's The Tudors playing Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). (THR)

Video of Ron Moore addressing a screening group about the religion and mythology of Battlestar Galactica. (Galactica Sitrep)

New promo for HBO's new show True Blood. ETA: Here, I believe, is our first look at Pam, a character those who have read the books will be familiar with, played by Kristin Bauer. And for those looking forward to anything on Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), BloodCopy has these two posts: "Fangtasia owner Eric spotted" and "Eric speaks".

What Would Don Draper Do?

Keanu Reeves rumoured to play Spike in the Cowboy Bebop live-action movie?! Noooooooooo! (First Showing)

New trailer for the crime drama Pride and Glory, starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich, Jon Voight, and Lake Bell. [imdb]

Interview with Bill Nighy about Underworld: Rise of the Lycans at ShockTillYouDrop. [imdb]

Trailer for the drama set in Nazi Germany, Good, starring Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker, Mark Strong and Steven Mackintosh.

A literary professor and decent family man, John Halder (Mortensen) explores his personal circumstances in a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia. When the book is unexpectedly enlisted by powerful political figures in support of government propaganda, Halder finds his career rising in an optimistic current of nationalism and prosperity. Seemingly inconsequential decisions lead to choices, which lead to more choices...with eventually devastating effect.

Based on the play "Good" by C. P. Taylor. [imdb]

io9 speculates about the presence of Catwoman in the next Nolan/Bale Batman movie.

SF Signal asks writers what are the best examples of sci-fi/fantasy worldbuilding. (via)

Quint at AICN talks to McG about Terminator: Salvation. [imdb]

And lastly, for those who are as mad about the shows as I am, links to reviews for this week's episode of Mad Men by Alan Sepinwall, Maureen Ryan and Andrew Johnston, and reviews of the most recent Generation Kill by Keith Urlich, Jeremiah Kipp and Alan Sepinwall.