Elisabeth Moss

It's a sun-soaked afternoon in Los Angeles, but Elisabeth Moss is shivering. Sitting in the back room at the Pikey on Sunset Boulevard, Moss recalls how cold the water was in New Zealand, where she filmed "Top of the Lake," a miniseries created by Jane Campion that premieres Monday on the Sundance Channel. "The lake is the same temperature all year round: freezing," says Moss, wearing a loose white cotton dress, her short brown hair tucked neatly behind one ear. "My makeup artist had this black plastic bucket and they would fill it with hot water and I would go sit in it fully clothed to warm up. " It's an odd detail, but it's in keeping with the making of the moody crime drama, filmed over a five-month period against a staggeringly beautiful natural backdrop of soaring mountains, rugged bush and the omnipresent lake.

The "Mad Men" season six premiere happened Wednesday night at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, and we're going to try to take the high road and write about it without discussing the Jon Hamm rumor that's been circulating this week. Yep, we're going to talk about who was in the room - the likes of Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss and Jessica Pare - and definitely not about the, er, elephant in the room. The night was full of delicious tidbits: Vincent Kartheiser, who plays Pete Campbell on the show, revealing to People that he'd practiced his proposal for Alexis Bledel on his costars Moss and Pare, and Kartheiser's on-screen wife, Alison Brie, pondering what she might get the newly engaged couple for their wedding.

"Top of the Lake" is the first miniseries from filmmaker Jane Campion of New Zealand ("The Piano," "Bright Star"). I have seen only the first three of its seven parts, which begin Monday with two episodes on Sundance Channel, and though I suppose there is some chance it all will go off the rails, early signs suggest it will bend toward something even more mysterious, beautiful, unsettling and satisfying than the mysterious, beautiful, unsettling, satisfying...

"Top of the Lake" is the first miniseries from filmmaker Jane Campion of New Zealand ("The Piano," "Bright Star"). I have seen only the first three of its seven parts, which begin Monday with two episodes on Sundance Channel, and though I suppose there is some chance it all will go off the rails, early signs suggest it will bend toward something even more mysterious, beautiful, unsettling and satisfying than the mysterious, beautiful, unsettling, satisfying...

Elisabeth Moss has cut her shoulder-length hair short and gone platinum-blond, à la Miley Cyrus - but we prefer to think she's getting her Twiggy on, in keeping with the essence of "Mad Men" and its 1960s setting. Twiggy, of course, is British model Leslie Lawson, whose androgynous look made her a fashion icon and otherwise famous face in the mid-'60s. Moss rocked her new 'do on the "For a Good Time, Call ... " red carpet Tuesday in New York, supporting the film starring Ari Graynor, Lauren Miller, Seth Rogen and Justin Long, which opens Aug. 31 in limited release.

Most actresses have stayed away from prints, a huge fashion trend at the spring runway shows at New York Fashion Week earlier this month. One exception is Julianna Margulies, whose green brocade, couture-style Giambattista Valli gown seems to be weighing her down. Another is Elisabeth Moss, who is wearing a floral print Mikado gown by Dolce & Gabbana, along with a new blond hair style. Both Margulies and Moss get lost in all the folds and busy patterns.  There's enough happening on the red carpet as it is. Prints just make the scene all the more dizzying.

The title is "Mad Men," but the Emmy-winning AMC series features some notable women as well, including L.A.'s own Elisabeth Moss. The onetime ballerina-in-training's role as copywriter Peggy Olson earned her an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actress in a drama series in 2009, a year also significant for her marriage to another TV madman, "Saturday Night Live's" Fred Armisen. Here's how the newlyweds do SoCal. Life at the Tower It's always a special treat to stay at the Sunset Tower Hotel.

"Playgrounds. " It's just one word, but it's Elisabeth Moss' favorite line from her four seasons of pretty great lines on "Mad Men. " Moss delivers that word during the fourth-season episode "The Suitcase," essentially a two-character show featuring Moss' earnest copywriter Peggy Olson and her mercurial boss, Don Draper (Jon Hamm). The story takes the characters through the course of a long evening, ending with Don breaking down after learning that his friend Anna, "the only person who really knew" him, has died.

This story has been updated. See below. One day, Elisabeth Moss (as Peggy) is giving her notice to Don Draper; the next, she's in an unheated shed in the outskirts of Queenstown, New Zealand, rehearsing for a Jane Campion mystery. “It was cold!” Moss told reporters Saturday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour. She was there to promote Sundance's upcoming “Top of the Lake,” joined by co-star Holly Hunter and producer Iain Canning.  The seven-part mini-series is set in a quiet New Zealand town and features Moss as a detective searching for a missing (and pregnant)

Sitting poolside with Elisabeth Moss, who's wearing a white summer dress, her brown hair wet and combed back and looking "cute as hell" (as Don Draper memorably described her character, Peggy Olson, on "Mad Men"), it's pretty easy to picture the day Moss walked into show creator Matt Weiner's office five years ago to read for the show. "It was the very first day of auditions," Weiner remembers, "and she was the second person to read. Not just for Peggy, but for the show, period. Someone came in to read for Don. I did not like him. And then she came in, and she was so young, wearing this ingénue dress, with her hair long and straight.

It's a sun-soaked afternoon in Los Angeles, but Elisabeth Moss is shivering. Sitting in the back room at the Pikey on Sunset Boulevard, Moss recalls how cold the water was in New Zealand, where she filmed "Top of the Lake," a miniseries created by Jane Campion that premieres Monday on the Sundance Channel. "The lake is the same temperature all year round: freezing," says Moss, wearing a loose white cotton dress, her short brown hair tucked neatly behind one ear. "My makeup artist had this black plastic bucket and they would fill it with hot water and I would go sit in it fully clothed to warm up. " It's an odd detail, but it's in keeping with the making of the moody crime drama, filmed over a five-month period against a staggeringly beautiful natural backdrop of soaring mountains, rugged bush and the omnipresent lake.

This story has been updated. See below. One day, Elisabeth Moss (as Peggy) is giving her notice to Don Draper; the next, she's in an unheated shed in the outskirts of Queenstown, New Zealand, rehearsing for a Jane Campion mystery. “It was cold!” Moss told reporters Saturday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour. She was there to promote Sundance's upcoming “Top of the Lake,” joined by co-star Holly Hunter and producer Iain Canning.  The seven-part mini-series is set in a quiet New Zealand town and features Moss as a detective searching for a missing (and pregnant)

Most actresses have stayed away from prints, a huge fashion trend at the spring runway shows at New York Fashion Week earlier this month. One exception is Julianna Margulies, whose green brocade, couture-style Giambattista Valli gown seems to be weighing her down. Another is Elisabeth Moss, who is wearing a floral print Mikado gown by Dolce & Gabbana, along with a new blond hair style. Both Margulies and Moss get lost in all the folds and busy patterns.  There's enough happening on the red carpet as it is. Prints just make the scene all the more dizzying.

Jon Hamm and the "Girls" - how's that for a sexy tagline for Sunday's 64th Primetime Emmy Awards on ABC? The annual awards rite could use a splash of sex appeal, with ratings falling and the nominations going to series the vast majority of Americans don't regularly follow. For the first time, none of the big four broadcast networks has a series among the nominees for drama series. So viewers who might have missed some of the offerings on the 100 or so networks piped into their home might appreciate a rough guide to the proceedings: What are some special things to watch for this year?

Elisabeth Moss has cut her shoulder-length hair short and gone platinum-blond, à la Miley Cyrus - but we prefer to think she's getting her Twiggy on, in keeping with the essence of "Mad Men" and its 1960s setting. Twiggy, of course, is British model Leslie Lawson, whose androgynous look made her a fashion icon and otherwise famous face in the mid-'60s. Moss rocked her new 'do on the "For a Good Time, Call ... " red carpet Tuesday in New York, supporting the film starring Ari Graynor, Lauren Miller, Seth Rogen and Justin Long, which opens Aug. 31 in limited release.

The Emmys are so predictable … so boring … so uninspired … unless, of course, voters are rewarding your favorite show yet again, and then it's wildly on-target, a well-deserved honor bestowed by perceptive and discriminating industry authorities. FOR THE RECORD: Julia Louis-Dreyfus: The Gold Standard column in the Aug. 9 edition of The Envelope said that Julia Louis-Dreyfus was a 12-time Emmy nominee. The actress has 13 nominations. - Expect a great many predictable (and well-deserved)

Jon Hamm and the "Girls" - how's that for a sexy tagline for Sunday's 64th Primetime Emmy Awards on ABC? The annual awards rite could use a splash of sex appeal, with ratings falling and the nominations going to series the vast majority of Americans don't regularly follow. For the first time, none of the big four broadcast networks has a series among the nominees for drama series. So viewers who might have missed some of the offerings on the 100 or so networks piped into their home might appreciate a rough guide to the proceedings: What are some special things to watch for this year?

"Mad Men": A correction that appeared Tuesday about the TV series "Mad Men" misspelled the first name of actress Elisabeth Moss as Elizabeth.

The cable creep has finally taken over the Emmys. Making steady inroads over broadcast television in recent years, cable networks dominated the nominations for the coveted top drama category Thursday morning, blanking the major networks by taking five of the six slots - leaving the remaining nomination for public broadcasting. Those drama nominees - "Boardwalk Empire"(HBO), "Breaking Bad"(AMC), "Downton Abbey" (PBS),"Game of Thrones" (HBO),"Homeland" (Showtime) and"Mad Men" (AMC)

NBC and its beloved but low-rated comedy"Community" received a bit of a boost Tuesday morning when the nominations for the second annual Critics' Choice Television Awards were announced and both the show and its network led all other nominees. "Community" was the most nominated individual show, with six nods, while NBC led all other networks with 14 nominations. It even beat out Emmy favorite HBO, which had 12 nominations and led all cable channels. ABC received 13 nominations and Fox received 12. "Mad Men" and"Parks and Recreation" were also favorites, with five nominations each.