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Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...

The new season of Mad Men begins tonight. Hooray! Meanwhile we're going all the way back to the beginning to share the show's movie references for fans and Mad Men virgins alike. Even if you don't watch the show, you're here because you love talking about the movies. Previously we covered episode 1 and its telling Gidget reference and episode's 2 throwaway Wizard of Oz bit. I'm cheating with this next installment which discusses neither a movie nor a television show, but a book. Since the classic book has fascinated multiple filmmakers, I'm allowing it to count. Mostly because I love the scene so much.

1.3 "Marriage of Figaro"

Lady Chatterley's Lover. Scandalous!

Joan Holloway: You know girls, we'd be happy to bring you coffee. I was on my way over anyway. [pause] I have something of yours. Lady Chatterley's Lover ... I finished it last night.

Office Girl #1: Good to the last drop,...