Bryan Batt plays creative director Salvatore Romano on AMC's Mad Men, and he's emerged as one of the show's most unambiguously sympathetic characters. A talented and expressive professional, he's also a deeply closeted gay man in an era and culture that keeps him very much on the down low -- even to himself. Fans were shocked when Sal was abruptly fired from ad agency Sterling Cooper after rejecting the advances of an amorous client, and his future on the show remains cloudy. Batt's prospects, however, have rarely looked rosier, as he enjoys both critical acclaim and domestic success with his New Orleans decor boutique, Hazelnut (co-owned with Batt's partner of many years Tom Cianfichi). Batt talks with us about his ideal return to Mad Men, hunky National Guardsmen making the best of Hurricane Katrina, and getting dressed to the nines.

Something struck me about the fine sci-fi romp District 9 when I finally caught it the other day -- that being just how sympathetic the aliens are. Not just in terms of their social situation as oppressed minorities under the thumb of human thugs et cetera, but just viscerally and visually. Which is odd, considering they are basically giant bugs, and bugs disgust me; the aliens are referred to pejoratively as "prawns" by the humans in the movie. Part of the aliens' believability comes from excellent CGI effects and movement work, but there's another factor. Despite having a bug face with constantly writhing mouth parts, the aliens also have a big ol' pair of soulful human eyeballs. Not much chance of that happening in evolutionary terms for an insectoid race, but screw verisimilitude. This is about getting relatable, and movie aliens have been copping man-eyes for decades in order to connect with human audiences.

We did this for a show! So true. When you prove just how stupid and gullible our culture has become by attracting a record-shattering international television audience with an initially heart-rending but ultimately ludicrous sideshow, you'll go to jail. And after that, we're going to put you back on TV. The Heene family may be about to surrender to authorities, and they may be convicted of a crime (probably a misdemeanor, as felony conspiracy will be difficult to prove). But after the legal smoke clears, you can rest assured that the Heenes will get the TV show they've always wanted. Skeptical? Then ask yourself this question -- who's the more repellant criminal, balloon-boy dad Richard Heene or canine-combat enthusiast Michael Vick?

Elisabeth Moss is a smoldering star on AMC's Mad Men, which happens to be a universe thickly populated with slow burners. As Peggy Olson, Moss fist came across as a clueless naïf in the high-flying world of Madison Avenue in the early 1960s. However, though she seemed like a true tabula rasa in office assistant form, her opaque persona concealed a calculating and at times ruthless ambition. Peggy serves as both foil and reflection for Jon Hamm's Don Draper, and the two embody one of the most nuanced male-female relationships on television within one of the most creatively complex shows on television. On the heels of her own Emmy nomination for best lead actress in a drama -- among 16 other nominations for Mad Men -- Moss talks about awards, life on a "small" show, her devotion to Urban Outfitters, and that thing with Don Draper.

Before the heavens opened and deluged New York morning, I had a chance to stroll the section of the High Line elevated parkway that opened yesterday. The former rail line has become the poster child for successful urban-space reclamation, spawning a frenzy of celeb endorsements, media affection, and commercial partnerships. This morning, on its first official full day, there was almost nobody there at 7:30am except various solitary, wandering photobloggers. I assume they were bloggers rather than just regular photographers, since who but someone desperate to get pics online quick would bother to shoot on a dim, washed-out overcast morning?

What was once Guy's in West Hollywood has been reborn as the glitzy Guys & Dolls. Hit the jump for a larger view, and check our listing for a plethora of pics.

Take a gander at Avenue, the new lounge from the Marquee boys. It's quite the swank room, so figure you'll make it past the door sometime in 2011. Hit the jump for the full view.

On AMC's black-dramedy hit Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul plays Jesse Pinkman, the junior partner to Bryan Cranston's meth-brewing high-school teacher. The two have a contentious relationship to say the least, and yet even as dollars and bodies pile up in equal measure around them, the two manage to maintain a frenetically charged connection that's riveting to watch. As the second season winds to a close, it's becoming very clear that while everyone breaks to a different degree, you can always go from bad to worse -- and barely notice until it's too late. While doing a victory lap around New York's media circuit, Paul stopped by to talk about almost getting killed, the genius of writer/director Vince Gilligan, and meth-head fans loitering outside of the Vogue offices.

After the company's IPO yesterday, online restaurant reservation service OpenTable's shares are down a bit from yesterday's high of $35.50 a pop. At its peak, the company was valuated at about $700 million, making it the best first-day showing in the US for the past year and a half. Time to open up those wallets again, you venture capitalists -- there's gold in them there internets. To put it another way, that means each of OpenTable's 10,000 restaurant customers is worth about $70,000.

"Let me tell you a story," says Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman of Dubai Tourism during our roundtable conversation. "A French journalist, I think he was from Nice, came to Dubai with his family. But he forgot to renew his passport. At the Dubai airport, they told him, we're sorry but your passport has expired, you cannot come in. His family is here, they're on holiday, they're waiting, he calls us in the tourism department, and we make it OK for him to come in to Dubai. He is so happy, so grateful, he calls us and says he's going to tell all his friends back in Europe, 'Come to Dubai, and they will teach you about human rights!'"