Monthly Archive for June, 2009

Last week I attended the release of an economic study done by Princeton undergrad Emily Glassberg Sands entitled Opening the Curtain of Playwright Gender: An Integrated Economic Analysis of Discrimination in American Theatre.

Usually an undergraduate thesis does not warrant a couple of hundred people showing up to hear the results.  But this was no average thesis and Glassberg Sands is no average undergrad.  This young woman is seriously impressive and was advised by Cecilia Rouse who is now working for the Obama administration and is the co-author with Claudia Goldin of Harvard of the famous study Orchestrating Impar-tiality: The Impact of ‘Blind’ Auditions on Female Musicians about how blind auditions increases women making it out of auditions by 50%.

None of this would have happened without Julia Jordan, a playwright, who got tired of not being produced and decided to find out if there was bias.  The thing to understand about theatre is that everyone knows there is sexism and it’s a joke because nobody is willing to do anything about it.  Here’s what Jordan says:

I know that there is a lot of joking going around where people say ok we have our 4 plays and we have one slot left it’s the race/girl slot.  Everybody knows that’s how it works.  The sexism is a bit of a joke.

And playwright Theresa Rebeck said:

It’s not like the men in the system don’t know it’s happening.  It’s sort of interesting to me when you go to a new play festival everybody admits that it is happening and kind of shrugs and says what can you do.

This is not funny.  Jordan smartly used economics which everyone can understand.  No more anecdotes of discrimination.  Here are the real facts.  If you want to read Jordan’s introduction to the event, click here.

So here’s what we learned:

1- More plays written by men get produced in NY.  The figure is 82% male to 18% female.  So the overall question is: are there more plays written by men and are why are there too few female written plays in the pool?

The news is (based on a playwrighting database) that there are more male playwrights and plays written by men.  Yet scripts by men and women get produced at equal rates.  So even though there are fewer plays by women they get produced at the same rate as men.

2- Women write more plays about women and those are ones least likely to be produced.  The more female parts the less likely they are to be produced, so women write smaller plays.

3- Glassberg Sands sent out 4 plays by female playwrights and changed the names to have half female names and half male names to theatres across the country to see what happens to the same play is written by Mary and Michael.  Turns out the same play with a female moniker is treated differently than one with a male moniker.

This is called an audit study and I find the results fascinating.  When the play is purported to be written by a woman the scripts are deemed to be of overall lower quality and the characters are perceived as less likable and those plays are perceived to have poorer economic prospects including less chances for prizes.

The strange part of the audit survey is that women seem to be harder on women playwrights.  When Emily said that I knew that was going to be the lead of the story.  Women discriminate against women.  But it’s not that simple.  Here’s what Julia Jordan says about this issue:

People need to look closely at the audit study at what it does and what it doesn’t say.  What it says is that women judge the excellence of the script whether it is purported to be written by a man or woman as equal.  That’s not where the discrimination came in.  Where the discrimination really came in was with questions like do you think it will win a prize? Do you think it will be financially successful?

So let’s dig a little deeper here.  Plays by and about women get produced less.  So those plays with women characters have to be amazing in order to get through.  (Keep in mind that none of this research focused at all on the predominance of male critics)

Do I believe that women are harder on women playwrights?  Yup.  Do I believe that they do it because they don’t want women playwrights to be successful?  Nope.  Here’s what I think.  Women are harder on women.  Always are.  I am betting it’s still pretty hard to be a female leader at a theatre around the country and if the perception is that women’s plays don’t do as well as men’s.   On top of that it is harder to find women’s plays because as the study showed earlier there are more plays by men floating around.  So when you are a woman working in a theatre and want to put forward a woman’s play for consideration it had better be an amazing play because no one wants to be known as the person who championed a play that did not live up to expectations.  The standards for women’s plays are so much higher and harder.

Here’s what playwright Francine Volpe has to say:  **This quote has been changed from an earlier version where I misquoted Volpe.  I apologize to her and to the theatre companies who have worked to develop and produce her work.**

I have always known that when I write my masterpiece I’ll have something closer to career I really want in theater. But I look around at my male peers and they haven’t written their masterpiece either and in the meantime, they are more consistently produced. These productions are helping them to become better writers and deepening their relationships with other artists.

And Julia Jordan adds:

And they are learning from it.   And the are building relationships, and they are building an audience and they are paying their bills.  And it’s leading to film and tv work.

This is a vicious cycle.  More male plays get produced.  These guys make money for their agents and their agents plug them.  When women don’t get produced they get dropped by their agents and there is no one championing them and sending out their material.  The fact that women artistic directors are harder on women makes sense because it is harder for women.

But here’s the most important thing to note.  Plays with women characters, the ones that are the least likely to be produced, are the most successful financially. So with all the discrimination women are still successful.  Only 11% of the plays on Broadway over the last decade were written by women BUT those plays made more money and had higher revenue by 18%.  Yet even though those shows are doing better they don’t run longer.  Producers are actually losing money by not running these shows longer and by not producing more plays about women.

So what does this all mean?  I think that this study could be the beginning of something really big.  Why don’t we do the same study of how women’s screenplays are treated?  I’d love to see and audit study of how scripts with women characters are treated.  I think it’s going to be even worse that the theatre.  But what this study has done is finally unmasked the sexism on the part of the business that plays by and about women are not successful.  People want to see plays by women.  Women buy over 60% of all the tickets.  Theresa Rebeck said: “Women are buying all the tickets and plays by women make money.  Theatres can no longer afford to hang on to the shreds of old thinking.”

Women need to be supported and told that writing about women is OK.  That stories about women are ok cause they do make money.  You would never tell a guy that he shouldn’t write plays about men because they can’t be successful and now we can’t tell women that either.  Cause the bottom line is money and women make money.  So here’s the deal.  Anyone who says they are not producing a woman because her play won’t make money can no longer get away with it.  The argument is gone, over and should be unmasked as what it is – sexism.

Thank you all for coming today.    I’d like to thank 59 East 59 Theaters and Primary Stages for making this event possible, especially Elisabeth Kleinhans, Peter Tier, Andrew Lensye, Elliot Fox and Tessa La Neeve.    I’d also like to thank the Dramatists Guild, Princeton University and New Dramatists for all of their support.

Last fall, Sarah Schulman and I decided to organize a social evening for female writers at New Dramatists.  We expected a turnout of about twenty of our closest friends.  The email invitation however, went viral and a list of NY theaters that had announced all male seasons became attached to the invite.   We had over a hundred attendees and a hundred more responses from across the country and England.  At that event, the writers expressed a desire to talk directly to artistic directors about the problem.  We assembled an impressive panel of artistic directors and literary managers and held a second event at New Dramatists.

We had statistics that showed that the ratio of male to female writers being produced in New York was more than four to one.   That all male seasons were commonplace, while all female seasons were unheard of.  Primary Stages is the first theater to have programmed an all female season that I know of… that is at a theater which doesn’t have the mission to exclusively produce women.  Though the conversation at the townhall was lively and positive, not much was actually concluded.  The theaters asserted that there was a low number of female written scripts worthy of production and the writers charged discrimination pure and simple.

Emily Sands is here to address both of these claims.

Continue reading ‘Julia Jordan Introduction to Opening The Curtain of Playwright Gender’

Netflix and Film Independent have teamed up to help disciver the next great indie filmmaker.  The winner gets a $150,000 production grant and a bunch of other resources like film stock.

4 of the 10 films that have made it to the semifinals are by women.  I got an email from the producer of Pariah asking for all of our support.  Pariah tells the story of a lesbian teenager juggling multiple identities to avoid rejection from her family and friends.  The film seeks to personalize the struggles of gay/lesbian youth of color in such a way that evokes empathy, opens doors to communication, and promotes dialogue within families.

I am urging you to take a couple of minutes and check out all the films by the women directors here: Netflix Find Your Voice and VOTE!

Voting lasts until July 5 and you can only vote once.

Here’s a review of a documentary that played at the recent SILVERDOCS Fest done by Anna Pinkert of Still Indie.  Film will air on PBS this fall.  (If you have a review of post you think would be appropriate for this site, please send it to me at melissa@womenandhollywood.com.  I am looking for additional voices and perspectives on the site.)

Gemma Cubero del Barrio and Celeste Carrasco follow two women in their quest to succeed in the machismo world of Spanish bullfighting.  The film itself is beautiful – watching it, I had an incredible sense of the two women not only as devoted athletes and trailblazers, but also as people who are passionate about an art that is significant in Spanish culture.

Maripaz Vega, Celeste Carrasco, Eva Florencia and Gemma Cubero del Barrio. Photo by Anna Pinkert

Both filmmakers and both of the women bullfighters were on hand at the screening I attended.  The filmmakers said that this movie took 9 years to make.  Initially, they conceived of it as a piece on the history of women bullfighters, but when they met Eva Florencia and Maripaz Vega, they decided to make them the center of the story.  On their part, Eva Florencia and Maripaz Vega said that they loved watching the film, and were proud to be a part of it.  Vega, who is an established matador, hoped that the film would improve the situation for women bullfighters in Spain, but that they have a long way to go.

One of the many things I learned at SILVERDOCS is the value of a good relationship with your subjects.  At a screening of Salesman, legendary director Albert Maysles updated us on the status of his four Bible salesmen subjects, 40 years after the film’s debut.  Being warm, generous, and kind to the people in your film has a better chance of yielding the intimate stories that you want to tell as a filmmaker.

Ella Es El Matador will premiere on PBS on Sept 1 as a part of POV.

Anna Pinkert is a multimedia producer working in the Boston metro area and a blogger at Still Indie.

Universal Pictures has picked up the comedy pitch Business Trip from writer Stacey Harman.  Benderspink, behind the Warner Bros. hit “The Hangover,” will produce the laffer about a group of women who go on a corporate trip but wind up doing anything but business while on company time. (Variety)

Reaper co-star Missy Peregrym landed the lead role on the Canadian cop drama Copper, which will air on ABC.  Billed as “Grey’s Anatomy” set in the world of rookie cops, “Copper” centers on Andy McNally (Peregrym), a newly minted cop fresh from the academy and the daughter of a homicide detective. (HR)

BBC Worldwide is co-producing a new Emma miniseries and a sequel to Judi Dench starrer Cranford for PBS’ “Masterpiece Classic” in early 2010.  Romola Garai (“Atonement”) stars in “Emma.  “Cranford 2,” will be presented in two hourlong installments, Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Francesca Annis and Eileen Atkins are resuming their roles.  Heidi Thomas, writer of the original adaptation, will pen the sequel.  (Variety)

Maya Entertainment has acquired U.S. theatrical and home entertainment rights to Mexican comedy Casi divas.  Written and directed by Issa Lopez, the film centers on four young women from different corners of Mexico who get caught up in the frenzy during a talent search for a lead role in a movie.  Film will be released in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Diego on Aug. 21, with a national expansion to follow.  (Variety)

Katherine Heigl is starring and producing the new romantic drama Life As We Know It.  Film is about two singles who are named as the guardians of their mutual friends’ oprhaned daughter (Empire)

Nora and Delia Ephron’s stage adaptation of book Love, Loss and What I Wore will have a 12-week Off Broadway run beginning in September.  Show will have three casts of five thesps each, including Tyne Daly, Rosie O’Donnell, Kristin Chenoweth and Rita Wilson. Casts will play stints of four weeks each.  Production is helmed by Karen Carpenter.  Show is based on Ilene Beckerman’s illustrated look at the outfits she wore during different phases of her life. A series of sartorial-themed anecdotes, the legit version takes its inspiration not only from the book but also from personal stories of the Ephrons’ friends.  Production begins previews at the Westside Theater Sept. 21 ahead of an Oct. 1 opening. Some proceeds of the run will go to charity Dress for Success, which provides professional clothes and job support for low-income women. (Variety)

Sheryl Lee Ralph has stepped into a lead role in the Broadway-aimed tuner adaptation of The First Wives’ Club.  Actress joins Barbara Walsh and Karen Ziemba as a trio of women who are all dumped by their husbands for younger women.  Francesca Zambello (“The Little Mermaid”) directs the musical, with score by Motown songwriters Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland and book by Rupert Holmes (“Curtains”).  “First Wives” plays at the Old Globe July 17-Aug. 23. Specifics for the Broadway run, produced by Paul Lambert and Jonas Neilson, remain to be confirmed.  (Variety)

Patricia Cohen seems to be on the gender and culture beat at the NY Times.  She’s written two stories this week first the one on gender discrimination against women playwrights (full post on that coming) and now one on how women are having success as theatre directors.

But even if women are doing well — three were nominated for Tony’s this year — let’s all be honest here, It’s still incredibly hard to be a female director in the theatre, especially in NY, and especially on Broadway.  A playwright friend of mine has tried to have a woman director work on her plays and she can’t make it happen.

But women have been making strides and that’s awesome.  I am so psyched to see different visions out on stage (and of course, I’d love to see them on film too.)

Cohen notes:

This has been something of a banner year for female directors in New York, a development that wouldn’t be worth noting if it weren’t so rare. In July alone three new Off Broadway shows directed by women (including Ms. Ivey) are beginning previews. On Broadway eight shows last season — a record — had a woman in charge, with most of them garnering outsize praise for their work.

I love the line- “with most of them garnering outside praise for their work.”  This goes back to the whole conversation that because there are so few women the ones that succeed need to be exemplary.  Women still need to be way better just to get half the attention.

35-year-old Leigh Silverman is making a a career for herself as a director.  She’s directed on Broadway and most recently directed the adaptation of Coraline.  (Tell me why that wasn’t on Broadway?  The film made some serious money at the box office.)  When Well flopped I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her.  But she has persevered but really who else is directing as much as she is?

Silverman notes that even after a good year:

“It’s not a level playing field. There is no parity.”

Many women are so sick of all the attention paid to gender.

British director Maria Aitken said:

It is much better today, but, “it annoys me and upsets me even now that we have to be considered a special case,” she said. “I want to stop being an oddity.”

The only way women are going to stop being an oddity is to have more women.  That way gender won’t matter and people will only focus on the work.

Who’s in Charge of This Show? She Is (NY Times)

Opening This Week
This is one of those weekends where there are way too many films opening. Usually there are a bunch of guy flicks and maybe one or two choices on the femme side, but this weekend the choices for people interested in female centric movies are abundant. Add to that the success of The Proposal and a couple of women directed flicks and you have a seriously competitive weekend. Here are some of your options:

Cheri returns Michelle Pfeiffer to the big screen for the first time in five years (disclosure: I am working as a outreach consultant on the film.) She re-teams with her Dangerous Liasions director and writer, Stephen Frears and Christopher Hampton in the adaptation of Colette’s novels as a courtsean who falls in love with a much younger man in France in the early the 20th century. Pfeiffer is amazing to watch and makes you remember why she is such a star. The costumes are fantastic and the whole older woman dating a younger man storyline has led to many a good conversation about the double standard between men who love younger women and women who love younger men. Kathy Bates plays her former rival and another interesting bit to note about the film is that these women (while they were courtseans) had power, property and independence at a time when so few women did. Opens nationwide today. More info here.

Iran, especially Iranian women, are all over the news with the recent election. While many Iranians are struggling for liberty, the new movie The Stoning of Soraya M. — which is based on a true story — reminds us how far we still have to go to liberate women in many countries throughout the world. The story, sadly, is all too common. A woman Soraya is accused by her husband of adultery because refuses to divorce him for fear that she and her children would starve. Her husband conspires with town mullah to destroy Soraya. Soraya having no rights and way to defend herself is convicted and sentenced to death. This woman did nothing wrong except help a widower with a disabled child and in return she is sentenced to death! Here in America it is very difficult to process and comprehend but we must because this still happens to women.

This is not an easy movie to watch. It’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable because what happens to Soraya is unacceptable. The biggest issue that people can’t get over regarding the film (I still can’t) is that she is actually stoned to death in the film. It is very difficult to watch and I sat there with my hand over my face not able to completely watch it. Shohreh Aghdashloo plays the aunt of Soraya a woman who is brave enough to try and get Soraya’s story out through a reporter. Though the movie sees things as black and white and at times seems heavy handed, I find it amazing that it was made at all. Screenplay is by Betsy Giffen. Opens in NY, LA and other selected cities before a national roll out. Here are some stories about the film: Iran’s Brave Leading Lady (The Daily Beast) Find out where the movie is playing here.

My Sister’s Keeper is the wide release Hollywood film of this weekend. Cameron Diaz takes on her first mom role in the adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s best seller about a couple who genetically engineers a child in order to save their older daughter from cancer. The young daughter (Abigail Breslin) endures constant medical invasions on behalf of her sister until at 11 she sues for medical emancipation before being forced to give her sister a kidney. Haven’t seen the film so I can’t give a better assessment except to say that it’s directed by Nick Cassavettes who directed The Notebook, so if you are looking to cry this is probably a good choice.

Films Currently in Theatres
The Proposal
My Life in Ruins
Seraphine
Away We Go
Easy Virtue
Julia
American Violet
Coraline
Sunshine Cleaning

Women Directed Films
Opening This Week:
One of the most highly anticipated releases this summer is Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker about a team of bomb removal specialists working in Iraq in 2004. While many of the pre-release stories have focused on the fact that oh my god a woman is directing a war film!, once you sit down inside the theatre there is no way to tell (nor do you care) whether the film is directed by a man or woman. Bigelow’s film is a character study about the addiction of war. Jeremy Renner plays a bomb removal specialist who is so addicted to the adrenaline of war and what he does that while his fellow team members played by Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty count down the days until they rotate out of Iraq, he can’t stand being home and returns to Iraq. Bigelow is known for her action flicks but this film takes her to a whole new level as a filmmaker. The film doesn’t romanticize war and unlike previous Iraq war films is not a jingoistic portrait of America as the world’s savior. It’s about the people who are a part of the war and what war does to them. (film opens in limited release today) More on Bigelow: Action! (NY Times), Kathryn Bigelow: Road Warrior (Newsweek) Opens in limited release today.

Afghan Star directed by Havana Marking (documentary)
After 30 years of war and the Taliban’s repression, Afghan Pop Idol is taking the nation by storm. But this is more than just a TV show. In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing.

Pop culture has returned to Afghanistan. Over 2,000 people are auditioning for Afghan Pop Idol and even three women have come forward to try their luck. But in this troubled country, even music is dangerously controversial. Many of those taking part are literally risking their lives. Yet millions of people watch the show and vote by text from their cell phone for their favorite singers. We meet Rafi, a boy from Mazar-e-Sharif with a strong voice and a pretty face, Lima, a young woman from Kandahar who fears for her life every time she goes home, Hammeed, a young musician and classically trained singer from the Hazara ethnic group, and Setara, a controversial figure from Herat who wears the latest fashions and Bollywood make up. Opens in NY today and in LA next month.

Surveillance directed by Jennifer Lynch
Story about Jennifer Lynch: Phoenix Rising (Backstage)

The Academy blew the minds of pretty much everyone following the film business by doubling the Best Picture nominees starting this year.  So instead of five best picture nominees there will be ten.

The news was greeted with mixed emotions (as expected) but I am interested in thinking about whether having more films slots could help pictures about women and women filmmakers.

I emailed some people in the film business and here are their answers.  Hopefully I will get some more responses and I will add them to the post.

More importantly, what do you think about this big, big change?

Gale Anne Hurd, producer of The Terminator, The Abyss and Punisher: War Zone

I’m delighted the Academy has made this decision – now lesser known indie films, strong dramas or musicals, and even powerful commercial films (like this year’s STAR TREK) will receive the recognition they deserve with a nomination.

Thelma Adams, Film critic, US Weekly

This change clearly seems to be to the advantage of big films that have been overlooked of late — The Dark Knight, etc.  So I don’t think it’s a victory for women in film, but a triumph for big Hollywood over quality indies.  Will this help Kathryn Bigelow’s pummeling “The Hurt Locker?” I think not.

Martha Coolidge, director, Rambling Rose, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (disclaimer: she is on the Board of Governors of the Academy)

So my answer to you is “yes” this certainly increases the chances of films by and about women being nominated in the Best Picture category.  The number of Directors to be nominated has not been increased so I don’t think it effects that at all, except that any achievement by a woman helps every other woman.  So a woman’s movie nominated for Best Picture one year could increase the attention to another good one the next year getting more attention for both categories.

Sasha Stone, editor, Awards Daily

I think for the first time in decades there is a chance for more than one woman to get a film into the Big Ten.  Best Director, though, is still where all of the power lies and in that category no woman has won.  Can this change that?  It’s possible.  It looks likely that Kathryn Bigelow’s Hurt Locker is headed for one of the ten slots – she may get a Best Director nod but I don’t think you’d find anyone who would say she is the frontrunner, or even has a chance, to win.  That’s because most of us accept the bitter truth that these awards are still voted on by a majority of male voters.  So in that way, ten nominees isn’t going to change things. On the other hand, perhaps the wider opening for Best Picture contenders at all could open previously closed doors for women and other minorities.

What it mainly does is free up the Academy voter from having to make hard decisions.  For instance, last year it was The Reader vs. The Dark Knight.  Previously it was Dreamgirls versus Letters from Iwo Jima.  Since voters put down their pics in order of preference from 1 to 5, their top two, or maybe three are the only films that get attention.  They know this, which makes their decisions so difficult, so predictable and so boring. With more choices, smaller films or foreign films or even animated films that voters love could pop up on the list whether it’s been marketed as an Oscar movie or not.

Robin Swicord, Screenwriter (Little Women, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Director (Jane Austen Book Club)

I’m not sure what the effect will be on women.  What I hope  is that the onslaught of expensive Oscar campaigning may be somewhat reduced, since it should be fairly impossible for a studio to mount mega-million-dollar Oscar campaigns for every film that would be in possible contention in a wider field of nominees.  Reduced competitive “noise” may make it easier for a film without the support of a huge and costly Oscar campaign to come to the attention of voters.  (And yes, some of those may be films written by or directed by or starring women in lead roles.)  I also hope that a broader field of possible nominees will allow more action films and comedies to get the attention that some in these genres deserve.  And it may even change the Weinstein/Miramax-originated model of releasing “Oscar contenders” only in the fall and then doing a full-court press to position a handful of pictures as being Award-worthy.  It won’t be possible for schedulers to fit every Oscar-worthy film into a fall release in theatres if the field has widened to ten Best Picture nominees.  Personally I’d like to be able to go to the movies year-round and expect to see films of high quality.  We’ve driven audiences away from the habit of going to the movies regularly, by creating these weird little release windows for “summer movies” and “fall movies” and the February dumping ground for movies that distributors aren’t sure how to sell.  These release patterns make it difficult for studios and marketers to think in other terms, and I believe that has limited the development of movies that are truly original.  Here’s hoping the Academy’s Board of Governors did something brilliant.  I think it is possible that they have.

Hannah Free, the new film starring Sharon Gless, written by Claudia Allen (adapted from her play) and directed by Wendy Jo Carlton will premiere on Sunday, June 28 as the closing night film for the Frameline LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco.

The film tells the story of a life-long love affair between two women, Hannah and Rachel.  Hannah played by Gless is a free spirit who refuses to abide by the rules and has constant wanderlust even though she is incredibly in love with and happy with Rachel.  It takes Rachel a lot longer to fully be with Hannah even though she does love her.  Their struggle to love each other and be accepted is symbolic of the evolution of the struggle for gay civil rights.

Sharon Gless is a forceful presence as Hannah.  While the story might seem cutting edge because it is about two women it really isn’t, it’s just a plain old love story.  It just happens to be about two women.  I loved that we saw the women age through the film which moves it beyond the “cool” factor.  This is a story that is happening in communities all across the country and I like that it was brought out from behind the shadows into the forefront.

Women & Hollywood posed some question to the film’s director Wendy Jo Carlton:

Women & Hollywood: How did you become involved with this film?

Wendy Jo Carlton: I’ve been an independent filmmaker for about 20 years, and had many successful shorts and a few screenplays under my belt before I moved to Chicago from Seattle. I worked with Tracy Baim, the executive producer, on a couple other projects, the Chicago Gay Games DVD and recently the living library that is the Chicago Gay History Project.  In the course of interviewing hundreds of LGBT folks in the area, I met the playwright Claudia Allen and then the three of us decided to make a lesbian feature film in Chicago, adapting Hannah Free, one of Claudia’s popular plays.

Wendy Jo Carlton

W&H: There are not many films that show lesbians in this way.  do you think this is a breakthrough in how lesbians will be seen on film?

WJC: It was important to me to portray Hannah and Rachel not just as young lovers but as older lovers as well, two women who share a deep emotional connection but also a passionate physical and sexual connection. And not to just imply that, but to show their attraction visually, cinematically. Most mainstream feature films don’t show older couples sharing physical affection and sexual attraction for one another. Whether they are straight or queer, we just don’t see many older characters in bed together or see older people kissing and being sensual together onscreen. I think it’s sexy and fun and life affirming.

Most long-term romantic relationships, regardless of orientation, wax and wane in the lust department. What’s great about Hannah and Rachel is that theirs is the kind of great love affair that has sustained its passion and lust over decades, the kind of fantastic, enduring attraction and love that is celebrated and pined for in straight films all the time.

W&H: How did Sharon Gless get involved?

WJC: Sharon Gless and Claudia Allen are old pals because Sharon years ago came to Chicago to star in one of Claudia’s plays called Cahoots. They maintained a friendship and when Claudia sent Sharon the script she decided to come back to Chicago and take on the complex and demanding role of Hannah. She did an incredible job and brings so much complexity, nuance, humor and gravitas to the role.

Continue reading ‘Interview with Wendy Jo Carlton – Director of Hannah Free’

Michelle Pfeiffer opens in Cheri on Friday (I am helping to promote the film) and the folks who publish Colette’s books that the film is based on have offered 3 copies of the books to Women & Hollywood readers.

Here are a couple of questions you need to answer to win:

1- What year was Cheri published?

2- Who is the director and screenwriter of Cheri?

3- What actress who is now starring in Broadway in a major revival has a small part in Cheri?

Rules:

1- Submit your answers to melissa@womenandhollywood.com

2- Include your mailing address

3- contest ends at 5pm on June 26

Cheri opens nationwide on Friday June 26.

Official site
Trailer

Purchase the book

Film synopsis: Synopsis: Léa De Lonval is a woman on the verge of aging – but she’s not going to give in without a spirited fight.  Strong willed, sexually savvy and fiercely independent she remains a much-desired courtesan of breathtaking beauty and wit.  Yet, she can’t help but conclude that, at the age of 49, now is the time to end her career on a high note.   Set at the very tail end of France’s Belle Epoque – literally the “Beautiful Age,” when the upper classes lavished in leisure and wealth just before the world-altering onset of World War One – the film deals with issues of changing gender roles, sexuality, money, aging, and society.  The film also stars Kathy Bates as Charlotte Peloux, Lea’s former rival and the mother of Lea’s lover, Cheri, a woman jealous of Lea’s enduring beauty.  Cheri offers an alternative to the big budget blockbusters of the summer, two mature women in control of their power and lives.

You can get your fill of Helen Mirren in Phedre which is now playing in London at a bunch of movie theatres across the country this Thursday, June 25th.  Tickets are $20.  Love this idea.  Theatre on the big screen.

Here’s a description of the play:

Consumed by an uncontrollable passion for her young stepson and believing Theseus, her absent husband, to be dead, Phèdre confesses her darkest desires and enters the world of nightmare. When Theseus returns alive and well, Phèdre, fearing exposure, accuses her stepson of rape.
The result is carnage.

Here’s the list of where it will be playing.  Venues are in the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia.

The other evening I was fortunate enough to be invited to a special performance of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined.  Equality NOW the international organization fighting for justice and rights for women all across the world put together the event which was hosted by Navanethem Pillay the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and was attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The theatre was buzzing with people speaking in many languages and was full of people who worked at the UN and on international women’s issues.  When Ban Ki-moon was introduced by the chair of the Manhattan Theatre Club Board everyone applauded.

In case you don’t know Ruined tells the story of women in the Congo who have been raped and mutilated, literally “ruined” by soldiers in a decade long war.

I asked Taina Bien-Aimé the Executive Director of Equality Now to tell me why it was important to organize this event and get the folks from the UN in to see this play:

It was important to bring Lynn Nottage’s brilliant and moving play to the attention of the UN, which has the power and tools to address rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war, including securing justice for the hundreds of thousands of women and girls subjected to such brutality and egregious human rights violations.  The perpetrators of such heinous crimes must be held accountable and the UN is the key body to ensure prosecution of those responsible for systematic rape and sexual violence against women in the DRC and other conflict zones, but also ensuring that prevention mechanisms are in place so that history stops repeating itself at the
expense of countless lives. The political will of the UN to address and stop rape as a weapon of war must be in place starting today.

That is the power of art.

Since the play won the Pulitzer you know it is important and also good but the thing that made this play so good was that it was such an enjoyable evening of theatre.  I’m not saying that the play wasn’t hard to watch at times but what Nottage did is use humor and mostly hope to to show these women (and men) whose lives have been destroyed by war.

It is a brave and beautifully moving play that was so well written, well directed (by Kate Whoriskey) and well acted that at times I forgot I was seeing a play about such brutality that exists in the world.

This play should be on Broadway.  There is no excuse for it not being there.  I interviewed Nottage last week at the Women’s Media Center Awards and here’s what she said about it:

Yeah, I really do believe that if this were a play written by a white male that it would be on Broadway, but I think that we’ve demonstrated that we can sell tickets, we certainly demonstrated that it’s piece of theatre that people want to see and that people are coming in great numbers to see, so I don’t quite understand why we haven’t transferred this other than sort of the unconscious bias.

It’s a combination of the topic and her gender that have prevented its move.  But this play is so important for poeple to see and my experience upon leaving the theatre is my perfect example.

As I was walking out a white couple in their 60s were talking to each other about the show.  They understood that the show was about rape but they didn’t know what being ruined meant.  The wife said to the husband- what does ruined mean? Being the nosy body I am I injected myself and told them and they were shocked.  Mind you these people had just seen a play about multiple women being raped.

So that is why plays like Ruined need to be produced.  We need to be able to talk about these topics and educate people about these vital issues.

Here’s where you can learn more about the violence against women in the Congo.

Feminist actress Meryl Streep is 60 years old today. Here are some quotes which exemplifies why she is so beloved:

I think the most liberating thing I did early on was to free myself from any concern with my looks as they pertained to my work.

AND

Integrate what you believe in every single area of your life. Take your heart to work and ask the most and best of everybody else, too.

Spread some birthday love to the one and only Meryl Streep

I took myself to a matinee on a rainy Sunday to check out The Proposal since many of you commented on how much you liked it. I knew by the time I plunked down my money that it had won the weekend making over $34 million propelling Sandra Bullock back to the top of the list of people who can open a movie.  That’s a good thing.  Another good thing is that 63% of the people who paid to see the film were women and 70% of the attendees were between 18-49.  Younger men didn’t propel Year One to the top of the box office, but women propelled The Proposal.  Tell me again how women aren’t a market.

It also will probably give Anne Fletcher her chance to direct a broad “guy” comedy though I don’t exactly understand why people think directing movies about men is a step up from directing movies about women.

So the movie…it was good.  Way better than I expected from the trailer.  So here’s what I have to say to the trailer people and the people who approved the trailer.  YOU SUCK!  That trailer was incredibly sexist and not funny and made me not want to see the film, yet the film did not come off as sexist at all.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The beginning was hard to watch.  Bullock plays Margaret Tate a mid 40 something woman who is the editor-in-chief of a mainstream book publishing company.  She acts like an ice queen and everyone hates her.  She tries to be perfect and in doing so acts like a mean robot.  I hated that she was dehumanized by all the people in the office — she was called “it” on IM messages.  But I know that’s the set up that was needed to humanize her later.  Looking at it another way I found the portrayal of a woman boss in the workplace to be very sad.  This is how she felt she had to act to be respected.  She had to scare everyone off and keep everyone at a distance.  While she was a stereotype, stereotypes come from somewhere and I really, really wish we would get over these portraits of women with no life who are working so hard to get ahead that they and everyone around them is miserable.

I gotta say that the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds was great.  From their boss/assistant relationship I completely understand why Bullock said she was the “guy” in the film.  Cause she is.  He’s her assistant and he’s really good at his job.  He takes care of her so well, cause that’s what good assistants climbing the corporate ladder do.  But having a guy play the assistant was so refreshing and the fact that he wants to be a book editor a world so completely dominated by women was also smart.

By now you know the premise.  Margaret blackmails Andrew (Reynolds) into marrying her so she can stay in the country and keep her job.  Most of the film is spent at Andrew’s family’s house in Alaska (he’s really rich but smartly they don’t let that get in the way) trying to keep up with the deception that they are in love.  But of course they fall in love (cause this is a romantic comedy) and I really liked how the story played out.

Once Bullock’s guard is down it is easy to remember why she is so popular — she knows how to be very funny and touching.  She’s also very comfortable with physical comedy.  I’m glad she waiting for the right script because this was the perfect piece for her.

Many of the stories leading up to the opening were about how much nudity is in the film.  Really?  I didn’t see any body parts.  The “nude” scene from the trailer was very tasteful and she has a gorgeous Alaskan husky pup covering her vajayjay.  I don’t know why such a big deal was made about her being naked throughout the movie cause that’s not what I remember.

It’s also interesting to note that a guy, a former studio exec wrote the script under a female pseudonym.  In an interview he says he used a fake name because he was an exec and if he failed he didn’t want that to effect his career.  But instead of picking a guys name, consciously he picked a woman’s name.  Here’s what he said:

It was all about deception and lies, as opposed to wanting people to think a woman had written it. It was about not wanting them to think that I had written it, not anything socially relevant.  (h/t Charlotte Trouper)

I find that answer disingenuous.  He could have out a guy’s name but it was a film starring a woman and knew it would probably play better with a female name.

So I want to thank the people who read this site and said they liked the film cause you convinced me to see it.  I really wish that the trailer they put out earlier would have not been such a turn off to me.  Another observation is that the film was very respectful of both men and women.  Both Bullock and Ryan Reynolds’s characters were well written unlike the comedies toplined by men that relegate women to the role of the shrew (if she’s there at all.)  I found it delightful to see a comedy with a female lead that both men and women can enjoy.

The Proposal, Sandra Bullock’s first movie in two years opens today on a little over 3,000 screens.  That is a mega wide release.  We are talking big mainstream Hollywood film release numbers.  I haven’t seen the film.  I tried but couldn’t get invited to any screenings.  So unlike most weeks I will be making the same decision with you as to whether to pay to see this film.

From my glancing at reviews (I don’t really read many anymore) the film is not getting great notices.  But I remember that Sex and the City got a lot of crappy reviews as did Mamma Mia so I don’t necessarily go by reviews.

Here is what I am using to make my decision.

Con- On the surface (from the preview and commercials) the movie looks really stupid and regressive.  Woman plays bitchy boss and forces her assistant to marry her so she doesn’t get deported to Canada.  Yikes.  It looks dreadful so much so when I saw the preview this past winter I wrote this post: What’s Up With Sandra Bullock’s Career?

But the press over the last couple of weeks, especially from Sandra Bullock has softened me.

Pro: Sandra Bullock.  She’s still a woman who can open a film and she’s also been really honest about why she hasn’t been in a film in a while.  The scripts have sucked.  Not too many women are that honest.  So major points to her.

This movie is easily going to make $20 million this weekend and that would be Bullock’s biggest opening yet.  Disney and all the folks associated with the film are doing everything to convince the public that this is a “date movie” to bring in the guys and I think the message is working.  If they could get a split of 50/50 or even 55/45 between women and men that would be a great sign that a movie that stars a woman can being in men.

Here’s what she had to say about romantic comedies:

…the 44-year-old actress now says she “can’t stand” romantic comedies because most of the scripts she reads from the genre are terrible and feature underdeveloped female characters. “I always read scripts and go, ‘I want to change the role of Sam to Samantha because it’s written better,’” (Wall Street Journal)

and

“They’re not funny, they’re not romantic, they’re not written well for women anymore,” she says, explaining her decision in typically no-bull fashion. “It was basically all crap. I did the last good one. I’m done.” (USA Today)

“This is basically a guy’s film,” says Ms. Bullock, who was an executive producer on the movie, “except I’m the guy.” (Wall Street Journal)

Pro: It’s directed by a woman — Anne Fletcher.  A woman directing a film that is playing on over 3,000 screens.  Extremely rare.  Happens maybe once or twice a year.  Fletcher might now be known for her romantic comedies but she’s ready for the straight comedies:

I want to do one of those movies because I know I can and they make me laugh. I want to be a woman who says, “Yeah, I made that movie.” But it would have to appeal to me. There are certain male-driven films that cross a line for me. I don’t know if I could put my name on it. (Forbes)

Pro: Betty White – the woman’s been in the business for 60 years.  How can you not love her.

All the above does not say one thing about the content of the film.  But then again how many times do you go see movies that stars men knowing all about it?  Probably not too often.   So for me, the pros — a woman star, AND a woman director — who actually like and respect each other have pushed me towards this film.  This quote from Bullock in USA Today made me laugh out loud:

…they said, ‘Here’s this woman director we like, Anne Fletcher. Can she come and meet you?’ I met her and within five minutes, she said the word ‘vagina,’ and I’m like (her voice rising giddily), ‘I love her.’ “

I know I am a broken record on this but it is my job to remind you need to support films by and about women.  We. just. do.  I wish we lived in a world where they don’t need our help but they do.  If this movie does $25 or $30 million that would be a great sign, even though sadly, it will still probably be dismissed as a fluke.

She’s the Boss (Wall Street Journal)

Something for the Ladies (Forbes)

Sandra Bullock is (bleeping) tired of romantic comedies (USA Today)

Twentieth Century Fox and Lakeshore Entertainment are remaking Girls Just Want to Have Fun, the 1985 teen comedy that starred Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker.  The studio has set Michelle Morgan to write a new version of the film, which centered on two girls who share a passion for dancing and the hit show Dance TV.  (Variety)

Liz Heldens, creator and exec producer of NBC’s upcoming drama Mercy, has inked a two-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios. (Variety)

Sunshine Cleaning helmer Christine Jeffs has signed to direct Wonderful Tonight for Castle Rock Entertainment which chronicles the relationship between a confirmed bachelor and a young woman, after their one-nighter leads to an unplanned pregnancy and a surprising love affair. (Variety)

Paramount has purchased Honey Pot, a pitch from screenwriter Liz Meriwether for a female-driven action comedy.  The plotline involves two women in the world of international espionage.  (HR)

Reese Witherspoon will star in Pharm Girl, an aspirational comedy centring on one woman’s odyssey through the drug industry.  Film is about a woman who gets a job at a pharmaceutical powerhouse and begins to see the underbelly of the industry as she rises through the company’s ranks. (HR)

Overture is developing Celeste and Jesse Forever, a romantic comedy that will star Rashida Jones. The film is about a divorcing couple who attempt to maintain their friendship while pursuing new relationships.  Jones co-wrote the screenplay with Will McCormack, and the film will be produced by Suzanne and Jenifer Todd’s Team Todd shingle. (The Wrap)

Daytime syndicated talk show Rachael Ray has been renewed through the 2011-12. (HR)

Diane Lane is set to star in Secretariat, the Disney film about the relationship between the 1973 Triple Crown-winning racehorse and his owner, Penny Chenery. Lane will play Chenery, a mother and housewife who knew little about horse racing when she took over her ailing father’s farm in Virginia. (Variety)

Joy Behar will have her own show on cable’s HLN.  The Joy Behar Show will star the comedian and TV personality in a talk and interview hour airing nightly at 9 p.m. ET, says HLN, formerly known as Headline News. It will premiere this fall, with the popular Nancy Grace Show as lead-in.   (USA Today)

Here are some pieces of interest:

Director Susan Seidelman answers questions for NY Magazine

Jezebel takes on the romantic comedy

Film’s new fall guy: Women A disturbing trend surfaces at film fest; more scenes of sexual violence and degradation (Toronto Star)

Reality TV Hates Women (Newsweek)

The Woman in Charge of Reality Shows at Spike TV (NY Times)

Girls on Film: A Desire for Varied Female Protagonists is Not a Political Agenda (Cinematical)

I asked Abigail who has written for this site before to put down her thoughts on the gender equity conference Vamps Vixens and Feminists that occured in London earlier this week.

Thank you Abigail for taking the time to do this.  We are all so appreciative.

Here’s what she wrote:

French Film Director Arnaud Desplechin once said, “People go to movies to see a woman’s face.”

With this in mind one wonders why a conference like Vamps, Vixens and Feminists has to be held in the twenty-first century, in such a progressive country as the UK, and yet it does, and it was.  (The event was hosted by Sphinx Theatre in partnership with Equity, the Actor’s Union; Women in Film and Television; Arts Council England; the Directors Guild of Great Britain, and the Writers Guild of Great Britain.)

Contrary to the Guardian’s coverage I felt, as an actress and cinemagoer, that it was a wholly positive event and uplifting to note that women, and a few men, around the UK recognised that women are poorly represented in the performing arts, and had come together in the hopes of making a difference.

The conference was held not just to promote the plight of actresses who are stereotyped by their roles and outnumbered, in British television and theatre 2 to 1, but to discuss how, in all types of arts jobs women are stereotypically-portrayed, and discriminated against, and how the Gender Equality Duty, an act passed in 2007 making it compulsory for all public bodies to actively promote and take action to bring about gender equality, could impact women’s working lives in the arts.

Oona King

Oona King, Head of Diversity at Channel 4, who chaired the event, spoke eloquently and passionately about the need for three basic changes:
1.    Recruitment from a wider base onscreen and off
2.    Encouragement of diversity in output and the portrayal of women
3.    Encouragement of diversity at senior decision-making levels

She suggested that more events like this be held across the UK, to arm more women and men with the resources and know-how to make changes in the way they run their workplace, whether they be producers, commissioners, actors, ADs, cinematographers or editors.

Personally, I think getting the policy makers to attend more meetings like this one would be another huge step in the right direction, and it was good to see that Baroness Margaret Prosser, Vice President of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, admitting that often the entertainment sector is passed over when discussing workplace issues.
Continue reading ‘Guest Post: Report from the Vamps, Vixens and Feminists Conference in London by Abigail Tarttelin’

Two things I wanted to bring to your attention:

I am quoted in a piece on male stars and weight issues in the Irish Independent.

The Real Box Office Heavyweights

We have an expectation of the type of woman that we want to see on screen. We want them to be young, we want them to be really sexy,” said Melissa Silverstein, a blogger who specialises in women’s films. “As women age in Hollywood, they kind of disappear”.

“But [his weight gain] was not an issue,” said Silverstein. “Had Helen Mirren had six months off and gained 50 pounds … they never would have put her in that movie.”

Full piece here

I also want to give a big shout out to Lian Dolan one of radio’s Satellite Sisters who I connected with through Twitter.  She wrote this post on her blog about why she went to see My Life in Ruins.  Her post articulates exactly why I do what I do.

Here’s a quote from it but please read the whole post:

I only know ‘melsil’ through her Tweets and her blog, Women and Hollywood, but I have come to really respect her opinion. Her beat is the intersection of film and feminism. Sometimes, that is a lonely intersection! But Melissa always has something thought-provoking to say, encouraging me think about my entertainment choices in the same way I’m thinking about my food choices ( eat locally) or political choices. Thanks, melsil.

And when she Tweeted that we ( meaning ‘women’) should go see My Life in Ruins, I did what I was told. (After I read her compelling piece on the blog). I took some cold meds, bought myself some popcorn, and settled in with about 2 dozen other film goers at a Wednesday matinee.

Entertaining Lian: My Life in Ruins (Sisterspot)

Great news.  Rising star director Kate Whoriskey has been tapped by the Intiman Theatre in Seattle to take over as Artistic Director when current star director Barlett Sher leaves in 2010.

She will join a small club of female artistic directors in charge of major theatres in this country.

The 38-year-old’s current play, the Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined by Lynn Nottage can currently be seen in NYC.

In an “unusual” move according to the Seattle Times, Whoriskey and Sher will work together for one year before she takes over.  That sounds like a smart plan to me.  First, it will help her with the transition from director for hire to acclimating herself to running the artistic vision of a theatre.  She’s never run a theatre before and Sher has been very successful and since he’s directing on Broadway all the time I bet he won’t be around that much.  It seems like a win-win situation to me but but terming it “unusual” it makes it seem like she needs extra help.

Her reputation is stellar and growing and according to her predecessor Sher she is “one of the best younger directors in the country.”

Congrats Kate and Seattle.

N.Y. director to replace Bartlett Sher at Intiman (Seattle Times)