Yesterday, I was so happy to read that Ellen Page is going to write and produce a comedy for HBO with her buddies Alia Shawkat and Sean Tillmann. It’s called Stitch N’ Bitch and it
“follows two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood to Los Angeles’ Silver Lake enclave in hopes of becoming artists — of any kind.”
Knowing the type of films that attract Page this announcement is giving me the warm and fuzzies and after the depressing numbers on Whip It from last weekend (hey people, don’t forget there is time to see it, it’s still playing in theatres across the country this weekend), I needed some good news.
My buzz lasted about 2.5 seconds until I read this in the Hollywood Reporter: “Pussycat fight!” Kristen Bell has been cast opposite Christina Aguilera in Burlesque about two rival dancers set of course, in a burlesque club.
Here’s the description:
Burlesque centers on the journey of an ambitious small-town girl (Aguilera) with a big-town voice who finds love and success in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club, reminiscent of the nightclub in Bob Fosse’s Cabaret. (Aguilera has guested in cabarets for the Pussycat Dolls.) Bell will play Nikki, the loose-cannon lead dancer and main attraction at the club who spirals out of control when Aguilera’s character suddenly gets the spotlight.
Veronica Mars how could you? The old girl hates other girl because she wants to get a job and of course there is only space for one successful girl in any movie or story about women. Why the hell are they calling it burlesque? Why don’t they just cut to the chase and call it Strip Club?
These movies that pit women against each other make me want to scream. Do they think we are that stupid? Enough already.
At least Ellen Page gave me some good news.
In another note Cher will play the club’s owner. Burlesque starts filming next month.
Ellen Page to pen comedy at HBO (Hollywood Reporter)
Kristen Bell cast in ‘Burlesque’ (Hollywood Reporter)
hi! just wanted to let you know that i saw whip it last night and LOVED it!! thanks for spreading the word :)
Burlesque sounds like another Bride Wars.
Good for Ellen Page!
Hi,
No offense, but I’ll pass judgment when I see it. Writing a good script is not easy. It’s really annoying to most writers I know when everybody out there thinks they can write just because they’ve been on a movie set. I wish her well, but if she can’t write, then this is yet another disrespect to the women who are training and honing their craft, trying to make it as writers in the industry.
reserving judgement as well.
And burlesque…hmmm, Cher -awesome, Aguillera -awesome,
story -sounds cheap and tired, but
the entertainers sound, well, entertaining.
No it wont be Cabaret, but, will it be horrid? I hope not.
Uh….Burlesque doesn’t sound anything like Bride Wars. And if anyone knows anything about neo-burlesque, it’s more about performance than it is about stripping. Just look it up on YouTube.
And as far as pitting women against each other, hello, women can be just as competitive as men can be. If this were a movie about a man getting upset that another man was coming into his business and taking his place, no one would care. I’m tired of this idea that women are supposed to get along and braid each other’s hair all the time.
Either way, it’s freaking Cher, Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci, and Veronica Mars. I’ll fucking be there.
Hey, Chris, my point is that both movies are about women turning against each other. We need films that celebrate sisterhood.
They’re not “turning” against each other. Kristen Bell’s character is the star of the club, and Christina’s character comes in and changes that, so Bell’s character is upset. Bride Wars is misogynist minstrelsy. I fail to see how Burlesque is anything similar, especially when Bell’s story arc isn’t even the main plot of the film.
Between this project (if it’s as you describe it) and the loathsome looking ‘When In Rome’, it appears that Kristen Bell either A) doesn’t care about the quality of her scripts, B) knows that her moments of fame may be fleeting and thus says yes to everything, C) may not necessarily get the best scripts sent to her and must choose from what she gets.
All of the above are perfectly reasonable explanations, but I also don’t think that it’s Kristen Bell’s responsibility to only pick films that contain overtly positive female representation. Furthermore, and I know I’ve said this elsewhere, but I firmly believe that we can only claim progress in gender neutrality when women have the choice to pick projects that are every bit as stupid as male-driven comedies without being criticized by pundits such as ourselves.
As for Bell specifically, she just may be a case similar to Sarah Michelle Gellar, who was at best a merely ‘okay’ actress but who THRIVED under the pen of Joss Whedon and the material he presented her with (comparatively, Allison Hannigan certainly didn’t whither away after Buffy went off the air). Maybe Bell simply needs a Rob Thomas to bring out the best in her. Or maybe TV just provides better roles for women than the movies (that one’s been obvious since the early 1990s).
Sounds to me like Burlesque could be Showgirls 2! I admit that even as a woman I enjoyed the incredible sleaze and cheese of Showgirls. I apologize ahead of time for my Rotten Tomatoe bad taste in film.