October 10, 2007

Warner Production President Says He Is Still Committed to Women
Anne Thompson reports in today's Variety that Jeff Robinov, who was accused over the weekend of having said he is not interested in making films with female leads, is still committed to making films with women in them.

"Citing such Warners hit chick flicks as Cinderella Story and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (a sequel is in the works), Robinov said he is still in the business of making pics with women."

Well, good for him. But I am not convinced.

To me, both the films cited above are what I call "tween chick flicks" - where the stars are young women -- like Hillary Duff in Cinderella Story and the quartet from Sisterhood which includes America Ferrera (it seems that her rise in stature due to Ugly Betty star is what pushed this sequel into production), Blake Lively (now on the CW's vile Gossip Girl), Alexis Bledel (late of Gilmore Girls), and Amber Tamblyn (Stephanie Daley - have you rented that yet?) And, Sisterhood was adapted from the famous teen novel by Ann Brashares.

While lovely, the actresses cited above are young, most not even in their mid 20s, so Robinov actually confirms my theory that in Hollywood you can make films with strong, female leads on the condition that those leads be young women and targeted towards a younger demographic. I can't believe that he would even think that those two films cited above would show that he is committed to women.

The other films he cites as "women's films" (my italics) co-star men except for Spring Breakdown a bout 20s somethings on spring break (sounds really stupid to me) The other are an adaptation of Nights in Rodanthe from a Nicholas Sparks novel starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere; Fool's Gold staring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. Women will also be thrilled to learn that there will be a female character included in the The Justice League and Watchmen (gee, that sounds like a movie about women)

I think he really believe that the slate above is representative of women and that women should feel satisfied that Warner Brothers is still pro-woman. I think he just dug a deeper hole for himself.

Full story here: Warner Bros Still Committed to Women

Other big news is the sale of Oxygen to NBC Universal for a very impressive $925 million. I wish I could say that I've ever watched any of the original programming on the station (I have watched some of the reruns.) It just seems to me to be the station for college girls gone wild and reality tv shows about women who beat each other up. The NY Times story says that NBC seems to have gotten a good deal paying just $12 per subscriber for Oxygen when it paid $22 per subscriber for Bravo in 2002. Guess the artsy people who watch Bravo are worth $10 more than the young women who watch Oxygen.
NBC Buys Oxygen

Tube Today
Classic Alert: Ellen Burstyn in Resurrection at 1pm on Sundance
Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice at 8pm on Flix