SPOILERS for last night’s Mad Men finale.

In the end, no one had to die. The core cast – Don Draper, Peggy Olsen, Joan, Roger, Pete – all survived the 1960s. Some of them had thrived, some had learned their hard lessons and moved along, and some came limping into the 1970s, broken. I really thought Don would have to die. I thought his story would bring him back to New York in the final moments, perhaps only to reunite with Betty (who clearly will die, but thankfully did not die within the finale). So, what really happened?

Betty & the Draper children. Look, they finally gave Bobby some lines! I hate that they kept on recasting the Bobby character, and if you really examine it, Bobby should be like 13 or 14 years old for the finale. I really liked the Maturing of Sally Draper – that she was just playing at being this wild child, but really she was the kind of girl to come home to take care of her dying mother and her younger siblings. Seeing Sally and Betty’s roles reversed – Sally at the sink, washing dishes while Betty read a magazine at the table – made me sad/happy. Sally is going to be a wanderer like her dad, but not yet. She’s going to be bored and filled with ennui like her mom but not yet.

Pete Campbell. Pete’s storyline moved the most in the penultimate episode, but we got to see a little bit of how he turned out in the finale. Pete and Peggy’s relationship ended on a happy note, with Pete even paying Peggy a wonderful compliment about her work. Then Pete rode off into the sunset in a shiny new Learjet with his ex-wife and child. Pete and planes… he’s going to work for a plane company and his father died in a plane crash. It fits.

Roger Sterling. Roger got his happy ending! That’s so crazy. And it just… fit. I loved that Julia Ormond did all of those little guest appearances and I loved that at the end of the day, Roger did not die in the arms of a secretary half his age. He lived his life to the fullest, in the arms of an age-appropriate French-Canadian divorcee with adult children (one of whom was a secretary once married to Don Draper). Marie is crazy (legitimately), she’s fun and she’ll keep Roger on his toes for the rest of his life. I was sort of hoping that Roger would reunite with Mona in the end, but I’m happy with this.

Joan Holloway (I will never call her Joan Harris). Perhaps even Joan knew her thing with Bruce Greenwood wasn’t going to last. Maybe she knew she was just having fun and it was nice to see her in a relationship with a big-business dude who wanted to spoil her and travel the world with her. But I thought it was interesting that they set it up as a choice she was making: love or self-sufficiency, romance or starting her own business. And she chose business. She chose to throw herself into the deep end of the business world and it was righteous. Romance will come and go, but Joan will always prevail. Oh, and when Roger stopped by to talk about his will and providing for their child together? That was a beautiful, funny, touching scene. Just lovely. I’m sad that Peggy won’t be joined Joan in her new business, because Harris-Olsen sounds like a great company.

Peggy Olsen. OMG. JUST OMG. Peggy has always been my favorite, and Peggy has always centered Mad Men. In my mind, the twofer was always Peggy and Don. And in the end, they didn’t even get one final scene together in the same room. Don did call her one last time (?) just because he “wanted to hear her voice.” He cried and told her how he ruined everything, and it was a brilliantly acted scene for both of them. I’m glad they got their goodbyes in. But then something magical happened – Peggy called Stan to tell him about Don’s call. And then Peggy got the ending that no one was really expecting. Stan and Peggy have been work husband and work wife for so long – their work friendship blossomed into true and deep affection for each other, even if they both just seemed content to have their relationship set at “BFF” and nothing more. But then Stan manned up and told Peggy that he loved her. Peggy couldn’t believe it, then she examined her own feelings and… Matthew Weiner gave us what is probably the most touching, believable and romantic scene in the history of Mad Men. Stan racing to Peggy’s office so he could see her when she said “I love you.” It made my heart swell.

And finally, Don Draper/Dick Whitman. Ugh, what is there to say at this point? I’m glad they didn’t try to introduce a new “love interest” for Don in the final moments. Yeah, he had sex with a prostitute (who tried to steal his money), but he eventually made it to California where he sought out Stephanie, the young beauty that he met through his “first wife,” Anna Draper (Stephanie was Anna’s niece). Blah, blah, Stephanie takes Don to a hippie retreat and then she ends up dumping him there, because Stephanie is as much of a flake as Don. Don is basically stuck there and he’s somewhat suicidal, and even though his gut was probably telling him to go back to New York to spend time with Betty and his children, he stays.

In truth, the “special snowflake” parts of Don Draper’s angst have been annoying me particularly throughout the past few seasons as Don’s self-absorbed myopathy seems, at times, callous to everyone around him. We know he’s an alcoholic, and it was nice to see a final image of him as clean, sober, centered and at peace. But realistically, will Don stay on that path? Of course he won’t. Many people believe that Don’s journey after the California retreat did take him back to New York, where he worked on the Coke commercial which ended the show. Perhaps. I hope so. There was always this duality to Don Draper, and I’m not just talking about the Don/Dick conundrum – one side of him was a survivor, a Depression-era kid who would do anything and fight anyone to stay in this world. The other side was the melancholy, self-destructive alcoholic willing to burn everything down. I guess I’m surprised that the survivor side won out. For now.

Final thoughts? I’m glad that I watched every season and I’m glad Matthew Weiner gave us some great payouts for our time. I would have loved so see a few more concrete images of the futures of these beloved characters, but all in all… I was pretty happy with the finale.

Photos and posters courtesy of AMC/Mad Men.

Here are some photos of Amal Clooney out and about in London on Friday. She flew out of LA shortly after the big Tomorrowland premiere last week, and I guess she needed to check in at her “real” job, although I’m still pretty sketchy on just how many hours she puts in at her law firm. But whatever, those are questions to which we’re never really going to get an answer. I’ve complained about Amal’s street style many times, but I don’t completely hate her look here. Do I personally like the skinny-jeans-booties-and-chunky-sweater look? Not really. But it’s not as crazy as half of her “casual” clothes, so it’s fine. I’m pretty sure she just got a haircut too – her most trusted hair people must be in London, which is just another reason for her to check in at her law firm, I suppose.

In the midst of all of George Clooney’s Tomorrowland press, I actually missed some of the quotes he gave about Amal and their marriage. When he was on The Late Show, he apparently said he met Amal in Como, Italy:

“We met in Lake Como. She was a friend of a friend who came to visit and then I chased her for many months, calling and writing, those kinds of things.”

“I wasn’t looking to get married – and then I met someone who I realised I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I only hoped that she felt the same way. I was very nervous when I asked her to marry me because this wasn’t even something we’d talked about before, so there was a moment where she could have turned around and said, ‘What? Are you crazy? I thought we were just having fun here!’…

“From the moment I met Amal until now, the idea of spending my life with her has been the most important thing for me, and the thing that brings me the most joy in the world. I couldn’t be happier with my life right now. I have a great partner in life, and I didn’t think I was ever going to have that.”

[From The Daily Mail]

I’m sort of numb from all of the talk about their marriage, but I just want to point out that George’s story of how he met Amal has gotten more consistent as he’s told a few more times. I think we were originally told that they met in London, but back when they were engaged, George was telling people that they “met in Italy.” So… there you go. They met in Como, Italy and he pursued her, probably while he was filming Monuments Men in England. Of course, no one really wants to point out that George was still technically dating Stacy Keibler. Seriously.

Last thing – one of the first things we knew about Amal’s work was that she was one of the lawyers trying to convince the government of Greece to sue the British Museum so that the Greeks could finally retrieve the Elgin Marbles/Parthenon Marbles. Amal submitted her final report to the Greek government last week (advising Greece to take Britain to court at the Hague) and long story short, Greece has rejected Amal’s advice and decided NOT to sue. You can read more about the situation here.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Louis C.K. hosted the season finale of SNL‘s 40th season. Pajiba reports how the episode (as a whole) was one of the best this season. Rihanna’s musical performances received wide praise, but the opening monologue was terribly controversial. We are talking about Louis C.K., who is known for offensive humor. But this monologue came across like Louis decided to be as controversial as possible, just to see how much outrage he could generate. He riffed on the 1970s, which he sees as a time when racism and child molestation weren’t a huge deal. These were simply things that one had to endure as part of society. The point of the monologue was to offend. Offensiveness was the joke with no punchline to be found. A lot of people found Louis’ effort tasteless, especially the part about child molestation. Here are the relevant parts of the transcript, and the clip follows:

On racism: “I was born in 1967, and so I grew up in the ’70s. So I’m not racist, however, I do have mild racism. Because that was a very racist decade. People said racist things all the time, and nobody got offended … So I have mild racism. It’s benign, it’s not aggressive. It’s not even negative racism … If I’m in a gas station late at night, and a young man comes in wearing a hooded sweatshirt. If he’s white, I’ll think, ‘Oh, he’s an athlete.’ If he’s black, unless he has a big smile on his face, I become mildly racist. Then I think, ‘That’s fine! Everything’s fine. Nothing’s gonna happen. No, of course I’m fine. Why’d I even think that for a second?’ That’s because I was raised in the ’70s. Everything was different in the ’70s than it is now. Except the Middle East is exactly the same. It’s the same fights, and it’s boring now. That’s the worst part of it … after awhile when you fight, people don’t care because both of you just keep fighting. Everybody’s like, ‘Those guys are d*cks. They just fight..’”

On child molestation: “There was a child molester who lived in my hometown. And it wasn’t a big deal. It was like, ‘Yeah, that’s the house where the child molester lives. Hey kids, don’t be stupid. You’ll get molested. I know because he did something to me when I was your age. So just stay away from the child molester house.’ … Child molesters are very tenacious people. They love molesting childs. It’s crazy. It’s like their favorite thing. When you consider the risk of being a child molester — there is no worse life available to a human than being a caught child molester. And yet they still do it! Which you could only really surmise, that it must be really good.” [uncomfortable gasps and boos] “I mean, from their point of view! It must be AMAZING. For them to risk so much! …. How do you think I feel? It’s my last show, probably … I love Mounds bars. It’s my favorite thing, right? But there’s a limit. I can’t even eat a Mounds bar and do something else at the same time which I love. And yet if someone said to me, ‘If you eat another Mounds bar, you’ll go to jail and everyone would hate you,’ I would stop eating them. Because they do taste delicious, but they don’t taste as good as a young boy does … and shouldn’t. To child molesters! Not to me. Not to US, because we’re all awesome.”

[From SNL on Hulu]

Yes, he compared child molestation to love for a candy bar. What makes this monologue even more uncomfortable is a fresh Gawker article about how Louis allegedly exposes and pleasures himself in front of female comics. The story is based on long-standing rumors and sources a blind item, so it may or may not be true.

A lot of people feel that Louis crossed the line with this monologue. Others are shouting that Louis routinely pushes boundaries and shocks his audience. I do think Louis went too far, and this monologue surpasses the “political correctness” complaints surrounding the criticism of comedians. Child molestation is never hilarious, and it’s sad that Louis C.K. felt compelled to mine the subject for comedic effect. Aren’t there a million other things to crack “edgy” jokes about instead of such a painful subject?

Here are a few Twitter reactions to Louis’ monologue.

I grew up on SNL. Huge Louis C.K. fan. I know they both push the line. I get that. But that opening monologue…

— Bun B (@BunBTrillOG) May 17, 2015

That was the unfunniest, most offensive #SNL monologue I’ve ever seen. Racism and child molestation? Really, Louis. #SNL40Finale

— John DeMayo (@JohnnyDeMayo) May 17, 2015

Screencaps courtesy of NBC/Hulu; photos courtesy of WENN

I love this ^^ photo. It looks like Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs’ prom portrait rather than Twigs and Sparkles posing at the Met Gala. The way Sparkles is lightly (almost awkwardly) touching her waist? Such a prom photo move. Anyway, as you probably remember, Twigs caused a commotion at the Met Gala because her Christopher Kane dress had a drawing of a dong on it. I don’t know… I think that’s kind of funny? A lot of people hated it though. Twigs talked about the dress and much more in a New York Times interview this weekend. Apparently, Twigs is tired of the drama that comes with being with Sparkles, but she loves him so much, she’s willing to overlook the Twihard Dramz. Some highlights from the NYT piece:

On her ‘Congregata’ performances/concerts: “It’s my life, it’s my world. In many ways, I’m still an underground artist, but why can’t I have big special shows like Drake, Beyoncé and Kanye?”

She loves the study of dance: “A lot of music artists don’t respect the roots of dancing. I never want to associate myself with something that I don’t understand. I would never want to be guilty of cultural appropriation.”

The fame that comes with dating Sparkles: “It’s really hard — I can’t begin to explain how awful it is. It makes you want to just stop everything sometimes. It makes you want to smash your face into the mirror.”

The racist crap she gets online: “It’s relentless. There’s no amount of songs I can sing or dances I can dance that will prove to them I’m not a monkey.”

She’s happy though: “I didn’t see my life going this way at all. But it’s worth it. I’m so happy.”

Her Met Gala dress: “Everyone was just like, ‘Oh, look, there’s a penis!’ I didn’t think about it. I’m so naïve. I’m like, ‘I’m wearing art!’ ”

[From The NY Times]

My mind wandered when I read that “A lot of music artists don’t respect the roots of dancing” quote. There certainly are a lot of mainstream pop stars – mostly women – that are guilty of cultural appropriation. So many, in fact, that it’s difficult for me to pinpoint if Twigs was throwing shade at a particular artist. Madonna? For sure – this particular quote came up during a discussion about the history of “Vogue” dancing. Katy Perry? She’s guilty of cultural appropriation all the time, although Katy is friends with Sparkles and Katy has been seen at Twigs’ shows before. Beyonce? I always think of Beyonce as an outright thief of other artists’ work – it’s not about appropriation, it’s about Beyonce taking credit for something she’s really “homage-ing.”

As for the rest of it… it makes me sad that Twigs is still getting racist BS online. It sucked when she was getting it when they first started dating, but it’s really awful and unhinged Twihards are STILL pissed that Sparkles and Twigs are in love.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Amy Poehler’s career knows no bounds, which is particularly awesome after the end of Parks & Rec. Her IMDb profile reveals some completed movies and current filming for the Wet Hot American Summer reboot on Netflix. Fast Company just named her #8 on its 100 Most Creative People in Business list. Their profile mentions that Poehler both champions other female comedians and mentors up-and-comers. Show business is hard on women, and comedy is a particularly tough branch for women to crack. As Kaiser mentioned when considering Amy Schumer, women don’t get as much leeway for the same jokes that men tell. In this interview, Poeher hints at that inequality and discusses the different treatment women receive as working parents. We talk a lot about how magazines are obsessed with asking women about parenting. Poehler says she receives the same treatment during professional meetings:

On surviving comedy as a woman: “I have these meetings with really powerful men and they ask me all the time, ‘Where are your kids? Are your kids here?’” she says with a sneer. “It’s such a weird question. Never in a million years do I ask guys where their kids are. It would be comparable to me going to a guy, ‘Do you feel like you see your kids enough?’”

The scrutiny makes her uncomfortable: “It’s a struggle for me to remain open. To not shut down because I’m defensive or scared or maybe my ego is getting in the way. And the other side of that is just believing that I belong where I am and deserve to take up space. I fight constantly between those two things, between not apologizing for what I want and staying vulnerable and creatively supple and not thinking I know better than everyone else.”

On talking like a man: “I often look to men to model behavior. Not because I want to squelch what’s feminine about me, but because sometimes I want a little more action, a little less feeling in my interactions. I’ve been doing this thing lately where I try to talk slower at meetings. I take a lot of meetings with women and we all talk really fast. But every guy talks so much slower. I think men are just a little bit more comfortable taking up conversational real estate. So I’ve been seeing how slow I can tolerate talking. I’m doing it now. Let me tell you, it’s really hard for me.”

Why she works so heavily with emerging female talent: “It’s selfish. I just like working with women.”

She’s very involved with the Worldwide Orphans Foundation: “When I’m with my kids, I feel so lucky to have all this love in my life. But these orphans have nobody who lights up when they come into the room, and that’s really, really heavy.”

[Form Fast Company]

I love that Amy is talking to a major business/entrepreneurship magazine about the unbalanced treatment of working mothers and fathers. During last year’s promotion of her Yes Please memoir, Amy also discussed an “unspoken pact“ that women feel they should follow. She said working mothers are supposed to act guilty, and stay-at-home moms are supposed to act bored without a career. Really, both groups are happy with their choices, but society tells us to always question whether we’re doing the wrong thing. Guilt, man.

Amy’s involvement with the Worldwide Orphans Foundation continues to impress. The charity’s CEO, Jane Aronson, told Fast Company that Amy “gets totally involved. She’s better than a board member, she’s a partner.” Amy’s visited Haiti, and she’ll head to Ethiopia in the fall. She isn’t simply a celebrity name on the charity’s roster.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Here are some random fashion photos from the Cannes Film Festival this weekend. These are photos from the multiple premieres, including the premieres of Mia Madre, Sea of Trees and more. Let’s start with Sienna Miller – Sienna is a judge this year, and many of us were expecting Sienna to fulfill the “fashion girl” requirement that the Cannes judges panel seems to have every year. So far, Sienna has been a big disappointment, no moreso in this absolutely awful Valentino gown. I guess it’s supposed to look like a kite? But it just looks like cheap patchwork. Sienna’s styling has been pretty bad too.

Li Bingbing is my favorite of this group. She wore this Zuhair Murad Couture Spring 2015 gown which is absolutely perfect for Cannes. It’s big, it’s pretty, it’s beautifully tailored and she looks great in it. Yay!

Noomi Rapace in a rather striking gown (ID unknown). She’s part of the jury for Un Certain Regard and she was just announced as the lead in a Maria Callas bio-pic, which is an excellent choice. Yay for Noomi!

Sonam Kapoor in Ralph & Russo Couture – eh. Blue is my favorite color but I have an aversion to these shades of electric blue. They look cheap to me. The design is major drama though and it looks like fun.

Natalie Portman in Christian Dior. Dior is doing twee ikat prints now? I think this was a bad choice for Natalie, but she’s been making some really awful fashion calls lately.

Natasha Poly in custom Michael Kors… Kors has been doing a lot of ‘70s inspired stuff and if I’m being honest, I could see how it would be cool to have a liquid gold caftan or something. But this is trying too hard to be a modernized ‘70s vision. It should have been longer.

Jane Fonda in Atelier Versace. Same kind of questionable blue as Sonam Kapoor. Imagine how great this would have been in a pale blue.

Andie MacDowell in a Ralph & Russo Spring 2015 Couture wedding gown. I don’t get it? Why come to Cannes if you’re just going to wear a wedding gown?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

Here are some photos of Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts at the Cannes photocall and premiere of their new Gus Van Sant film, Sea of Trees. Terrible title, right? Especially given that the film sounds like an utterly maudlin, depressive exercise. The film is about a man (McConaughey) who wants to commit suicide, so he travels to Japan’s “Suicide Forest” and ends up meeting some other people wanting to commit suicide and he ends up going on a journey to learn that he doesn’t really want to die. Sounds pretty terrible, right? Like, why would you even want to make that film? And why wouldn’t you call the film The Suicide Forest? That seems like an obvious one, right?

Anyway, the film is apparently as bad as it sounds. Sea of Trees was the first film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to be booed following the first screening. EW compiled some of the worst of critics’ tweets here – The Guardian called the film a “fantastically annoying and dishonest tear-jerker.” Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson skewered it. I’ve yet to see a positive review. Apparently, people were actually HISSING. So what was The McConaughey’s reaction? He told the assembled journalists at the press conference, “Anyone has as much right to boo as they do to ovate.” Alright alright alright.

As for fashion… Naomi’s photocall dress was Peter Pilotto. Her premiere look (the one-shouldr gown in pale silver-blue) was Armani Privé Spring 2015. Matthew’s wife Camila Alves also walked the premiere red carpet, but not with her husband. Camila’s gown is Gabriela Cadena. I think I like Naomi’s Armani most of all, although I wish it was just a touch longer.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

Dave and Odette Annable struck a pregnant pose at OCRF’s 2nd Annual Super Saturday LA at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. on Saturday (May 16).

Both sporting shades, the parents-to-be cradled Odette’s baby bump. The Brothers & Sisters star, 30, looked radiant in an animal print maxi maternity dress, paired with flats and a denim jacket.

“Great day supporting @OCRF raising money and awareness for Ovarian Cancer. #OCRFSuperSaturday,” the mom-to-be Instagrammed an image from the event.

Last week, the couple announced their pregnancy news.

“I gotta be honest, it’s the most exciting time of my life,” the Real Band Society alum, 35, told PEOPLE.

Great day supporting @OCRF raising money and awareness for Ovarian Cancer. #OCRFSuperSaturday.

A photo posted by @odetteannable on May 16, 2015 at 7:10pm PDT

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It was an A-list playdate for Tyga and Chris Brown‘s kids.

Tyga first Instagrammed a photo of the two tots – his 2-year-old son King and Chris’ 11-month-old daughter Royalty – playing together.

Meanwhile, a video believed to be from Tyga’s Snapchat surfaced on Twitter showcasing the toddlers at play.

“You gotta be nice,” a voice tells the youngsters. “You gotta share.”

“I honestly never knew I could love someone as strong as I do,” Chris, 26, recently said of his daughter. “I’m gonna give her the world.”

Tyga has also shared similar sentiments via social media.

“I grew up never knowing my father,” the Hookah hitmaker, 25, captioned an image with his son. “Always wanted that father son bond but never got it. I knew when king was born that was Gods way of talkin to me. Words can’t describe what he means to me. #RealLove.”

King Cairo & Royalty pic.twitter.com/ABAmPOXI2M

— InstaTyga (@instatyga) May 15, 2015

Singer Jewel and her son Kase, 3 1/2, hit the pool in Miami, Fla. on Saturday (May 16).

Looking every bit the doting mom, the Foolish Games singer, 40, made a splash with her son, and was seen reapplying the sunscreen on her preschooler.

“Miami! Kase and I at the beach,” Jewel Instagrammed an image during their fun getaway.

Last week, the single mom shared some shots with her only child in the recording studio.

And over Easter, she posted a family selfie, with her estranged husband Ty Murray.

When the couple announced their plans to divorce after six years of marriage, the Who Will Save Your Soul singer emphasized their plan to have a “loving” split while keeping their son top priority.

Miami! Kase and I at the beach

A photo posted by Jewel (@jewel) on May 14, 2015 at 2:49pm PDT

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