.....Well, Bryan has said numerous times that Sal probably won't be coming out, at least any time soon, but that doesn't rule out a covert affair.

My guess is they won't entirely abandon that idea, with three seasons to go.....

You're right Dry, I dont think they'll dismiss the idea, but I don't think they'll show us anything graphic, I hope. My spin is they'll let our minds grind with subliminal seductions, like the cigarette lighter episode. Who would have thought holding a silver lighter would have so much impact? If they do any more than that it would be tasteless.

true... while i don't expect Sal to come out of the closet i do expect that in the third season he might have an affair. I'm hopping that Elliot will return and he might finally hook up with him. XD

So poor Sal will be stuck in his closet because to show him otherwise would be tasteless? I guess if we can watch Don Draper with his assorted sordid affairs, we should certainly be able to watch Sal in a clinch with another man. Bryan Batt is a terrific actor. I doubt any of his scenes as Sal would be tasteless.

zerelda - not tasteless, just not right for his time and circumstances. Sal is so far deep in the closet you'd need a miner's lamp to find him. Considering there are still people who don't feel they can come out more than 40 years after this period, it seems highly unlikely Sal would risk everything he has and acknowledge, even to himself, that he's not straight. He KNOWS it, on some level, but can't see a way to change anything, which is why Kurt's nonchalant announcement just floored him. Bryan Batt has said in interviews that Sal truly does love Kitty, and is a good husband - better than most on the show - and would never hurt her.

The time & place will be right. As things change over the next 3-4 years the deeply closeted Salvatore may well peep, then step outside of his box and Matt Weiner and MM does not do tasteless, so who knows? I can see Sal as a kind of Gay-Rights campaigner by the end of the decade. Either that or perhaps politics...Good, thought provoking post Izzy.

.....pink.....That's what is soooo special about this series.

It's all very retro-noirish, emotional and mental suggestion, rather than all "sledge-hammerey." The lighter scene was so very Sal, so articulate and touching.

Sal's a classy guy. I don't see him hitting the bath houses or anything like that. His crush on Ken was a real-live crush, not just a sex thing.

Elliot was a nice man, but I just couldn't see him and Sal together at all. Not the right chemistry.

Plus he does all that weird stuff with his face that makes me squirm. I just want to run over there with a couple of clothespins and pin his face back so he can't do that any more.

There have been speculations on the forum in the past about Ken possibly being gay...the way he's forever piping up about his little black book ("I've got lots of numbers!") makes one wonder if he's covering (like when Sal was gazing fondly at that artwork he'd done of his neighbor (in Don's office S1 Ep1 -- then suddenly started to talk about gorgeous women (forget his exact words) to cover in front of Don. Also, when Ken made the matter of fact remark to returning Pete that "Kurt's a homo."

Just makes ya wonder is all. Plus when he made the big show of chasing the secretary and checking the color of her panties! He might be trying too hard to appear straight. Just a thought.

I wouldn't be shocked at all if he did turn out to be gay (or at least bi) and he and Sal got together...I'd be happy for them if they loved each other.

Maybe Sal will go to a bathhouse and run into Duck...

.....Sal, in the early epis, was forever touting his inner male Alpha Dog.....

When Sal said something about Pete's bachelor party, and the stripper, it was something like, "How embarassing. If a woman's going to shake it in my face, I want to be alone so I can DO something about it."

(Cringe, cringe.....)

Methinks thou doth protest too much.....

Of course, considering the "times"... don't think they'd "come out" with their relationship, if it did happen.

Z, Sal is far from being in the closet, we have been exposed to his desires. He may have even had some prior experiences that we just haven't seen.
Have you ever heard of the "Down Low". Trust me Sal isn't the first and won't be the last. It's just the way MW presents it to us. They say presentation is everything.

No, pinkpen, I haven't ever heard of the "Down Low"....what does that term mean? Are you saying the Sal character is not gay?

I have to agree with Auburn Annie on the whole closet thing. He's in there, and I don't know if he would even come out for Ken, assuming Ken were to turn out to be gay. If he were single, maybe, but not with Kitty in the picture. In fact, I am thinking he will soon go the other way and decide to start a family with Kitty. Just bury those feelings under more and more baggage.

Z, the term "Down Low" means when a man presents himself as heterosexual dating women and even marrying them but has or desires to have romantic relationships with men. Yet, he hides this with his interaction/relationships with women behaving like a normal man. His friends, family and other associates know nothing about it. They all see him as a heterosexual male and he has a long following. He doesn't have to be in the closet because he's not. Gay is established...it says "I am a man and I date men", they could care less about interacting with women or vice versa in that manner. Now if Sal becomes involved with a man and leaves his Kitty, and no longer dates or becomes involve with a woman ever again he's gay.

It's an interesting moral dilemma for Sal. Sal will always be unhappy and unfulfilled as long as he's untrue to himself as a gay man. I don't think he can keep his feelings totally contained forever - he will act on them at some point. At the same time, I think he does love Kitty in his own way and wants to be a good, traditional husband. I can see him having a secret affair if the right guy (maybe in the same situation) came along. And could you blame him? He would be cheating on his wife, but being true to himself in a way. A lot of married gay men in this time period had secret affairs and didn't come out of the closet until 20+ years later. Sal won't be coming out soon, that's for sure, but a love connection with another man would be an interesting storyline.

.....hanna.....I'm simply going to hurl myself on some pro-active fire and brimstone.

I will.

Someone stop me.

Right now.

I swear I'll do it.

Is anyone LISTENING to ME?????

I'm listening, Dry....

and, don't you dare!

Here, have some chip and dip and a nice piece of Sally-made chocolate cake. And some nice cold milk.

Feel better?

Everything's going to be fine...only a little less than a month to go....you can make it!

Okay, I think I understand what you're saying, pinkpen. Very interesting. Guess we will just have to wait for Matt W. to decide which way Sal is going to go. Whatever it is, I am sure it will be interesting and very well acted.

Gracious, I love this show. I hate to keep wishing my life away, but is August 16th ever going to get here?

.....I was just joshin' ya. Is it too early for red velvet cake?

Definitely ready for S3. Even sick of the re-runs!

Back OT, I think it is surprising, even today, how many "gay" men actually have good married lives, with wives and families.

A book just came out claiming that President Obama is on the "down low". "

Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder" by Lawrence W Sinclair (Author)
Product Description:
The biggest untold story of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election... Finally, the no-holds-barred, 100% true story of Barack Obama's use and sale of cocaine; his homosexual affairs and the December 23, 2007 murder of Barack Obama's former lover and choir director of Obama's Chicago church of 20 years, Donald Young, just days before the 2008 Iowa Caucus. This searing candid story begins with Barack Obama meeting Larry Sinclair in November, 1999, and subsequently procuring and selling cocaine, and then engaging in consensual, homosexual sex with Sinclair on November 6th and again on November 7, 1999. You'll read in riveting detail how Sinclair, in 2007, repeatedly contacted and requested that the Obama campaign simply come clean about their candidate's 1999 drug use and sales. You learn how the Obama campaign, David Axelrod and Barack Obama used Donald Young (the homosexual lover of Barack Obama) to contact and seek out information from Sinclair about who he had told of Obama's crimes and actions. You'll read how the Obama campaign used internet porn king Dan Parisi and Ph.D. fraud Edward I. Gelb to conduct a rigged polygraph exam in an attempt to make the Sinclair story go away. The Obama team and the controlled media - specifically MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, the New York Times, CNN, Politico's Ben Smith, The DailyKos, The Huffington Post and others - attacked the National Press Club for making its facilities available to Larry Sinclair for a news conference to present his evidence and allegations to the world media. You'll read how Vice President Joe Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, issued an arrest warrant on completely false, fabricated charges to attempt to discredit Mr. Sinclair's National Press Club news conference. This is a staggeringly true story of how the sitting U.S.President with the help of the Mainstream Media, the Chicago Police Department, the FBI, the Delaware Attorney General and others got away with murder and more....

Good Gracious!

well if president Obama is on the down low at least hes good looking. we haven't had a good looking president in the white house since JFK

and yes Hanna I agree with you that though sal dose love kitty he most likely will eventual go on the down low. becuase it is a moral delmma and that is what mad men is all about.

Good golly Miss Molly - all the nuts are out in full force. Must be the eclipse. First the birthers and now Larry Sinclair. Read the article from Politico about this lovely fella's criminal and colorful background: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11164.html

What a sterling example of humanity......earp.....gag

http://www.accesshollywood.com/qanda-bryan-batt-talks-mad-mens-return_article_20946

Q and A with Bryan Batt re Sal and Season 3 from Access Hollywood.

What a doll he is! I so enjoy reading these interviews with the cast members. They reveal just enough to make the anticipation almost unbearable. It's nice to know they are in the dark 'til the first script reading, too. Wouldn't it be fun to sit around a table with them all while they go through that first reading?

Thanks, AA, that was fun to read...I agree with z, Bryan is a fine person.

And, yes, it would be fantastic, z, to be there during that first reading...to see their reactions as well as our own to all the new material...

Can we dispense with the partisan fringe crap?

I hope they do give Sal more "romantic" opportunities...I love the character and there's a lot to work with. It won't be any more tasteless than a hetero sex scene, but it will be more "appropriate" of the time period to keep it subtle, in the shadows, etc.

And yes, please pull that awful right wing shite about that ridiculous book by that creepy criminal (where DO they find their attack dogs, the gutter?). It's old partisan election trash from last year that certainly doesn't belong here.