Mashable is thrilled to announce that actress and humanitarian America Ferrera and actress Alexis Bledel will join the 2012 Social Good Summit to discuss social media advocacy of poverty-stricken women and girls.

The Social Good Summit is a three-day conference that will unite global leaders as they share how to use the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve the world’s greatest challenges. Tickets are available for all three days, and you can purchase them here.

At this year’s Social Good Summit, America and Bledel will appear on stage with Molly Kinder, Director for Agriculture and Europe Policy ONE, Claire Diaz-Ortiz, leader of social innovation at Twitter, Inc. to discuss how social media can change the lives of women living in poverty around the world. They will share experiences from their recent trip together to Honduras with ONE to see how women and girls in one of the world’s poorest countries are fighting to pull their families out of poverty.

America Ferrera, best known for her role as “Betty Suarez” on Ugly Betty, will appear in the PBS television series Half the Sky with fellow Social Good Summit speaker Nick Kristof. This series examines the struggles of women in 10 underprivileged countries fighting for change. Alexis Bledel, recently on Mad Men, has been active in voter registration for the upcoming 2012 election.

TICKET INFO

AWESOME AWESOME News! Alexis is now on twitter – and verified! You can follow her HERE

lexis Bledel, best known for her acting roles in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gilmore Girls, visited UNLV on Tuesday to promote support among youth voters for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

Bledel allied with members of Organizing for America – Nevada, a group in favor of the 46th president’s policies, standing a few feet away from the organization’s table and urging students in the Free Speech Zone to help in the President’s re-election efforts.
Despite the blistering heat, several students stopped by the table to converse with the actress about the upcoming presidential election.

Christian Pale, a sophomore with an undeclared major, decided to register to vote and volunteer her time for Obama’s campaign.

“I just really like the things that Obama’s done and I don’t know,” Pale said, “I just would like to stick with him and do whatever I can do.”

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The 37th Toronto Film Festival has released the final batch of titles for their complete, and final, TIFF 2012 line-up. In grand total, they’re playing 289 feature films over 11 days, starting September 6. Just last week, TIFF announced another set of films including the highly anticipated The Master, as well as Passion and Spring Breakers. This final batch adds some other great picks to the selection, including Palme d’Or winner Amour and Cannes favorite Like Someone in Love. They’ve pretty much programmed everything this year. Check out the final batch below.

Here’s the final set of films to be added to the TIFF 2012 line-up. We’ll start with the Discovery films first.

The Brass Teapot
(dir. Ramaa Mosley, USA)
John and Alice are in their 20s, married, very much in love, and broke. In high school, gorgeous Alice was voted “most likely to succeed” but now she’s just trying to make ends meet while her friends are enjoying the good life. Her husband John, loving but immature, just wants to get the bills paid. After they get into an accident and end up at a roadside antique shop, Alice is uncharacteristically drawn to shoplift a brass teapot. It isn’t long before they realize this is no ordinary teapot. Starring Juno Temple, Michael Angarano, Alexis Bledel, Alia Shawkat, Bobby Moynihan, Stephen Park, Billy Magnussen and Debra Monk.

Best Drama Guest Actress
Alexis Bledel, “Mad Men”
Joan Cusack, “Shameless”
Loretta Devine, “Grey’s Anatomy”
Louise Fletcher, “Shameless”
Lucy Liu, “Southland”
Carrie Preston, “The Good Wife”

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Q: Who was your favorite character before joining the cast?

A: They’re all written so well… Peggy is an incredible character, and I remember thinking that when I first watched the show. She’s a great and rare television character. It’s been fun watching her go from Don’s secretary to coming into her own in that time period.

Q: What drew you to the part of Beth?

A: I instantly wanted to know more about her because she’s quite mysterious and she’s conflicted… I felt for her right away. She is stuck in a bad marriage that is really taking a toll on her psyche I think, so I just wanted to explore what that meant for her.

Q: This character is a bit darker than we’re used to seeing from you. Was it fun to play someone so different?

A: It was something I was excited to do, because we all have moments of intense sadness in our lives… [Beth] is not the type of person that’s afraid to explore her darker thoughts, and she actually really needs to talk about them with someone and she finds that opportunity with Pete

Read the Full Q&A Here

In “Lady Lazarus,” last night’s episode of Mad Men, Pete Campbell had a night of passion with Beth Dawes, the wife of his fellow commuter Howard. After their indiscretion, Pete pursued Beth, but Beth spurned him—until she drew that sad heart in her foggy car window, giving him (and us) hope the affair might continue. Beth was played by Alexis Bledel, beloved by TV fans as Rory Gilmore in the long-running Gilmore Girls.
Slate talked with Bledel about complicated Beth Dawes and how hard it was to keep her involvement a secret for so long.
Slate: The episode was written by Matthew Weiner. How did he describe the character of Beth to you?
Alexis Bledel: He said she’s still living the life of a ’50s housewife. She hasn’t really moved into the ’60s, because she’s trapped in her marriage. I think in earlier episodes Howard alludes to losing his temper and says that he and Beth have really gotten into it. They have a very tumultuous relationship. You don’t really see that in this episode, but that was something I thought about a lot and something that really contributes to her sadness, her despair, and her loneliness. I think she identifies with the despair in Pete, and that’s why they connect so strongly right away.

Read the Full Interview Here

In case you missed it, Alexis’ episode of Mad Men will air tonight at 11 on AMC, then Thursday at 4:30 am and Sunday at 9am.

WOW! Has NO idea she had filmed this – I’ll have screencaps up tomorrow!

Alexis surprised Mad Men viewers tonight when she appeared as an unannounced guest star in this week’s episode, “Lady Lazarus”.

Alexis played the wife of the insurance salesman befriended by Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser).

DID YOU CATCH Alexis Bledel’s surprise guest appearance on Mad Men?
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