Jon Hamm goes Mad for new deal

Jon Hamm is staying Mad!

The actor who plays 1960s advertising executive Don Draper on AMC’s Mad Men has signed a new contract with series studio Lionsgate Television Group. Hamm’s publicist, Slate PR, said Tuesday that the deal keeps him with the show for three more years.

According to reports, Hamm will receive a substantial raise for the upcoming fifth season. By the contract’s final year, he’ll earn more than $250,000 an episode.

The actor had been signed through season six of Mad Men. The new deal keeps him on board through the seventh season.

Series creator Matthew Weiner signed a contract in March for a sixth season and a possible seventh. Weiner’s protracted negotiations delayed the show’s return from this year to early 2012.

Hamm recently admitted he can’t get used to life in the public eye.

“You never get used to any of that,” he said. “It all feels sort of ridiculous and crazy. In my mind, I’m literally the same goofy little kid from St. Louis, Missouri. So, the fact that all of this has happened while it’s very exciting, it is also very surreal.”