HITS AND MRS.

Spotlight

Though as I write we are little more than halfway through Mad Men's fifth season, I feel perfectly confident saying it will be remembered as the season of Megan Draper. "Zou Bisou Bisou," her sexy and excruciating musical number from the season premiere, and "I love orange sherbet," her sarcastic, glucose-driven declaration of independence, have already taken their places on the shelf alongside other iconic moments from the series, the ones fans can conjure with shorthand—"tractor mower," "oysters," "Betty and the washing machine." And if you don't know what I'm talking about, there's no helping you. Go read about the Twilight girl.

Jessica Pare is the French-Canadian actress who plays French-Canadian Megan, the second Mrs. Don Draper (or third, depending on how you count). Pare, naturally, is a beauty—a tall, bony, slightly gawky beauty; Jacqueline Bisset, say, with undercurrents of Twiggy and Shelley Duvall. The show's costume designer, Janie Bryant, and its various directors have been having a swell time with Pare, dressing her up in mod minidresses and sending her leggy frame slinking and stalking through the halls of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce; you'd like to see what Stanley Donen could do with her.

Since Mad Men's creator, Matthew Weiner, keeps his cards close to his vest, even with his cast, Pare had no idea until shooting started that Megan would have such a big role in Season Five. "First of all," she says, "I didn't even know if I would be back. It seemed likely, given the way last year ended"— with Don's proposal—"but I kept telling everybody, All you have to do is open [the new season] on a closed casket and we're done with Megan." Not hardly. In fact, one could view the entire season as a pilot for Megan!, the variety-show spin-off I hope Weiner has up his sleeve.

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