Monthly Archive for March, 2009

Tonight marks the return of My Boys one of my favorite sitcoms.  The show is about PJ (Jordana Spiro) a baseball columnist, her life and the life of her friends who are mostly guys (except for the awesome Stephanie played by Kellee Stewart.)

I like the show for so many reasons.  Most important is that the show makes it perfectly normal for a woman to love sports.  She never acts like a idiot to prove that the guys know more than her, and in fact she knows more than her friends because it’s her job to know about baseball.

Her goofball guy friends treat her like an equal on all levels, even though they regress to guy tactics and behavior on a regular basis.

This smart show was created by Betsy Thomas and it premieres tonight at 10:30pm on TBS.

In some other excting news, Sarah Paulson late of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip will be back on TV in the remake of Cupid.  It’s very rare for failed shows to get a second chance but ABC has taken this show which starred Jeremy Piven in his pre-Entourage days and remade it with Bobby Cannavale who believes he is actually cupid.  Paulson plays his therapist who thinks he’s full of crap.

Here’s what she said about the role:

I like the opportunity to play a woman who was not male-obsessed and had a career and was focused on other things,

I’ll give the show a chance just for Paulson.  Premieres tonight at 10pm on ABC.

My Boys

Sarah Paulson: ‘Cupid’ at work, at home (USA Today)

Distribution vets Emily Woodburne ( IFC and Zeitgeist), Bridget Stokes (IFC Films) and Vicky Wight (Artistic License) have joined forces and have created a new distribution company BEV Pictures.  The films to be released by the company will focus on a slate of films that will use grass-roots networking and online marketing.

BEV Pictures joins Zeitgeist Films as only the second female owned distribution company.

First film up is Pressure Cooker which won awards at the LA Film Festival, Aspen Film Festival and the Portland International Film Festival.  The film focuses on culinary arts teacher Wilma Stephenson and her high school students at Northeast Philadelphia’s Frankford High School.

Doc is directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker and was produced by Participant Media.  Pressure Cooker will open in NY on May 27th and in LA on June 5th.

Pressure Cooker

Woodburne, Stokes & Wight Launch BEV Pictures, Pick “Pressure Cooker” (IndieWIRE)

There are many things to love about Catherine Keener but one of the things I love best about her is that she seems so real and normal.  She has made a steady career of incredible performances in films big and small.  She’s even been in film like the 40 Year Old Virgin and managed to emerge with her dignity intact.  She’s been in all of Nicole Holofcener’s films and I am looking forward to the new one Please Give which will be out this fall.  On the bigger side she’s also in The Soloist and Where The Wild Things Are.

She sat down with The Guardian to talk about Genova, the new film by Michael Winterbottom in which she co-stars with Colin Firth, Hope Davis, Willa Holland (the OC) and Pela Haney-Jardine.  The film is about a father who takes his daughters to Italy after the death of their mother (Davis.)  Keener plays an old friend and colleague of Firth’s.

The film opened in the UK this past weekend.  I haven’t seen it on the US schedule yet.

Here’s some things that Keener had to say about women in film

She turned 50 this week: does she never yearn to play the lead? “Interesting characters are pretty rare if you really want to be the lead. That’s the usual complaint of actresses my age, and they’re not wrong. They depend on you being beautiful. Since I’m not cast for my physicality, I’m not that interested in those parts. I find that playing so many characters in so many films is a way to stay in the moment.”

She says she feels sisterly towards other women actors her age, and would concur that Hollywood remains ageist and sexist, especially when it comes to big-budget material. Somehow, she has found a niche that avoids these traps. She despairs a bit of the new generation of women coming up: “Everyone seems so frigging young and naive. They had some survey of younger women and they asked them what they aspired to be. The most popular answer was to be the assistant to a movie star -- not the movie star, but the assistant!”

Here is the trailer for Genova:

I Found My Spot (The Guardian)

Since the L Word ended last month, the glaring absence of gay women on primetime TV has been thrust into full view.  Daytime TV has taken up the issue in multiple ways, but primetime TV is seriously lagging behind.  Remember it’s been 12 years since Ellen came out on her show, and then it was pretty quickly canceled.  Now all that’s out there is Callie and Arizona on Grey’s Anatomy and the show seems to have backed off developing their relationship in a big way.  You gotta give props to Brothers & Sisters which has integrated gay issues into the show through the characters of Kevin and more recently Saul.  But women…missing.

So I was really interested when I came across this piece on the site Greg in Hollywood: Liz Feldman tells the frustrasting tale of trying to sell a lesbian sitcom to the TV networks.  Greg reported from a recent Writer’s Guild event where Liz Feldman (a writer/producer on Ellen) talked about her experiences trying to get a sitcom made:

I really wanted to develop a show with a lesbian lead character. I wrote a spec script about me and my straight guy best friend, kind of the reverse of Will & Grace

They read the gay script, they liked the gay script but they were like, ‘What else do you have? We think you’re a little bit ahead of your time.’ This is about a year ago (laughter from audience).”

“So I pitched them a very mainstream show about a straight single girl and her group of married friends. Yawn. I was bored with it myself and sort of thought I could sell it and I did.

About five days after the election, I get a call from a lovely executive who actually really do adore and she said: ‘I have a radical idea. What if we made the lead character a lesbian?’  At this point, I said, ‘Remember six months ago when you said I was ahead of my time? Was I six months ahead of my time?’

So I revamped the entire show, threw out the entire show and created a very sort of down-the-middle half-hour sitcom about a lesbian and her homophobic mother who has to move in with her because her third husband has left her and taken everything. It’s called Get Used To It.

It got great feedback from the studio and would you know, ABC the network passed.

Then they sent it over to other places – I won’t name names – and everybody passed. Nobody wants to make that show

I’m determined. It might take a really long time but I promise you that there will be a sitcom or a half-hour single-camera with a lesbian lead character.

So what’s up with primetime TV and gay women?  Will & Grace even seems so long ago and I’m wondering, would that show even be on the air today? Why are lesbians on primetime TV so taboo?

Greg in Hollywood

Please let this be true.  It looks like Roseanne is eyeing a return to the airwaves in a new sitcom which will be written by Jim Vallely (Arrested Development.)

Roseanne will produce along with one of her Roseanne colleagues Caryn Mandabach, who has been quite busy herself as the producer of the new Edie Falco series on Showtime.

Roseanne Barr Eyes Return to Primetime (HR)

Tomorrow is the second annual SWAN (Support Women Arists Now) Day.  The whole point of the day is to recognize and support women artists.  Women & Hollywood will be supporting women artists tomorrow at the Boston screening of Hounddog.

The event is a project of the Fund for Women Artists.

There are 160 events all over the world.  You can see the list of events here

Some cool highlights:

• Asian American Women, Feminism, and the Arts in SF
• National Assoc. of Women Artists:  Celebrating 120 Years of Women Artists at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC
• Magnolia – A Play by Regina Taylor at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago
• Women on the Edge Playwrights Festival  sponsored by the International Center of Women Playwrights in Boston
• An Evening with Playwrights Kia Corthron and Migdalia Cruz in NYC
• Broadway Theatre Women Discuss Performance Collaborations in NYC
• Building Bridges, Connecting Artists in Nairobi, Kenya
  

This comes from Deborah Siegel at Girl w/Pen:

Ok ladies and gents, let’s see if we can start a Women’s History Meme here.  Take the quiz below, see how you do, and if you have a blog, feel free to post the quiz there AND ADD ONE ADDITIONAL QUESTION OF YOUR OWN.  Don’t forget to post these same instructions when you post the quiz on your blog, so that others then can do the same!  If you send me the link once you’ve posted, I’ll do a roundup next week.  Just email me at deborah (at) girlwpen (dot) com with the header “Women’s History Meme.”  Alrighty then.  Here we go:

1. In 2009, women make up what percent of the U.S. Congress?
A.  3%
B.  17%
C.  33%
D.  50%

2. How many CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are female?
A. 12
B. 28
C. 59
D. 84

3.  Who was the first First Lady to create her own media presence (ie hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column and a monthly magazine column, and host a weekly radio show)?
A. Eleanor Roosevelt
B. Jacqueline Kennedy
C. Pat Nixon
D. Hillary Clinton

4. The Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced to Congress in:
A.  1923
B.  1942
C.  1969
D.  1971

5. Who was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?
A. Phyllis Wheatley
B. Alice Walker
C. Toni Morrison
D. Maya Angelou

6. What percentage of union members are women today?
A. 10%
B. 25%
C. 35%
D. 45%

7. What was the percentage of women who directed the top 250 grossing feature films in 2008?
A. 40%
B. 25%
C. 9%
d. 6%

ANSWERS:

1:B, 2:A, 3:A, 4:A, 5:C, 6:D, 7.C

The Diablo Cody Fempire story has legs.  What I have been loving is seeing my fellow feminists weigh in.  Most of us have been pretty positive about the piece.  The film and gossip people, not so much.  Even the NY Times film blog weighed in on the story’s legs giving your truly a plug.  Feminists are really digging these Fempire chicks.  We just want to see women talk about women in a positive way and get shit done.

So, does the story have legs because so few pieces are written about successful women in Hollywood in such an accessible way or because it’s got the whole sexiness factor going or probably it’s a combination of both.  Those women were pretty big before Sunday and now they are rock stars.  The haters will be out in full force (as if they weren’t already.)  Guess they will really have to embrace the quote on each of their necklaces – Fuck My Face (h/t The Vulture).

Here are the feminists talking about the Fempire:

Courtney at Feministing:

At a time when it seems like testosterone poisoned action flicks and sticky sweet, unoriginal romcoms are the movies that get the money, it’s critical that screenwriters like these get interesting, complex female characters onto the big screen.

But what’s even more thrilling is that they’re unapologetically supportive of one another and being recognized for it. Young women in their position are often pitted against one another, deluged with a psychology of deprivation by agents, producers, and mentors who urge them to look out for themselves, first and foremost, in the competitive LA landscape where there are very few spots for women writers.

Annalee Schafranek at Bitch:

Possibly the most uplifting aspect of this coverage is the emphasis on the supportive nature of this small, self-constructed community. Schoeneman talks about the writers accompanying each other on the red carpet (in place of publicists). Men within the industry comment on the desirability of “The Fempire” support system. Cody herself talks about the necessity of knowing other women going through the same process of unfair image-scrutiny and industry misogyny. In a culture where successful women are frequently pitted against each other, the gal-pal tone of Schoeneman’s article is a refreshing change.

Megan at Jezebel:

Who needs publicists when you have actual friends?

Bust:

They call themselves The Fempire, and it’s about 4 female writers that support each other and are actually doing something for us girls by writing smart and funny scripts for women. Debbie and I had the delightful opportunity to meet and interview Diablo awhile back and she is everything we hoped; smart, amusing, cool and adorable!

Jen at After Ellen

In recent years, Hollywood entourages seem to be a boys-only club, with Judd Apatow’s crew taking over the box office and Doug Ellin’s semi-fictional posse on the HBO series Entourage. When female friendships make the tabloids, they tend to end with a catty, public brawl likely created by the tabloid itself, which makes reading in the Times about the tight knit friendship between Cody, Scafaria, Fox and Meriwether a breath of fresh air.

Here’s some of the film posse weigh in:

Props to Eric D. Snider at Cinematical for his take:

I don’t know if this is pre-feminism, post-feminism, or something else. I’m not a woman, so I think I’m not allowed to talk about that kind of thing anyway. But it’s an interesting article about how women in Hollywood are perceived differently from men (and the article itself is an example of it), and a fun glimpse into the lives of four females who have managed to break into the boys’ club. Having a screenplay produced by a major studio — any screenplay, even What Happens in Vegas — is a significant achievement that comparatively few women get to experience.

From Spout Blog:

Cody and Co. wouldn’t be written about if they were men. But more importantly, they probably wouldn’t have been written about if they weren’t such good-looking women.

But let’s keep in mind that this is only one good news story in a sea of bad news.  Women made up 12% of the screewnwriters in 2008 and as my colleague Kay Steiger saids at Campus Progress, “Women like those that make up the “Fempire,” in other words, are a very small minority.”

There are a couple of things coming up in the next few days that I’m interested in seeing:

In the Motherhood - any show that teams Megan Mullaley and Cheryl Hines is a must watch for me.  It premieres tonight on ABC.

Women’s College Basketball Sweet Sixteen - if you have ever thought about checking out women’s sports, now is the time — this Sweet Sixteen looks excellent.  Saturday and Sunday (ESPN and ESPN2)

Little Dorrit – PBS will premiere the five week series based on the Charles Dickens novel.  Nobody does these better than the Masterpiece theatre folks.  Sunday night- check your local PBS listings.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Now that Big Love is over for the year (sad), HBO is looking to fill the gap and also to get a little girl power going and they are hoping that the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency based on the novels by Alexander McCall Smith will fit that bill.  Singer Jill Scott plays the lead as Precious Ramotswe, owner of a Botswanan detective agency.  The two hour pilot is the last project that Anthony Minghella directed.  Jill Scott in two roles: Detective, mom (USA Today)  Series premieres Sunday night at 8pm on HBO.

I’m going to be moderating a q&a with Deborah Kampmeier the writer/director of Hounddog, Saturday night, March 28th as part of the Women Action Media conference.  The screening is free.

Saturday March 28th
6:00 PM
MIT
Stata Center
32 Vassar Street
Room 32-141

Description:

A spirited young girl in 1950s rural Alabama struggles to rise above the repression that surrounds her. She finds comfort and safety, as well as a place to put her hurt and rage, in the music of Elvis Presley, but it will be her own voice that gives her the strength and courage to walk away from her past and into her future.

Directed by Deborah Kampmeier, with Dakota Fanning, Piper Laurie, David Morse, Robin Wright Penn.

USA, 2008, 93 minutes, rated R for a disturbing sexual assault.

ADMISSION FREE

HOUNDDOG is that rarest of all movies, one about a young girl who is not blameless, lives in a world that demands her self-sacrifice, yet still chooses herself. Dakota Fanning, Robin Wright Penn and writer/director Deborah Kampmeier are panes of glass through which we see others clearly — yet also a reflection of ourselves. Like a good novel, Hounddog will stay with you. Women especially should see this important, unforgettable film — and take the men they love with them. – Gloria Steinem

HOUNDDOG is a haunting film in which Dakota Fanning beautifully and bravely portrays a young girl who is raped.  Thousands of girls a year are raped, abducted, sold, incested and yet there is a huge silence surrounding this issue.  This film bravely and poignantly breaks the taboo. – Eve Ensler, writer and V-Day Founder

HOUNDDOG returns innocence to the adolescent discovery of sexuality, and restores hope for those whose innocence has been taken.  Dakota Fanning and Deborah Kampmeier take us on the emotional journey of a survivor who is following the song in her heart, amidst generations of women who are looking to provide the protection the world never game them.  A brilliantly poignant film that clearly depicts how free expression of female sexuality remains unacceptable in today’s world, and what survivors of sexual violence must do to reclaim their bodies and selves from their perpetrators.  We need more women in Hollywood like Kampmeier to uncover society’s oppression of women and to celebrate the triumphant transformation from victimhood to survival.- Lindsey Horvath, President Hollywood NOW

HOUNDDOG is a powerful film that splinters the facade of a taboo subject and allows us to experience the personal transition of shame to a healing of the spirit on the magic wings of Elvis.  Dakota Fanning gives an unforgettable, kaleidoscope performance and is bracketed by the rich, multi-layered performances of Robin Wright Penn, Piper Laurie, David Morse, Afemo Omilami and Cody Hanford.  Deborah Kampmeier wrote, directed and produced this film that I can’t stop thinking about.
- Susan Davis, National Co-Vice chair of SAG Women’s Committee

The movie is essentially an allegory-of subjugation and emancipation, of liberation through art… Fanning is a child actor with a grown-up soul, and every move, every breath, seems mysteriously right. Her Lewellen survives by going in and out of her shell, and when she’s out-at play, or bopping and singing-you’re torn between elation at her openness and the urge to cry out a warning. – David Edelstein, New York Magazine

The discovery here is the remarkable Dakota Fanning, opening the next stage in her career and doing it bravely, with presence, confidence and high spirits. – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Gloria Steinem turns 75 years young today.  I hope to be kicking as many asses as she is when I’m 75.  She, like all of us still have a lot of work to do, but today we give thanks for Gloria’s inspiration and perseverance.

Here’s a quote from an interview with the NY Daily News (h/t Jezebel)

“Women and girls no longer feel crazy, alone or flying in the face of nature if they have the outrageous idea that they should be treated as full human beings,” the feminist leader and social activist told The News Tuesday. “Knowing that the system is crazy, not you, is a huge leap forward.”

“We’ve demonstrated that women can do what men do, but not yet that men can do what women do. That’s why most women have two jobs — one inside the home and one outside it — which is impossible. The truth is that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.”

The Gloria Steinem Factor: On feminist icon’s 75th birthday, she has much to celebrate, as do we (NY Daily News)

Julia Roberts, Clive Owens and Duplicity came in third at the box office this past weekend tallying $14.4 million on 2,574 screens.  The film definitely skewed towards adults with people over 30 purchasing 78% of the tickets.  Just to keep things in perspective, Clive Owens’ recent film The International opened with a little over $9 million a couple of weeks ago.

The last film that Julia toplined that did big numbers was Erin Brockovich which opened at $28 million.  But if I remember correctly Julia was everywhere promoting that film and now she has other priorities and is less interested in appearing on the cover of every magazine.  I don’t blame her.

Julia talked about the film and her life to EW and some of what she said I found very interesting and telling.  She totally a hands on mom, takes her kids to the set, and this film was delayed for a year while she had her third child because they wanted HER.

Writer Karen Valby hits it right on the head:

Give the woman credit for holding out for a grown-up role. With Duplicity Roberts had the chance to fall in love on screen without first having to fret over a biological clock or whine for her man to propose. ”There are no issues about what to wear,” she says gratefully. ”Nobody’s drunk or tripping in a hallway.”

Think about all the crap we’ve seen this winter where the women are totally pathetic.  Julia Roberts in Duplicity is competent, smart and sexy.

On being 40:

But as women the world over fall for Owen, who at 44 is just hitting his stride as a leading man, Roberts’ turn in this film should quell speculation over whether her most seductive years are behind her. ”I think the days of ‘Oh, we hit 40 and we’re f—ed!’ are really over,” she says, her firm rat-a-tat voice willing it so. ”Because the best actresses around who are working with consistency are Susan Sarandon, Frances McDormand, Meryl Streep, Annette Bening, Holly Hunter. They’re not 30.

And what’s going on with girls in their 20s? Where are the movies that are motivated by the 20-year-olds? There aren’t any! There certainly aren’t as many as there were when I was in my 20s.” Now people go from relative obscurity to being wildly famous and hugely overpaid and expectations are so out of proportion, and it’s a huge disaster story.”

I’m wondering if Duplicity will be typical of films that appeal to women and have longer legs.  Her next film is Eat Pray Love which already has a built in Oprah audience.  Smart. She is also producing Jesus Henry Christ “about a boy conceived in a petri-dish and raised by a loving, left-wing feminist. At the age of 10, he decides his mother’s love is not enough and begins to follow a trail of Post-It notes stuck around town hoping it will lead him to his biological father.” (Reuters)

I believe that the new Julia Roberts post-40 will be way more interesting in her film choices than the old Julia Roberts.  I for one am psyched that she still has juice to use.

Chemistry Majors (EW)

I’m a big fan of Rachel McAdams.  I don’t think she ever expected or wanted to be such a big star but after The Notebook’s success and the whole dating of her co-star Ryan Gosling she just blew up tabloid style.

But she’s been kind of low key for the last couple of years.  I hope it was her decision.  She’s a great actress, but my respect for her grew exponentially when she refused to appear on the 2006 Vanity Fair Hollywood issue cover naked.

The news is that McAdams is back in three films this year and that is why the folks at ShoWest have made her the Female Star of the Year.  First up is State of Play starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren.  It’s based on the British miniseries which I loved.  Next, this summer she will be starring in The Time Traveler’s Wife.  I love that book so much and cannot wait for the film.  Lastly, around the holidays she will co-star with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes.

I like that she’s in so many films but would love for her to be the STAR not just the co-star.

Do you know who Chelsea Handler is?

She’s the female version of a late night talk show host.  Her show is on E! and recently moved to 11pm where she has been kicking ass in the ratings.  Her main audience is  young women 18-34.

She just signed a new 3-year, 8 figure deal with Comcast (parent of E!).  Her new deal also includes a production deal for her company Borderline Amazing Prods.

Her books “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea,” and “My Horizontal Life” spent weeks on the NY Times bestseller list and also appeared in the web version of In the Motherhood which will debut on ABC tomorrow night with Megan Mullaley and Cheryl Hines.

I’ve only seen a couple of her shows, and she is really funny and raunchy.

Chelsea Handler Gets 3-Year Deal (Variety)

Patricia Rozema

The Female Eye Film Festival opens tonight in Toronto with a screening of Deborah Kampmeier’s Hounddog.  Established in 2001, the Festival is Ontario’s only festival highlighting films directed by women.  Part of the festival includes a script development program.

The festival will honor Canadian Patricia Rozema with the 2009 Female Eye Honourary Director Award. Her films include  I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING, WHITE ROOM, WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING, MANSFIELD PARK , and most recently KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL, starring Abigail Breslin as a determined 10-year-old struggling with changes brought about by the Great Depression.  She also wrote the script for the upcoming HBO version of Grey Gardens.

Here are some of the other activities:

THURSDAY, MARCH 26th – 3:30pm – 5:30pm: INDUSTRY PANEL DISCUSSION
The Weight of Women – Realities vs. Perceptions of Women in the Entertainment Industry

Moderated by Sadia Zaman (Executive Director, WIFT) and featuring Linda Schuyler (Recipient of the 2009 Female Eye Maverick Award, Co-Creator / Executive Producer of the Degrassi Franchise), Karen King (Production Executive, CanWest Global), Carol Whiteman (Producer – Women In The Director’s Chair, President & CEO – Creative Womens Workshops), and Christopher Heard (Author / Broadcaster).

FRIDAY, MARCH 27th – 12:30pm – 2pm: DIRECTOR’S PANEL DISCUSSION

Women In Film, Women In Story

Moderated by Carol Whiteman (Producer – Women In The Director’s Chair, President & CEO – Creative Womens Workshops), Lara Leavoy (Co-Director MTV Presents: Degrassi in Kenya), Deborah Kampemeier (Director, HoundDog, USA), Meghna Haldar (Director, Dirt, Canada), Minji Kang (Director, Actually Adieu My Love, USA), Nancy Nicol (One Summer In New Paltz, A Cautionary Tale, Toronto), Liv Weisberg (The Feminist Initiative, Sweden) and Leslie Hope (Director, What I See When I Close My Eyes).

The Festival which runs through March 29th, 2009, will screen a selection of quality features, short films, and documentaries by debut, emerging and established female directors at the Rainbow Cinemas – Market Square (80 Front Street East), Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West) and Mediatheque – National Film Board of Canada (150 John Street).

For advance tickets, visit Ticketbreak or call 1-866-9-GET-TIX. Screening Tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door.  For more information about the festival including full program schedule, please visit Female Eye Film Festival

Please check out my latest piece for the Women’s Media Center: Pondering the Chick Flick

Most women, including feminists, have a love/hate relationship with the chick flick.  A mere mention of the term can send you into a lather bemoaning the disparagement that the entire genre has wrought on womankind.  The current offerings are especially troublesome.  But this was not always the case.

Back in the 1930s and 40s, during Hollywood’s golden era, the chick flicks were called women’s films, which were defined by film historian Jeanine Basinger as “a movie that places at the center of its universe a female who is trying to deal with emotional, social and psychological problems that are specifically connected to the fact she is a woman.”  While women were the central characters in films like Mildred Pierce, Now Voyager and The Philadelphia Story, to name a few, the audiences were both men and women.

Read full piece

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Yahoo just published a list compiled by its movie staff of the 100 movies you must see before you die.

ONLY ONE IS DIRECTED BY A WOMAN- Fast Times at Ridgemont High by Amy Heckerling.

Here’s the description of how they came up with the list:

Many movies are good, some are great, but only a select few can be called truly “essential.” After heated discussions, long negotiations, and a shouting match or two, the staff at Yahoo! Movies has put together this list of the 100 films you must see before you die. To choose the titles for the list, we considered factors like historical importance and cultural impact. But we also selected films that we believe are the most thrilling, most dramatic, scariest, and funniest movies of all time. Some of these films you’ve seen, and some you may not have heard of, but we believe that each one is a timeless classic that you absolutely have to see.

Looking at the list only 11 are women centric (there are a couple of other that a romantic comedies)

Alien, All About Eve, In the Mood for Love, The Lady Eve, Raise the Red Lantern, Silence of the Lambs, Snow White, The Sound of Music, Sunset Blvd, The Wizard of Oz, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

I am not impressed.  How can there only be one woman director included?

Maybe we need to do our own list of 100 women’s films you need to see before you die.

100 Movies to See Before You Die (Yahoo)

Each spring the industry folks gather in Las Vegas for ShoWest to preview the upcoming summer flicks.  It’s a time to excite the theatre owners for the latest big budget Hollywood fare that will be released across the country from May through August.  The event also gives awards each year as a way of attracting talent and getting them to schmooze with the folks who help pay their salaries.

One of the awards is the star of tomorrow.  There is always a male and female recipient.  It’s a big deal because it supposedly shows yourbox office potential. Recent recipients on the female side have included Keke Palmer and Abigail Breslin.  Guys have included Emile Hirsch and Shia Lebouf.  This year the male star of tomorrow is Chris Pine who stars in the upcoming Star Trek film by JJ Abrams.

This year, for the first time, the female star of tomorrow is a joint award for the six actresses starring in the remake of Sorority Row.  It is described as a “chiller” where five sorority girls accidentally cause the death of one of their friends and agree never to speak of it again until another killer starts killing the girls.  Yuck and double yuck.

The reason this award bothers me so is that this is such a blatant bid to add some sex and spice to the awards.  Look at the picture above.  It’s like a cover of a soft core porn magazine. The actresses have relatively little experience between them, the one the most experience is Rumer Willis and don’t get me started on Audrina Partridge from The Hills.

Here’s what the head of ShoWest had to say:

ShoWest co-founder Mitch Neuhauser hailed the recipients of the first ever joint award as “six extremely talented and promising young actresses” who were “vibrant and exciting breakout stars.”

It’s good that the show is in Vegas, it fits right in with all the other porn on display.

Sorority’ girls honored as ShoWest Female Stars of Tomorrow (LA Times)

I remember the first time I saw Joan Allen.  It was onstage in The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein’s play about a feminist art history professor which was really the first play to explore how feminism changed women.  I so loved her (and the play) and I instantanly became a big fan.  (Just thinking about the Heidi Chronicles makes me miss Wendy Wasserstein.)

I’ve watched her in films over the years in tons of supporting roles (The Ice Storm, Nixon) and was very psyched when she finally got a lead playing a vice-presidential nominee in Rod Lurie’s The Contender.

It took Ms. Allen 15 years to be cast as the lead in a movie. That happened in 2000 with “The Contender,” in which she played a senator nominated for the vice presidency who grapples with a sex scandal. For that performance Ms. Allen lost the Oscar for best actress to Julia Roberts.

She returns to Broadway after a long hiatus co-starring with Jeremy Irons in Impressionism opening tonight ironically on the same stage (though the theatre now has a different name) where she played Heidi Holland.  She and Irons also co-star in the upcoming Lifetime film about Georgia O’Keefe.

Here’s a description of the play (from Playbill):

The play is billed as being about an international photojournalist and a New York gallery owner “who discover each other and also that there might be an art to repairing broken lives.”

Enter the Anti-Diva, Stage Right (NY Times)

Impressionism

(l-r) Dana Fox, Diablo Cody, Liz Meriwether, Lorene Scafaria - photo by Amy Dickerson for NY Times

The NY Times in a Style section piece yesterday reported this bizarro notion that there are women screenwriters in Hollywood that support and root for each other.  Shocking.  I first heard about the group last fall during the Toronto Film Festival where the Fempire went and supported Lorene Scafaria at her premiere of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  Here’s my piece.

The piece has gotten a lot of differing reactions.  Here are my thoughts:

Overall, I’m thrilled about the Fempire.  It’s clearly needed especially in light of the fact that only 12% of films are written by women.  It’s also smart.  Writing can be very lonely and it’s great that these women have each other.  It’s also cool that they have added a new member to the group since Toronto who they are mentoring.

The article was in the Style section which we all know is code word for women.  It technically belonged more in the Arts & Leisure section but honestly, who really reads that anymore?  It is so irrelevant and Style section piece are always longer and more interestingly written.  Just admit it, you all read the Style section way before the Arts & Leisure.  Right?

Here are some of the problems.  The title-  An Entourage of Their Own.  I watch Entourage and these women are no entourage.  It’s a cool name but these women are not granted access because they work for a star.  They are the stars.  The term is misleading and demeaning.  Better would have been- A League of Their Own.

The biggest issue that people are having with the piece is the sexualized nature of it and how these women use their sexuality.  Be real.  This is Hollywood and they are young and cute.  They’re also not stupid, and know that being young and cute is a huge boon to their careers.  In this world the stories just don’t speak for themselves, the storytellers are part of it, especially for women.

Screenwriters usually don’t have stylists or publicists, yet the women said they feel pressure to look photogenic in a way that is not demanded of male screenwriters.

People are jealous of them.  There are tons of Diablo Cody haters.  People hate her because they begrudge her success and because she flaunts it.  She came from nothing and now she’s rich.  It’s a tad unseemly in these times, but she worked hard for it.  She would have nothing if her film hadn’t resonated with people all across the country and had been a huge hit.  She tapped into the zeitgeist which is what all screenwriters are desperate to do.

The thing I admire about her and her posse is that they don’t give a shit about what others think of them.  They are successful women and there is nothing to be ashamed about.  Isn’t that what feminism was about?

Do I wish that the sexuality stuff was not a part of these women’s stories?  Sure.  Do I wish that the entire beginning of the NY Times piece would have talked about their films instead of what they looked like?  Yup.  But being a dancer in a strip club is part of Diablo’s backstory and it will never go away.  I’m not going to let the sex talk stop me from admiring that these women are friends, real friends, and they are fighting against a difficult culture that does a damn good job of pitting women against each other.

“There are so few slots for us in Hollywood,” Ms. Cody said. “Sometimes you hear the lobsters-in-a-pot metaphor — if the lobsters cooperated, they could get each other out. We’re cooperating. We refuse to just lie there and boil.”

I want them to be successful.  I want them to be able to write films that are not regressive chick flicks and have enough power to get them produced.  As of right now the body of work between the women is mixed.  I liked Juno and even though I haven’t seen Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, I actually want to.   But I had no interest in seeing Dana Fox’s The Wedding Date or What Happens in Vegas.

But who knows what going to happen to the Fempire?  I think it’s going to be really interesting to watch how they grow cause the list of high profile screenwriters is really short, and the fact that there is a couple of young women on it is exciting.  I hope that as they gain power they will have more freedom to write more feminist type stories.  So as I said before, long live the Fempire.

Hollywood’s New Power Posse (NY Times)