News
No Surprise — Most Film Super Bowl Ads Are Targeted at Men
The Super Bowl is gearing up to be one big commercial for the big Hollywood boy flicks that will premiere throughout the year. It’s not like women don’t watch the Super Bowl. They do. And...
Noomi Rapace Bags Big Action Role
How cool and exciting. Noomi Rapace has signed on to play Elizabeth Shaw in the Ridley Scott directed Prometheus which even though is not yet written already has a release date of March 9, 2012....
The Berlin Film Festival Reveals Full Competition Lineup
The Berlinale has announced the full competition lineup for its 61st edition kicking off on February 10th. Out of the 20 films in competition, four are directed by women. That’s 20%. Here are the...
BAFTA Nominations
The BAFTA nominations were revealed today and there are some surprises. Here’s what I noticed: Complete snub of Winter’s Bone — no Jennifer Lawrence nomination No women directors...
BAFTA Nominations
The BAFTA nominations were revealed today and there are some surprises. Here’s what I noticed: Complete snub of Winter’s Bone — no Jennifer Lawrence nomination No women directors...
No Wonder Woman Reboot Coming
I was excited over the potential to see a rebooted version of Wonder Women. If Battlestar Galactica, a cheesy show, can be remade into a major league great show, how can we not do some justice to...
Introducing Women and Hollywood 2.0
Welcome to (the new) Women and Hollywood, your site for all things related to women and the entertainment industry. This is a feminist blog that puts women and women’s issues front...
About
Founder/Editor — Melissa Silverstein MelissaSilverstein is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood. She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Athena Film Festival — A...
A Visionary Theatrical Entrepreneur — Molly Smith at Arena Stage
At a time when many theatres are retrenching because of financial difficulties, Arena Stage is bucking that trend and is actually expanding under the guidance of Artistic Director, Molly Smith....
Resources for Women and Film
Feminist Sites Blogher Broadsheet Cartoonist Nicole Hollander Change.org- Women’s Rights Echidne of the Snakes Everyday Goddess Feministe Feministing Global Sister Jezebel Ms. Magazine Paradigm...
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Fighting for Crumbs — Women Vying for Batman Roles
This is one thing I hate about Hollywood. There was a story that made its rounds in the blogosphere over the last couple of days about how top tier actresses like Keira Knightley and Anne Hathaway...
Rooney Mara Pictures as Lisbeth Salander
In this great preview piece in W by Lynn Hirschberg on director David Fincher, there are some new photos of Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. Some things to note: Fincher thinks of Salander as a...
The Hailee Steinfeld Nomination Debate
As the debate about Oscar nominations concludes this week, one interesting conversation that has been going on is the debate about whether True Grit actress Hailee Steinfeld should be placed in the...
Raven Symone on Her Recent Weight Loss
Raven Symone showed up last week at the People’s Choice Awards looking notable slimmer. Clearly, she was under pressure to lose weight because this is the comment she made when asked about...
Kathy Bates Stars in New NBC Show — Harry’s Law
Some good news this January. On January 17th, Kathy Bates takes on the leading role in David E. Kelley’s new TV show Harry’s Law. She plays a long time patent lawyer who gets fired and remakes...
A Sad and Lonely Women Onscreen- Mary in Another Year
I saw Another Year over a month ago and when I walked out of the screening room there was steam coming out of my ears. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the film or the performances, I just was so...
Not Living Up to Expectations — The Development of The Dirty Girls Social Club
One thing that is always cool for an author is to have your book optioned to be a TV show or film. That is something that happened to Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez that author of several novels including...
While We Were Away
Here are some stories that I wanted people to see that ran during the holidays. Oscar Watch: Kids Are All Right Faces Academy Males (Thompson on Hollywood) What came after “the year of the...
Trailer Watch: The Other Woman
Natalie Portman is in a couple of movies early this year. This one has been on the shelf for a while and is based on Ayelet Waldman’s book Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. Was released on demand...
Black Swan
Black Swan is director Darren Aronofsky’s homage to the ballet world. Yes, the film is beautiful to look at, but to me, it came off as a sad look at a young woman so dedicated to her craft that in...
For Colored Girls — Review
The actresses who star in the new film For Colored Girls have been saying on the press tour that the film is not just for colored girls. I find it crazy that women have to stand up and say that a...
Leave Ellen Page Alone!
NY Mag’s Vulture (which by the way has some of the most provocative and great reporting about pop culture) pissed me off earlier this week with their piece on Ellen Page’s “asexual” wardrobe...
The Sylvia Chronicles: 30 Years of Graphic Misbehavior from Reagan to Obama by Nicole Hollander
I have been a big fan of Nicole Hollander’s for some time. Her Sylvia cartoons appear in 30 newspapers across the country including The Boston Globe, Houston Chronicle (online) The San Francisco...
Winter’s Bone
Winter’s Bone is by far the best film this year, and while that might not be saying much this being June, any film coming in the fall had better be really, really good cause it’s going to be hard...
Screenwriter John August Ponders the Bechdel Test
I haven’t written anything before about the Bechdel test which in a nutshell is a way of determining if women matter in a film. The test was designed by cartoonist Alison Bechdel and it has become...
Victoria’s Secret Congratulates Megan Fox’s Transformers Replacement
File this under yuck and gross. I guess this is what happens when you have a lingerie model get a gig in the movie. The company that she pitches for takes advantage of her new exposure. This video...
Fired for Being Too Skinny
The Megan Fox saga continues. The Wrap is reporting that the reason why Megan Fox was let go from Transformers 3 was because she showed up looking “pale,” “underweight” and “unhealthy”...
The Consequences of Speaking Out
The news last week was that Megan Fox is off the third Transformers movie. This being Hollywood both camps have differing responses to her departure. Her side told The Wrap that said she walked away...
When Woody Allen Is Defending You…
Roman Polanski’s name is in the news again. At the Cannes Film Festival another petition on Polanski’s behalf is being circulated by Bernard-Henri Levy, and directors like Jean-Luc Godard,...
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The Politics of Hit Girl
There aren’t many times when I go to a movie and I leave speechless. But that did happen to me recently when I saw the film Kick Ass. For those of you that don’t know, the film is about an...
Piling on Sandra Bullock
I feel so bad for Sandra Bullock that I can barely read another piece of news about Jessegate. It seems that this guy is rivaling Tiger Woods and John Edwards for dooshbag of the year. The Nazi...
Please Give Written and Directed by Nicole Holofcener
To me a new film from writer/director Nicole Holofcener is a reason to rejoice. One reason is because she unapologetically tells stories from a female perspective. But one would be remiss and quite...
Degenderizing Disney
I find it pretty hysterical that the folks at Disney are freaking out and changing the names of their movies so they don’t alienate boys who won’t come and see a movie with the name princess in...
Text of Theresa Rebeck Laura Pels Keynote Address
Last night I saw someone do something very brave. My friend, Theresa Rebeck, a very successful playwright, TV writer and novelist, got up in front of a group of theatre people and talked about...
Guess What? Women Buy More Movie Tickets Than Men
You know that whole conversation about how women don’t go to the movies and are not a film market? You know that conversation that we hear over and over as the big reason why we are inundated with...
TV’s Top Showrunners
Showrunners are at many times the people who create the TV shows. But at all times they are the ones who keep things moving forward and lay out the vision and run the writer’s room. They are...
Christina Hendricks Says, Hey Haters! Lay Off My Body
Gotta love that in NY during fashion week when the skinny girls are running around the runways that the woman who makes the cover of NY Magazine’s fashion issue is a normal sized woman. Let’s...
Defending Mo’Nique
One of the ongoing narratives of this awards season has been about Mo’Nique. About how great her performance is, and also about how supposedly ungrateful she is because she hasn’t been...
Rachel McAdams — Maintaining Her Privacy With Her Success
I remember when I first saw her in Mean Girls. She was terrifically mean. She scared the crap out of my teenage self. Then she broke my heart in The Notebook. I have always admired her film choices....
The Women of Avatar
I totally LOVED Avatar. It was a great forward thinking film with tons of passion and made me excited to be in a movie theatre. I can’t wait to see it again (my friend and I tried several times...
Interview with Sandra Laing- Real Life Subject of Skin
Skin is the heartbreaking true story of Sandra Laing (played by Sophie Okonedo) as a woman with black skin born to white parents in apartheid S. Africa. She is a white girl who looked black. As a...