BY Women and Hollywood
Private Practice Takes on Abortion Again
This past week, Private Practice created by Shonda Rhimes stood up again for a woman’s right to choose. This episode was written by Jennifer Cecil and Barbie Kligman. Here’s what happened. A...
Angelina Jolie’s Directorial Debut Gets a Name and a Date
Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, a love story set in Bosnia War in the 90s finally has a title — In the Land of Blood and Honey. The other news is that it will be released on December 23rd...
More Pilot Pickups Created by Women
NBCUntitled Parham/St. Clair — Jessica St. Clair and Lennon ParhamAre You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea — Dottie Zicklin and Julie Larson ABCApartment 23 — (formerly titled...
Bridesmaids is a Big Fat Hit!
Women took up the mantle and went to see the film. The gross was about $24.5 (UPDATE — $26.2) million about $10 million more than predicted. I don’t know who does the predicting on these...
Tickets Available to LA Screening of No Woman, No Cry
More Magazine has made available several tickets to a special screening of Christy Turlington Burns’ documentary No Woman, No Cry. The screening will be held on Monday, May 23rd at 4:30pm at LA...
Cannes Watch: Reviews of Polisse directed by Maiwenn
From Jordan Minzer in the Hollywood Reporter: A powerhouse of emotional jolts, free-wheeling comedy and socially-minded storytelling, Poliss (Polisse) reps an admirable step up for...
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: The Women
Women directors are dominant in the upcoming Human Rights Watch Film Festival in NYC from June 16–30. The themes of the Festival this year are: Truth, Justice and Accountability; Times of Conflict...
Save the Future for Women in Comedy — See Bridesmaids
How did we get to a place in 2011 where the female Hollywood comedian is on the endangered species list? My god we have three female Supreme Court justices, we’ve had three female secretaries of...
Guest Post: The First Grader by Ann Peacock
We LOVE it, but there’s no money for movies about Africa. This refrain was repeated over and over again as I trundled around town pitching the story to anyone who would stand still long enough to...
Weinstein Co. Picks Up Meryl Streep Film The Iron Lady
Looks like we will have a Meryl Streep film in Oscar contention this year. At Cannes, the Weinstein Co. has secured the US rights for the film. Film is written by Abi Morgan and directed by...
Cannes Watch: First Reviews of Sleeping Beauty Directed by Julia Leigh
From Sasha Stone on The Wrap: Much has been made of the supposed sexuality to be plumbed in Australian novelist and first-time auteur Julia Leigh’s “Sleeping Beauty.” First, a teaser poster...
Guest Post: Hooray For The Movie Bridesmaids by Cory Kahaney
Here we go again…my phone is ringing because some funny laaaady is getting lots of attention. In this case it’s ladies, and the movie is Bridesmaids. Someone is doing a piece on why this all...
Pilot Pickups: Fox and NBC
Here are the women created and written shows that got pick ups in the last two days. Note that all four of the shows picked up by NBC are written by women and all will star women. NBCUp All...
Cannes Watch: Reviews of We Need to Talk About Kevin
Here are some first looks at the female directed films being screened at Cannes. First up: We Need To Talk About Kevin — directed by Lynne Ramsey From Xan Brooks in the Guardian: We Need to...
Women Can Create Shows — The 2011–2012 Pilot Season
As pilot season winds down and the shows get series pickups in the next couple of weeks, Neely Swanson took a look at the female writers creating pilots this year for Deadline and found that there...
ITVS Launches Women and Girls Lead
ITVS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has launched a three project to air 50 documentary films — some new and some archival — that highlight women and girls leadership. The...
Sissy Spacek To Take Up Directing
The LA Times is reporting that Sissy Spacek will make her directing debut on Sweet Tea which is adapted from a collection of short stories Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky by Julia Oliver. Here’s a...
Trailer Watch: The Future — Written and Directed by Miranda July
Film Opens July 29
In Praise of Melissa McCarthy
I finally saw Bridesmaids last night. LOVED IT. Will have a longer piece later this week, but I wanted to single out Melissa McCarthy for a gush of love immediately. She almost stole the movie from...
Box Office Roundup — Weekend of May 6, 2011
I thought we should take a look at some numbers from this past weekend since we haven’t done that for a while. First — looks like Mel Gibson has not been forgiven. The Beaver grossed only...
Attenberg to be Greek Entry for Academy Awards
Attenberg, written and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari has been making its way around the world winning many awards including best actress at the Venice Film Festival and the top award at the...
Why Bridesmaids Matters
This feels like another cultural watershed moment for women on screen. A big studio comedy that is about women. We all know the difficulties women in comedy have faced. Gone are the days of Goldie...
Bossypants Returns to SNL
The Tina Fey publicity machine of the last couple of weeks has been in full swing. She’s been everywhere to sell her book Bossypants. And clearly, the publicity machine has worked because the book...
Trailer Watch: Columbiana
In this film Zoe Saldana kicks some serious ass. At least its not only the teens who are playing the action stars. The film opens in September
Cholodenko and Hardwicke Book New Projects
There are reports that two high profile female directors — Lisa Cholodenko and Catherine Hardwicke — are circling their next projects. According to Deadline, Hardwicke will helm the...
Opening This Weekend: Last Night Written and Directed by Massy Tadjedin and The Women of Thor
Summer is here and the blockbusters have started. This week’s installment of your favorite superhero at the box office brings us Thor directed by Kenneth Branagh. I was way more intrigued to see...
The Beaver — Directed by Jodie Foster
It would have been so much easier if The Beaver stunk and then I could write again about how I can’t stand Mel Gibson (and not just for what he did to his girlfriend) and how I don’t understand...
The End of An Era: Judy McGrath Exits as MTV CEO
Judy McGrath has been with MTV practically since its inception, and yesterday, after 30 years she abruptly resigned as the chairwoman and chief executive of MTV Networks. I can’t remember a time...
Save the Date: The Topp Twins are Coming to NYC on May 13 for a Q and A with Me!
One of my favorite films from the Athena Film Festival which I produced last February was The Topp Twins. As I say to everyone on paper this film sounds too way out to work. It’s about lesbian...
Trailer Watch: Buck — directed by Cindy Meel
This film premiered at Sundance and has been playing the festival circuit all spring. It opens on June 24
Trailer Watch: Martha Marcy May Marlene
Film will open October 7
Debbie Liebling Pushed Out at Universal After Fast Five Opens at $86 Million
Timing is everything. This Monday, Universal’s President of Production, Debbie Liebling, lost her job the day after Universal’s Fast Five had the biggest opening of the year. She was on the job...
Saoirse Ronan Scores Title Role in The Host
This young woman is so hot. She seems to be at the top of the list for the youth set. She can do action — Hanna; she can do drama — Atonement. She can do everything and anything. She just...
Guest Post: Haunted by Future Anxiety by Laurel Haines
About ten years ago I started to feel like maybe the future wouldn’t be so great. Not my personal future, but the future we were creating by destroying the environment and racking up national debt...
Abortion to Take Center Stage in New Indie Film
I just read a story about a new film called Doonby. Never heard of it before this morning until this headline from the Hollywood Reporter came across my computer: Woman at Center of Roe v. Wade Stars...
Lifetime Unveils 2011–2012 Slate of Programs
Lifetime which a couple of years ago had some strong dramas is trying to get back into the business of scripted shows. They network has renewed Army Wives for a sixth season and ordered a Modern Love...
Los Angeles Film Festival 2011 Selections: The Women
The LA Film Festival will run from June 16 to June 26. They received over 5,000 submissions for their competition program. All the films in competition are either world, North American, or US...
Will Kathryn Bigelow Be The First Out of the Gate With a Bin Laden Movie?
I imagine that Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal are pretty psyched today regarding the prospects for their upcoming film which has long been rumored to be about the attempt to capture Bin Laden. In...
Bridesmaids Has Not Even Opened and It’s Already Being Copied
It’s a day of good news/bad news stories. Bridesmaids which doesn’t even open until next week is already being copied. Kirsten Dunst and Lizzy Caplan have signed up to star in Bachelorette which...
The Tony Nominations 2011 — Women Writers Completely Missing
There is some good news and some very bad news in today’s Tony nominations. The good news first. • Two women are nominated for best direction of play: Anna D. Shapiro, The Motherf**ker with the...
Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott Talk Girls With Guns
One of the fun things that is happening in the NY Times is that they have unleashed their film critics to talk casually about films on different topics. It’s so nice to hear opinions from Manohla...
Book Excerpt- The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson
I have a piece in the upcoming anthology The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of Our Time by Dan Burstein, Arne de Keijzer, John-Henri...
Must Watch: Lara Logan on 60 Minutes
I know this is a bit off topic but this is important about how women are treated in this world. Lara Logan went to Egypt to do her job. To broadcast a revolution. She can back a battered and abused...
Sequels and Hollywood — Hardly Any Women Centric Titles
The site Den of Geek put together a list of all the sequels in the works in Hollywood. There are 95 on the list. Many will never happen. Many will. It’s interesting to note that only 6 of the 95...
Women at the Box Office: April 29 — May 1, 2011
Women Centric Currently Playing The ArborPromHannaSoul SurferPoticheMiralSucker Punch Jane Eyre — written by Moira BuffiniRed Riding Hood — directed by Catherine HardwickeI Will...
Women Win Big Prizes at Tribeca Film Festival
Lisa Aschan’s Swedish film She Monkeys (which I missed and desperately want to see) won the best narrative at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was written by Josefine Adolfsson and...
First Poster: Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs
Glenn Close returns to the big screen in Albert Nobbs. Hope it gets picked up for US distribution. Close is also producing this and is the co-writer. h/t Rope of Silicon
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Amy Poehler
At a dinner this week celebrating the Time 100 list, Amy Poehler seems to have stole the show by thanking her two nannies by name as important people and influences in her life. She thanked them for...
Guest Post: Getting Prom to the Big Screen by Katie Wech
Like many opportunities in life, it happened so fast I could have easily missed it. I was sitting in an executive’s office at Disney, when suddenly he said, almost in passing, “I’ve been...
New Research: Females Are of Lesser Value Than Males
New research from Stacy Smith and Marc Choueiti of USC’s Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism has tracked women on screen and behind the scenes in the top 100 grossing films...
Christine Vachon on the State of the Cinema
Listen to prolific producer Chistine Vachon talk about the state of the current cinema at this year’s SF International Film Festival. She says the state of current cinema may not be happening in...