The successful television show has been off our screens for over a year now, prompting fans like us to seek out other shows on TV, or find other activities and hobbies, like playing Foxy Bingo or Angry Birds to pass the time. Thankfully the show’s fifth season is apparently set to premiere on March 25th 2012.

January who has recently given birth, stars in the hit drama that began in 2007, alongside Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser and Christina Hendricks. She has been nominated for two Golden Globes for her performance in the show in 2009 and 2010.

There has been no official confirmation of the show’s return as of yet by the AMC Network. This is odd because you would have thought they’d wish to promote the return asap. We don’t even know if January is set to reprise her role after the hiatus. The news of the show’s return was dropped by the lead actor Jon Hamm while speaking on the comedian Doug Benson’s podcast, ‘Doug Loves Movies’.

We have our fingers and toes crossed though.

Mad Men is rumoured to be slated for seven seasons in total, so if all is back to normal after the contract negotiation induced hiatus, we could have January back for at least another two years.

Meanwhile you can now own X Men: First Class on DVD and Blu-Ray.

You know them as Mad Men actress January Jones (who also captivated opposite Liam Neeson in Unknown) and the infamous Mr. Kevin Bacon. Prepare to witness their big screen transformations into Emma Frost, The White Queen, a sultry psychic with a wardrobe of white, and Sebastian Shaw, The Black King, member of a secret society known as The Hellfire Club, made up of powerful mutants bent on world domination. Shaw can absorb kinetic energy expended upon him and transform it into raw strength he can in turn unleash upon others. Of course the royal code names here are the ones generally used in the comics.

The exclusive pic of the pair appeared in Empire Online and you can click the link to get the full story. The photo is set in The Hellfire Club’s “snazzy secret lair, [and] it’s yet another indicator that Matthew Vaughn’s 60s-set prequel will have a visual flair that sets it apart from the previous X-movies.”

I Am Number Four took second, with a three-day estimate of $19.5 million. Third place went to Gnomeo & Juliet, which just missed second place with $19.4 million.

Just Go With It took fourth, with $18.2 million, followed by Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son with $17 million.

Source: Just Jared

x84 high quality pics are in the gallery.

Besides showing off telepathic powers in the superhero prequel set to open in June, Jones’ mutant showcases “lots of revealing skin-tight leather” as the siren of the dastardly Hellfire Club.

It seems like a radical change for the actress best known as the aloof Betty Draper on the acclaimed cable series Mad Men.

At a Beverly Hills hotel recently, Jones insists she’s up for the sexy, comic-book makeover.

The 33-year-old is also excited about being part of something a little different in the Liam Neeson suspense thriller, Unknown, which opens on Feb. 18.

In the Jaume Collet-Serra-directed flick based on the Didier Van Cauwelaert novel, Out of My Head, Jones plays Neeson’s mysterious wife who accompanies her husband to a biotechnology convention in Berlin.

When the husband unexpectedly returns to the airport for his misplaced briefcase, he ends up in a car crash, then spends four days in a coma at a hospital. When he comes around, he’s not sure who he is, and has no ID to resolve his anxiety.

To make matters even more baffling, his wife refuses to confirm his identity when he confronts her at their Berlin hotel, just as another man (Aidan Quinn) assumes his identity.

Diane Kruger co-stars, playing a woman who begrudgingly offers to assist Neeson’s confused amnesiac, even as his supposed wife continues to cloak her motives.

So there’s no question Jones’ Unknown character is a lot more veiled and a lot less obvious than her X-Men seductress.

“What I like about her,” says Jones of her Unknown role, “is that she’s kind of indefinable, because you don’t really know whether she is a good guy or a bad guy.”

Throw in “a touch of noir and a homage to the old Hitchcock films,” and you have what the actress feels is Unknown’s definition of modern-day intrigue.

Director Collet-Serra, who made a name for himself with the 2009 hit thriller Orphan, agrees with Jones’ assessment, suggesting that she’s perfect for the part of the mysterious blond.

“We were looking for that Hitchcock beauty and that sort of layered performance, and that’s exactly what she gave us,” the director says.

In other words, her facade may or may not be a ruse, but one thing is certain: The wife is neither innocent nor sweet. “What’s fun about that — being sweet?” Jones asks.

There’s no question, however, that the actress has relied on her all-American good looks.

Born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, she moved to New York at 18 to become a fashion model.

In her 20s, she re-located to L. A., hoping to land some acting parts. At first she wasn’t booking many jobs, although she did land a co-starring role in 2003′s American Wedding.

Subsequently, Jones managed minor roles in mainstream films, including Anger Management with Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler, Love Actually alongside Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.

She won more screen time and earned some decent reviews for her part in 2005′s The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which was directed by headliner Tommy Lee Jones. In 2006′s We Are Marshall, she co-starred opposite Matthew Fox and Matthew McConaughey.

But it was her Betty Draper role in Mad Men, featuring Jon Hamm as her husband Don Draper, that truly changed things for Jones when the series debuted in 2007.

Besides an Emmy nomination in 2010, the show kick-started her career and the promise of higher profile things to come.

“I always get that question, ‘Are you leaving TV?’” Jones says. “But Mad Men never feels like TV to me.”

Chances are, she’ll be attached to Mad Men as long as the show lasts.

In the meantime, she has her film portrayals in Unknown, the X-Men prequel and her upcoming thriller with Nicolas Cage, The Hungry Rabbit Jumps, to underscore what she can do.

“I’m always trying something different,” Jones says. “It keeps me interested in the job. And I will always stay away from being ‘sweet,’ for everybody’s sake.”

That must be part of her master plan.

“Oh, I don’t know how you orchestrate anything is this business,” she says. “And I don’t know if I have a plan. But I am happy with the way things are going and I still feel motivated, inspired and challenged.”

She’s also taking it one step at a time.

“I’ve just been lucky I got to do (the) things I’ve done, and I haven’t made a lot of mistakes. . . . And I am strong-willed, so that helps a lot.”

Source: Vancouver Sun

At the very least, she has some interesting projects on the docket in 2011. This weekend brings the Hitchcockian thriller ‘Unknown,’ in which she plays the frigid wife of a frantic Liam Neeson. And in June, she’ll join a strong cast to appear in skimpy white attire as the telepath Emma Frost in ‘X-Men: First Class.’

The actress sat down with Moviefone at the posh Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills to discuss those constant comparisons to Grace Kelly, the revealing costumes she’ll wear as Frost and why she doesn’t ever want Betty Draper to be happy.

Moviefone: What sold you on ‘Unknown’?
January Jones: The script. Usually you get a script and you read the first 30 pages and, if it’s really interesting, you keep going. With this script, I don’t even remember getting to page 30. It was just really fun, exciting and smart. And I loved the character. You can’t really define what she is: Is she good or is she bad? Kind of a femme fatale, but sort of not. Very focused on the task and just really kind of like James Bond. But it was fun. It was something I hadn’t done before.

So, it was like a Bond girl role, in a way?
Not Bond girl — Bond.

You’re always being compared to Grace Kelly because you’re so stylish …
And blond!

‘Unknown’ is being called Hitchcockian. Do you think that might cause the Grace Kelly comparisons to increase?
Yeah, everyone says that about ‘Unknown.’ I think that Hitchcock would be very flattered. But it’s hard for me, that comparison. It’s really cool to be compared to a Hitchcock blonde, because all of the actresses he used were really talented and just kind of mysterious. And you kind of didn’t really know what was going on with them. So I take that as a compliment, just because I like to add a little depth to the characters no matter what I’m doing. But the Grace Kelly comparison, I take that with a grain of salt. She was really beautiful and great and philanthropic. I don’t know how I’m supposed to live up to that.

Let’s talk about ‘X-Men: First Class.’ How revealing is your Emma Frost costume?
I’m naked. [Laughs.] In the comics, the costume is pretty much just painted on and she has a pretty unrealistic body. So it was a challenge for me. I literally went from ‘Mad Men,’ packed the next day and flew to [the set in] London — so there wasn’t any time for me to do a lot of toning up or getting fit. I just had to wing it.

But we had a lot of fun with the costumes in that we wanted to make them very revealing and sexy, and they’re always white and pearl-ized. We got that Emma Frost look, but with a ’60s twist — and a lot of sparkles, because she turns into a diamond. We did all the research from the comic books and took bits and pieces of her costumes from different time periods and meshed it all together. We did a lot of leather.

So, you were involved in coming up with the costume?
Definitely. I have to feel good in it. I’m the one who’s got to wear it 18 hours a day. It was a lot of boots, a lot of hair, a lot of boobs. You can’t please everyone, but the goal is to not disappoint everyone.

Is she a villain? In the comic books she becomes an ally of the X-Men.
The only research I did was the early stuff; I know where she goes later on in the comics is more towards the school and teaching with Professor X. What was really neat about the comics is just how far back they go in the history for each character. Each character’s backstory is so cool — I guess that’s why everyone loves those comics. She’s from a very wealthy family. She has issues with her father, and from that, issues with men. She’s very pro-mutants and anti-human in that she thinks the humans are against them, which a lot of the time they are. That doesn’t make her a villain so much as that she’s just not pro-CIA or the American government.

I think what people fail to remember is [how powerful she is]. There’s this thing you can look at online that lists each mutant and their powers, and ranks them pretty much by how bad-ass they are — and I’m like number one. Everyone just remembers the boobs and the outfit and the hair, but she is not only telepathic, she turns into a diamond and it takes a lot of people to take her down. So people just need to remember that!

Do you have a lot of amazing fight scenes?
Weirdly, James McAvoy is Professor X, so we have a lot of telepathic scenes, which is very interesting to shoot, staring at each other, trying to out-think one another. And then I have some physical fighting going on as a diamond.

You’re in league with Sebastian Shaw, right?
Yeah, there’s the whole Hellfire Club stuff that’s brought into it, which is really cool. And it brought the 1960s vibe into it and the whole Cuban Missile Crisis, making it feel like it really could have happened, which is really neat and the script is really smart about that. Matthew Vaughn’s done a really good job with it.

Between ‘X-Men’ and ‘Mad Men,’ you’ve spent a lot of time in the ’60s.
I know — that was one of the things I was worried about when I first heard that it took place in 1962. I was like, “No way! You gotta be kidding me!” But it’s so, so different. Not only just visually, but the characters obviously. I didn’t ever feel like I was in the ’60s, except every once in a while when someone would say, “Groovy.” Which I’m not even sure is historically correct for 1962!

Yeah, that might be more late-’60s.
We took some liberties.

Can you tell me a little about the movie you did with Nicolas Cage, ‘The Hungry Rabbit Jumps’?
I shot it right before this movie and it’s more of a psychological thriller. Really great script, just Nic and Guy Pearce and me. I think it just got bought, I’m not sure by who, but I think it’ll be out this summer.

Great. What’s coming up on ‘Mad Men?’
I don’t know. The writers haven’t gotten back in the room yet. They’re still working on [creator Matthew Weiner's] deal.

What are you hoping is next for Betty?
Everybody assumes I’d like to see her happy, but it’s not fun to play out. [Laughs.] I never really think about that and I never really try to guess — because I’m always wrong. Matthew really has a genius eye for how each of these characters come together or are pulled apart. I just have a lot of fun reading the scripts when they come in. I don’t try to guess or predict what’s going to happen.

You never suggest anything to Matt?
Oh, no, never. If I did, he would just go the other way. He doesn’t like to please anyone in that way, really. He likes to shock.

Source: MovieFone

A clear tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s films with its themes of list memory, mistaken identity and conspiracy, Unknown begs for the classic filmmaker’s preferred steely blonde to play Neeson’s wife. Jones fills in admirably with her pale blue eyes and deceptive expressions.

Mix that role with her cold scheming as Betty Draper on Mad Men, and the tiny, blue-eyed actress wonders if she needs to take on some lighter roles to change her image. During the press tour for Unknown, the soft-spoken South Dakota native talked about her unlikely status as a big-screen ice-queen.
Are you worried you’ll be typecast as the ice-cold blonde after Mad Men and Unknown?
January Jones : Am I being typecast as a horrible person? I don’t know. I don’t think so. But if it happens, I’d rather get to play that, because there’s nothing fun about being sweet. Sweet can be so boring, so I’d be happy staying away from that. That’s one of the things that really attracted me to Unknown. My character is such a mystery. You never know what she’s about or whose side she’s on. It’s more fun playing something like that.
Are you pleased with how your career is progressing? Are you ambitious to see it continue to grow?
JJ : I’m not ambitious anymore. I’m a jaded Hollywood star now. Seriously, I don’t know if I ever had a plan, but I’m happy with it as it’s gone. In this business, I don’t know how you can have a plan or how you can orchestrate anything. But I’ve been lucky with my choices. I’m very strong-willed, so I’ve been able to stick with it. I’m lucky there.
Unknown is your biggest movie role to date. Are you looking to do more movies now and to get away from TV like Mad Men?
JJ : Mad Men was really my first television role, and it never feels like TV to me. It’s done at such a high level. So no, it’s not a conscious decision to move away from television. Unknown just offered such a great part and an opportunity to work with Liam Neeson.
You’re in the AskMen Top 99. Since you seem to stay pretty soft-spoken and self-effacing, how did you react to that?
JJ : It’s nice. That’s very kind. It’s flattering. But I don’t think I see myself that way. I’m just happy it’s a fan vote, and I appreciate that very much.

Source: AskMen