TVSquad

(S03E08) "You don't kiss boys, boys kiss you." - Betty, to Sally

I think my favorite episodes of Mad Men are the ones that have a nice balance of Draper household drama and Sterling Cooper advertising drama. It seemed that this episode was going to tilt a lot - too much - towards the former, but about 20 minutes in, both worlds came together in unexpected ways -- Betty going on the business trip to Rome with Don and Pete running into ... well, someone at the department store. We'll talk about that more after the jump.

Some actors from The Sopranos have won awards, Emmys, Golden Globes, et. al. At least one has achieved another kind of infamy. Federico Castelluccio, who played the Italian hit man Furio, has sold a painting inspired by the show for $175,000. The image, a variation on the famous 15th century dual portrait, Duke and Duchess of Urbino, is called The Duke and Duchess of North Caldwell. That would be Tony and Carmela Soprano of Caldwell, New Jersey.

Federico, who has no less that eight film roles to his credit for release this year, doesn't need to paint to pay the rent. He paints because he's an artist and -- clearly -- a good one. This original work was created after his appearance on the show. As Furio Giunta, the Italian made the mistake of becoming a wee bit too enamored with his boss's wife. Rather than stay in Jersey and potentially have an affair with Carmela, Furio returned to Italy and never came back -- as far as we know. David Chase may have a whole other story that was written and never filmed involving Furio. Chase is funny that way.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily: Reality TV is taking over!

• China's super-strict, guys-only version of American Idol debuts next month.
  
• Italy's new reality show has Italian mamma's picking brides for their sons, who are afflicted with too many girlfriends.
  
• American Idol's songwriting contest is back on, so the winner's first single might actually be good this time!
  

The video's embedded below, or you can download the file directly (Quicktime required). You can also subscribe to this podcast via our feed.

This is an interesting bit of yin yang for y'all*:

It seems that all the reasons given by Claudio Petruccioli, president of the Italian state broadcaster RAI, not to have reality programming on his channel are the exact reasons why American broadcasters want to have more reality programming:

• "unreasonable if not degrading behaviour"
• "[putting] people into environments that are both unrealistic and coercive"

Funny series of screen caps over at TV Newser. I guess MSNBC went "Breaking News" crazy over the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes wedding, and actually had a whole series of neverending stories at the bottom of their screen all day long. Hopefully they covered other news that day too.

Did they cover other celebrity stories like this too? "Breaking News: Bob Barker to retire," or "Breaking News: Ben Affleck buys a Mocha Frappucino at L.A. Starbucks."

Maybe - maybe - they could have had one "Breaking News" report at the bottom of the screen, when the couple were actually married. But did they actually have to go add "Breaking News: Tom Cruise arrives at castle" or "Breaking News: Ex Penelope Cruz sends white roses"? Jeez. They could have had a bunch more. "Breaking News: MSNBC puts up a Breaking News logo about Tom/Kate wedding" and "Breaking News: Jennifer Lopez and Brooke Shields among invited guests."

Oh, wait, they actually did have that last one.

No, no, no, not as a contestant, though wouldn't that be a twist?

No, actually, the producers of the current version of the show have wanted the Pope involved in the project since the beginning, since the show features an Italian Prince. Producer Mike Fleiss thinks it would be cool if Prince Borghese could talk to the Pope before handing out to the woman he's going to leave in six months once the hype for the show is over who he will live with forever and ever.

Somehow I don't see this happening.

Fleiss has even put in a request to the Vatican. But it all depends on the Pope's schedule. He's already slated to be on MTV's Total Request Live, so he might not be able to make it.

ABC's latest Bachelor candidate is starting to sound a little slimy. Sure, Lorenzo Borghese is a member of Italy's royal family who grew up in the United States. But apparently he couldn't speak a lick of Italian so the producers signed him up for an intensive Italian course before the show started, according to Radar online. And, even though his bio says he was raised in Connecticut, Radar can only find addresses for his family in New Jersey, dating back to 1979. Plus, the Radar reporters say there's no way Rome is Lorenzo's "second home", as he claims in the promos. Members of the Borghese family in Rome say the prince has never come to their city. And, quite frankly, they're embarrassed that he's doing the show as a member of the family.

[Via TV Tattle]

A movie created through a partnership between HBO and RAI, the Italian state broadcaster about Albert Einstein may feature Sean Penn playing the role of the acclaimed physicist. Penn has apparently expressed interest in both the script and in working with Italian director Liliana Cavani. The TV movie is obviously still in the early stages, so who knows what to expect, but I can easily picture Penn playing this role. The kid's got range, I'm telling you. Hopefully he can affect a decent German accent, too, or at the very least grasp the concept of an accelerating universe. What do you folks think? Could Penn handle this role? Who else would make a good Einstein?

The last weekend in June is apparently a good time to get married if you're a celebrity. All the focus was on Nicole and Keith down in Australia while television stars Marcia Cross and Patricia Arquette quietly married. Arquette and her longtime boyfriend, actor Thomas Jane, married in Italy over the weekend. A rep for Arquette tells People magazine that it was a small affair with close family but didn't elaborate on whether that included David Arquette and Courtney Cox-Arquette (probably, eh?). Arquette and Jane have a 3-year-old daughter, Harlow Olivia Calliope, together. Previously, Arquette was married to Nicolas Cage.

The Olympics are obviously coming to an end. NBC is the only channel airing Olympic coverage today and it's devoting much of that coverage to two Olympians who have been hyped but have yet to win a gold medal.

Apolo Anton Ohno has two sprints, in the 500m and the men's relay races on the short track. So far during these games, Apolo has won a bronze medal.

Also, we may finally hear the last of Bode Miller after he races in the slalom:

Whatever will we do now that the figure skating competition is over? Oh, nevermind. There's the Champions Gala tonight where nobody is expected to fall (or win).

Actual competition continues on NBC in the form of speed skating, a six-mile marathon race that features American Chad Hedrick. Also, the women compete in the alpine giant slalom and four men climb into a bobsled and race down an icy track at break-neck speeds. Plus, more curling!

Check it out:

Tonight is the night that NBC has been waiting for: the gold medal showdown in ladies' figure skating. American Sasha Cohen enters tonight's free skate on top, but by only .06 of a point over Russian Irinia Slutskaya. Expect to stay up until midnight for the outcome of that competition (or you can get the results from any news website).

Also tonight, to fill the time between figure skating competitors, the women snowboarders compete in the parallel giant slalom. Curling, hockey, bobsledding and marathon speed skating are also on the schedule:

While NBC is focusing on speed skating and alpine skiing today, the real action is on its other networks, MSNBC and USA, where you can watch live hockey games all day long. The American men will play Finland in the quarterfinals at 11:30 this morning. Also, the American men's curling team is in the semifinal game against Canada. It airs on CNBC at 5 pm.

No figure skating tonight but the ladies will be back Thursday to determine the gold.

Here's the schedule:

The event that usually garners the most talk is women's figure skating, and it begins tonight with the short program. With Michelle Kwan out of the competition due to injuries, American skater Sasha Cohen gets the spotlight. And, Emily Hughes, the younger sister of 2002 Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes, will also hit the ice. No pressure, Emily. Despite all the excitement over Sasha's modeling contracts and Emily's famous sister, Russian skater Irina Slutskaya is still favored for gold.

Also on the ice tonight, speed skaters Chad Hedrick, Shani Davis, Joey Cheek and Derek Parra race each other in the 1500m. Hedrick, Davis, and Cheek have all won gold medals so far in these games.

Here's the schedule on all of NBC's networks:

Three nights of ice dancing? No wonder ratings are down for the Olympics. Tonight promises to be the final night of ice dancing, with the free skate. Americans Tanith Belbin and and Ben Agosto are in second place, thanks to some falls by the top teams yesterday.

Big-mouthed Bode Miller is back on the slopes, this time in the Giant Slalom. The real talent here, still flying under the radar even after winning a gold medal, is Park City's Ted Ligety. And a cool spectacle tonight will be the men's aerials ski competition.

And, after all these days of hockey, the women of Canada and Sweden will play each other for the gold.

Here's the schedule on all of NBC's networks: