Village Maiden of the Week (07/26 – 08/01)

Christina Hendricks

A lot has been made of Christina Hendricks’ beauty.  The typical focus tends to be her measurements, but I’m going to submit to you that if you want some serious gravitation pull, look no further than her eyes.   Hendricks pulls you in with a look that is an immediate mixture of coy and dangerous all backed up by a warm smile.  Then your eyes will dart up to her red hair and you’ll not realize that she’s a natural blond that has died her hair red since the age of ten.  There’s the outline of her hips and the fullness of her shape that has been described as sort of a Tex Avery style woman, but all of these things illustrate one sure thing, there is nobody quite like Christina Hendricks.

Hendricks began her career in television with a made for TV film called Sorority, but it wasn’t until she was a regular on the series Beggars and Choosers for 19 episodes that the industry began to take notice of her.  She followed that up with guest appearances on several series including ER, but the guest spot that I remember the most…because it was the first time I laid eyes on her…was on Joss Whedon’s Firefly as the con artist “wife” of Mal Reynolds.

This appearance, which won the actress a Syfy Genre Award for Best Special Guest/Television in 2006, was the one that made me want to know who this woman was.  Her range was impeccable.  She starts off as the quiet, inexperienced farm girl…a total con…and ends up as the confident and skilled manipulator that gives the formidable Captain Mal a run for his money.  The character actually appeared in two of the series’ episodes before it was cancelled, a tragedy whose full measure I’ve not yet gotten to make my feelings known on, and I have to wonder how many more appearances there would have been had the show kept running.

Not to discount her other appearances, but let’s jump ahead to 2007′s first season of Mad Men.

This is the series most of the world knows her for.  As the head secretary for Sterling Cooper, her Joan Holloway is one of the first characters you’re introduced to on the show and one that makes an indelible impression.  She’s smart, witty, sexy, and she knows just what she needs to do to retain her alpha-female status.  Through three seasons we’ve watched her character as she’s dealt with being the object of affection, scorn, pettiness and we’ve seen how the same beauty that gets her noticed is the same thing that gets her discounted.  She’s a woman who is talented and wants desperately to be noticed and taken seriously, but her efforts can’t seem to override the fact that her hips sway like a metronome whenever she walks away from you.

This role has won her not only acclaim, but helped the ensemble cast get nominated for consecutive SAG awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.  This year, however, Hendricks is getting the spotlight on her talent as she’s been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.  If you are even remotely unsure as to why, you need to Netflix or iTunes every season of Mad Men.  This is your homework assignment.  Go ahead, do it, I’ll wait….done?  Good.  See.  The defense rests.

If that wasn’t enough, Hendricks was voted Best Looking American Woman for 2010 in Esquire Magazine in 2010.   FYI.

So, I don’t really think I need to present much more of a case for why Christina Hendricks is our Village Maiden of the Week.  As Mad Men begins its fourth season yesterday, I think she’ll be giving us many reasons for a repeat performance.