Marc

The men from 'Mad Men' are very busy these days. You have Jon Hamm all over the place, with beard and without, not to mention he and John Slattery being immortalized by Mattel as action figures. Action figures sound more manly than dolls, but you get the picture. The other night Rich Sommer was on 'Ugly Betty' as loutish firefighter.

And now the news that Bryan Batt will be on 'Ugly Betty,' too. TVGuide.com confirms that Bryan -- who was so good on 'Mad Men' as Salvatore Romano -- will be playing a soap opera star who Amanda decides would be Mr. Right for Marc. She plays Yenta, the Matchmaker, and hopefully, the two guys will hit it off. Batt's set for the April 7 episode, and may be in the series finale as well.

(S01E16) To quote Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill and as The Chin on Ugly Betty, "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Tonight's theme - "it's complicated." I ended my review last week by saying this, but I think it bears repeating. Watching good TV can be an emotionally masochistic endeavor. One of the first lessons you learn in "how to be a TV writer" class is to put the screws to your characters. This lesson is often phrased as, "Give the audience what they want, and then take it away." This week's episode was all about giving us what we wanted and taking it away. Betty opens up to Henry about her feelings for him. Done. Christina catches a break. Done. Alexis gets to feel a little human connection post-op. Done. Justin gets to see Hairspray. Done. Hope you enjoyed it because now those cruel, cruel writers are going to make us regret that we ever wanted those things to happen in the first place.

Acting is a funny business; one day, you're anonymously playing a waiter or waitress in a silly commercial, and the next day, you have a major supporting role in a new hit series. The interesting part is when the struggling and non-struggling phases of that actor's life collide on the screen, and you begin to recognize the actors in those previously-anonymous bit parts.

Many people have already noticed that Becki Newton, who plays the mean-but-vulnerable receptionist Amanda on Ugly Betty, plays a waitress on an Olive Garden commercial that's currently in pretty heavy rotation across the dial (heck, the ad was shown during a Betty episode where Newton played both Amanda and a Betty look-alike). But, did you know that Michael Urie, who plays Marc, Amanda's partner in cattiness, also played a waiter in an ad?

An explanation, and the video of Becki's Olive Garden ad, is after the jump.