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Vacation Break
We’ll be back next week with a big Toronto preview of the women directors. Enjoy the last week of summer.
Cross-Post The Winning Weirdness of ‘Bunheads’: The Case for Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Charming Dramedy
When the news came down the transom a few days ago that “Bunheads,” the new show from “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, had received a back-order pickup for more episodes on ABC...
Trailer Watch: Butter
Film opens October 5. Description from IMDb: In small-town Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town’s...
Piling on Kristen Stewart
It’s been a couple of weeks (in fact almost a month) since the world learned that Kristen Stewart made out with her Snow White and the Huntsman director and caused a total gigantic meltdown in the...
Interview with Linda Goldstein Knowlton — Director of Somewhere Between
Producer Linda Goldstein Knowlton who produced one of my favorite films ever — Whale Rider — steps behind the camera to direct a film for her daughter Ruby whom she adopted from China....
Mary McDonnell Takes the Lead in Major Crimes
While we were all obsessively watching the Olympics, one thing happened in TV land that didn’t get much note. A 60 year old woman took over as the lead on a TV show. Now techincally Major Crimes...
Guest Post: Nurture vs. Nuke
Four years ago, when Sarah Palin was nominated to the Republican ticket, columnist Sally Quinn famously asked, “When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick,...
TIFF Adds Masters and Mavericks to Lineup
Got the rundown yesterday on the TIFF Masters and Mavericks screenings. It seems that no women qualify to be Masters. Here’s what Piers Handling the Director and CEO of TIFF said about the...
Note to Janice Min — Hey Pot, It’s the Kettle, You’re Black
This past Sunday the NY Times Style section featured a piece about the how hard the culture is on celebrity moms. The piece started out with a personal story by its author, Janice Min, (the...
Mary Pickford Foundation and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Honor Mary Pickford
The Mary Pickford Foundation and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have teamed up to launch a multi-year partnership to honor the legacy of Mary Pickford. Pickford, who was one of the...
Phyllis Diller: A Comedy Legend
Groundbreaking comic, Phyllis Diller died yesterday at the age of 95. Diller was truly one of a kind and paved the way for the female comedians we know now. She was unafraid to be brazen and...
TIFF Trailer: Inescapable — Written and Directed by Ruba Nadda
Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable focuses on a father (Alexander Siddig) whose daughter goes missing in Syria. He must go back to Syria, where he hasn’t been in decades, to find his daughter and deal...
Win a Copy of Feminist Ryan Gosling
I love Feminist Ryan Gosling. Gender studies student Danielle Henderson is so frickin smart taking a dude we all think of as sensitive with feminist tendencies and throwing some great feminist...
Further Breaking Down the Sight and Sound Numbers by Gender
One reader Miran Terzic did some serious work breaking down gender votes in the Sight and Sound Top 50 film poll. If the 197 (I had 196) voted three women would make the top 50, not just one. The...
Cross-Post: Heroines of Cinema: Muriel Heslop
As widely reported earlier this month, the new Sight and Sound poll of the 50 Greatest Films of All Time featured only one film by a female director. It was hardly a surprise to those versed in the...
TIFF Trailer: English Vinglish Directed by Gauri Shinde
The film captures a modern day struggle experienced all too often by the un-American elite trying to make it in America: the language barrier. Sridevi’s character, Shashi, is made to feel insecure...
Cross Post: Brenda Chapman on Writing BRAVE
Brave rocked the box office. Its themes of identity, responsibility, and family were equally appealing to boys and girls, adults and children. Its unique characters were memorable and brimming with...
Sight and Sound Magazine Expands List of Top Films of All Time to 250 and Just Seven Women Directors Make It
It’s not enough that we had to deal with the first reveal from Sight and Sound Magazine a couple of weeks ago when only one woman made their top 50 Greatest Films of All Time, now they have...
New York Film Festival Includes Seven Women Directed Films in Its Lineup
With one fell swoop the team of men and women who program the New York Film Festival stuck a pin in the eye of the dudes at Cannes by programming seven, yes seven films directed by women at the...
Interview with Ann Dowd, Star of ‘Compliance’
If you’ve ever watched any of the Law and Order series you have seen Ann Dowd. She’s been on them all. She’s a journeywoman actress, one you have seen in many places, whose work you constantly...
Funny Video of the Day: Wing it Parenthood with Connie Britton
Outspoken Planned Parenthood supporter, Connie Britton appears in this Funny or Die video about Planned Parenthood’s budget cuts. Britton, best-known for playing the amazing and feminist Tami...
Trailer Watch: For Ellen — Directed and Written by So Yong-Kim
In theaters September 19th. For Ellen, written and directed by So Yong-Kim, focuses on a absentee father and musician (Paul Dano) who has to make the decision about whether to fight for custody of...
Miley Cyrus Cuts Hair and the World Thinks She’s Gone Crazy
What is it about young Hollywood women and their hair? A couple of years ago I wrote a piece about the reaction to Emma Watson’s haircut that got page views for months and months. People were...
The Summers of Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep can’t do much wrong in our book. Her newest film, Hope Springs, opened this past weekend on over 2,000 screens. A film that cost $30 million to make has now made over $20 million...
Guest Post: The Strong Women of Copper
BBC America is premiering its first original series Copper this week. The story follows Kevin Corcoran, an Irish-American boxer-turned-cop (played by Tom Weston-Jones) who returns to New York from...
Must Watch Web Series: Lauren — Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter
Lauren, a three part web series, directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, premiered on August 13 on YouTube’s female focused WIGS channel. Starring The L Word’s Jennifer Beals and Pretty Little...
How Can Women Gain More Influence in Hollywood? A NY Times Forum Debate
Head on over to the NY Times Opinion forum for a debate I co-curated on how we can get more women into power positions in Hollywood. Here’s the overview: Obituaries for Nora Ephron in June...
Linda Bloodworth Thomason and Jodie Foster Take On New Directing Projects
Two new exciting female directed projects were announced yesterday. The first, from Designing Women creator, Linda Bloodworth Thomason is Bridegroom, a Kickstarter funded documentary, raising...
Our Unyielding Obsession with Jennifer Aniston
If you’ve been under a rock for the last couple of days I am here to inform you that we can all calm down now because Jennifer Aniston has finally gotten engaged. If you haven’t been under a...
Remembering Helen Gurley Brown: A Complicated Legacy
Like many feminists, I have some problems with Cosmopolitan. Growing up, it was always a kind of aspirational magazine to me. It seemed adult with its sexy headlines about sex with actresses and...
Sparkle on Nightline
Producer Debra Martin Chase and star Jordin Sparks talked to Deborah Roberts about Whitney Houston’s last film Sparkle which is opening on Friday. Martin Chase and Houston were producing partners...
Trailer Watch: Sarah Polley Directs a Documentary — Stories We Tell
This is a busy year for Sarah Polley. Her film Take This Waltz is now in release in the US and now she has a documentary premiering at Venice and Toronto. Here’s the opaque description from the...
Feminist Pussy Riot Band on Trial in Russia
Something horrific is going on in Moscow that needs a lot more attention. Three women who are members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot were jailed several months ago for “hooliganism” and...
Thank You Women Athletes for a Great Olympics
Looking back on the last two weeks this was clearly the women’s Olympics. Aside from Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt it was the women’s stories that dominated the airwaves (at least here in the...
Trailer Watch: Diana Vreeland- The Eye Has to Travel Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Film opens September 21.
The Real Hunger Games
In honor of the GOP VP candidate. It’s from May but feels very appropriate today. And also remember that this guy is to the right of Romney on reproductive choice.
Meryl On Video
It seems that today is video day and I’ve got two great ones from Meryl Streep as she is promoting Hope Springs (which I hope you go and see this weekend.) The first is from Watch What...
A Conversation with Livia Bloom and Macarena Aguiló, director of The Chilean Building
For the men and women in The Chilean Building, patriotic duty took an unusual form: childcare rather than warfare. While their parents battled the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, a group of 60...
The LA Times Talks to Three Women Directors — Where is the Female Equivalent of Woody Allen?
Check out the LA Times piece on Ava DuVernay, Jullie Delpy and Leslye Headland. While things still suck for women directors, it kind of feels like the conversation is shifting. Maybe I am being too...
Elizabeth Banks Stands Up for Planned Parenthood and Obama
I just wish she didn’t have to justify why she got her birth control. But at least she’s doing some talking which is more than most folks.
Sexism Watch: Emma Stone Calls Out Sexism
Love this. You can check out the full version here. Cross posted with permission from Upworthy (a site you should check out.) The Adeventures of Emma in Hollywoodland (Upworthy)
Interview with Nicole Karsin — Director of We Women Warriors
We Women Warriors director Nicole Karsin answered some questions (by email) about her documentary that follows three native Colombian women who are using nonviolent resistance to defend their people...
Vulture’s Meryl Streep Matrix
Couldn’t pass up sharing this. Created by the folks at Vulture. Don’t forget to go out and support Hope Springs this weekend. Read the Definitive Meryl Streep Matrix (Vulture)
Three Female Screenwriters Considered for Fifty Shades of Grey Adaptation
We previously reported that the producing duo from The Social Network, Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti would be producing the film adaptation of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey and we hoped...
Hope Springs Written by Vanessa Taylor
Here’s a confession. I got nervous when I saw the posters for Hope Springs. I am so used to seeing Meryl Streep play roles in which she seems larger than life that when I looked at the hairdo, the...
Remembering Judith Crist
Groundbreaking film critic Judith Crist died at her home on August 7 at the age of 90 after a long illness. Crist was truly a trailblazer, as she was the first full-time female critic at any major...
Olympics Watch: Yo Geno Had It Not Been for Feminists You Wouldn’t Have Your High Paying Coaching Gig
I’ve had very mixed feelings about Geno Auriemma the women’s basketball coach at the University of Connecticut. He’s bred many wonderful players and now this week he is leading the US...
Trailer Watch: Nobody Walks — directed by Ry Russo-Young and written by Ry Russo Young and Lena Dunham
The film premiered at Sundance 2012 and will open in theatres on October 12
A Huge Day for Jennifer Lawrence: $10 Million Hunger Games Salary and New Starring Role
Yesterday was a big day for Jennifer Lawrence. Not only is she in talks to increase her salary for the next Hunger Games film Catching Fire, she is also in negotiations/attached to star in a new...
Catherine Keener, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Toni Collette to Star in Nicole Holofcener’s New Film
Nicole Holofcener’s untitled new project began principal photography on Monday in Los Angeles. The film will be distributed by Fox Searchlight. Catherine Keener — who has been in all of...