It’s that time of the week again — it’s time to check out news that I have skillfully plucked from my Facebook and Twitter feed. Enjoy.

The 4th season of Mad Men was last night and tons of people were all giddy (including myself). Twitter exploded with OMGs and Facebook statuses were flooded with praise for Don Draper’s prickish ways (not to mention his desire to be slapped while being boinked by a hooker).

My personal favorite part of the premiere was when Betty Draper shoved sweet potatoes into Sally Draper’s mouth. She, like an adorable disobedient child, spits it out in front of a table full of her new family.

This is the primary example of Betty Draper’s superb parenting skills. Thanks to NYMag.com, we get to see these awesome skills in a video montage:

I think all parents could learn something from her.

Jon Hamm and his beard (left) and Jennifer Westfeldt arrive at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Did all the men of Hollywood caucus and decide that they were all going to grow beards for awards season? It’s almost like the Lifetime’s The Pregnancy Pact but with beards (Damn! I forgot to DVR that maternal made-for-TV masterpiece!).

I took the liberty to make a slideshow of some of the wonderful beards we saw tonight at SAG.

Before we know it, there will be a beard pandemic.

Enjoy.

P.S. Doesn’t Brad (as in Pitt) have one too? He wasn’t at the SAG Awards so I couldn’t fold him into the group. Maybe he couldn’t go because he shaved his off.

That said, here is a complete list of the winners (thanks Comingsoon.net) and, of course, my two cents about who won.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Winner: Avatar (20th Century Fox)
The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment)
Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company)
Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (Lionsgate)
Up in the Air (Paramount Pictures)

Despite the fact that they took out the hot and heavy blue sex scene in Avatar, it won best picture. My vote was for Up in the Air. Avatar was all about freaky blue people and although it was a great movie-going experience, it is flaccid when it comes to emotional connection. In other words, it was eyegasmic – and everyone loves a good eyegasm.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
**Winner** Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

I wanted Gabby to take this one, but I think Sandra was a good choice. She reached a broader audience and I have a feeling this trophy was based on seniority.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
**Winner** Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Tobey Maguire – Brothers

Have yet to see Crazy Heart, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. I’ve seen all the other movies that were nominated and out of those, Firth had my vote – mainly because his glasses in A Single Man has become a staple in my wardrobe (and my header).

BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
**Winner** The Hangover (Warner Bros. Pictures)
(500) Days of Summer (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
It’s Complicated (Universal Pictures)
Julie & Julia (Columbia Pictures)
Nine (The Weinstein Company)

No qualms here. The Hangover was brilliant. Second to that was (500) Days of Summer. I don’t know why Nine was on here.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
**Winner** Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock – The Proposal
Marion Cotillard – Nine
Julia Roberts – Duplicity
Meryl Streep – It’s Complicated

Duplicity? I forgot that movie came out this year.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
**Winner** Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes
Matt Damon – The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis – Nine
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg – A Serious Man

Halfheartedly agree. I love Robert Downey Jr., but Sherlock Holmes I only liked. He has done better. I think I would’ve preferred Matt for this one – and based on his hilarious acceptance speech, I think Downey would’ve too.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
**Winner** Up (Disney•Pixar)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony Pictures Animation)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Coraline (Focus Features)
The Princess and the Frog (Walt Disney Pictures)

Perfect choice – but Fantastic Mr. Fox would’ve been perfect too.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
*Winner** The White Ribbon (Germany)
Baaria (Italy)
Broken Embraces (Spain)
The Maid (Chile)
A Prophet (France)

Missed a screening for The White Ribbon a couple months back. Now I am kicking myself.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
**Winner** Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Julianne Moore – A Single Man

I may be Team Anna, but Mo’Nique broke it down in Precious.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
**Winner** Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones

There’s not complaints in this department. All performances from the nominees were great but Waltz was an enjoyable asshole in Inglourious Basterds.

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
**Winner** James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Clint Eastwood – Invictus
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Bigelow was kinda robbed on this. Sure, Avatar is a great movie-going experience, but The Hurt Locker was just so poignant. And P.S. – Cameron’s hairdo was George Washington-chic.

BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
**Winner** Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner – Up in the Air
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell – District 9
Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers – It’s Complicated
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Did you not read my post on Reitman?

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
**Winner** Michael Giacchino – Up
Marvin Hamlisch – The Informant!
James Horner – Avatar
Abel Korzeniowski – A Single Man
Karen O and Carter Burwell – Where the Wild Things Are

Loved Karen O and Carter Burwell’s work on WTWTA, but I guess the music of Up was just so darn heartwarming.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
**Winner** “The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)”; Music & Lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett – Crazy Heart
“Cinema Italiano”; Mysic & Lyrics by Mary Yeston – Nine
“I Want to Come Home”; Music & Lyrics by Paul McCartney – Everybody’s Fine
“I Will See You”; Music by James Horner and Simon Franglen, Lyrics by James Horner, Sion Franglen and Kuk Harrell – Avatar
“Winter”; Music by U2, Lyrics by Bono – Brothers

Again, I didn’t see Crazy Heart so I can’t say much about that. However, “Cinema Italiano” was probably one of the only good things to come out of Nine.

BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
**Winner** “Mad Men” (AMC)
“Big Love” (HBO)
“Dexter” (Showtime)
“House” (Fox)
“True Blood” (HBO)

Was there any other competition?

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
**Winner** Julianna Margulies – “The Good Wife”
Glenn Close – “Damages”
January Jones – “Mad Men”
Anna Paquin – “True Blood”
Kyra Sedgwick – “The Closer”

Don’t watch The Good Wife, but it must be good of Julianna beat out the cold, robotic glaze of Betty Draper.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
**Winner** Michael C. Hall – “Dexter”
Simon Baker – “The Mentalist”
Jon Hamm – “Mad Men”
Hugh Laurie – “House”
Bill Paxton – “Big Love”

Dexter is another show that I should be watching.

BEST TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
**Winner** “Glee” (Fox)
“30 Rock” (NBC)
“Entourage” (HBO)
“Modern Family” (ABC)
“The Office” (NBC)

I was so excited when they won that I peed in my pants.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
**Winner** Toni Collette – “United States of Tara”
Courteney Cox – “Cougar Town”
Edie Falco – “Nurse Jackie”
Tina Fey – “30 Rock”
Lea Michele – “Glee”

Love the show. Love Toni.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
**Winner** Alec Baldwin – “30 Rock”
Steve Carell – “The Office”
David Duchovny – “Californication”
Thomas Jane – “Hung”
Matthew Morrison – “Glee”

I keep up more with The Office, so I would’ve liked to see Michael Scott take the Globe home.

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
**Winner** “Grey Gardens” (HBO)
“Georgia O’Keeffe” (Lifetime Television)
“Into the Storm” (HBO)
“Little Dorrit” (PBS)
“Taking Chance” (HBO)

No other made-for-TV movie made me laugh so hard and then kind of feel guilty afterward.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
**Winner** Drew Barrymore – “Grey Gardens”
Joan Allen – “Georgia O’Keeffe”
Jessica Lange – “Grey Gardens”
Anna Paquin – “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler”
Sigourney Weaver – “Prayers for Bobby”

Simply magical.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
**Winner** Kevin Bacon – “Taking Chance”
Kenneth Branagh – “Wallander: One Step Behind”
Chiwetel Ejiofor – “Endgame”
Brendan Gleeson – “Into the Storm”
Jeremy Irons – “Georgia O’Keeffe”

Ummmm. Didn’t watch any of these.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
**Winner** Chloe Sevigny – “Big Love”
Jane Adams – “Hung”
Rose Byrne – “Damages”
Jane Lynch – “Glee”
Janet McTeer – “Into the Storm”

Chloe is cool, but it would’v been AWESOME to see Jane Lynch walk away with an acting trophy for Glee.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
**Winner** John Lithgow – “Dexter”
Michael Emerson – “Lost”
Neil Patrick Harris – “How I Met Your Mother”
William Hurt – “Damages”
Jeremy Piven – “Entourage”

Again, I need to watch Dexter – but since I don’t, I wanted NPH to win.

No surprise here…and I say that in the most non-assholish kind of way.

Consider their fellow nominees “Drapered”.

* This week’s episode of Glee offends the disabled…

* …but Defying Gravity still happily plays on repeat in my head.

* Mad Men had its super-poignant and orgasmically emotional season finale. Now my Sundays are empty and lonely.

* Luckily, January Jones will be hosting SNL tomorrow in an attempt to fill that void.

*Carrie Prejean digs herself into a bigger moron hole not once…

* …but twice!

* Minnie Driver is set to join the cast of Modern Family – the best show you probably aren’t watching.

* The latest protest fad in San Francisco: Hotel workers.

* 50-cent promotes his fragrance at Macy’s in SF. So that’s where he’s been all this time!

* Liu Wen becomes the first Asian Victoria’s Secret model. It’s about damn time.

* Emanuel Ungaro calls Lindsay Lohan’s collection a disaster. Is he just now realizing this?

* Speaking of disaster, Ashlee Simpson thinks she can be fashion designer.

* Meanwhile, in the world of real fashion designers, Jason Wu is set to design a capsule collection for TSE.

* First thing on my Christmas wishlist: Martin Margiela Chunky Jumper

* One word to describe Esquire’s augmented reality issue: Awesome.

* Madonna is the new face for Dolce & Gabbana because she needs to earn more money somehow.

Sure, there was divorce, rogue corporate splintering and the return of the almighty Joan. Also, as I stated in my tweet earlier:

I foresee Betty Draper burning her bra, growing dreads and becoming a lesbian in the not too distant future.

But the one question that I’m sure has been boiling in everyone’s mind is about one of the small, yet important recurring characters: Conrad Hilton (played by Chelcie Ross).

Yes, I know Conrad Hilton is a factual person, but I can’t help but wonder: Conrad? Hilton? Lauren Conrad? Paris Hilton?

Sure, Paris is a descendant of Conrad, but still – is it coincidental? Creepy? Spooky? Or am I just trying to get hits on my blog by writing an asinine post about Mad Men shortly after the finale aired?

I think I answered my own question.

- Mad Men on Sunday nights gives me reason to live.

- …that and Ted Danson as the stoned and delusional editor George Christopher in Bored to Death.

- …perhaps Danson was stoned in real-life when he signed up for the Three Men and a Baby sequel.

- Yankees win the World Series. No, I don’t watch baseball.

- Hamish Bowles. The great outdoors. Bear poop. Discuss.

- Taylor Swift poses with a man in a swastika. If she really wanted to alienate her Jewish fans, I am sure there are more PC ways to do that.

- Levi Johnston wants people to stop caring about his Tweets. I was many, many, many, many steps ahead of this request.

- If you can’t afford Gucci, maybe you can afford the next best thing: a Gucci iPhone app.

- Rue McClanahan cancels her Castro appearance. In turn, the SFPD riot squad is on standby.

- Harputs Market on Geary has a sale. I go broke.

- Natalie Portman + V Magazine = delicious.

That was the main focus of my conversation with Bryan Batt, the gentleman who portrays the not-so-ambiguously gay Salvatore Romano on Mad Men.

Bryan Batt as Salvatore in Mad Men

Okay, underwear models weren’t really the main focus. But it was mentioned about five or six times.

Last week, while at Macy’s Passport, I was about to sip some tomato soup out of a cup when I have someone tap me on the shoulder and hear the words, “Dino, are you ready? Bryan is available for an interview right now.”

There was a sense of urgency (as always) at an event like Passport. I thoroughly enjoy attending this event every year to see what sort of spectacle they have in store for us (click here to read more about the show). This year, Mr. Batt was serving as the host of the show and Mehcad Brooks from True Blood was about to strut his stuff down the runway as a guest model.

As I entered the mainstage, still craving my espresso cup of tomato soup, I was introduced to Mr. Batt (keep in mind, this was before Mad Men won at the Emmys). He was full of excitement and talking a mile a minute. He was even exhausting me. I swear, I think I was starting to sweat because he had so much energy. I felt like I was going to explode.

So I asked him my first question, “What are you looking forward – ” immediately he said, “Underwear models, are you kidding me?” His infectious chuckle had the personality of a non-annoying gameshow host – endearing and genuine.

As the longest-running HIV/AIDS event of its kind, Macy’s Passport has collected over $28 million for services, prevention, and research and Batt knows it’s more than just about underwear models.

“I’ve been working for (causes) that deal with AIDS and HIV for years,” says Batt. “I do what I have to do. I think anything that could reach out or gets the message out. This disease has been around for too long. However we can get the message out is great.”

Passport is part concert, part dance performance and part fashion show – and Batt was all about the fashion part.

“I’m wearing a Hugo Boss suit,” he laughs during mid–sentence. “I had to fit that into the interview.”

Considering he is from such an iconic show that has been a template of pop culture style (I’m talking about Mad Men in case you haven’t been paying attention), it was interesting to see his take on how the show influenced the world of fashion.

“I think that the ladylike look was coming back before Mad Men,” says Batt. “The show just clenched it. Narrow ties were even coming back before the show. The pendulum was there. Mad Men just helped it swing.”

I wrapped the interview because I was hungry and I knew my espresso cup of tomato soup was waiting outside in the reception area decorated like a farmer’s market complete with a folksy band.

Actually, I would’ve talked more but Mr. Batt was busy.

Bryan Batt, underwear models and tomato soup: what a night.