Exclusive: Don’t count Julia Louis Dreyfus in for the US film version of “Force Majeure” so fast. JLD told me last night she’s taking six months off, starting now, from any work in Hollywood at all. What about the movie? “Uhn’t uh, I’m not doing anything. I’ve got to spend time with my family.” She means it, too, because her very nice husband Brad Hall and their two grown sons were with her last night at HBO’s splashy premiere of Julia’s hit show “Veep.” (It’s back on HBO April 12 at 10:30pm. Yay!)

Julia is one of those rare nice people you meet in the TV world. She talks to everyone, is lovely, funny, and keeps her cool. She was right at home last night at Gotham Hall with “Veep” cast members, friends of the show, and of HBO, all of which there were many. It doesn’t hurt that the first two episodes of “Veep” are LOL hilarious in their usual, sublime way. JLD’s Selina is now, improbably, President of the United States. What could be funnier?

A big part of this season is a mystery. Hugh Laurie joins the cast, but no one will say what his role is. Speculation has him as Vice President. It does feel like the new Veep is not long for this post, so anything is possible. Meanwhile, a more fleshed out role is Selina’s daughter, Katherine, played by Sarah Sutherland (grand-daughter of Donald, daughter of Kiefer). In the second episode, Katherine has to deal with being subjected to a popularity poll. It’s not pretty.

At the party last night, making rare East Coast appearances: Gary Cole, Kevin Dunn, Timothy Simons, Matt Walsh and the glowing Anna Chlumsky, who’s about to open on Broadway in “Living on Love” with opera star Renee Fleming in a non singing role. Famously, Anna starred with Macaulay Culkin in the movie “My Girl” twenty years ago. Does she talk to him now? “No!” she said, laughing but not meanly. “Do you talk to anyone you knew when you were 12?” She’s got a point.

As for JLD: does she ever watch the old “Seinfeld” episodes, I asked? She hesitated. “A little, sometimes. It’s like watching yourself grow up on TV.” I told her my favorite episode is “The Yada Yada” aka “The Anti Dentite” in which also Bryan Cranston plays Dr. Tim Watley, the dentist who wants to be Jewish for the jokes. “And I was very pregnant with that six foot five kid you just met,” she said, pointing to her 17 year old son. “You wouldn’t believe it,” she said. (And you wouldn’t because she looks mostly the same as she did 20 years ago.)

PS Guests at the party included Katie Couric, Pablo Schreiber, “Empire” writer and “Girls” actor Danny Strong, HBO’s West Coast chief and style impresaria Nancy Lesser, and “Boardwalk Empire” creator Terry Winter. Everyone was very excited to welcome famed Four Seasons Hotel manager Mehdi Eftekari to New York from Beverly Hills. Mehdi is one of the most popular and coolest Angelenos– he’s going to make the Four Seasons here the in spot! Also great to see my old pal Tammy Haddad, media queen of Washington DC. I knew her when she produced Larry King’s show from the capital. She was 6 and I was 8. Precocious!

More on “Veep” right before it premieres…

“Mad Men” returned tonight and jumped from the summer of 1969 to April 1970. How do we know? Don listens to Richard Nixon withdraw 150,000 troops from Southeast Asia on April 20th. During the episode titled “Severance” it seems like it might still be 1969, because Peggy Lee is singing “Is That All There Is?” and Joan is talking about L’Eggs stockings taking over the market. But the men’s hair styles have changed, and they all look like Sergeant Pepper. All except Don.

Oh, yes, Don: while all fashions change, Don remains the same. It’s on purpose. He doesn’t adapt at all to changing times. The world just whooshes around him. And while he’s certainly accepted the sexual revolution, that’s it. Life marches on around Don. And he dreams of his mortality. He has a dream about Rachel Katz (Maggie Siff) an old lover, only to discover subsequently that she’s died from leukemia. He sees a waitress in a diner who looks like her, and they have sex. Her name is “Di,” short for Diana. Oh my. Very David Lynch.

The other plots of “Severance” involve Ken Cosgrove, who is fired but gets revenge. He doesn’t need “Severance” and now he’s going to make the lives at Sterling Cooper very difficult. Peggy gets the other story; she tries to have a good time. She and Joan also disagree about the miserable way they’re treated by the men at McCann Erickson.

Mortality surrounds Don, and adds fuel to the fire that he’ll die in the end. Matthew Weiner likes playing with the audience, so who really knows? Meantime, the ads on AMC were pretty interesting: they took an ad for Showtime’s “Happyish” on a competing cable network. Weird.

Is that all there is, my friend?

“Mad Men” comes back tonight for its final 7 episodes. But the show almost ended completely back in the winter of 2011. After the fourth season ended, the show was renewed by AMC, but they had no agreement with series creator Matt Weiner.

The ordeal dragged on from mid January through April 1, 2011. “Mad Men” missed its start date for a 5th season. The result was an almost 18 month break between seasons. Lower ratings ensued despite the show being better than ever.

But AMC was to networks what the old American Motors Corporation was to automobiles. You’ll note, they are not around anymore. AMC was just lucky: HBO passed on “Mad Men,” and they were the default place to go. “Breaking Bad” broke out behind “Mad Men,” and AMC got its watered down sequel “Better Call Saul.” “Walking Dead” is their last shot, and if they’re not careful, well…

AMC put fans, Weiner, and the “Mad Men” cast and crew through an unnecessary wait in 2011. And it was weird. Weiner didn’t hear from them for months. They had the hottest show on TV and didn’t really care. Since that time, most of the AMC team that brought their three hit shows to the air are said to be gone.

The 2011 break delivered “Mad Men” its fourth Emmy in a row that fall for Best Drama. But “Mad Men” has never earned a single acting Emmy. Jon Hamm has been nominated over and over but never won. John Slattery has been screwed over 7 times. Elisabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks, ditto. It doesn’t seem possible. But overall the show has a record for being the Susan Lucci of Drama shows. AMC has never been able to pull off a win for any actor.

Not a lot happens on tonight’s show– I’ll write about it when it ends. It’s more about time and tempo than plot. Don is getting his divorce from Megan and running into old girlfriends (Maggie Siff). Peggy’s trying to get her life together. At Sterling Cooper, Ken is getting the last laugh. Fans will love it. But it leaves just six episodes to wrap up the show. We’ll see if AMC can give it the same organic send off “Breaking Bad” had.

Tonight’s song is Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?”

“Saturday Night Live” sent up Scientology as “Diametics” with a hilarious video last night. Bobby Moynihan played L. Ron Hubbard looking crazy as ever. The premise was a “We Are the World” type song in which members of a group called Neurotology were labeled “missing” or “in the hole.” As soon as the video is up on the SNL site I’ll embed it here. Good work!
Here’s a teaser:

The almighty father of Neurotology. #SNL http://t.co/lTe0kqGpEU

— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) April 5, 2015