ALL POSTS
Women Are Just Not Fundamentally Funny: John Belushi
Since I am traveling I haven’t been able to watch the Oprah from yesterday which was a SNL reunion that included Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey and Dana Carvey. Jane Curtin seems...
Blogging Advisory
I’m on my way to the International Women’s Film Festival in Dortmund, Germany. I’m going to be on the jury. I will hopefully be blogging about my experience as a jury member and will try and...
Woman Power Fuels Disney Channel’s Lemonade Mouth
This Friday, Disney Channel will launch a new feel good TV movie, Lemonade Mouth about a tween band that comes together and motivates kids to stand up for themselves. The press material says: “As...
Trailer Watch: Daydream Nation
It arrives in select theaters May 6 and on DVD and Blu-ray May 17.
SNL, Helen Mirren’s Boobs and Older Women’s Sexuality
Something bizarre happened on TV this weekend. While Helen Mirren was supposed to host SNL, it turned out the show was hosted not by Mirren, but by her boobs. This week’s episode of SNL highlighted...
Guest Post: An Evening with Tina Fey — Queen Bossypants By Ashley Van Buren
Tina Fey was (quite literally) infectious last Friday night while signing copies of her book, Bossypants. Despite feeling under-the-weather, Fey signed books for the 1,100 people (including 30...
Dawn Hudson Gets Appointed CEO of the Academy
The big news yesterday was the appointment of Film Independent’s chief Dawn Hudson as the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Reports said that post Oscars the folks at the...
Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow and Other Celebs Stand Up for Planned Parenthood
As the budget battle continues one of the last sticking points is Title X funding which covers family planning funding (and not abortion funding.) The government could be shut down tonight because...
The White House Project — Epic Awards
Last night I attended The White House Project (an organization that I was the first director of) for their annual EPIC Awards. EPIC stands for Enhancing Perceptions in Culture and it honors how...
Kristen Schaal Gives Women the Republic of Vagistan
Kristen Schaal continues to rock it as the Daily Show chief women’s correspondent. Highlight — “women would never walk in the desert for 40 years. One of us would have the good sense to ask...
Tina Fey is Knocked Up
Last month Tina Fey weighed in the The New Yorker with an excerpt from her recently released semi-memoir Bossypants that she was struggling to decide whether or not to have a second child. I’m sure...
Soul Surfer
Soul Surfer tells the true story of professional surfer Bethany Hamilton who was attacked by a shark as she was surfing on a regular day when she was a teenager. The shark took her arm but did not...
Hanna
Saoirse Ronan has built herself quite a diverse career and she’s still a couple of years shy of 20. She’s done comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer in Amy Heckerling’s never released in the theatres...
Women Theatre Directors Talk About Working in Seattle
Great piece in the Seattle Times (with a video below) on how strong a town Seattle is for women theatre directors. Here’s a comment from Kate Whoriskey who runs the Intiman Theatre about how things...
Must Watch Video: When Harry Met Sally 2
Funniest thing I’ve seen all week. I hope they do things this good when Mirren hosts Saturday Night Live this week. https://medium.com/media/2d8c030d99c5ce90fe4e2976df7743d8/href When Harry Met...
Meg Ryan to Make Directing Debut
Here’s another actress looking for her next act. Meg Ryan is going to direct Into the Beautiful from a script by Anne Meredith. Variety says it is a contemporary “Big Chill.” Wendy Finerman...
San Francisco International Film Festival: The Women
The San Francisco International Film Festival takes place April 21 — May 5. There are a bunch of women directed films on the docket. They are listed below. Ticket are on sale now here. Producer...
A True Quote
Here’s a quote I heard from a colleague that was said by an agent who handles writers: When looking at representing a male or female writer who are both the same age and have equal talent the...
The Misogyny Machine That Rules Hollywood Comedies
Some days I wake up thinking that things can’t be really as bad as I think they are, then, I see a story like Tad Friend’s piece in this week’s New Yorker on Anna Faris and the state of...
Trailer Watch: The Imperialists Are Still Alive! — Written and Directed by Zenia Durra
Films Opens on April 15 and will also be on VOD
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...
In a Better World — directed by Susanne Bier
We spend so much time talking about how men are hired to direct women’s stories (because men are hired to direct more movies in general) but much less time taking about how women have a much harder...
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...
Interview With Susanne Bier — Oscar Winning Director of In a Better World
WAH: Congratulations on the Oscar. What did it feel like? That moment? SB: You know one of those few moments in one’s life when everything comes to a standstill? This was a moment like that. And I...
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...
The Help at Cinema Con
As usual, it’s going to be a quiet summer for women centric films from the studios. The big studio film that will target the female demographic is The Help. Dreamworks brought in several members of...
Melissa Rosenberg to Write and Produce Earthseed
Melissa Rosenberg the writer who wrote all five of the Twilight screenplays has been tapped by Paramount to write the script for Earthseed the first of what I’m sure the studio hopes is a trilogy....
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: Slaying the Dragon Reloaded: Asian Women in Hollywood and Beyond
Description from the you tube page: “Slaying the Dragon Reloaded: Asian Women in Hollywood and Beyond” is a 30-minute video documentary that examines visual representations of Asian women made...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Vera Farmiga
I want to be invited to Vera Farmiga’s house when she does one of the burnings described in this piece from The Guardian. It seems that Farmiga burns the scripts she gets that she doesn’t like...
Real World and Film World Collide
Today is the release of the DVD of Made in Dagenham. Why people didn’t go to see this film when it was released last fall I will never understand. It was good, fun and about something...
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
Guest Post: A Chat With Rebecca Zlotowski, director of Belle Epine by Kylie Boltin
Belle Epine is a strikingly intimate portrait of a seventeen year-old girl, Prudence (played by Léa Seydoux) that captures her transition from cocooned youth towards a premature adulthood following...
Hot Docs: The Women
Hot Docs is one of the best and biggest documentary film festivals. This year’s festival takes place in Toronto from April 28-May 8. The Special Presentation section (their most high profile...
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...
What the Hell is Abbie Cornish Doing in Sucker Punch?
I must say that I found the film Sucker Punch to be very confusing. I had no idea what it was about except that it was clear that young women were in peril, stuck in a mental institution or brothel....
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...
Trailer Alert: Last Night Directed by Massy Tadjedin