Entertainment

‘ROCK’-Y ROAD TO ROMANCE

Jon Hamm doesn’t have to report to work on the “Mad Men” set until April, for episodes that won’t air until July. In the meantime, Don Draper fans can catch the devastatingly handsome actor, in one of his infrequent appearances on network TV. This week, he will play Dr. Drew Baird, neighbor and date of Liz Lemon in a three-episode arc of “30 Rock.”

Wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, a casual winter coat and scarf, and his seldom seen “dry look”-brown hair parted in the middle with bangs-Hamm is almost unrecognizable.

VIDEO: Watch Don Draper on ’30 Rock’

“I play a divorced man who’s moved into Liz’s building and we have a mistake in mail exchange,” says Hamm, on cell from California where he was in an auto shop having his car fixed. “Hilarity ensues, sparks fly and it ends up unfortunately more comedic rather than super, super romantic.”

The actor, who once auditioned for Alec Baldwin’s role in the comedy series, reveals that the talk among producers about his appearance on the show started late last year when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” around the time of the “Mad Men” season finale. But the week he was filming his final episode turned out to be one of the most dramatic in the new year for New York. Hamm and Fey were filming on the Upper West Side when the U.S. Airways plane crashed into the Hudson River.

“We were shooting 20 blocks north of the crash site,” Hamm says. “We were on our break and Tina was in her car driving [downtown]. She saw the plane come down. That was definitely a highlight. It was also a solid seven degrees out. Shooting on the streets of New York, trying to some hiatus branching out, this was definitely something.”

Hamm did not know Fey before they worked together. As actors whose shows could not be hipper-“30 Rock” and “Mad Men” just won Golden Globes and more prizes from the Producers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-they could not be better matched. Hamm says he fit in well with the cast and hopes if he comes back he has a chance to work with Baldwin.

He’s also glad that his “Mad Men” boss, Matthew Weiner, has finally renegotiated his contract and the cast will also soon be back to work. How Weiner, who skipped nearly two years in time from seasons one to two, advances the show’s story arc particularly interests Hamm, as Betty Draper (January Jones) has revealed that she’s pregnant with her and Don’s third child. He acknowledges that last season really belonged to Betty and Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), who was committed to a psych ward after carrying a baby to term and telling no one about it.

That “Mad Men” remains such a topic of conversation, even though it hasn’t been on the air since October, is clearly flattering.

“You never really get used to [the attention], given that not that many people watch the show,” he says. “It feels good that people are writing and thinking about it so that it’s not a TV show.”

30 ROCK

Thursday, 9:30 p.m., NBC