Wednesday Word: Bryan Batt

From TV Guide:

One Less Man on Mad Men
by William Keck January 25, 2010 12:52 PM EST

When the Sterling Cooper ad agency regrouped at the end of last season, Salvatore Romano was the one ... character not called back to work—a direct result of the colorful character’s uncloseted homosexuality. Now with the shooting of Season 4 set to begin in March, Bryan Batt is worried that he’s out of a job. “I was supposed to be notified by December 31, and nothing,” says the actor.

It sounds as though Bryan’s concerns are warranted. “We don’t murder people on our show, but for there to be any stakes, there have to be consequences,” says creator Matthew Weiner, a former Sopranos scribe who has killed at will. Losing Bryan, he says, “was a tough moment for the show, but that’s where we are. I know how people felt about Bryan. I obviously love working with him, and he has been an indelible character since the pilot. But I felt it was an expression of the times that he couldn’t work there anymore. It’s the ultimate case of sexual harassment.”




Of course, it makes sense that in the world of 1963 that Sal would be let go. [However, there are other burgeoning elements in that era where the character might have found life.] How is it, nevertheless, that an out actor like Batt gets treated in much the same way as his character?




Main Entry: 1mad
Pronunciation: \ˈmad\
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): mad·der; mad·dest
Etymology: Middle English medd, madd, from Old English gemǣd, past participle of *gemǣdan to madden, from gemād silly, mad; akin to Old High German gimeit foolish, crazy
Date: before 12th century
1 : disordered in mind : insane
2 a : completely unrestrained by reason and judgment b : incapable of being explained or accounted for as in, a mad decision
3 : carried away by intense anger : furious
4 : carried away by enthusiasm or desire
5 : affected with rabies : rabid
6 : marked by wild gaiety and merriment : hilarious
7 : intensely excited : frantic
8 : marked by intense and often chaotic activity : wild