E. Says Something Smart about the Portrayal of Conrad Hilton on Mad Men

I was saying I really liked the way the actor who portrayed the hotel magnate during the show's most recent season portrayed him, and E. said that his work was both exaggerated and nuanced, which quality is not a contradiction in terms.

She said he was plausible -- dangerous, crude but seductive, willful, spoiled by his own success, certainly manipulative and finally unreliable if by reliable you mean enduring emotional commitment. In some ways, Hilton is like Betty Draper, E. said.

Foxy lady. (E., not Betty Draper.)

Footnote: The actor who plays Hilton is named Chelcie Ross. I've seen him a lot -- forgive me Father for I have wasted time on trifles -- but I remember him as the "hard" Notre Dame coach in "Rudy." I never cared for him before, but he is charismatic/repulsive in Mad Men, and that's an ice cream flavor I like.

Don Draper in Tears. Oh No.

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Next dinner party I will raise the question of what *is* soap opera, what is the essential shortcoming that claws it back from the realm of art.

I mean, Romeo and Juliet is pretty soapy, innit, amidst all the gorgeous words? (It's a wine-bright question and fit for our new round table.)

I'm primed to talk the subject because tonight on Mad Men Betty confronts Don about getting into his drawer of secrets last week, and he tells pretty much all -- unless there was a flashback I missed. E. thinks that Betty now has the upper hand in the caste war with her husband, rampant sexism or not.

All pretty soapy, right, all this confrontation and contrition and adultery all around?

E. asked another even more interesting question when all was done: Will Don's loss of domestic power hurt his creativity, to which I added the adjacent possibility that if he actually resolved some of his angst would *that* hurt his creativity?

God knows my own genius feeds on my flagrant neuroses, which also make me quite charming at dinner.

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I'm One Mad Man

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Only 14 out of 15 on the Mad Men quiz. I could kick myself. But first a cigaret, a drink, a sexist comment, a brilliant (but ironic in the context of my personal life) idea.