News
2011 Cannes Poster: Faye Dunaway Circa 1970 With Just a Head and Legs
This is what it says on the official Cannes website about the poster: This photo of Faye Dunaway was taken by Jerry Schatzberg in 1970. Model of sophistication and timeless elegance, it is an...
Joe Wright Sticks it to Zack Snyder
Joe Wright the director best known for British period dramas like Atonement and Pride and Prejudice opens his first action film Hanna starring Saorise Ronan as a teen assassin this Friday. He...
Ms. Bossypants Writes a Book
Tina Fey’s new book Bossypants comes out this week and it’s generally well liked with a couple of caveats. The consensus is that it isn’t exactly a memoir but that’s ok since it is still a...
Penelope Cruz Gets Star on Walk of Fame
She’s getting ready to star in the big budget Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp and now she’s joined the Hollywood Walk of Fame Club.
Peabody Award Winners
The 70th annual Peabody Awards were announced last week. The Peabody’s represent excellence in electronic media for the year 2010. From the website: “The Peabodys, the oldest awards in...
Circumstance — Written and Directed by Maryam Keshavarz Closes New Directors/New Films
This evening Maryam Keshavarz’ Sundance award winning film will close the New Directors/New Film series in NYC. I spoke with Maryam this week and the full interview will be available when the film...
Circumstance – Written and Directed by Maryam Keshavarz Closes New Directors/New Films
This evening Maryam Keshavarz’ Sundance award winning film will close the New Directors/New Film series in NYC. I spoke with Maryam this week and the full interview will be available when the...
Women Films at the Theatre This Weekend — April 1, 2011
Women’s Films Now PlayingMiral — written by Rula Jebreal Potiche Sucker Punch Desert Flower — written and directed by Sherry Hormann Cracks — directed by Jordan Scott, co-written...
A Moment of Self Promotion
What a way to wake up on a crappy, snowy, rainy April 1st. I sure hope this isn’t an April Fool’s Day joke, but I just got named to The Times of London’s 100 Greatest Arts Tweeters. The story...
Preview for The Killing
This show is created by Veena Sud who did Cold Case and it is based on a Danish show. The show stars Mireille Enos (Big Love) and the pilot was directed by Patty Jenkins who directed Charlize Theron...
Mr. Dodd Goes to Las Vegas
Chris Dodd, former Senator from Connecticut, took over as Hollywood’s chief lobbyist as the head of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) about 10 days ago. Keep in mind that the former...
The Power of Film — UK Film Council Report
As the UK’s Film Council sadly goes out of business this week, but before they departed they produced a comprehensive report on diversity and stereotypes with lots of information to digest. The...
Reese Witherspoon Drops Out of Brave
This film is still making news. First they get rid of Brenda Chapman who was first female to direct a Pixar movie. The EW story says she will have co-directing credit. now, they lost Reese...
Jennifer Garner Gets Her Own Franchise
I have always thought that films missed the boat by not figuring out how to get Jennifer Garner a character like the one she played in Alias. I know that Elektra was supposed to be it, but the film...
Trailer Watch: Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer
Opens on June 10. Film is written by Kathy Waugh and Megan McDonald Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Gabrielle Union
Gabrielle Union has become one of the few celebrity voices speaking out on behalf of the Congressional campaign to defund Planned Parenthood. No matter what you believe about abortion, 97% of what...
Women at the Box Office This Weekend — March 25
Women Centric Films OpeningMiral — written by Rula JebrealPotiche: reviewSucker Punch: What the Hell is Abbie Cornish Doing in Sucker PunchWomen Directed Films OpeningMy...
Potiche — Review
You know you are in for a treat when the first image of a film is Catherine Deneuve doing a light jog through the countryside, and Potiche does not let you down. It’s a comedy of manners set in the...
Rashida Jones Writes Film So She Can Have Decent Role
Women directors have long been writing their own material in order to give them opportunities to direct. Now women actors are taking up the pen in order to get themselves decent roles...
Debra Martin Chase to Produce Sparkle Remake at Sony
Producer Debra Martin Chase has teamed up with The Game showrunners and creators Mara Brock Akil and her husband Salim Akil to produce a remake of the 1976 film Sparkle which originally starred Irene...
Elizabeth Taylor — A True Hollywood Legend
In the world of icons in Hollywood Elizabeth Taylor stands on her own. It seems that everything that endures in Hollywood she did first. She got treated for alcoholism and drug addiction and spoke...
Fey on Gay
Must watch piece from the GLAAD Awards this weekend where Tina got an award.
Trailer Watch: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Interview With Daphne Pinkerson, Director, Triangle: Remembering The Fire
Tonight, at 9pm EST, HBO will premiere a new doc Triangle: Remembering the Fire in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire which killed 146 people mostly all young immigrant women...
First Look: Sexed Up Wonder Woman
Here’s the first picture of Adrianne Palicki as the crime fighting Wonder Woman. The costume looks like a Halloween costume. A little too much for me.
Guest Post: Desert Flower Review by Melissa Silvestri
Desert Flower is a deeply emotional drama (with light comedic moments) that tells the true story of Waris Dirie, a Somali woman who had undergone female genital mutilation at 3 years old, escaped her...
New Bridesmaids Trailer
This looks even better than the first one.
Interview with Sherry Hormann, Director of Desert Flower
Desert Flower opens this Friday in NY and LA. It stars Liya Kebede as Waris Dirie, a woman who escaped from Somalia and became a top fashion model and UN spokeswoman against female genital...
Drew Barrymore Gets New Directing Gig
I am so glad to read that Drew Barrymore has signed on to direct a new film. BUT I am none too pleased that this could be a redo of He’s Just Not That Into You (which was dreadful). Barrymore and...
Guest Post: No Line for the Ladies Room… But That’s Actually Awesome by Emily Dell
The porcelain is pristine in the ladies room at GDC — the Game Developer Conference, the largest conference of digital game designers in the world, held recently in San Francisco. At first it...
Spend St. Patrick’s Day at This is Ireland in Los Angeles
One of the areas where women are lacking in visibility is in the area of conducting and composing. This Thursday, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day composer and conductor Eimear Noone has put together...
Sucker Punch Meets The Disney Princesses
I have no idea whether Sucker Punch will be worthy, but the the it definitely spices up the bland Disney Princesses h/t Movieline
25 Year Old Amanda Seyfried Told She Needs Botox
Amanda Seyfried underwhelmed at the box office this weekend with Red Riding Hood. It took in 14 million and came in third at the box office. Seyfried revealed in an interview with Elle Magazine that...
The DGA Celebrates International Women’s Day with a Tribute to Kathryn Bigelow by Laura J. Shapiro
The DGA and its Women’s Steering Committee celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday night with a heartfelt tribute to director Kathryn Bigelow as part of their year long 75th Anniversary...
Red Riding Hood — Review
You have to give it to Catherine Hardwicke. She specializes in making movies for teenage girls. She seems to be able channel that teen angst and language better than anyone else. The problem is that...
Jane Eyre — Review
The moment you see Jane running through the Moors breathless you are sucked into her world. Jane Eyre is played by Mia Wasikowska, in another stellar performance (The Kids Are All Right,) proving she...
Sneak Preview: Interview with Susanne Bier
Here’s a brief snippet of my interview with Susanne Bier, Academy Award winning director of In a Better World. The film opens here in the US on April 1. The full interview will be up in a week...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Gabourey Sidibe
Gabourey Sidibe’s new film Yelling to the Sky had its world premiere last month in Berlin. This month it premieres stateside as SXSW. When doing press for the film in Berlin, Sidibe talked about...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Michelle Rodriguez
I love how this woman is able to talk about the roles women play in Hollywood because she doesn’t play them. She entered into the business in Girlfight and has been the action go to girl since...
Recent Media Pieces
Here are some cool pieces that I was interviewed for: Oscar Watch: The Most Powerful Women Of The 2011 Academy Awards — ForbesWoman Pre-Oscar Radio piece from Uptown radio Feminism, Film and...
Thelma and Louise and What Could Have Been
When you spend so much time online one thing that suffers is off line reading. So, I am perpetually playing catch up to things that can’t be read online. One of the pieces I just caught up with is...
Happy 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day
Here’s to hoping there is a time when women are treated equally. When we don’t have to fight twice as hard for half the pie. For girls to be able to go to school without regard for being...
The Girls on Film Presents The Town
It’s not like Hollywood is pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes when it comes to the gender disparity. But these young men and women have taken it to a whole different level. I got turned onto to...
Emily Blunt Does Not Want To Be The Girlfriend in a Comic Book Film
I could not love this young woman anymore. Everything I’ve seen her in has been fantastic. If you haven’t seen her debut in My Summer of Love you are missing something. She’s been on the junket...
The Culture Wars Are Back: Mike Huckabee Slams Natalie Portman For Being Single and Pregnant
The steam is coming out of my ears. It’s like deja vu. Twenty years ago we had Dan Quayle going after Candice Bergen on Murphy Brown and now we have Mike Huckabee going after...
Three Vie for Next Female Franchise
Variety reported yesterday that three Oscar nominated young actresses Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin and Jennifer Lawrence are all in the race to play the lead in The Hunger Games based on the...
More Good News on Bridesmaids
This film is shaping up to be the one of the movies I am most looking forward to seeing this year. Now I know that it is a movie about a wedding, and I have said that I would be perfectly fine with...
Trailer Watch: Miral
The updated trailer — film will open in the US this spring
Guest Post: Whither the Feminist Comedy Fan? by Emilie Spiegel
Last week’s 30 Rock raised a lot of questions about the messy and complicated relationship between feminism and comedy. As Rebecca Traister at Salon notes, it’s laudable to see a major network...
Actress Rosamund Pike Talks About Women (in Film) and Ambition
This is from the launch of the Bird’s Eye View Film Festival. The festival is in London from March 8–17.
Tilda a No Go at HBO
This is the second Diane Keaton project that has not made it to series at HBO. First was the Marti Noxon pilot script where she was to play a “Gloria Steinem” like magazine editor who starts a...