Mad Men character's fictional memoir set for real-life publication

Hard-drinking, philandering but charismatic advertising chief Roger Sterling from the hit American TV drama Mad Men is to have his fictional autobiography – which features in series four of the fictional series – converted into reality next month.

US publishing house Grove/Atlantic has spotted an opportunity and will bring out Sterling's Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man by Roger Sterling Jr in time for the Christmas stockings of the many fans of the series.

Mad Men, which is set in the New York advertising world of the 1960s, has won widespread acclaim including 13 Emmys, and made a celebrity out of its curvaceous star Christina Hendricks. Actor John Slattery plays the character of Sterling, the womanising founding partner at the firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, who has used his charm on many conquests, including secretary Joan Harris whom Hendricks plays.

Sterling has "acquired quite a reputation among his colleagues for his quips, barbs, and witticisms", says Grove/Atlantic, promising the character's "pithy comments and observations amount to a unique window on the advertising world as well as a commentary on life in New York City in the middle of the 20th century."

Grove publisher Morgan Entrekin is a friend of Keith Addis, who manages Mad Men creator Matt Weiner. Even before series four was broadcast, Addis told Entrekin that the then-fictional book would be featuring prominently in the upcoming drama. Entrekin pounced, getting Weiner himself to write the preface for the book, in the voice of his character.

Typical one-liners you'll find in Sterling's Gold include: "Remember, when God closes a door, he opens a dress" and, "Being with a client is like being in a marriage. Sometimes you get into it for the wrong reasons and eventually they hit you in the face."

(credit: the Guardian)

“The Simpsons” Explains Its Button-Pushing Banksy Opening

Following-up on yesterday’s extremely viral and controversial Banksy opening sequence for The Simpsons, The New York Times speaks with The Simpsons’ executive producer, Al Jean. Some interesting issues are brought including how The Simpsons tracked down Banksy, the authenticity of the animation and the potential repercussions involving The Simpsons’ network, Fox. A list of questions and answers can be seen below.

How did you find Banksy to do this, and now that it’s done, how much trouble are you in?

Well, I haven’t been fired yet, so that’s a good sign. I saw the film Banksy directed, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” and I thought, oh, we should see if he would do a main title for the show, a couch gag. So I asked Bonnie Pietila, our casting director, if she could locate him, because she had previously located people like Thomas Pynchon. And she did it through the producers of that film. We didn’t have any agenda. We said, “We’d like to see if you would do a couch gag.” So he sent back boards for pretty much what you saw.

Were you concerned that what he sent you could get the show into hot water?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it for a little bit. Certainly, Fox has been very gracious about us biting the hand that feeds us, but I showed it to Matt Groening, and he said, no, we should go for it and try to do it pretty much as close as we can to his original intention. So we did. Like we always do, every show is submitted to broadcast standards, and they had a couple of [changes] which I agreed with, for taste. But 95 percent of it is just the way he wanted.

Can you say what got cut out?

I’ll just say, it was even a little sadder. But I would have to say almost all of it stayed in. We were thrilled. It was funny, I watched “Mad Men” last night and I wondered if this was my Don Draper letter to The New York Times. I knew just how he felt. But it was great to have a secret.

One of the things Banksy is known for is disguising his identity. How can you be sure that you were dealing with the real him?

The original boards that we got from him were in his style and were certainly by an extremely proficient artist. We were dealing with the person that represented him making the movie. I haven’t met him, I don’t even know what he looks like, except what the Internet suggests. And he’s taken credit for it now so I’m pretty sure it’s him. We went through the people that made the movie so I assume they would know how to get to the real him.

Even compared to how “The Simpsons” has mocked Fox in the past, this seemed to push things to a different level. Are you sure there’s no one higher up than you on the corporate ladder who’s displeased with this?

I think that we should always be able to say the holes in our DVDs are poked by unhappy unicorns.

Has Banksy’s criticism made you reconsider any of the ways you do things at “The Simpsons” in terms of producing the show or its merchandise?

I have to say, it’s very fanciful, far-fetched. None of the things he depicts are true. That statement should be self-evident, but I will emphatically state it.

A lot of the show’s animation is produced in South Korea, but not under those conditions.

No, absolutely not.

And even that closing shot of the 20th Century Fox logo surrounded in barbed wire?

Approved by them. Obviously, the animation to do this was pricey. I couldn’t have just snuck it by Fox. I’ll just say it’s a place where edgy comedy can really thrive, as long as it’s funny, which I think this was. None of it’s personal. This is what made “The Simpsons” what it is.

(credit: New York Times)