Mad Men Season 5: It's Every Man For Himself

Mad Men's long-delayed and much-anticipated fifth season premiere finds Don (Jon Hamm) and Megan (Jessica Pare) still in the honeymoon phase of their recent marriage. Don's apparent happiness has one drawback, however: He seems less concerned with work than ever before.

"Don is seemingly becoming a little bit disengaged at work," Hamm tells TV. "What happens when you have it all? What happens when you're satisfied? Maybe you lose some of that fire."

But life with Megan isn't all hearts and flowers. Look no further than Don's humiliation when Megan throws him a surprise 40th birthday party, during which she does a sexy song-and-dance better suited for the bedroom than for cocktail hour. So how does the ballad of Don and Megan go? What's up with Roger and Joan's baby (hello, little Kevin!) and why was Lane so obsessed with a photo of another man's wife? We took our burning questions to Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, who also tells us why Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) and Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) are the ones to watch.

You haven't jumped years between seasons since Season 2. How did you land on picking up the story where you did?

Matthew Weiner: [It was] the baby with Joan, the first six months basically of [Don and Megan's] marriage. It just seemed like far enough in advance. I don't want to skip too much of the story. I'm always looking at how people are related to each other in the hierarchy of the business, and how Don's personal life is interacting with the business and with himself and with his family. And it just seemed like the perfect amount of time.

In Season 3, you deliberately chose 1963 for the Kennedy assassination. Were there any historical advantages this time?

Weiner: I would say the show is not a history lesson, but ... the period we're in, people can look at Wikipedia and they're not going to find anything earth-shattering in the next 12 months. Everything that they think of that happened in the '60s happened between the Kennedy assassination and Woodstock; it's sort of blurred together. And it certainly will be as it's passing in the lives of our characters. It's always about the story in the people's lives, and for me there is a shift that is starting to go on that is actually affecting these characters' lives.

The show has always touched on the Civil Rights Movement, but the premiere is bookended with scenes about race. Is that going to more of an issue this season than in years past?

Weiner: I would not say that. That event with the guys dropping the bags full of water out on the protesters really happened. It's in the newspaper; the dialogue was taken from The New York Times, and to me it was just a great symbol of how race affects these people. It's being brought into their world and it's still a joke to them. ... I will never diminish the Civil Rights Movement by acting like it was the focal point of white America. It wasn't. It's part of why they struggled so hard, and it's part of why people had to die to get things changed.

I'm never going to rewrite history and it's out of respect. I'm not going to say, "Oh, now civil rights is a big deal to these people." It's not. As you can see, this comes into their house and it's totally a practical joke. What I love is, change is happening and they can't do anything about it. They don't even know it, and that's part of the entertainment of the show.

So Don and Megan are married. I was most surprised that Don told Megan about his past as Dick Whitman, since I believed he chose Megan over Faye because she knew less about him.

Weiner: It's shocking. I'm hoping the audience is going to be like, "Oh my God, what's this show going to be about?" ... Yes, it made Faye less attractive to him once he told her who he was, but Faye was saying to him, "Deal with who you are and live as that person." And Megan said, "I don't care who you are." That's why he felt free to tell her that.

"21 Jump Street" Turns Into Gleefully Fun Film

Of all the movies to turn out to be laugh-out-loud, side-achingly funny, "21 Jump Street" didn't seem a likely candidate. Who knew? Turns out that remakes of old favorites don't have to be phoned-in bores after all.

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play incompetent bike cops whose baby faces earn them undercover assignments digging into a high-school drug ring. Right from the start, the film addresses its recycled premise, with their police captain (an awesome Ice Cube) telling Hill and Tatum, "We're reviving a canceled undercover program from the '80s," confessing that the department is "out of ideas" and "they expect us all to not notice." Smart move. Get the audience on your side about the big ol' elephant in the room early, and they'll roll with you.

Tatum's Jenko is the jock, Hill's Schmidt is the nerd, and they are shocked to discover that times have changed and their respective spots in the school pecking order are reversed. Kids sneer at Jenko, who appears to be a gay-bashing lunkhead, while Schmidt the smartypants is delighted to at last be cool.

This may not resemble the true social strata at any real high school now or ever, but it's entertaining as heck to watch Jenko and Schmidt swap roles. They swap again when they're too dim to remember whose alias is whose, and thus dummy Jenko lands in the AP chemistry class meant for Schmidt and shy Schmidt gets Jenko's drama class, doubling up on the fish-out-of-water scenarios.

Parents and those with sensitive ears should know the film earns every bit of its R rating, with plenty of swearing, lots of shooting and one weird flash of a threeway nude scene. This isn't your mother's John Hughes movie, but the dialogue is just as smart and some of the high-school bits feel just as real. ("Are you two-strapping?" Jenko snaps at Schmidt when he sees him wearing his backpack dorkily.)

Viewers may have expected Oscar-nominated Hill to carry the show, but Tatum matches him laugh for laugh. And yes, even the promised Johnny Depp cameo pays off. (Several other original "Jump Streeters" also make appearances.) It's perhaps the most satisfying cameo of its kind in recent memory, and Depp plays it to the hilt. In the end, there's a joke about Schmidt and Jenko going on to college, and truly, if that sequel were made, it'd probably be pretty darn good.

American Idol-First Ousted Idolette

Tonight, “for one night only, the judges decide,” says American Idol host Ryan Seacrest at the top of Thursday’s show. The one guy and one chick with the fewest viewer votes will be revealed, then the show’s three judges will decide which gets whacked.

Bring out the judges: Steven Tyler is decked out in velvet and shrink-wrap leather, and Jennifer Lopez has put on a sexy cocktail dress for her date with Mr. Rogers, aka sweater-vested Randy Jackson.

The entire population of Idolettes perform Stevie Wonder’s “As,” after which, in a Ford video, all the Idolettes get scaled up to the size of Jermaine “Gentle Giant” Jones and stomp around Los Angeles, stepping over buildings, to Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time.”

Roll tape of Super Mentor and Second-Guesser-In-Chief Jimmy Iovine, who will begin his weekly critiques of the Idolettes’ performances from the previous night.
“God mass-produces billions of people — in my opinion too many,” he begins.
What? So now we’re jumping into the Limbaugh versus Fluke birth-control debate?
“But in the case of Whitney Houston, he stopped everything and made one by hand,” Iovine continues.

Okay, now we know where this is going. Jimmy is addressing the notion that occurred to many on Wednesday — that the girls got a harder assignment when they were told they had to sing Whitney, compared to the boys, who had to sing Stevie Wonder.

Anyway, Iovine continues, because of God, “it’s difficult to sing these songs” — though singing Stevie “is no walk in the park, either.”
Whew!

So let’s whack some Idolettes — there are too many people anyway. Elise “The Dour One” Testone, Hollie “Big Voice Little Girl” Cavanagh, and the enormously talented Jessica Sanchez are called to the front by Ryan.
Elise “didn’t rise to the occasion,” Iovine chides.
Hollie, however, “delivered on the promise.”

And Jessica tackling “I Will Always Love You” was “probably the best performance I’ve ever seen of anyone on ‘American Idol,’ ” Iovine proclaims. But, Mr. Glass Half Empty Iovine worries Jessica will “believe the applause too early” and grow overconfident.

Jessica and Hollie go through, Elise gets sent to The Stools, as Ryan calls the penalty box.

Next, double threat comedian/singer Heejun Han, Jermaine, and Colton “Lestat” Dixon.

Stevie Wonder songs show up all of Heejun’s flaws, Iovine mourns.
And Colton hasn’t found his truth yet.

Jermaine was thinking too much, Iovine says, and takes issue with Tyler having said Jermaine’s Wonder tune fit him “like an Armani suit.” Armani suits, Iovine says, don’t come that large.

To The Stools with Jermaine — Colton and Heejun are safe.
Next a performance by Lauren Alaina, last year’s “Idol” country cutie. Alaina has spent the past year releasing her debut album, dropping weight, and losing that charming shyness. She does a brassy rendition of her single “Georgia Peaches”.
Call forward the interesting but uneven performer Erika Van Pelt, Shannon “Stretch” Magrane, and Skylar Laine — this year’s Lauren Alaina.

Iovine thinks Erika needs to work on her “presentation.”
Nerves “tightened” Shannon’s vocal cords, Iovine says, while Shannon insists her voice only cracked on one note. She is not remembering correctly.
Plus, JLo needs to get used to Skylar sounding “nasally,” because Jimmy likes nasal.

Erika is sent to The Stools where a mike picks up either Erika or Elise saying “it’s the old ladies.” However, they’re soon joined by the teenage Shannon.

Lady Gaga Launches Born This Way Foundation At Harvard

What better place than Harvard for Lady Gaga to take the world to school?!
The pop superstar, her mother Cynthia and the mother of all talk show hosts, Oprah Winfrey, were at the Ivy League university's Sanders Theatre to officially launch Gaga's Born This Way Foundation.

Which, contrary to the singer's reputation as a fervent antibullying advocate, is not an antibullying charity. And no, Oprah, the three pillars of the organization are not "bravery, acceptance and love."

"Those are...well, those are three important aspects of the foundation," Gaga tactfully corrected the OWN founder, "but the three pillars are 'SSO.' Remember these things today, it would make me very very happy: Safety. Skills. Opportunity."

Well, then.
"I want to help, I want to be brave, I want there to be more tolerance in the universe," the "Edge of Glory" singer said of what prompted her to start the Born This Way Foundation, which she describes as a "youth-empowerment" foundation. "I want there to be more acceptance. What I realize more than anything was that I never wanted this dialogue to end."

"This is about transformative change in culture over a period of time," she said.
Lady Gaga also announced that fans should be on the lookout for the Born Brave Bus, which will travel along with her tour bus and serve as the focal point of a massive, cross-country tailgating party for young people who just want to talk about life -- as well as kids who want to help and inspire others.

"It will welcome anyone from any walk of life, whether you have a ticket to the show or you don't, to come and hang out and talk about love, acceptance, kindness and so forth," she said.

More from E: So what does Madonna really think of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"?
She admitted that she doesn't have all the answers, and she playfully shot down panel member Dr. Deepak Chopra when he teased her about seeing herself as a global leader.

"I know you want me to see myself as a global leader, because I know you," she teased the author. "I would like for everyone to see themselves as global leaders. I suppose that would be what I mean when I say you are all born superstars.
"When I say it takes very little to change the world," she continued, "I really mean that. If each one of us just transformed one small bit of ourselves to be a bit kinder, more loving, more tolerant...I believe it will be quite easy to change the world. The only problem is, there's so damn many of us."

"If there was a law, you know I'd be chained naked to a fence somewhere trying to pass it," Gaga cracked, acknowledging how implementing widespread change is a daunting prospect.

"Change could be 50 years from now," she admitted. "And if I'm dead, I don't give a s--t, I just hope it happens."