ALL POSTS
Trouble Between the Mary Pickford Foundation and the Mary Pickford Institute
I know a bit about Mary Pickford from reading Cari Beauchamp’s biography of Frances Marion Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood. Suffice it to say she was a...
Mirror, Mirror
Mirror, Mirror is the first of the Snow White films to hit the big screen this year. I didn’t really have very high expectations, but this movie at times tried too hard — jokes about how...
Rocking Comment from Brave Director Brenda Chapman
I just wanted to thank all of you for the amazing the comments on the site this week. While I might not be the biggest responder to comments, I do read each and every one and try to comment on the...
Guest Post: Trouble in Hollywood — Hunger Games Fans Resort to Racist Tweets
The first installment of the highly anticipated The Hunger Games trilogy finally made its way to the silver screen, earning an historic $155 million its opening weekend. While fans cheered on...
Sneak Preview: Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal
Thanks to Shonda Rhimes next week will be a milestone week. It will be the first time in 30 years that a single African American woman will be the lead on a network TV show. (Jada Pinkett Smith was...
Turn Me On, Dammit! — written and directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
This is a repost of a review written after seeing the film at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. The film opens in NY today. While watching the delightful Norwegian film Turn me on, Dammit! I...
Hunger Games Backlash: Jennifer Lawrence Doesn’t Look Hungry Enough
As of two days ago The Hunger Games’ domestic gross was up above $173 million dollars. It will clearly be above $200 million before the weekend. It’s a success so the nitpicking has started....
Cate Blanchett is Busy Working Just Not on the Big Screen
If you’ve been wondering where Cate Blanchett has been over the last couple of years you are not alone. She’s been working — hard — running the very prestigious Sydney Theatre...
Guest Post: Bitch? Please.
I couldn’t sleep the other night so I decided to get into the new ABC series Don’t Trust the B — — in Apartment 23 (It had been pre-released online in advance on its April 11th network...
Do You Think There is a Glass Ceiling for Women Directors?
Apparently Columbia University’s film school doesn’t think so. They are holding a panel at their 25th anniversary film festival on May 9 entitled: What Glass Ceiling? The Remarkable Success of...
Is 50 Shades of Grey The Next Big Thing?
As The Hunger Games was getting ready to take the box office by storm, a 40-something former TV executive from England with two kids E.L. James (not her real name) and her literary agent Valerie...
Marc Cherry Developing TV Show about Four Latina Maids
I’m not so sure about this one. Marc Cherry whose Desperate Housewives is thankfully going off the air this May is now filming a pilot a new ABC show called Devious Maids. One Housewife, Eva...
Two African American Female Directors Book New Films
I was excited to report that one African American female director got a new gig, but two puts me close to over the moon. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Gina Price-Bythewood who directed Love...
Is Princess Culture Redeemable?
I am extremely ambivalent about the whole princess thing. If I never saw another princess anywhere it would be too soon. But I live in the real world and write about Hollywood and Hollywood is...
Trailer Watch: Nurse Jackie — Season Four
Nurse Jackie returns for its fourth season on April 8 at 9pm on Showtime. Edie Falco’s got a new haircut and she’s drug free. The show is created by Liz Bixius and Linda Wallem This is gonna...
The Hunger Games Scores the Third Best Opening Weekend EVER
The Hunger Games broke a bunch of records with its stellar $155 million box office haul over the weekend. It also opened in about 67 foreign markets making another $59.3 million. I think this film...
Smash Gets Renewed But Creator and Showrunner Theresa Rebeck Departs
With a one-two punch on Thursday afternoon, NBC renewed Smash — the show about creating a musical based on Marilyn Monroe, but also revealed that the creator, main writer, executive producer...
Trailer Watch: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Teaser
The saga will conclude next Thanksgiving. Looks like Bella’s going to have some fun in this one.
Guest Post: Growing into Your Voice: The Resonance of “Rockaway”
I was a shy girl growing up. I was studious, reserved, and well-mannered. I’d very selectively raise my hand in school, secretly afraid of delivering the wrong answer and facing judgment by my...
The Hunger Games
I spent most of the beginning of The Hunger Games kind of holding my breath in hopes that the movie would live up to all the hype I put on it. I loved the books A LOT. I also put a whole heap of...
Interview with Susan Seidelman — Director of Musical Chairs
Susan Seidelman returns to the big screen with the Musical Chairs a love story set in the world of wheelchair ballroom dancing. It’s got something for everyone. It’s got class issues, gender...
MPAA Data Shows Women and Men Each Buy Half the Movie Tickets Sold
For the second year in a row the MPAA has released data showing that men and women each buy half the tickets to movies. (Here’s the post of the 2010 stats.) Two years ago women bought more than...
Teaser Trailer: The Host
This is from Stephenie Meyer the writer of the Twilight saga. It stars Saoirse Ronan and will open March 29, 2013. Here’s the description on Deadline: Saoirse Ronan stars as Melanie Stryder, one of...
Interview with Nina Jacobson: Producer of the Hunger Games
Nina Jacobson is poised to have a really great weekend. She’s about to open The Hunger Games which if tracking and advance sales hold will be one of the best opening weekends ever. She answered...
What Do the New Changes at Sony Mean for Amy Pascal?
Yesterday, the news broke that Michael Lynton who is now co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment along with Amy Pascal will be promoted to running all of Sony’s entertainment operations in the...
Will The Hunger Games Be The First Real Female Franchise?
In a little less than two days the film based on the first book of The Hunger Games trilogy will hit the big screen. Already over 2,000 screenings on Thursday night are sold out and theatres are...
Season Two of The Killing Returns April 1
Mad Men, Game of Thrones and now The Killing all returning within the next two weeks. Awesome. As the tag line says, The Killing is just the beginning. Can’t wait to see what Veena Sud and company...
Nicollette Sheridan Desperate Housewives Lawsuit Ends in a Hung Jury
Nicollette Sheridan’s $5.7 million lawsuit against ABC, Touchtone TV and Marc Cherry ended yesterday with a hung jury. The jury was deadlocked at 8–4 one vote short of giving Sheridan...
Hollywood Feminists of the Day: Chris O’Dowd and Jon Hamm — The Guys from Friends with Kids
It’s not very often that I think about a movie several weeks after I’ve seen it, but I have had Friends with Kids on my mind. The more I think about it, the more I like it. It’s just an adult...
Guest Post: Just Do It: One Woman’s Journey to Making a Feature
I wish someone had told me when I started out that if you want to make a feature, you need to find a way to do it. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait for someone to recognize your brilliance...
Exclusive: Mad Men — Set Me Free
In this remix musical, the women of Mad Men get together to sing the 1966 Diana Ross hit, Keep Me Hanging On. A metaphor for both the rigid gender roles of the time and the much anticipated season of...
Trailer Watch: New Snow White and the Huntsman Trailer
It’s all about Charlize vs Kristen. https://medium.com/media/44c117fa08eaff6d962dabbeeb3e0bfb/href
The Return of Anjelica Huston
I remember a time when Anjelica Huston was a movie star. From the mid-80s to the mid-90s she was making some really great movies. Prizzi’s Honor, The Dead, The Addams Family, The Grifters and...
Misogyny Run Rampant
I’m feeling a bit depressed this morning. It’s March and we are supposed to be celebrating the strides that women have made, yet, right now it feels like things suck. I’m hearing some horrific...
Interview with Rachael Harris — Star of Natural Selection
Natural Selection is a small but very touching movie about a woman who has spent 25 years locked in a world and a marriage that have kept her from being a full person. Rachael Harris plays Linda a...
A Pick Me Up for A Cloudy Day: Bernadette Peters Sings Mama Rose on Smash
NBC.com Video Widget
Lena Dunham Curates Hey Girlfriend, A Program of Eight Films at BAM Beginning April 2
Lena Dunham is pushing her brand mightly well. To coincide with the premiere of her new HBO show Girls on April 15, Dunham has joined forces with BAM to curate a program of eight films entitled...
Tribeca Shorts 2012- The Women
Right off I was pissed when I read the press release of the shorts because the first section listed is called “Men-hattan.” Here’s how it is described: “Our New York shorts program takes a...
Guest Post: It’s a Wild Thyme for Women in 21st Century Hollywood
One afternoon during the marketing campaign for the film Fried Green Tomatoes I received a call from Betty Friedan, legendary feminist crusader, author of The Feminine Mystique and the first...
Interview with Megan Griffiths — Director of SXSW Audience Winner Eden
I was a little late to finding out about Eden but I am glad I did. It’s a really good and interesting film on a difficult topic — sex trafficking. We all think the sex trafficking occurs...
Producer Watch: Nina Jacobson at the Premiere of The Hunger Games
Nina Jacobson has been around Hollywood for a while. She’s one of a handful of women to run a studio having run Buena Vista Studios at Disney until 2006. She’s about to come on everyone’s...
Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk: Meryl Streep Saluting Hillary Clinton
Check out this AWESOME video of Meryl Streep introducing Hillary Clinton at the Women in the World Summit in NYC this past weekend. Make it to the end and you with see La Streep take out her Oscar...
Guest Post: Losing Control on the Way to Distribution
Filmmakers are often told, write what you know. And I know a lot about being so attached to a plan that it can be difficult to move forward when it isn’t working. So, as my protagonist was trying...
SXSW Quick Interview with Robin Tunney of See Girl Run
Like Grown Ups, this a story about a 35 year old dog groomer who flirts with infidelity when she develops an overwhelming longing for her high school sweetheart. Her high school sweetheart is a dream...
Having Trouble Finishing Your Film? Maybe You Could Get a Grant
The Women in Film Foundation announces the 27th cycle of their finishing fund grants which provide up to $15,000 in cash as well as some serious in-kind donations towards finishing your film. The...
Interview with the Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Producer Kelcey Edwards of Wonder Woman — The Untold Story of American Superheroines
I am one of those girls who grew up watching Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman. I loved those shows. The feminist in me was alive way back then when Lynda Carter and Lindsey Wagner were kicking butt...
Viola Davis to Play Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
Maybe this could be the one to put Viola Davis up on the stage on Oscar night with a win in her column. Several reports state that Davis is circling to star in and produce a biopic on the...
Tribeca 2012: The Rest of the Lineup
Here are the rest of the women directed films that will be playing the Tribeca Film Festival in April. There are also several women centric which I will hopefully check out. The shorts program will...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Garry Trudeau
A big shout out to the funny guys on TV like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert — who are standing up for women’s rights during this absurd period where the right wing thinks its possible to...
Cross Post: Nina Menkes — Cinema as Sorcery
I have fallen in love with Nina Menkes. Her films have taken me there, in their descent to the depths of her psyche, and by way of hers, to my own. I continue falling in love with her as she shares...
A Newbie Filmmaker Hits SXSW
I kicked off my SXSW Film adventure by running into my sidekick for the evening, fellow blogger, Dr. Goddess. Our SXSW Interactive panels were neighbors. I was on a mission to make it to the Alamo...