Jessica Pare

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner is well aware of fan speculation that Don Draper's wife, Megan (Jessica Paré), will be murdered on the June 23 season finale of the AMC drama. Tongues started wagging after the May 26 episode, in which Megan wore a T-shirt with a red star — the same as that worn by actress Sharon Tate in a 1967 Esquire article, two years before she was stabbed to death in L.A. by members of the Manson Family. Also, in the May 19 episode, Don's daughter, Sally, was seen reading Rosemary's Baby (the movie version was directed by Tate's husband, Roman Polanski), and on June 2, Don hallucinated that Megan told him she was pregnant (as Tate was when she was killed).

"It's just a coincidence," says Weiner. "Rosemary's Baby was a best seller, and I've wanted Megan in a real T-shirt [from the era] for a couple of seasons." Plus, he says, "We're not yet in 1969, so [no Manson] this season. He's not in New York." True, but actress Megan could easily end up in L.A. "There's a lot of death on this show, and sometimes the audience mistakes symbolism," Weiner says. "I hope the audience finds our finale intriguing and emotional."

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