Still, my favorite "MM" promotion remains last year’s out-of-home ad, set in New York and L.A.: a giant cocktail glass that spilled out a bit of “liquor” each day during the week before the premiere, ending up empty on launch date.
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But there’s one piece of current “MM” news I’m not sure how to take. Have you seen the reports about star Jon Hamm completing a 30-day stint in rehab for alcoholism? Hamm has been careful to say that any details are “between me and my family.” But if his rehab is so private, why mention it publicly at all?
Hmmm…. Doesn’t the timing of this announcement seem kind of suspicious? Could it possibly be another way to subtly promote “MM,” fueling speculation about how the series will end -- and the ultimate fate of Don, who has famously abused alcohol for seven seasons? Maybe Weiner said, "Jon, if you're going to rehab, then go now.”
It’s almost as if the PR campaign for “Downton Abbey,” now also setting up its final season, would have Brendan Coyle (who plays Mr. Bates, everyone’s favorite jailbird valet) arrested on trumped-up murder charges.
I’m not sure how complicit Hamm was with this rehab PR ploy, if that’s what it was. He’s always seemed like a great guy: stretching as an actor with great comic parts in “30 Rock,” and “Saturday Night Live”; sticking by long-time girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt despite becoming famous as a moody sex symbol.
(In the first years of the series, I had quite a crush on Hamm myself. When I saw him in person at a Yahoo press conference, I took notes like “He’s incredibly good-looking in person. Killer smile!” OMG!)
So, staying close to the warm (but no longer adoring) feelings I still have for the actor, I’ll ask respectfully: Jon, what have you done? If you’ve really got a problem with alcohol, I’m glad you got help. But mixing real life and fiction for the sake of publicity is not cool.
Whatever. He has an awesome first name!
Speculating about whether someone getting rehab is just a publicity stunt is not cool.