Monthly Archive for July, 2009

While The Proposal with Sandra Bullock has exceeded expectations, we all know the one movie that women have been waiting for all summer is now only one week away — Julie and Julia.  I have a sense that women are going to come out and see this in droves and in groups with many leaving the hubby or partner at home.  The competition at the national level is pretty slim on opening weekend (GI Joe) so it will pretty much get every woman and hopefully men interested in an alternative.

Tracking shows the film opening at $20 million and I think that is a low estimate, but it is opening on 2,300 screens and not 3,000, so that will have an effect on the gross.  Looking back at Mamma Mia, last summer it opened on 2,976 screens and grossed almost $28 million on opening weekend and it was against the Dark Knight.  The Devil Wears Prada from the summer of 2006 opened on 2,847 screens and grossed $27 million on its opening weekend.  I guess I am surprised that the film is not opening on more screens to take advantage of past history.

UPDATE 8/6: Just checked the theatre counts for opening night and the film will be opening in almost 3,000 theatres.  I bet it clears $30 million for the weekend.

With all due respect to Amy Adams who is carving out a nice career for herself, the reason why people will see this film is because of Meryl Streep.  She is a movie star and if this film does well she’ll be one of the only stars to have had a good summer.   The guy stars (Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, John Travolta) their films did not do well.

According to the Hollywood Reporter she got paid $5 million for Julie & Julia and her asking price has now gone up to $7 or $8 million and she gets first dollars off the back end gross. I know that $5 million and $8 million are awesomely huge figures but she should make $20 million just like the big boys.  She can open a movie.  If she wants to be in a movie the movie gets greenlighted.  Brad Pitt just had his latest movie collapse (from the same studio releasing Julie & Julia) so his presence did not guarantee the film will get made.

I know I’m a big Streep cheerleader but I also want to put it out there that she works with women A LOT.  Mamma Mia, directed by Phyllida Lloyd; Julie & Julia, directed by Nora Ephron; It’s Complicated (the newly released title of her next film coming out on Christmas day) is directed by Nancy Meyers.

I don’t want to heap the pressure on her but she gives women of all ages, especially Hollywood actresses, hope.

Streep is a walking rebuttal to the persistent ageism that sidelines so many actresses. As such female stars as Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Naomi Watts and Sandra Bullock wade into their 40s — which conventional wisdom holds is a wasteland for “aging” actresses — surely there is promise in Streep’s longevity.

From Nora Ephron:

This thing of hers, where she is as hot as Will Smith, it’s hilarious, and it is such amazing news for those of us who write movies that she’s perfect for.”

Are you going to go see Julie & Julia on opening weekend?  Show some love for Meryl and make those plans now.  Anyone want to go with me here in NY?

Meryl Streep: Bankable Franchise (HR)
Streep, Adams, Ephron: Recipe for success in ‘Julie & Julia‘ (USA Today)

I never used to watch anything on the Hallmark Channel.  But lately it seems that they are doing some interesting movies of the week like the kind that used to be on network TV.  I’m not saying that these are high drama or always even that good, but make for “lite” enjoyable TV watching.

This weekend Hallmark premieres Cybill Shepherd in Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith about a woman who after her husband leaves her for a younger woman goes back to college to finish her degree.

Not surprisingly, the reviews have not been very kind.  They basically say that it is cliche ridden.  But even though it looks cheesy I’m going to take a look at it for a couple of reasons.

1- Cybill Shepherd.  She’s really an interesting actress and is pushing herself like she did on the L Word.

2- They set the film at Smith.  Pretty cool feminist choice.

3- They put Cybill on the basketball team showing that women can play sports at any age.

4- That the film tells the story of a woman who has to remake her life and I always find those conversations interesting.

Here is the trailer:

All of a sudden HBO seems to have gotten the feminist bug.  First they commissioned Theresa Rebeck to a do a pilot for Julie White called Women’s Studies, and now the team of Marti Noxon and Dawn Parouse Olmstead are writing a pilot for Diane Keaton to play a “Gloria Steinem” type editor who tries to reignite feminism by starting a porn magazine.

I personally don’t think starting a porn magazine would reignite feminism but Diane fucking Keaton in a TV show?  Another nail in the coffin for movies cause if Diane abandons there is only Meryl Streep left and she can only make so many movies a year.

But seriously, I love Marti Noxon (not that we know each other).  She recently worked on Private Practice and Grey’s Anatomy as well as Mad Men and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  She is an incredible writing talent and Keaton is very lucky cause I guarantee that script will be way better than some of the movie ones she has been in lately. The article stated that once Keaton signed on they decided to incorporate some of her personality in the character. I just hope the character doesn’t wear gloves ever except on a winter day, shows her neck, and wears other colors besides white cause I can take that in one or two films but in a whole series, please.

The only thing I’m concerned about is whether HBO would move ahead on two similarly themed shows.  I want both those shows on the air.   How cool would it be if there were feminist shows on TV with both Julie White and Diane Keaton.  I’d just pee in my pants with excitement.  I wish I could get this excited about some of the upcoming movies.

Noxon, Olmstead set Grady Twins slate (Variety)

h/t Rebecca Traister

Update: There was an article in the HR about this too and I have to say I’m disappointed with both women’s quotes.  First, Parouse Olmstead says:

“There seems to be a new evolution of what women are sexually. Women are acting more like men sexually.”

then Noxon adds:

“We’re attracted to genres, horror and darkness, and we wanted to make sure we reminded each other that we won’t become Vagina Prods.,…Our goal to make scary shows for television.”

I hate both quotes so much!  What is all the crap about women acting more like men sexually?  Isn’t it just that women are actually talking about sex more and more comfortable talking about it more and that TV and films are exploring it more?  We’ve come a long way from Lucy and Ricky having one foot on the floor.

Maybe to some it seems like men are the norm that everything is based on, but I don’t operate in that universe.  Women are not little men.  We react differently to drugs, radiation, commercials etc.  Just because something is about women doesn’t mean that all women want to talk about is their vagina or their feelings or their laundry or god forbid their cats. Give me a break.  Have you watched Saving Grace or In Plain Sight recently?  Those women.  Tough.  Scary.  Intense.  Real.  That’s how I like my TV.

I beg you ladies, don’t buy this crap.  If you make a strong show about women being women we will watch.  If you write a show about a woman who wants to be a man we won’t.  It’s pretty simple.

Diane Keaton Set for HBO Comedy (HR)

Hung creators Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson

When I first read that HBO was going to air a show called Hung my first reaction was huh?.  Why would I want to see a show about a guy’s dick?  But since I had once spoken on the phone with the show’s co-creator Colette Burson and thought she was great, smart and feminist and since HBO shows are usually awesome, so I figured I’d give it a chance.  And I was right.  I really like Hung.

In case you don’t know, the show is about Ray (Thomas Jane) a former pro athlete and high school teacher and coach whose life is in the shitter.  He’s broke, his house has basically burned down, he has no insurance so he is living in a tent in the backyard and it’s cold, his kids have moved in with with ex (Anne Heche) and he is all around miserable.  But he does have one thing going for him…he’s really well endowed.  Jane Adams plays Tanya the woman who encourages him to use his gift to make other women happy.  So she becomes his “happiness consultant” aka pimp.  Jane and Adams both rock.  I especially like watching Adams gain self confidence as she gets better and better at her job.  While the show is about prostitution and sex work it does not glorify it and the women who use Ray’s services are treated with dignity and are given back stories that are interesting.  I’m excited to see where the show goes.

Hung airs on HBO on Sunday evenings.  Check you local listings.

Women & Hollywood spoke with Burson about the show.

Women & Hollywood: How did you come up with the concept of Hung?

Colette Burson: We (she and her co-creator and husband Dmitry Lipkin) were looking for a male character that would be interesting to write.  We felt that violence was tired and we wanted to create a character that was very masculine yet not violent.  Ray comes across as extraordinarily masculine and by that I mean not only having masculine sex appeal and a masculinity that hangs on him like a perfume, but I also think he presents a masculine perspective as he goes through the world of women.  The show does not emasculate him nor does it feminize him.

W&H: Talk about why Thomas Jane is so good as Ray.

CB: As writers, and for me as one of the female creators I felt that Ray was sexy being imperfect.  There is something in women that really responds to a man who is imperfect and struggling.  The female mind turns off when they are imperfect and not giving a shit about it.  But something deep happens in the female psyche when they are trying to keep their head above water whatever their problem is.  We really root for them.  And so Ray is not perfect.  He’s beautiful but flawed.

W&H: And the other characters? The kids are not typical TV kids.

CB: We wanted the kids to be real.  Our goal is to make all of our characters real as well as idiosyncratic.  So I was not interested in the eye rolling teenager.  I was not interested in open defiance because I have seen it on TV.  My best friend in high school was very passive and stoic.  Her parents were going through a divorce and she was really my inspiration for these characters.

W&H: And Jane Adams as Tanya?

CB: There is this whole thing about how everyone wants to be a writer and that connects to the fact that in most everyone is a well of creativity that could come out in all sorts of ways.  I do feel that a lot of creative people through geography or fate or fear are trapped in uncreative places.  There is such a level of being trapped as a creative person in a world that does not value creativity.  There was a line in the pilot – “it’s not my fault that things that should be valued and cherished aren’t valued and cherished.” (some version of that).  Saying it’s not my fault that creativity means nothing in this world.  She’s not a conquer the world type.  So when we write Jane’s character we really feel like we are writing to the secret creative longings of people everywhere and particularly those in the mainstream.

Continue reading ‘Interview with Colette Burson, co-creator of Hung’

Who said webisodes were just for the young things?  More Magazine and Candace Bushnell aka creator of the Sex and the City columns and the woefully underloved Lipstick Jungle (now that Ben Silverman is gone they should bring the show back except the women all have other jobs now-idiots!) are teaming up to create a web series about women over 40 in the workplace.

Sounds awesome.

The show is written Bushnell and produced by director Ellen Gittelsohn (Roseanne, Designing Women) and will star Jennie Garth (the original 90210) and Talia Balsam (Mad Men).

Series will start airing in September.

Bushnell will also pea column in the September and October columns of More.

Candace Bushnell web series in the works (HR)

Here are the women on Variety’s 10 screenwriters to Watch.  It is really focused on comedy writers and seems to have a bit of a feminist bent.  Here’s to hoping these women make some good films that we get to see in theatres.

Emma Forrest

“I’m from the Nora Ephron school,” she confesses. “Everything is copy. Every guy I get involved with for five minutes knows I’m going to write about him.”  Liars (A-E) is about her relationship and breakup with actor Colin Farrell.

Emily Halpern & Sarah Haskins

It’s not very often that a true feminist voice is accepted into mainstream Hollywood but I am happy to report that Sarah Haskins, culture satirist extraordinaire has some seriously great projects in the pipeline.  Her script Book Smart written with Emily Halpern about two overachieving high school seniors who, after realizing the only thing they haven’t accomplished is having boyfriends, resolve to find ones by the prom has been bought by Natalie Portman.  The women are now adapting Lunch Lady for Amy Poehler.

Mindy Kaling

Best known for her role on the office Kaling’s first spec script, “The Low Self Esteem of Lizzy Gillespie,” a romantic comedy about a female underdog, which she co-wrote with seasoned scribe and “Office” colleague Brent Forrester, is currently being pitched to studios.

Liz Meriwether

A big fan of fart jokes and profanity, the Michigan native gives props to Judd Apatow for reviving the R-rated comedy, but she chooses to tell stories about the female experience. “Benefits” turns the romantic comedy upside down, beginning in bed and then exploring whether the relationship is worth pursuing. Refreshingly, the female lead character — the Portman role — just may not be that into him.

“People want to put women in one box,” Meriwether says, “and I’m interested in how women can be everything at once. She can be a slut who wants to fall in love, or she can party too much, but she’s still very smart. I want to expand the vocabulary.” With impeccable comic timing, she adds, “We’ll see how long I last.”

Michelle Morgan

“Michelle has a very fresh, honest and contemporary young female voice,” says Debbie Liebling, the Fox exec who hired her. “She’s funny in a very natural way. Sometimes, comedy gets pushed to a place where it couldn’t happen, but there’s a tremendous believability to her comedy.”

Each summer Filmmaker Magazine introduces us to some new voices in indie film.  Here are the women.

Eleanor Burk, director of Stranger Things (with her fiance Ron Eyal)

Stranger Things tells the simple story of a vagrant who breaks into the home of a young woman’s recently deceased grandmother. Of course, a friendship follows, but Stranger Things’ best qualities can’t be captured in a plot synopsis. It’s a small-scale story sensitively attuned to its fine actors as well as broader themes of responsibility, loss and community.

Jessica Oreck, director of Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

Its subject is the historical and current fascination for insects in Japanese culture, and it takes a “three-dimensional” approach to the topic, mixing together beautiful images of the insects themselves, individual stories of workers in various sectors of the insect business, interviews with historians, b-roll of swarming crowds, all draped in a Japanese voice-over that delves into science, poetry, folktales and pop culture.

Paula Huidobro, director of photography

A woman who seems drawn to films that explore inner and outer lives.

Steph Green, director of the Oscar nominated New Boy

Adapted from a Roddy Doyle story, Green’s sharply observed narrative follows a young African refugee on his first day of school in Ireland, an experience shared by the wave of immigrants and refugees who have entered that country in the last decade.

Paola Mendoza, co-director (with Gloria La Morte) and star of Entre Nos

She stars as an immigrant mother abandoned by her husband who struggles to feed her two children as they live on the streets and collect cans for money.

Nicole Opper, director Off and Running

Coming of age story of Avery Klein-Cloud, the spunky, opinionated black adopted daughter of white Jewish lesbians.

Tina Mabry, director, Mississippi Damned

A narrative of great complexity, one that takes place over two time periods (the mid ’80s and the late ’90s) with more than a dozen intimately intertwined characters involved in key relationships, Mississippi Damned recounts the story of five black working-class couples, their progeny and extended families, and meditates on the attempts of the younger generation to escape and transcend the prejudices and failings of their families and their own victimizations within a dead-end existence.

Lena Dunham, director and star of Creative NonFiction

Film is about a college girl recovering from an utterly frustrating non-love affair.

Rooney Mara, actress and activist

Founder of Faces of Kibera, a non-profit that helps orphans in Kibera, Kenya — Africa’s largest slum — by providing housing, food, medical and psychological care.

So Blogher 09 is over and after a day of decompression I am able to start analyzing my experience. I think all the pre-conference freak out by the mommy bloggers was just stupid, and yeah, there were women whoring themselves for swag but that’s to be expected when you give away things they need and want.

I wasn’t so much into the swag (loved all the stuff from suave but I couldn’t take any of it home), but for me Blogher was all about me getting out of my head and listening to others.

Insights and highlights

• Blogging and social media has become a totally mainstream communication mode.

• Twitter is everywhere and is augmenting, not replacing blogs.

• Don’t let fear hold you back.

• The community keynote is very special.  Those posts should be put together and either sold or given away.

• Tina Brown is really glad she’s not working in magazines anymore and she said that some journalists don’t have clarity of thought and those are the ones having a harder time adapting to the blogosphere.

• Ilene Chaiken said that when they do an L Word movie she will reveal the answer to who killed Jenny.

• We should all be using friend feed, twitter and Facebook to be effective participants in social media. I was also told to use tags in post because that helps with SEO (search engine optimization.)

• You should block people on twitter with no info in their profile because they are spammers and you could get caught in it.

• @corvida from shegeeks.com is a 21 year old dynamo.

Things I will never forget

• Lisa Stone kicking ass as the moderator of the keynote and then 12 hours later hanging out with everyone wearing a McDonald’s bag on her head at the cheezeburghurz party.

• That I actually didn’t want to strangle but wanted to talk more to Emily Zanotti @emzanotti a libertarian, pro-life feminist.

• Seeing Tina Brown walk around the conference with her eyes looking like they were popping out of her head.

• Karaoke with @alizasherman and @leahjones. Our Dancing Queen rocked!

• Hearing Anita Tedaldi who blogs at Ovolina.com talk about raising her five kids and how her husband has been deployed to Iraq 5 TIMES!

One of the most important things I got out of the conference is a deeper understanding about the draft rules from the FTC on bloggers writing reviews for compensation.  This is an issue I struggle with because I do marketing and blogging.  The key is transparency and I have always striven for that.  My reputation is all I’ve got and I want to be honest and transparent about what I do and who I work for.

I decided that I will be putting up a disclaimer page in the coming days that will hopefully clarify all issues related to my work and my blogging.  I really appreciated the discussion that the Blogher ad network ran on that.  I was surprised that more people weren’t there.

Here are some details about the film from the folks at Women Make Movies which is distributing the film:

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go captures the students and staff at England’s Mulberry Bush School, a home for children suffering with severe emotional trauma.  Harrowing at one moment and heartwarming the next, Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go is described by Variety as “mixing ferocity with tenderness, delicacy with tenacity.”

Film premieres on POV on PBS tonight.  Check your local listings.

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go

If you know me, you know I really don’t do animation on TV or films.  Just not my thing.  So I’ve never seen an episode of Family Guy.  I hear good things about it but I already watch too much TV so I can’t make any more commitments.  Seth McFarlane, the creator of the show, is hugely successful and just signed a new deal at FOX for $100 million.

I was intrigued to read a piece in the Hollywood Reporter saying that Family Guy is going to do an episode on abortion.  Films hardly ever deal with the issue and TV also pretty much avoids it, but last week at Comic-Con, McFarlane said that he was doing an episode about the topic but pretty much already knew that it would never air.

Here’s what he said:

“20th Century Fox, as always, allowed us to produce the episode and then said, ‘You know what? We’re scared to f–king death of this,’” MacFarlane said.

This is the second time an episode of Family Guy didn’t air.  I give McFarlane serious props for taking on this issue.  It’s not that Family Guy is known as a politically correct show so who knows what angle the show which is entitled “Partial Terms of Endearment” would take, but FOX has already made the decision not to air the show.

The show is produced by 20th Century Fox (sister to the FOX network).  While the network supports his right to produce the show, it won’t air it.   What does that mean?  Why produce a show that will never air? I’m sure it has to do with them not believing that they could sell it to advertisers. I guess the content of the episode doesn’t matter at all.  The topic is taboo.

McFarlane is as powerful as Norman Lear was back in the day of Maude.  His talking about this as an issue takes a lot of guts considering the amount of money he has at risk.

Shouldn’t the network wait to see the episode before censoring it?

‘Family Guy’ abortion episode unlikely to air on Fox (HR)

Here are some stories that you might be interested in:

What is Feminist Art? (Washington Post)

Nora Ephron tries to find the perfect recipe for ‘Julie & Julia’ (LA Times)

Sigourney Weaver, Eliza Dushku, Elizabeth Mitchell, Zoe Saldana talk action heroines at EW Comic-Con panel (EW)

‘First Wives Club’ is forming in San Diego (LA Times)

Looking for the next bright young female playwright? (The Guardian)

Bonnie Hammer’s Hit Factory (Newsweek)

British actresses like Zoe Wanamaker who is the co-star of the British sitcom My Family are starting to talk much more openly about having to fight to get paid equally.

Here’s what she said to the Stage newspaper:

“Women are always at the bottom as far as pay is concerned – the equal pay business is a big struggle,” she told The Stage newspaper.

Zoe Wanamaker Demands Equal Pay for Actresses (The Telegraph)

Had a great time at Blogher. Met some great people,caught up with some old friends, learned a lot, made some important decisions about how I will continue with my work into the future.

Follow-up posts to come.

See you next week, hopefully inspired with lots of new ideas.

Blogging is usually a slog. I spend my time reading tons of feeds and stories looking for the inspiration that will get a post going.  Most days I usually find something that gets my blood boiling or makes me happy.

Today was not one of those days.

Today I met Jane Campion.

To put it in some context there are 3 women who have ever been nominated for an Oscar for best director. Suffice it to say that I won’t be meeting Sophia Coppola or Lina Wertmuller, but today I had the privilege of meeting the third.

I know I’m gushing but I don’t usually get to meet directors of Campion’s caliber for a whole hour.  Other directors I have met have come in at a junket for 10 minutes and all the questions are similar because people need info for their stories.  Because we had so much time we could all really get a sense of who she was and what makes her tick as a filmmaker.  I am happy to report that she was so normal and nice and HONEST and made the group of us (female bloggers) feel incredibly  comfortable.

She is in town starting promotion on Bright Star her new film about the love affair between John Keats and Fanny Braune. The film has been getting great reviews and from this distance (mid-july), Campion and the film could be on many an awards list come the end of the year. The film is great and opens in mid-September.

I recorded the hour long conversation so I will be transcribing it and getting the info out to you.

At the end of the meeting I whipped out my camera to document the event. Usually the point and click route works. But there was some light behind us and Jane (hopefully I can call her that) said we needed to retake the shot and remove the flash.

Embarrassment ensued cause I literally had no idea how to take the flash off.

So I guess I can say that I have now been directed by Jane Campion.

Today we welcome a new voice to Women & Hollywood.  Abby Bernstein a recent Barnard graduate has joined our growing team and will be writing and helping me take the site to the next level. Welcome Abby.

Here’s a 22-year-olds perspective on The Ugly Truth:

While watching The Ugly Truth, I couldn’t help thinking of an episode of Sex and the City where Miranda, the high-powered lawyer played by Cynthia Nixon famously quips, “I know how to please a man: just give away most of your power.” Indeed, this is the exact advice Mike (Gerard Butler) gives to the husband-wife news anchor team played by Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins. Even though Georgia (Hines) initially resists (“Why is it my fault, should I say no to the money so he can get an erection?”) by the end of Mike’s inane segment of The Ugly Truth, she has “let Larry be a man” and the two come close to copulating on screen before thousands of TV viewers.

In a lot of ways, this movie is just as offensive to men as it is to women. What was so refreshing about 500 Days of Summer was that it was Zooey Deschanel’s character who did not believe in relationships or love. But here sex seems to be the only thing that is ever on a man’s mind, a point that’s reiterated in the film poster’s logo (in which a man’s heart is located in his genitals) and in Mike’s idiotic rules (#4: “Never talk about your problems, men don’t listen or care, and if they seem like they’re listening it’s just code for ‘let me stick my dick in your ass’). Men, according to Mike, are “simple … and cannot be trained” and getting them comes down to just three easy steps: “lust, seduction, and manipulation.” Even though Heigl’s Abby is initially outraged that she has to produce the show of an “uber misogynist,” she quickly and unquestionably sips the Kool-Aid of his misogynist mantra in order to snag the hot doctor who has moved next door.

True to form, while Mike is portrayed as a glorified bachelor, without a man Abby is a “lonely hag” whose antics border on psychotic. Her impossible list of qualities a man must have and the dorky dances she does every time Mr. Perfect responds in kind further bolster the idea that Abby, in spite of all her success in the work world, is a neurotic and desperate person in real life (that her pathetic female assistant “lives vicariously” through Heigl’s dating life is perhaps even more disturbing.) Even though the scene in which Abby realizes that the perfect Colin does not love her but the woman she and Mike have created is supposed to offer some sort of rationalization for sixty some-odd minutes of sexism, it is ambiguous whether Abby ever does get a man to love her for who she is. When Abby criticizes Mike for being weak because he could not handle a romantic relationship with her, it’s unclear whether he comes running because he actually loves her or because she has just emasculated him on a live news broadcast.

While it would be easy to pin this on a pigheaded male writer, the most disturbing part about the film is that it was written by a female team (Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith.) Their attempt at producing “the ugly truth” reads like a rehashed list from Cosmo magazine rather than an actual portrayal of how the other half thinks. There’s one part at the beginning of the film where Heigl’s boss, in response to her refusal to take on a misogynist’s show, says “He’s got a point of view, we don’t have to like it.” That’s all fine and true but do you have to perpetuate it?

As I head out to Blogher for the next couple of days to network with other female bloggers I am going to take this opportunity to rerun this post from last week.  No posts until next week after today.

As I was looking at my wordpress dashboard last week I noticed really for the first time the number of posts on the site and I was shocked.  I paused and realized that soon I was going to hit 1,000 posts.  Wow. 1,000 POSTS.  So on this special occasion, I want to thank you, all my readers for your support and also to ask for your continued support in the future.

When the site started almost two years ago in September of 2007 I had no idea where it would go and how it would propel me to my next phase in life.  But it has, and I am grateful to everyone.  Women & Hollywood has become a tool for writers, students and journalists as well as people working in the entertainment business.

But honestly, this site would be nowhere without the readers and the commenters (and all the people who send me emails and ideas and tips) so I want to thank you all for being a part of this.

As you can imagine a blog like this takes a significant amount of time to research and write and has many ancillary technical costs.  So in honor of the 1,000 posts I am hoping to raise $1,000 to help offset some of the costs of running the site.

I know that times are tough all around but anything you can do would be most appreciated. Click on the button below to donate:

Tax deductible donations are also accepted.  Please email me at melissa@womenandhollywood.com if you are interested in contributing in that way.

In honor of the 1,000 posts I took a couple of hours and scrolled through past posts and have put together a highlight reel.   I hope you enjoy.

Nora Ephron to Women Directors and Writers: Stop Whining and Just Do It- July 6, 2009

Memo to Hollywood- Women Do Go to Movies- June 9, 2009

Gender Bias in Theatre- Digging a Little Deeper- June 30, 2009

Star Trek’s Gender Problem- May 12, 2009

Sexism Watch: Date Rape Film Gets Mainstream Film Release- April 9, 2009

Fat Actors vs Skinny Actresses- April 20, 2009

The Double Standard for Women- March 18, 2009

When Going to a Movie Makes You Stupid- February 9, 2009

Moving Beyond the Niche- January 29, 2009

Marketing Movies to Discriminating Women- January 27, 2009

Blaming Nicole Kidman- December 9, 2008

Feminism and Revolutionary Road- December 26, 2008

Why the Firing of Brookle Smith is Bigger Than ABC Wants Us to Think- November 10, 2008

Women Are a Market- November 10, 2008

Emma Thompson is So Smart- November 20, 2008

Defending Katherine Heigl…Again- July 30, 2008

The Fascination of Celebrity Women in Crisis- June 30, 2008

A Women’s Cultural Moment- May 30, 2008

The Double Standard- May 28, 2008

Sex and the City- Will it be the Biggest Women’s Movie Ever? – May 6, 2008

Yes, Virginia We Live in a Sexist World- April 16, 2008

Pondering the Chick Flick- April 9, 2008

The Difference Between John Hughes and Judd Apatow- March 25, 2008

Who Says Women Aren’t Funny? – March 12, 2008

Some reminders and updates

Make sure you are signed up for the weekly email update.  That is the place where you can get information on the women centric and women directed movies that are opening each week.  Sign up here.

I have started posting news and events to my twitter feed.  If you are on twitter follow me here.  If you are not on twitter you can also get this information on my facebook page.  Just friend me (Melissa Silverstein) on Facebook and say you are a reader of Women & Hollywood.

We’re going to do a reader survey in the coming weeks to find out what you like about the site and what you’d like to see.  We also want to find out a little more about each of you as the site continues to grow.

Again, I want to thank you all for your support.

It will come as no shock to anyone that women can be as sexist and misogynistic as men.  That’s a fact most of us have figured out.  But it’s so much more depressing  when women get kicked in the teeth by other women on a great big movie screen.

I was looking forward to seeing The Ugly Truth because of Katherine Heigl.  She is a TV and movie star which is a hard thing to pull off nowadays.  She’s also developing her own material with her producing partner and manager, her mom.  And she stood up to Judd Apatow in saying that Knocked Up was sexist.  But she has lost a lot of credibility since her new flick The Ugly Truth is sexist and misogynistic.

Raunchy R rated comedies are one of the “things” now in Hollywood.  Think The Hangover and all of the Judd Apatow flicks and the knockoffs of his flicks.  Most of those films are about guys where women are basically missing and underwritten.  According to a Variety article Hollywood thinks that it can make money doing R rated comedies from a women’s perspective.  The article says these comedies are part of a “naughty girl” movement (could that be more sexist?) that is supposedly led by members of the Diablo Cody “fempire.”

Lumping women writers together is a common technique but Juno is nothing like The Ugly Truth.  Now I know Diablo Cody doesn’t need me to defend her, but  Juno didn’t sell out women the way the way The Ugly Truth does.  Incidentally Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith who wrote the script of The Ugly Truth with Nicole Eastman were not included in the story about the fempire so there is no way to know whether they are a part of the group.

Heigl plays a type of woman we have been seeing a lot lately.  The good at work but bad at life woman.  She is the producer of a morning show who turns into a walking idiot when she allows Gerard Butler’s Mike to school her in the ways of dating.  He basically says no guy would want a woman with your personality so dump who you are and pretend to be someone else cause that’s how you will get the guy.   The film is riddled with cliches about competent women and how they are all control freaks, have cats, wear ponytails, wear comfortable clothes, don’t masturbate etc.  Basically the film’s premise tells women to throw out 40 years of women’s progress cause it’s such a turn off.  BTW the film also sells out and demeans men.

I can understand the excitement that McCullah Lutz, Eastman and Smith must have had when they were given the freedom to write like a guy after years of being reigned in.  Here’s what they said in the Variety article.

“When they told us to make it R, the heavens opened and the angels sang,” Lutz says. “We always pitch our dirty jokes to each other knowing we can’t use them. Suddenly, it was like, ‘Oh my God! We can write like we actually talk!’ “

But just because you have the freedom to say f-ck or c-ck as many times as you want does that mean that you should?  And does this mean that we are now going to see women’s comedies that are just as bad as the guys in the theatres where the ones that are actually subversive and stand up for women like Spring Breakdown get relegated to the DVD shelves?

Is this progress?

Can Girls Out-Gross Guys at the Box Office? (Variety)

Kathryn Bigelow

This is a story that I have written numerous times but it just seems that nothing changes.  I will keep on keeping on until we get more women directors.  NPR did an interesting piece on women directors and their films this summer and how in order for them to get their movies made they need to work outside the studio systems.

YUP.  Since only Nancy Meyers, Nora Ephron and now Anne Fletcher can get studio jobs.

It’s great that Kathryn Bigelow and Lynn Shelton are being noticed for their work this summer.  I think both their movies are great and I enjoyed them both.  I do think it’s interesting that both these films keep getting talked about in the context of the fact that they are women directing movies about men making it seem that this is such a freaky occurrence.  It’s shouldn’t be that big a deal.  I’ll say it again: nobody makes a big deal about guys directing movies about women yet we continue to be shocked that women can make movies about men.  Even NPR.

But NPR basically answers its own question with the following quote:

When women direct, they’re in control. And major Hollywood studios cannot exactly bask in their legacies of female empowerment: Historically, female directors tend to work outside the traditional studio system.

Lynn Shelton

Control.  What is the fear of women being in control of a film? Women can be producers, but control and, of course, vision seems to make everyone go nuts.  The issue regarding women directors is so hard to document as blatant discrimination because the hiring process is not like hiring a receptionist or a manager.  A producer or a studio head has to hire someone they trust with their money, someone they trust to get the job done on time, someone they trust to be able to command a crew.  Women can be trusted to do many jobs in our society yet getting studio chiefs to trust that a female director is right for the job seems to be too far a leap.  Yet everyone knows it is discrimination but they also know it is near impossible to prove.

From the piece:

Bigelow says she has no idea why even now so few women are trusted to direct major films.

“You’d have to sit somebody down here and ask them,” she says, with the slightest edge to her voice.

By “somebody,” Bigelow means a studio head, a Hollywood mogul. Ask Lynn Shelton the same question — Why aren’t there more go-to female directors? — and she likewise points to the studio bosses.

I wish one of those somebodys would sit down and give someone a real answer. The problem is there is no real answer and they all know it.

Female Directors, Still a Scare Movie Commodity (NPR)

Multi-talented recording artist, producer and actor, Queen Latifah is releasing her ninth album later this summer Persona.  She had the courage earlier this summer to talk about her child sexual abuse and she has always been a role model for women who are not skinny yet powerful and comfortable with their bodies.

She has a built in following and is able to get her audience out to see her flicks.  Her production and management company Flavor Unit Entertainment is successful and she wants to be able to emulate the Tyler Perry model of having her own studio.  I also think her acting ability is underrated.  She was very good in The Secret Life of Bees and was nominated for an Oscar for Chicago.

Here are some of the quotes from a recent LA Times piece:

Can you tell me a little more about your production company, Flavor Unit Entertainment? It seems like you have your fingers in a lot of pies.

We’ve had a production company for quite a while now. We’ve produced “Beauty Shop” to “The Cookout” to “The Perfect Holiday,” and now “Just Wright.” We’re developing film and television production. We’ll be having a big announcement soon — it’s not ready yet. I shouldn’t tease you like that! We were a big music management company. As my career started to gain more strength on the film side than the music side, we started to swing our resources over to the film side.

And these movies have made money?

They’ve all made money.

Where does this all end up?

I don’t know that it ends up. If anything it continues up. I would love to eventually have our own studio. A real studio to produce films, television, whatever it is we like to do. To be a self-contained company, like a Tyler Perry, I suppose. You write it, you shoot it, you market it, you license it.

I’m excited that she is thinking this way.  We need more women to dream this big.

The Sunday Conversation: Queen Latifah (LA Times)