People often ask Jane Maas, pioneering '60s and '70s "ad girl" and author of "Mad Men" myth-busting book Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the Sixties and Beyond, three questions whenever they meet her.

"Were women really treated like second-class citizens back in the '60s like they are on Mad Men?"

"Yes," answers Maas.

"Did you guys really have three-martini lunches like they do on Mad Men?

"Yes," she says again.

"Was there really all that sex in the office like there is on Mad Men?"

To which Maas answers, "Unequivocally, yes."

The last question seems to be the most popular, and certainly wasn't an embarrassing topic for society members present at the American Advertising Federation awards banquet, held this week at the Junior League of Houston, who giggled as the 80-year-old spitfire indulged in a saucy reverie about her life in the '60s-era, male-dominated advertising world.

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Are you sitting down? George Clooney will be here in less than a week.

Holy heart attack, Batman! In less than a week's time, the one and only Mr. George Clooney will grace our metro with his magnificent aura. Clooney will join Houston celebutante Lynn Wyatt as the featured speaker in the "Brilliant Lecture Series." The series focuses on bringing "international leaders, philanthropists and entrepreneurs to Houston to help inspire and support new ideas." The lecture takes place Thursday, May 3, at the Wortham Center and tickets range between $25 and $150 a pop. $150 to see the loveliness of George Clooney up close and personal might just be worth it. Maybe he will even have something interesting to say!

Clooney is not your typical Hollywood star. In the past few years he has proven to be much more than just a pretty face. He has influenced public debate on humanitarian issues in Sudan and highlighted concerns over Prop 8. He has met with politicians and representatives from the United Nations, and he pulled off one of the greatest heists in Las Vegas history... oh wait, that was a movie. Let's face it: The guy is a hero.

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Who would have ever imagined Kirk Cameron, the loud-mouthed, sarcastic prankster on TV's Growing Pains, whose Tiger Beat centerfolds adorned the walls of many a young lady, would be promoting a film about the religious foundations of this country? Cameron has been out and about in the public eye talking up his documentary, Monumental, making headlines everywhere he goes. The film, which opens nationwide this Friday, explores the roots of our nation and the successes spawned from the ideas of a "tiny band of religious outcasts." That is nice and all, but taking the film's synopsis in tandem with much of what Cameron has been spouting about homosexuality begs the question -- were our forefathers that concerned about gay marriage? That chapter might have been left out of our history books.

Regardless, Cameron's crusade has resulted in an overabundance of bold statements. At times Cameron is so fixated he sounds like he could be running for office. Speaking of people not running for office, we've heard very little from once-presidential hopeful/Texas Governor Rick Perry since he accepted defeat. All has been very quiet on the Western front -- until last week. Perry played host to another outspoken religious advocate, Rick Santorum.

Governor Perry has also made some pretty strong statements over the years pertaining to religion; Cameron might want to steal a few lines from his repertoire.

Who said it: Kirk Cameron or Rick Perry?

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Photos by Allison McPhail

Her name is Apple and she don't take no mess.

Check out our slideshow for even more dogs.

This Sunday afternoon I was one of the judges at the Houston Humane Society's K-9 Fun Run, helping award prizes to the best-dressed dogs. Even as a straight man I have an affinity for dressing dogs up in funny clothes and costumes, mainly because it ups their cuteness factor to near toxic levels, and you get a good chuckle out of it.

Don't act like society hasn't made that into a gay stereotype. Why can't I watch The Bikini Carwash Company and drink a beer while sketching a Shawshank prison uniform costume for me and my girlfriend's Maltese?

Putting dumb stuff on animals should be for everyone, as long as it doesn't suffocate or kill them. Then it's wrong.

Needless to say, the early part of Sunday was filled to the brim with pooches of all sizes over at Sam Houston Park. Some guys are into scary-looking man-hunting dogs that maybe make up for other shortcomings or personality disorders, so when I say that I am into the tiny pocket-sized creatures, it confuses folks.

"He looks like he should own six pit bulls but he just chased down a lady with a chihuahua the size of his fist," a witness would say.

That's a true story, by the way. I saw a little apple-headed fella named Speedy from ten yards away and wanted to meet him. He wasn't in the costume competition, sadly, but I would have awarded him the "most lovable cutest handsome lil' man on the planet" yesterday.

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Photos by Marco Torres

I was invited by the Sailor Jerry Rum folks to visit their Airstream on the site of Mess With Texas this year at SXSW to meet and visit with world renowned tattoo artist Oliver Peck, who has a popular shop in Dallas -- Elm Street Tattoo -- plus another one in Los Angeles. He is also about ramp up work on season two of Spike TV's tattoo reality show, Ink Master.

And I would also be able to get tattooed by the famous Peck, soaking in an hour of the man while he pounded ink into right ankle.

If you know me or have even have seen me, you know that I have two tattoo sleeves and a some leg and chest work. The fun and stories I collected from Peck while he worked on me helped form a great afternoon in a metal can at a music festival, and the trappings melted away and we could have been in one of Peck's own shops.

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The 2012 National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees were announced late last week and Steve Jobs, co-founder of both Apple and Pixar, with more than 300 patents under his belt, was posthumously honored. According to the Invent Now Web site, Jobs is credited "with revolutionizing entire industries, including personal computing, mobile phones, animated movies, digital publishing and retailing."

The National Inventors Hall of Fame was established in 1973 to honor some of the best patented inventions throughout history. Rifling through the Web site, there are tons of inventions you may never think of, or maybe even consider inventions, but they have changed the way we do things.

Here are our top ten most useful patented inventions.
10. Cereal - Patent No. 558,393

If Kellogg could only see how healthy his cereals would become!

Every morning when you pour yourself a nice bowl of Fruity Pebbles, do you ever think about how important cereal is to our daily existence? Flaked Cereal was patented by John Harvey Kellogg, who stumbled upon the idea by forgetting to properly store a slab of wheat dough. He turned the dough into flakes and fed them to patients at the wellness sanitarium he ran. They were such a hit, he patented the process. Can you imagine life without cereal? What would you single guys eat for dinner? And would the raisin industry even need to exist?

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It was five years ago today that model, actress, reality star, and would be millionaire widow Anna Nicole Smith passed away in Miami at the age of 39 due to a drug overdose. She left behind a baby daughter, Dannielynn. She was preceded in death by her son Daniel.

The storm of controversy around her death -- the circumstances of the overdose, her will, her burial in the Bahamas nearly a month later -- all capped a life that seemed to be lived extremely loud and incredibly odd.

There was the beginnings as a stripper here in Houston, the Playboy covers -- she was named Playmate Of The Year in 1993 -- the Guess Jeans ads, the Marilyn Monroe resemblance and image that was foisted on her.

Her relationship with mega-tycoon J. Howard Marshall and their quickie marriage would have her going in and out of courthouses for almost a decade, contesting his will after he died in 1995, and going up against his furious heirs. She never saw any of the money in her lifetime, and the U.S. Supreme Court would rule in 2011 that her daughter, her heir, wouldn't see any of it either.

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Who wouldn't love a face like that?

In the usual fashion of our over-exposed culture, another celebrity has come down with the deadly "foot-in-mouth disease" and is spreading it all over town. This most recent affliction has made its way to Tim Gunn, stylist to the world, fashion guru and self-esteem proper-upper. Recently, Gunn announced on the ABC talk show The Revolution that he has not gotten any action in 29 years, and he is doing just fine. We will remain cordial and not comment on the statement at hand and focus, rather, on the "why did you just tell us that?" factor. We're sorry that Gunn is missing on the kissing, but some skeletons are better left in the closet, sir.

This is not new, though, this idea that public figures feel the need to over-share. In fact, in the past ten years, and given our culture's current obsession with reality programming, we have seen a nauseating amount of TMI.

We cataloged the useless information in our brains and came up with the top five worst cases of celebrity TMI.

5. Jessica Simpson Doesn't Brush Her Teeth

For some very confusing reason, Jessica Simpson announced on the Internet site Iheartradio that she does not traditionally brush her teeth. J-So, why would you think sharing this disgusting and, may we say poor hygiene, habit with America was a good idea? Did you think we would all laugh and nod agreeing? We don't brush either! No, this is not a case of the "stars are just like us!" We all brush our teeth.

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Happy 90th Birthday Betty White! Today, January 17, the real Lady B hits the 90th marker and America couldn't love her more. Betty White really is an anomaly. In the nine decades she has been alive, media has transformed and with it she has evolved from radio to film to television and now to the Internet. And she refuses to quit. Last night NBC celebrated White's milestone birthday and previewed her upcoming show, Betty White's Off Their Rockers, which is like Punk'd with retirees.

White began her acting career while still in her teens; she's been acting longer than doing anything else. She's a seven-time Emmy Award winner and has received 20 Emmy nominations. She's an author, with several titles under her belt, and this past year was nominated for a Grammy for the audio recording of her last book, If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't). She is also an animal rights activist and serves on the board of directors for the Los Angeles Zoo. Betty White is amazing.

To celebrate the lady who's still got it, Art Attack's 10 Best of Betty.

10. Betty White, the model.

It is common knowledge that White started her career on the radio, but not as widely known was that White also did some (nude) modeling early on. She was quite the looker.

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Courtesy of Huffington Post

Last week, worlds collided when the famous New York auction house Christie's sold a letter dating back to 1957 for $33,600. Why did it sell for such a hefty sum of money, you ask? Because it was a letter written by Jack Kerouac to Marlon Brando pleading with him to purchase the movie rights to Kerouac's opus, On the Road. Apparently, Kerouac wanted Brando to play the carefree and wild character Dean, and Kerouac would play the role of Sal, who was loosely based on the author. A portion of the letter reads:

I wanted you to play the part because Dean (as you know) is no dopey hotrodder but a real intelligent (in fact Jesuit) Irishman. You play Dean and I'll play Sal (Warner Bros. mentioned I play Sal) and I'll show you how Dean acts in real life.

Brando declined to buy the film and for 54 years the world never knew of this potential collaboration. This apex of missed connections made us wonder how many other such situations existed throughout history? Are there more letters out there, waiting to be auctioned off for tons of cash, which pair up two unlikely souls?

We certainly hope so, and here is our top five wish list of dead celebrity pen pals.

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