MadMenSeasonThree

Don't you just love it when life sort of imitates art?

Jon Hamm, who plays the chain smoking Don Draper on TV's 'Mad Men,' has been hired by Mercedes Benz as a pitchman for their car commercials, which will premiere during the Academy Awards.

This means, of course, that Mr. Hamm will replace actor Richard Thomas who has done the voiceover for Mercedes' car commercials for the last four years. Good night Jon-Boy.

The company's marketing VP Stephen Cannon called Hamm "a hot actor." That must have been one awkward audition.

Despite the mainstream audience acceptance of such openly gay performers as Neil Patrick Harris, Ian McKellen, and Ellen DeGeneres, some Hollywood power brokers still feel that TV and movie audiences won't accept gay performers in straight roles.

That was made clear on Wednesday when 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner, speaking on a Hollywood panel, said, "Let's not pretend" that gay actors who come out of the closet aren't risking a future of gay typecasting, according to Greg in Hollywood blogger Greg Hernandez.