Comedian Katt Williams jailed in Georgia over burglary

Walt Disney Studios President Mark Zoradi resigns

In a continued housecleaning at Walt Disney Co., studio distribution veteran Mark Zoradi is leaving the company after 29 years.

The departure of Zoradi, president of Disney's motion pictures group, follows the ousting of his former boss, Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook and Miramax Films President Daniel Battsek.

The studio is being remade under Cook's successor, Rich Ross, who was formerly president of Disney Channels Worldwide.

During his nearly three decades at the company, Zoradi worked in the television, home entertainment and film divisions, most recently overseeing worldwide marketing and distribution for pictures made under the Walt Disney Studios, Pixar Animation Studios and Disneynature banners.

This weekend, Zoradi received the Louis B. Mayer motion picture business leader of the year award from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

-- Claudia Eller and Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Mark Zoradi. Credit: National Assn. of Broadcasters

Sterling Coup: A terrific ending to 'Mad Men's' season

Below is a discussion of the Season 3 finale of "Mad Men," "Shut the Door. Have a Seat."

"It's a heist movie."

I often start off my "Mad Men" posts with great (and telling) quotes from the show, but not this time. The quote above came from my husband Dave when we were discussing the Season 3 finale of the AMC show.

When he said that, I thought, he's exactly right. Much of "Shut the Door. Have a Seat" could have been called "Draper's Eleven." The wardrobe and period details were of course perfect. The Rat Pack was nowhere in sight, but we saw a colorful, witty and creative crew pulling off a daring theft. What's not to love?

There were other elements to the episode, and of course I'll get to those, but the chugging narrative drive made "Shut the Door" a well-matched bookend to the Season 3 premiere, which had a lot of activity, shifting alliances and moving parts. The things set in motion by that season premiere -- actually, events set in motion in Season 2 when PPL bought Sterling Cooper -- all finally came to a head. With a heist.

In this case, it was a theft of advertising accounts and talent from the top ranks of Sterling Cooper. But it didn't really matter that they weren't blowing up a bank vault or pulling off a long con. A well-executed robbery by men and women in snazzy clothes is always going to be a possibly illegal amount of fun.

I could spend all night just writing down hilarious lines from the episode:

Connie: "Cooper will definitely be put on an ice floe." Bert: "We got tea!"Don: "Do you know how to do what he does?" Bert: "I don't!"Roger: "Join or die? Jesus, Bert, [Don] was doing better." Roger: "You going to read us your will? I want the Cadillac."Pete: "Am I getting a few more adjectives added to my title? Don't bother." Pete: "I'm not really sick."St. John: "You are fired for lack of character!: Lane Pryce: "Very good, Happy Christmas!" Pryce: "Nothing good ever came of seeking revenge." Bert: "Nonsense. We'll make you a partner." Roger: "Peggy, can you get me some coffee?" Peggy: "No." Joan: "Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, how can I help you?" Beat. "Yes, Harry, it's Room 435." And there were so many other little moments that I loved:
Pete realizing that maybe Harry didn't know what was going on and desperately trying to seem nonchalant in the elevator. Harry: "Why are you here?" Pete: "Uhhh. Work?" Harry's stunned stare after he was told the news of the Sterling Cooper coup  (a.k.a. the Sterling Coup). And Bert threatening to lock him in the storage closet. Pete walking out of the SC office with his infamous Season 1 rifle slung over his shoulder. Trudy fussing with a chip and dip platter in the Campbell's apartment. I know it wasn't the famous chip and dip that Pete returned after their wedding, but I still shouted "Chip and dip!" at the screen. St. John being revealed as a complete snake. The dutiful Pryce's revenge on him was a thing of beauty. Roger trying to stop Lane Pryce's name from being added to the firm's name. Hilarious. Someone had defaced the door of the Art Department so that it read Fart Department. In the cramped new temporary offices of SCDP, Don was doing his own typing and Pete and Peggy were sharing a desk. There was something about the way Don turned his head as he left Connie's suite, after Connie dumped him and told him to have a great holiday, that was just so perfectly suited to the moment. And how about the sardonic gleam in his eye as figured out Connie's game. "I get it now, Connie. It's business." OK, I can't just keep writing down things I found delicious or hilarious. I could be here all night (I'm not kidding). Suffice to say, if there's one thing "Mad Men" consistently does really well, it's office politics, and this was every bit as entertaining as Duck's attempted coup in Season 2. And as he did then, Don wriggled ever so neatly out of the trap that others had laid for him. Contract, schmontract.  

This was an episode of opening and closing doors, of endings and beginnings. And it was also about Don having to come clean -- or eat crow, depending on how you saw it. Don -- the island, the loner, the solitary man -- looked out at that improvised office near the end of the episode and he saw a family of sorts. The man who didn't need anyone realized he needed quite a few people, actually.  

Since the show began, Don's been longing for connection. But his need to hide his true self and his real identity precluded any real intimacy. Here he is, three years later, finding that these people are still in his life.

The look on his face in that moment was, like so many Don Draper looks, ambiguous. Does he fear the responsibility he's created for himself? Is he relieved that he has a support system? Is he excited about the possibilities for the future? Is he wishing that, instead of this improvised family, his actual family was still intact?

It's hard to know. This is a Don Draper who cannot still be fully truthful (he tried to sell Sally on the idea that his departure was temporary, but his pitch went about as badly as Bert Cooper's pitch to Roger). But he had to admit to himself and to these people that they were necessary to his life.

He spent this season trying to find a father figure (Connie), trying to find comfort in the arms of a welcoming maternal type (Miss Farrell), even trying to undo the wrongs he did to his own brother with Miss Farrell's sibling. All for naught -- all those people are out of his life now. His Sterling Coup family is all he has left.

He may have had to gild the lily here and there, but there were grains -- or huge chunks -- of truth in what he told every one of them.

He really does need Roger, a seasoned accounts man. Connie may have been a Macguffin this season -- the Hilton account was dangled in front of Don but it was snatched away again. (On the one hand, Don had every right to be ticked at Connie, who treated Don like a plaything to be cast aside when Connie was through with him. On the other hand, Don saying to Connie, "You come and go as you please…" Well, that's the pot calling the kettle black, Mr. Draper.)

But if there's a lasting lesson to be learned from the Connie affair, it's that Don can't be both a creative executive and an accounts man. He just doesn't have both skills, and he knows Roger can do the accounts thing in his sleep. And what's most telling about the conversation in Roger's office is that, for all his bluster and cynicism, you can tell that Roger wants their relationship to be "put back the way it was" (to use Don's words about buying SC).

I love these performances and this show because of tiny details like this: A look flits across Roger's face that tells you that he wants nothing more than for Don to need him -- and like him -- just a little bit. Same thing at the bar later: Roger just wants them to be buddies again, but he inadvertently screws that up just as they were getting back to normal.

Who knows where their relationship will go in the future: Don surely needs Roger, but Roger needs to be the Sun King, and hates admitting he needs Don's skills. If nothing else, I'm glad the show kept Roger around for his Superior Quipping Abilities (though Bert and even Pete gave Roger a run for his money in this episode).

For Pete, it must have been delicious to compel Don to praise him. And here's another reason I love this show: In Season 1, the words "Pete" and "weasel" were pretty much synonymous. But we've all noticed that Pete is often right about a lot of things. He does have insight into the future and he does have interesting ideas. Don and Roger absolutely need someone who is not trapped in the usual ways of thinking. Sterling Cooper was in a bit of a mess this season, and the same old way of doing business was not going to cut it. Pete had grown up, and he was the right man for the job. With Trudy by his side, he will probably go very far.

That's all well and good, but did Don and Roger want Pete because he could bring more clients over to the new firm? The most likely explanation lies in what Roger said to Pete -- they know Pete will do what it takes to get the job done. Despite having been born with the right name and having gone to the right schools, Pete's more desperate and cunning than Ken Cosgrove ever will be. Not that Ken doesn't have a great future in front of himself as a mid-level executive at McCann. Ken is one of those guys who will always do well in life. He's Don Draper with two-thirds of the intellect but all the self-loathing removed. He'll be fine.

As will Harry, but only because he stumbled into a job that will have him failing upward for decades. Actually "failing" may too strong a word for this moderately competent but unimaginative executive. Harry did have one good idea in his life -- to start a TV/media department at SC. He's been riding that idea ever since. And because he's the only guy the new partners know who knows how to do that job, he's got the gig at the new firm (of course Joan, if given the Head of Media job, would wipe the floor with Harry. Ah well).

But back to Don's Praise You tour. He needed Pete, he needed Roger, but he needed Peggy most of all.

Notice Don's demeanor the first time he speaks to Peggy. He barks for her to come into his office, he orders her to collect her accounts, he won't give her any relevant information, he assumes she'll join the new firm.

Don can really be a massive idiot sometimes.

Of course he's distracted by his family problems and by all the machinations at the office. But at some point, he did start treating Peggy like a piece of furniture or like an extension of himself (and if on some level he hates himself, why bother sparing Peggy that? Just as he had to take his abusive father's treatment, he assumes she can take it).

After he's been thrown out by his wife and had that gut-churning conversation with his confused kids, Don's demeanor is entirely different. He's reminded that what unites him and Peggy is their secret history of loss. He finally sees her as a person, not a servant or an errand girl. Good for Peggy for standing up for herself -- literally. She stood in her apartment, looming over Don as he had loomed over her when he read her the riot act earlier in the season. He was a jerk to her and he would have to pay with contrition.

I've talked a lot about the delicious office politics and other things I enjoyed about the episode, but there were, of course, more somber yet enthralling moments as well. In Peggy's apartment, I held my breath during the scene, as I wondered if she might make a break with Don once and for all. She didn't though, which is a good thing, because "Mad Men" without Peggy is not really something I could comprehend. But she's very much proven that she is (and I love this phrase) not Don's "nervous poodle."

But it's worth taking stock of who's where at this point:

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce staff:
Don DraperBert CooperRoger SterlingLane PrycePete CampbellPeggy OlsenJoan HarrisHarry Crane
In the wind:
Sal RomanoPaul KinseyKen Cosgrove(I'm assuming we won't be seeing much of characters such as Smitty, Kurt, Allison and Lois again in the future.) Much as I would hate to lose characters from this ensemble, I also recognize that it makes sense for the original SC crew to move on to new jobs and new opportunities. The character I want back most is Sal. But then, of the three characters from the old SC who appear to have been cut loose, Sal is the one most likely to be in Don's orbit in future. It's just speculation on my part, but in my head, Sal has reinvented himself as a freelance director of commercials, and maybe at some point the new firm will want to hire him for a job. Just not for a Lucky Strike ad.

Just as Don assembles and solidifies his Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce family, he loses Betty and the kids. And though the major explosions in Don and Betty's marriage came in the last few episodes, there were still a few gripping aftershocks in "Shut the Door."

The first shocker was Don finding out about Henry Francis (and having to find out about it from Roger -- Don, the man of secrets, not knowing Betty's biggest secret and having to find it out over cocktails from Roger. Ouch. That really stung.) Don finding that out was the ultimate death knell to the relationship. Don was willing to put up with the facade of a relationship -- or even try for a real relationship -- but only if Betty was "his." It's not an enlightened attitude (especially given Don's extravagant string of infidelities), but it's in keeping with the Don we've known, who was more interested in Betty as an accessory to his lifestyle than as a person.

In the midst of this painful breakup, we saw what I've taken to calling Dark Don. When he dragged Betty out of bed and called her a whore, the awfulness of the place Don was in was mesmerizing. Much as he hated the guy, Don/Dick learned from Archie -- he learned how not settle for the hand you've been dealt. But he also learned how to drink and how to treat others with contempt. That loathsome piece of Archie still resides somewhere in the deepest, darkest part of his son.

Again, I know I've already said this stuff a million times, but Jon Hamm does not hold back with this character. He's fully willing to show the ugliness that lives inside this handsome, dapper man. In Don's eyes in those moments, you could see the echoes of Archie. Don, in that moment, was actually the Dark Dick Whitman, an angry man who is not so different from his father. You could see that it took everything Don had not to start beating Betty. Gene's presence was probably the only thing saved her from that.

And then there was that scene with the kids. I was just transfixed by Sally's watchful brown eyes. She just kept looking from parent to parent, waiting for someone to tell her the truth. More effectively than anyone else has ever done, she called Don on his b.s. "You say things and you don't mean them! You can't just do that!"

Later, we see Sally once again in front of the TV, her comforter, her friend. Carla and the TV are the most stable forces in Sally's life. Truth be told, Carla being the biggest influence on Sally's life would not be a bad thing at all.

Later when Bobby was clinging to Don's body like a little monkey, unwilling to let go, holding on tight with every limb -- that was heartbreaking. I've gotten death-grip hugs like that from my son when I've left for a few days on business trips. I can't imagine what it would be like to extricate myself from that hug to walk out the door forever. Don's jettisoned a lot of his lies and a fair amount of his baggage this season, but he's going to carry the pain losing his family forever. That's a heavy burden, and one he largely brought on himself.

Archie died and left Dick fatherless and in desperate straits, just as Connie cut Don loose without barely a backward glance. And now Don has repeated the pattern by exiting his own marriage. Both Don and Betty made mistakes and have their share of flaws, but deep down Don knows he vowed to give his kids a better life than the one he had. Yet he's leaving them to grow up, as he did, fatherless.  

And motherless, at least temporarily. Is Betty really leaving her children for six weeks just before Christmas, just for a quick divorce? Honestly, what's the rush? I still don't quite know what she's doing with Henry, and I suspect he doesn't know how things got to this stage so quickly either. (I've restored this paragraph to its original form, after commenters noted that Betty would indeed have to reside in Reno for six weeks to get her divorce.)

And I have to admit that the end of the Draper marriage left me dissatisfied in some respects. After getting too much repetition of the "Betty's dissatisfied/Don's hiding secrets" home-front stuff in the first half of the season, a lot of the Betty story has felt rushed toward the end of the season. We see her suddenly in love with Henry Francis, and he with her -- based on a few conversations, a few kisses and a couple of stolen moments here and there. I still don't feel that that relationship was filled out enough or had enough depth or texture or substance to it.

I wrote last week that I could see how, in a world thrown into turmoil by the death of JFK, Betty might want someone more stable and truthful than Don. Yet I could not escape the feeling during "Shut the Door" that I never truly saw the reason for Betty's change of heart. On Halloween, Betty and Don were tentatively reconciled after he'd told her the truth. Then JFK dies, she sees Henry at a wedding and that's that -- the marriage is over? As Alan Sepinwall wrote here, I find myself wishing we'd seen more of the intervening steps -- the moments that led to Betty to decide to end her marriage.

So where does all this leave Don, as the Sixties really start to get underway? Connected to his job and his co-workers in ways he never was before. In that realm, he's captain of his own fate and yet he has responsibilities he didn't have when he was just a hot-shot creative executive.

But now he's without a family. Betty once said that without Don holding her down, she felt as though she'd float away (which is why she made sure that she had another man ready to support her as soon as her marriage to Don ended. Being on her own terrified her, and not just because she has three kids. All Betty's known is being taken care of, and she's not quite ready to step out of that dependent role yet.)

So is Don the one who will float away without his family, without his kids, without that house in Ossining to go to?

That's the biggest change as the show goes forward. On the work front, things are, in some ways, back to the way they were. Though I loved every delicious minute that this episode spent in the SC offices, what we saw here was "Mad Men," in one sense, hitting the reset button.

When the show began, it was about an advertising firm, and at that firm were Bert, Roger, Joan, Don, Harry, Pete and Peggy (among others). Season 3 ends with the creation of a firm that employs that same crew, though of course there have been some significant changes.

Don's name is now on the door, and he's now on an equal footing with Bert and Roger. Pryce is now a player (and I hope Jared Harris continues on the show, he has fit in seamlessly with the show's cast). Peggy is a respected member of the team (though I suspect that, on occasion, some clod will ask her fetch coffee for the next decade or two). Joan's in more or less the same position -- office manager -- and let's hope that she ditches her idiot husband a.s.a.p. Or that he steps on a land mine in Vietnam.

Pete got what he always wanted -- he's head of accounts. Harry will likely continue on as he always has, keeping his head down, bumbling along and hoping not to get fired. And Roger may think he's a happily married man, but he married a child, and being around the fabulous Joan every day may get him to recognize what he truly has in that relationship. He may be too much of a child himself to want someone as assertive and strong as Joan, but what can I say? I just love seeing those two together.  

But all those changes are relatively minor compared with the end of the Draper marriage. Don and Betty are no longer the perfect couple on the top of the wedding cake. They're done for good -- or at least I hope it's for good. As I said last week, I don't want any more go-rounds for these two. The show has used their breakups as the source of tension enough times, and now "Mad Men" appears to be letting go of the Don and Betty relationship once and for all. That's fine by me. It's time to move on.

Not that I'm ready for the season to be over. Far from it. I may have my quibbles and beefs with "Mad Men" here and there, but holy cow, there have also been some exceptional episodes and performances this season. It's almost 3 a.m. -- in the wee small hours -- and I can't begin to sum everything I think and feel about the show and this finale. But I'm over 3,000 words now, so it's time to wrap it up and just say, wow, what a great capper to the season.

Fellow "Mad Men" fans, I hope you got everything you wanted. And thanks for the weekly gabfests about the show. Leave your thoughts about the finale below, and thanks for your interest and insight all season. Even if I don't respond to every comment, you can be sure that I read every single one. (Note: There may be a lag time between when you post your comment and when you see it appear. Comments posted at night usually won't appear until morning.)

Cheers 'til Season 4!

Sponsored Link: Amazon's Mad Men Store

Comedian Katt Williams jailed in Georgia over burglary
Williams, who police say is 38, is charged with burglary and criminal trespassing, according to Coweta County Sheriff's Office Major James Yarbrough.

Tina Brown's 'Beast'-ly Reading List: Nov. 10 Edition

Host Steve Inskeep invites the editor of The Daily Beast back into the NPR studios for another installment of Word of Mouth. Brown's picks this week: articles on a budding media celebrity, on the possibility of "fuzzy math" in foreign policy, and on whether the Internet is killing storytelling. Plus: the "raw and compelling" story of a Harlem girl.