Is Suave Broadway Vet Bryan Batt Headed Back to TV's Mad Men?

We asked for it in our photo flashback on the stars of Mad Men, and it looks like our wish may come true: TVguide.com is reporting that Bryan Batt will return to the hit AMC drama as closeted art director Salvatore Romano before the end of the current season. The Broadway vet joined his former castmates at the 2010 Emmy Awards, where he answered questions about a possible return with an enigmatic smile. Tight-lipped show creator Matthew Weiner said only, “Yes, Sal is alive. There’s hope, but you have to watch the show. You know I’m not going to say anything.”

Batt exited the Mad Men last season after his character rejected the advances of a male honcho at the ad agency’s leading client, Lucky Strike, and was summarily fired. The August 29 episode of the Emmy-winning drama seemed to set the stage for Sal’s comeback when the current art director at new agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce was criticized for his work.

Batt’s Broadway credits include the 2004 revival of La Cage aux Folles, Seussical, Saturday Night Fever, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sunset Boulevard, Beauty and the Beast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Starlight Express and Cats. His off-Broadway credits include Jeffrey and Forbidden Broadway. Batt is the author of the new memoir She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother and is co-owner of the home décor shop Hazelnut in New Orleans.