Women at the Box Office This Weekend

Nights at Rodanthe is the film this weekend targeted at women. It's another in the line of Nicholas Sparks romantic novels like The Notebook and Message in a Bottle that are very good at attracting women. I mean, really, how can you go wrong with Richard Gere and Diane Lane. They have some serious on screen chemistry as two people who meet one weekend and fall in love at an inn on the Outer Banks of North Carolina during a hurricane. The circumstances may seem absurd, but the characters come off as real with Lane playing a woman deciding whether she wants to divorce her cheating husband, and Gere playing a doctor dreading a confrontation with the husband of a patient who died on his operating table.

Kudos to producer Denise Di Novi who has a great track record producing films for women including the subversive Heathers, Little Women, Practical Magic, What a Girl Wants and both Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films. I loved that director George C. Wolfe cast Viola Davis as Lane's best friend and owner of the inn. I appreciate that he showed a real, loving friendship between a white woman and an African-American woman (which Tyler Perry also did in The Family That Preys. Interesting that both films are directed by African American men.) I loved how after falling in love, Lane returned to her art which she had given up to raise her family. I loved that the film gave hope and possibilities for rediscovering yourself. I loved that Diane Lane looked like a normal 40 something woman. She is beyond gorgeous but looks real, with lines of her face that match her age (unlike Meg Ryan looked in The Women.)

I thought the first half was stronger than the second, when it became a really sappy melodrama. But the second half included a great reconciliation between Lane and her teenage daughter played by Mae Whitman. They fought all through the film (typical teen film bullshit), but when Whitman stepped up to help her mother through her grief, it showed what a lovely young actress Whitman has become.

Other Women-Centric Films in Theatres
Hounddog: Concerned Women for America is trying to boycott Hounddog. It's important not to let the right-wing efforts shut down giving people the ability to judge the film for themselves. Director Deborah Kampmeier will be doing a Q&A following the 5:15pm show Saturday at the Cinema Village. (disclaimer, I am consultant to the film)

The Duchess
The Women
Frozen River
Trouble the Water
The Family That Preys
Towelhead
The Longshots
Mamma Mia!
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Also, Diane Keaton opens in limited release in Smother which does not seem to be reviewed. It doesn't look promising but in case you must see Diane Keaton this weekend...

Doubt Trailer

Totally got the chills while watching this. Opens December 12th. Oscar nominations for all!

What Happened to Diane Keaton?

Somebody please tell me WTF happened to Diane Keaton? She is one of the leading older working actresses. She was awesome in her oscar nominated performance in Something's Gotta Give. (always watchable film even on basic cable with commercials) which was supposed to revitalize her career? I did like her a couple of years ago as the mom in The Family Stone, but lately she has been playing crazy, overbearing, stalker moms, which I find so sad.

Her first stalker mom was in the much maligned Because I Said So, and Mama's Boy (which co-starred Jon Heder as her slacker son who likes living with mom) didn't even make it to the theatres here in the US. Now this week comes Smother (which did not screen widely -- never a good sign) where she plays a mother who moves in with her son and pressures him to have a baby. The title just makes me want to run for the hills.

Can someone please give this woman a good script? Meryl Streep can't do them all, and if she can we are in a more sorry state than I ever could have imagined.

photo credit: David Grabber/PR photos

Jada Pinkett Smith to Join the Women on TNT

Jada Pinkett Smith will star in and executive produce a pilot for TNT, Time Heals. Smith will play a nursing director and single mother (widow) in the show created by John Masius (St. Elsewhere).

From the press release:

TIME HEALS takes place at Charlotte Mercy Hospital in North Carolina, where the strong but caring Nancy Hawthorne (Pinkett Smith) continuously fights a battle she often knows she won’t win. Whether treating the homeless woman in front of the hospital like a human being or trying to talk a suicidal cancer patient off the ledge, Nancy must challenge hospital administrators, heartless doctors, apathetic colleagues and a system that sometimes forgets it’s there to serve the sick.

Sounds like a great addition to The Closer and Saving Grace. TNT is getting very smart with its programming.
photo credit: Glenn Harris/PR Photos

Stars Standing Up Against Sex Slavery

Gotta love Ashley Judd for continuing to stand up about the most important issues effected our planet. Also in this clip are Julia Ormond, Madeleine Albright and Cornel West.

Check Out My Piece in More Magazine

My piece on Abby Disney is on p. 36.

Sarah Jessica Parker Film Gets Release

Spinning Into Butter, the Mark Brokaw directed film, adapted from Rebecca Gilman's play, has been finished for a while but couldn't get distribution. Now that Sarah Jessica Parker's film cred is through the roof this tough film about race relations on a college campus will be released in early 2009 by Screen Media.

I'm sure the poster and trailer will be updated but here's what I found:



It's 'Butter' for Screen Media (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide Cover Takes Sexism to a New Level

Another reason why I don't watch this show anymore. Yuck.

Box Office Notes

• Mamma Mia! was the number one foreign movie for the third week in a row with $14.5 million. The worldwide gross has reached $476.1 million.

• The Women declined in its second week, but its total box office take in now at $19.3 million which is more than it cost to make.

• The Duchess made a whopping $27,000 per screen gross in its debut weekend on 7 screens.
  

The Sexist Emmy Awards

I was traveling all day yesterday without internet access so here's my delayed wrap up from the Emmy Awards. Firstly, the show was so goddamn boring. The ratings sucked - only 12.2 million people watched. Secondly, from the get go, I thought it was extremely sexist. TV, unlike film, gives me hope because it does embrace women in leading roles. But clearly there was a disconnect between the women who were honored onstage and the pathetic, sexist writing that dominated the show.

The whole opening bit with the reality show hosts was HORRIBLE and went to the dark side when Heidi Klum's tuxedo was pulled off by William Shatner to reveal black Daisy Duke shorts. Gross.

But the saving grace was Tina Fey, and boy do I love her. She won 3 freakin Emmy Awards. Best writing, best actress in a comedy, and best comedy show. All the talk was about Mad Men and how basic cable is the new HBO, but to me Tina is the story. She is a Juggernaut.

But, people you have got to watch her show. Think of 30 Rock as a women's film. You gotta support it. I am very serious about this. The ratings for this show are not great, but NBC didn't have much in the pipeline this year and they also believe in the show so they stuck with it.

YOU MUST WATCH 30 ROCK. It is totally feminist, and totally subversive. Tina Fey is the real deal. A writer and actor who looks and thinks like a normal person.

Alec Baldwin who is absolutely hysterical on 30 Rock and won best actor in a comedy said this about Fey after calling her the Elaine May of her generation:

We have the greatest writers, but the show was created by one woman. This was Tina's idea. This was Tina's thing. She is the head writer. She is there every day, even when she's not shooting as an actress. She goes back and forth between acting and writing. We're very, very lucky.

Sometimes the crazy man actually sounds sane.

Not that I needed any more reasons to love her more, but I do for saying this about playing Sarah Palin on SNL.

I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5. So if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me.

Other awesome women winners:
Glenn Close- Actress, Drama, Damages. Close gave a great shout out to all her fellow nominees who by the way were all over 40. She basically said that her award shows that "complicated, powerful mature women are sexy and high entertainment and can carry a show. She called them all "The sisterhood of the TV drama divas."

Jean Smart- Supporting Actress, Comedy- Samantha Who?
Dianne Wiest- Supporting Actress, Drama- In Treatment
Paula Weinsten- Producer, Made for TV Movie, Recount
Laura Linney- Actress, Mini Series or Movie, John Adams
Eileen Atkins, Supporting Actress, Mini Series or Movie, Cranford
Tricia Regan, Director, Non-Fiction Special, Autism the Musical

Check out this smart piece from Sarah Warn at After Ellen:

Women were almost completely absent from all the directing and writing categories (in other words, any categories that were not gender-specific). There were no women nominated in the categories of Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special or Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (all the nominees were white men), and there was only one woman nominated in the categories of Outstanding Director for a Drama Series (Arlene Sanford, for an episode of Boston Legal), Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Robin Veith for Mad Men) and Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special (Heidi Thomas). None of them won.

If visibility was bad for women overall, it was really bad for women of color.

After Ellen's Emmy Wrap Up

Trolls and Spammers Be Gone

Just want to let you all know, especially the awesome people who post comments, that I guess the site has made it to a level where trolls and spammers have found it and posted some stupid comments and crap. So...I'm deleting any nasty trolls and spamming comments.

Gone to Blog World Expo

Back Tuesday hopefully with a new bag of tricks.

Women at the Box Office This Weekend

Week two of the fall season and it's another good weekend for women at the box office. Disclaimer: I've been a consultant to two of the films coming out today -- Hounddog and The Duchess.

Hounddog is a labor of love for director Deborah Kampmeier and stars Dakota Fanning in an amazingly brave performance as a young girl struggling to keep her sense of self and voice in a world stacked against her. The film has had a hard journey to theatres including a call for a boycott from Concerned Women for America (now you gotta go and see it since they hate it) Please check out my story on the behind the scenes struggle of director Deborah Kampmeier, Keeping Hold of Your Vision. The film opens in NY, LA, Chicago and Memphis this weekend.

The Duchess is an 18th century costume drama that stars Keira Knightley as the Duchess of Devonshire, a woman bred for marriage to the upper crust. She gets stuck in a loveless marriage with Ralph Fiennes, finds a best friend who winds up falling in love with her husband, finds her own soul mate, becomes pregnant by him and is forced to give up her child or else lose everything including her children with the Duke. Yikes. The British seem to be able to tell these stories better than anyone, and it made me wistful thinking of some of the greats like a Room With a View and Remains of the Day. Opens in limited release this weekend. Rolls out across the country over the next few weeks.

For those in NY, the documentary All of Us about how the HIV epidemic is effecting African American women opens. Powerful stuff. Read my interview with director Emily Abt.

Racing Daylight, a quirky romance, murder mystery, ghost story which crosses time and stars Melissa Leo and David Strathairn is playing at the New York Film and Video Festival at the Village East Cinema tonight at 6pm.

Since we are all so obsessed with politics lately (I know I am), the political film of the week, Battle in Seattle directed by Stuart Townsend depicts the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle where thousands of protesters took to the street to raise awareness about the corporatization of the world. Very moving.

Other Women-Centric Films in Theatres
The Women
Frozen River
Trouble the Water
The Family That Preys
Towelhead
The Longshots
Mamma Mia!
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Interview with Emily Abt, Director, All of Us

While the HIV/AIDS epidemic does not make the headlines regularly anymore, a new, riveting, documentary by Emily Abt takes the time to dig in deeper to how this epidemic has morphed into a killer of African American women. African American women are now 68% of new diagnoses, yet only make up 6% of the population. This is a crisis. Abt takes us to the Bronx and introduces us to an idealistic young doctor, Mehret Mandefro who has dedicated her career to raising attention to this issue, while at the same time provides compassionate care to women who could easily have fallen through the cracks in an overburdened health care system. The women who share their stories in All of Us are so incredibly brave and impressive and have spoken out so that what happened to them doesn't happen to girls and young women.

The film opens tomorrow, Friday, September 19th in NYC at the Cinema Village, and will premiere on Showtime on World AIDS Day on December 1st. More info here: All of Us

Check out the Trailer:


Director Emily Abt answered some questions about her film.
Women & Hollywood: How did you meet Mehret and why did you want to tell this story?

Emily Abt: I met Mehret Mandefro in 2003 when we were both Fulbright Scholars in London. She was getting her masters in Public Health of Developing Countries at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and I was making my Columbia University MFA thesis film on local Muslim girls. We were both deeply committed to social change -- she as a doctor, and I as a filmmaker -- and wanted to know more about why black women were being disproportionately impacted by HIV. Most effective social-issue documentaries start with an important question and that was ours. Black women are 23 times more likely than white women to get HIV and HIV is still the leading cause of death for black women ages 18-35. Mehret and I felt this reality was unacceptable and wanted to turn a spotlight on the issue.

When I first began the film five years ago, I hoped there would be a great deal of media coverage on the topic of HIV and black women in America as well as a good deal of public outrage about the lack of funding allotted to deal with this health crisis. But unlike the AIDS movement of the 1980’s, largely spearheaded by gay men, there has been no such movement on behalf of the countless American black women who have suffered disproportionately from this disease.

W&H: Please explain what ABC is and why it is not enough especially for poor, urban, heterosexual women?

EA: The 'Abstain, Be faithful, useCondoms' approach to HIV prevention as endorsed by the Bush administration is irrelevant for the majority of women and young people, leaving them without the necessary information or tools they need to protect themselves. More specifically, ABC isn't effective because it's been proven that abstinence-only education does little to reduce sexual activity; marriage is actually a risk factor for HIV so the 'be faithful' message misses the point, and using condoms is of course important but fails to take into account that women tend not to protect themselves when they're sleeping with men who have the upper hand, financially or otherwise. Public health experts on the ground must be able to determine the best mix of prevention programming that responds to the circumstances of the epidemic where they are working. As it stands, their hands are tied by mandates from Washington. Congress can and should change this.

W&H: How did you find Chevelle and Tara and also how did you get them to agree to have intimate details and histories included in this film?

EA: Chevelle and Tara were women that Mehret met through her work at Montifiore Hospital in the Bronx where she was doing her residency. It wasn't actually very difficult to get them to share their stories - they really wanted their voices to be heard!

W&H: I was shocked when Mehret revealed that while she preaches safe sex with all her patients, she herself has not always practiced safe sex. What did that moment reveal about women and power in sexual relationships?

EA: That moment showed that all women need to do a better job at being self-protective. When it comes to sexual health, progressives and feminists must push hard for change on a legislative level but also can’t overlook promoting it on a personal one as well. While the paternalistic protectionism of early years was clearly a destructive force for women, we must embrace a new self-protectiveness when it comes to our behavior in the bedroom and within our intimate relationships. I created ALL OF US to be used as a tool for not only social change, but personal change as well.

W&H: How do we get the powers that be to take this epidemic more seriously?

EA: Forgive me for being self-promotional but suggesting they see ALL OF US ain't a terrible idea. Writing our senators and insisting that they support Senator Barbara Lee's trailblazing PATHWAY bill (backed up by Hilary Clinton) is also a good start. And there needs to be a mass of people -whites, blacks, browns, men, women, etc- all shouting that there's something wrong here. The message needs to come from all of us because the advocacy groups aren't able to create enough public discourse on their own. And of course, vote for Obama.

W&H: Explain the tag line - love and sex can mean life or death?

EA: ALL OF US promotes the idea that when you're ready to have sex with someone, you should both get tested and share those results. Some people say "well, that's really awkward and not too romantic" to which I respond: should you really be sharing life's most intimate, sacred act with someone if you can't have that conversation?

As women, we have to start looking at the way we confuse love and sex. Men will happily sleep with a woman they don't love. It's one thing to be okay being that woman, and perhaps jeopardize yourself emotionally, but women are often also allowing themselves to be physically vulnerable in the very scariest of ways. Women, across boundaries of race and class, are so hungry for love and intimacy from their male partners that they're willing to put their very lives on the line to get it. And when women contract HIV, or even a bad STD, they feel like damaged goods. They feel that their very worth as a human being has been lessened and can even become suicidal. So ALL OF US is trying to start some very crucial, life or death, conversations and asks viewers not to just watch this epidemic from a distance but rather, say to themselves "there but for the grace of God, go I..."

W&H: What are your goals for the film?

EA: I hope ALL OF US, like all my films, inspires women to stand up for themselves. I'd like some teenager in the Bronx to see the film and say to herself "you know I'm not going to settle for casual sex when what I really want is a commitment." I'm hoping a college kid sees it and realizes there's no excuse for skipping the condom. I want the film to be used as a tool by the wonderful educators, social workers, medical health professionals, advocates and the blessed community organizers (take that Sarah Palin) that have made it their business to stop or slow this epidemic. And if I did my job right than ALL OF US will spark dialogue and social change among thousands of women and girls who are unfortunately on the front-lines of great personal risk. If someone uses the film to advocate for a national sexual health plan (is it really okay that 1 in 4 teenage girls has an STD?), nothing more would please me. That's all, just a few modest goals.

W&H: What did you learn from making this film?

EA: I learned that sometimes making a film will leave you with battle scars but that means you're battle-tested for the next one. And I learned (again) that art and politics can make a mighty fine combination if carefully mixed.

Are They Back?

The Hollywood Women's Political Committee disbanded in 1997 and since then, it seems to me, that women's power as an organized entity has gone into the crapper. Just their presence and the fact that women were organized made a difference.

Looks like the ladies are regrouping this time to effect the upcoming Senate races. The new group Voices for a Senate Majority is going to raise funds to try and get a veto proof Democratic Senate.

The HWPC members involved in the new effort include: Julie Bergman Sender, Marilyn Bergman, Lara Bergthold, Barbara Corday, Pat Tourk Lee, Katie McGrath, Margery Tabankin, Sarah Timberman, Paula Weinstein, Kathy Garmezy, Susan Sprung, and Lona Williams.

Women set Democratic fund-raiser (Variety)

Long Live the Fempire

Three female writers, friends, supporting each others work. Cool. Diablo Cody (Juno), Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas) and Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) have dubbed their posse the "fempire" and we need it to grow!

Scafaria's teen comedy Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings made its debut in Toronto and opens wide October 3. (The trailer looks really cute and touching.)

The Toronto Star spoke to these women about how they support each other.

The three really do work closely together, congregating in various locales in L.A., where all three live.

"We actually write in the same room together. We ask each other if (the screenplays) are funny or offensive enough."

"They're just here to support me. It's amazing," Scafaria said. "It's a completely non-competitive relationship among women, which is fairly rare to come by."

Hopefully this is a new model other women can emulate. Here's the the fempire!
Gal pal screenwriters bask in TIFF spotlight (Toronto Star)

Hat tip to Joan Carr-Wiggin for the link

Keeping Hold of Your Vision—the Making of Hounddog

I've been working with Deborah Kampmeier and the folks distributing the film Hounddog for the last couple of months reaching out to women and sexual assault organizations.

Check out this piece I put together for the Women's Media Center on Hounddog:

One of the dirty secrets of the film business is that it takes women directors a long time to get their films made. The Women, which opened recently, took Diane English 14 years to bring to the screen; other examples include Tamara Jenkins award-winning The Savages and Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, which took 10 years each. Writer/director Deborah Kampmeier joins this illustrious club with her own decade long trek to see her film Hounddog starring Dakota Fanning finally released in theatres.

Hounddog, a small film with a budget under $4 million, doesn't seem controversial on the surface. But it seemed to raise a storm at every turn. Why? (Full disclosure—I am a consultant helping on the release of the film.)

Read full story here: Keeping Hold of Your Vision—the Making of Hounddog

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Kate Beckinsale

"Any script that is badly written, written under the gun for a start date that's not ready, which happens quite a lot, ill-conceived, if it then goes badly for the woman in the lead, I think there is that residual thing of how women in the lead roles of big movies don't work, whereas any movie where the script sucks doesn't work, and it's much more tempting to blame that," she said at the film's press conference in Toronto. "Tons of rotten movies with the man in the lead but it doesn't seem to get blamed on."

Kate speaks out about women leads (This is Bristol)
photo: Robin Wong/PR Photos

Diane English Talks About The Women and Politics

Here's my interview with Diane English conducted on opening day of The Women.

Women & Hollywood: You picked a pretty beloved film your first time out. Why did you want to take on this film?

Diane English: What I felt was missing at the movies was the presence of women. The old movie featured an all female cast of the best and the brightest movie stars of their time and nothing like that had been done in 70 years. I thought it was high time, but I also believed that you don't remake a movie unless you have something new to say. And because women have come so far and changed so much in 70 years, attitudes towards us are very different and attitudes towards each other are so different, that I thought it was ripe for a remake.

It's very risky business remaking what a lot people consider to be a classic. I personally consider it to be a camp classic, and after reading an interview with George Cukor who actually didn't really like the movie he made very much, I felt that it was safe to remake.

W&H: You've been very outspoken about the lack of film targeted at the "4th quadrant" and the importance for women to see movies about women. I want to get your feelings about why you think there is a disconnect between women's real lives and women seen onscreen?

DE: I have been outspoken about Hollywood catering to the young male demographic which actually is understandable because men under 25 do drive a lot of the box office because they go on opening weekend, they go multiple times, they buy the dvd, they go to see the sequel, they buy the t-shirts -- they're very committed moviegoers where women tend not be.

We have very full complex lives. We're moms and wives and career women and we don't necessarily rush out on opening weekend. So as a result we are now being underserved. And in a way Hollywood has painted itself into a corner by concentrating so much on the young male demographic it has trained others to stay away. We have gotten out of the movie going habit and that is not healthy for the movie business to exclude this demographic.

W&H: Women do buy half the movie tickets. They may not buy them on opening weekend and they don't go as frequently but they do buy 50% of the tickets, but still we are not a market.

DE: You are alive or dead by Friday night, and today is Friday and my film is opening today. And by tonight the powers that be will be making some very serious financial decisions about the movie, how long they're going to keep it in theaters and how much money they will spend on advertising. I keep saying to my women friends you gotta go on opening weekend and vote at the box office with your wallet. It's really, really important.

W&H: How do we get women all across the country to understand the important of going on opening weekend?

DE: By starting with the conversation you and I are having and getting the word out. I think it's just not common knowledge that this is how the film business works. We're busy with a lot of other things and we're not thinking about that. I find that a lot of movies targeted towards women do extremely well on DVD and yet maybe didn't do as well at the box office. I think that you have to have both and just having this conversation and making it more part of the mainstream consciousness is the way to go.

W&H: A lot of women directors don't feel comfortable speaking out about this issue because they are afraid of not getting the next job. How do we get more women to talk about this?

DE: The way women get these jobs is by proving their muscle at the box office. It's pretty simple. It's not a hospital, it's not a charity, and so if these movies do well at the box office then that woman gets another chance and that woman can help other women get another chance.

W&H: It seems that if a woman director does not do well at the box office it hurts more than just her.

DE: Yes absolutely. If the movie doesn't work and people don't get see it people say that's because it’s a "woman's picture," but if a movie that is targeted towards men doesn’t work, like if the latest Tom Cruise movie doesn't work, won't mean that Tom Cruise won't get another job. So it's tougher, but it all goes back to track records and dollars we just have to be more feisty about it. Being beaten up is always hard in life and that's show business, everybody gets beaten up really badly. It's amazing that anybody makes a movie. It is a really hard thing to do and if you don't have the stomach or you want more job security you can go work at the post office. It's hard for everybody.

W&H: Why do you think that successful movies about women are consistently dismissed as flukes?

DE: I don't have a great answer to that question because I have experienced that exact word over and over and over again every time I tried to get The Women made. I would go in with my list of movies that were huge successes starting from 9 to 5, and The First Wives Club, The Hours Waiting to Exhale. It's just a very long list and these movies have consistently done very well. I think because they come along so rarely its like Haley's Comet - it becomes a vicious cycle. They come along rarely because we don't get an opportunity to make them. Now we have Sex and the City and Mamma Mia and to some extent The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. If we can have a healthy box office I think it will be much harder to call it a fluke -- it can be called a trend.

W&H: I've been looking at the Tyler Perry model and I'm curious as to your opinion as to whether we need to find a new model to tell women's stories?

DE: No, I just think there has to be more of them and they have to be more successful on opening weekend. It’s a simple of that. There are other ways to make movies now too. The digital age has created a potentially new distribution system and it's another way to reach a huge under served population and it has certainly piqued my interest.

W&H: Why do you think that TV is more comfortable embracing the women than film?

DE: Women are big consumers and TV is advertising driven. It also comes into the home and it's much easier to reach women in the home because that is the way our lives are constructed. Therefore you see great opportunity for women in TV, especially in cable now, and it’s a much friendlier place to tell our stories.

W&H: Murphy Brown has been off the air for 10 years and we'll probably not see an overt feminist character like her ever again. Why do you think we don't see strong feminists like Murphy?

DE: I disagree. I think that Kyra Sedgwick is doing a great job on The Closer and Glenn Close, even though she plays a questionable character, has a great role to play [on Damages].

W&H: Now that the conversation in politics is all about women, do you have any opinions on that?

DE: I think that its great that women are front and center right now and there is a woman re-energizing John McCain's campaign and that Hillary Clinton came so close and I think walked away from the experience being greatly admired and a real trailblazer. That was exciting to see, but at the same time I think that we have come far enough as women not to support a candidate just because she's a woman and therefore I don't feel the need to say anything positive about Sarah Palin beyond the fact that good for her she's a vice presidential nominee. I really don't like her politics and I will not be supporting her just because she's a woman. And I feel free enough now in my evolution as a woman to be able to say that.

W&H: But people said that too about Hillary Clinton, that we didn't need to support her just because she was a women.

DE: I know tons of women who supported her for that reason.

W&H: But they don't say the same thing about Sarah Palin?

DE: I didn't feel the need to support Hillary just because she was a woman but it would have been very meaningful to me to see that woman in the white house. Because her politics were very similar to mine. But Sarah Palin's politics are not and when I hear some women saying they want to support John McCain because of her I don't know what that's all about.

W&H: What's next?

DE: A good long rest.

W&H: I was reading that you are taking on Fear of Flying?

DE: The script is done. I completed the script before we started shooting The Women. It will probably be as difficult a journey to get that movie made as was The Women.

The Women is playing nationwide.

Women's Weekend Box Office Update

The good news from the weekend is that The Women, even though it was poorly reviewed, lived up to expectations grossing $10 million. The Family That Preys, the new film by Tyler Perry scored $18 million and gave the Coen Brothers a run for their money coming in a close second to their $19 million. I thought The Family That Preys was ok, a bit formulaic but loved the relationship between Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard. The film was so much stronger when it focused on them and their friendship which managed to survive for years and the usual class and race issues. I also thought it was funny that Kathy Bates wound up in a road movie for the second time this year (she appeared in Bonneville with Jessica Lange and Joan Allen earlier this year.)

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, women bought 80% of the tickets for both The Women and The Family That Preys and African Americans bought 82% of the tickets for The Family That Preys.

Now I'm no math genius but if women bought 50% of the tickets for the other new releases this weekend like usually happens, and bought 80% of the tickets for The Women and The Family That Preys does that mean that women actually bought more movie tickets this weekend? Anyone have real data on this? Geez, I would think that would make us a market.

Also there's no stopping the Mamma Mia juggernaut overseas. After a $17.5 million weekend its take overseas is $307 million and with $139 million in domestic grosses, this film is almost at half a BILLION dollars. Extraordinary. Why aren't more people talking about this story?

Two Show Creators Depart

One of these is a bit older -- Katherine Fugate the creator of Army Wives left her show earlier this summer right around the premiere of season 2. This was after the earlier replacement of showrunner Dee Johnson (Commander in Chief) with Nick Thiel.

Lifetime seems to be going through a lot of changes now as it tries to remake itself into another Oxygen. I think there is a place for both the crazy stuff that works on Oxygen (which by the way I have never watched except for movie reruns) and Lifetime who recently has stellar dramas on its airwaves like The Division and Strong Medicine.

Diane Ruggiero the creator/ executive producer and showrunner of the Ex List starring Elizabeth Reaser a new CBS show that hasn't even aired yet supposedly quit the series this past Friday. Diane Ruggiero departs 'The Ex List' (Hollywood Reporter)

Both shows are now run by men.

Review: The Women

Those of you familiar with this site know that I have been very excited about The Women which opens nationwide today. What could be better for a site that celebrates women and Hollywood than a film about women from one of Hollywood's most beloved and outspoken feminists, the creator of Murphy Brown-- Diane English.

I'm sure some of you have seen the press over the last couple of weeks about how it has taken 14 years! for English to make the film, and how having a film targeted at women -- especially those of us over 25, that evil and dreaded fourth quadrant -- has gotten even harder to make. This messianic zeal is common to women directors and it's amazing how she stuck to it for all those years. Here's what English said to her hometown paper Buffalo News:

“The more times people told me to walk away, that it couldn’t be done and it was a fool’s journey, the more committed I became to it. That’s the nature of my personality,” she laughs. “Also, it just felt like an important statement to make that women will go to the movies if we see something that is meaningful to us, if we can see ourselves on the screen, rather than being just the stock characters — the long-suffering wife and the hot girlfriend.

If there weren't such a pathetic lack of films and such a torturous back story, this film's success or failure would have everything to do with what's onscreen and nothing to do with the lack of films for women. But there are many layers to this story, and we do see so few women onscreen so a film like The Women with its star power has gotten a lot of attention especially in the wake of the successes of Sex and the City and Mamma Mia.

The reviews have not been kind to Ms. English. They're all really bad. I agree with lots of what people are saying but personally I did enjoy the film not because it is a good film but in spite of its multitude of shortcomings.

Honestly, this is not well crafted film. The directing is lacking. At times the film felt like a sitcom and that makes perfect sense because that's where English is most comfortable. There are scenes when I felt that the characters were not acting within the same scene. Diane English -- who never even so much directed an episode of Murphy Brown before -- was in some ways forced into the director's chair in order to get it done. I respect and understand her zeal to make the movie but there are plenty of other women directors who are experienced who should of and could have taken on the assignment.

While some people feel the 1939 version of the film is their favorite film ever, others, including readers of this site, think it is incredibly sexist. While I don't love the 1939 version, I do love the premise -- a movie about women, just women. I still wonder why it's such a big deal to see a movie with just women. I mean last year's two top Oscar contenders were movies about men and that was no big deal. I'm just looking for a little diversity in choice.

And speaking of diversity, I really didn't enjoy the portrayal of the two women of color in the film. Eva Mendes plays Crystal Allen the "spritzer girl" who is having an affair with Meg Ryan's husband. Eva's part is small and comes off as a cliche -- the hot Latina. And boy is she hot. How do I know? All the men in the theatre sat up straight and licked their lips during her confrontation scene with Meg Ryan where both are in lingerie. She is underutilized and objectified, but that's I guess that's what you get when you play the other woman.

Jada Pinkett Smith plays a surly lesbian writer who drinks to much and is having issues delivering her second book. She also seems to date gorgeous supermodels who is hysterically seen at a party eating a paper napkin because god forbid she should actually eat some food. And speaking of cliches, poor Deb Messing. She plays the continuously pregnant Edie Cohen. She comes off shrill, annoying and unessential.

Meg Ryan is typical Meg Ryan only with a new face (she's got that new face that NY magazine wrote about). She's wooden with the same hand gestures we've seen in all her previous films. The amazing Bette Midler has a teeny part as a much married Hollywood agent whom Meg meets at a canyon ranch like retreat. Candice Bergen, who I still miss as Murphy Brown, steals every scene she's in as Meg's mom (which she is playing for the 2nd time) even though she would have had to have given birth when she was 15 years old, but hey teen pregnancy is all the rage these days.

Lastly and thankfully, there's Annette Bening who I was honestly so scared to see onscreen because her face on the poster makes it looks like she's had a total face transplant. But I am happy to report that I saw her face move, and Bening is by far the best part of this film. She plays a hard working career woman who never wanted to have kids. Seeing that type of woman onscreen in this baby obsessed world (have you noticed?) is in itself a relief, as is her struggle as an aging woman in the youth obsessed magazine business. Sylvie Fowler is no Miranda Priestley. She is very unsure of herself and her place in society and while she puts on a good face, she's falling apart.

While I still don't understand how all these women are friends and I can't pretend that these women who spend way too much time in Saks (honestly, I'd believe it more if it were Macy's) are at all realistic, I still enjoyed many of the stinging quips English was able to get in about aging and the treatment of women in our culture.

News Briefs

• The Sydney Theater Company’s forthcoming revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” directed by Liv Ullmann and starring Cate Blanchett as Tennessee Williams’ faded Southern rose Blanche DuBois, will travel to the U.S. following its home-base premiere late next year. (Variety)
  

• Valerie Bertinelli is plotting a return to the sitcom biz, this time playing a single mother of two. Bertinelli will play a woman who struggles to care for two kids and a lumber business after her husband walks out on her. (Variety)
  

• Hilary Swank and producing partner Molly Smith have acquired feature rights to Emily Giffin’s 2005 debut novel, "Something Borrowed," which they’ll develop through their 2S Films banner as a potential starring vehicle for Swank. Story centers on a Manhattan attorney who becomes involved with her best friend’s fiance following her 30th birthday. (Variety)
  

• Showtime is hoping to extend the life of its "L Word" franchise with a spinoff starring Leisha Hailey. Ilene Chaiken, creator and exec producer of "The L Word," will write and produce the pilot. Shooting is skedded for December. (Variety)
  

• Jamie Babbit will direct "Breaking the Girl." Script by Mark Distefano and Guinevere Turner is described as a sexy thriller set among conniving college students. (Variety)
  

• The musical adaptation of 1996 menopausal revenge caper “The First Wives Club” will have its debut engagement July 15 through Aug. 23 at San Diego’s Old Globe prior to a planned Broadway run during the 2009-10 season. (Variety)
  

• "Frozen River" writer-director Courtney Hunt has set her next project: the drama "Northline." Hunt will write and direct the film, based on Willy Vlautin's novel. The project centers on a woman who flees Las Vegas and a troubled life with her boyfriend for a new start in Reno, Nev. She also begins to seek comfort via imaginary conversations with Paul Newman. (HR)
  

The Women Behind the Women

Dove is all up in The Women. They are the folks that created the Campaign for Real Beauty with the ads with "real women", have a self-esteem fund for girls and put their money with their mouth is by investing $3 million of the film's $16 million production budget (something they've never done before.)

As part of their campaign to promote The Women, Dove partnered with Jess Weiner, a renowned self-esteem expert and Dove Global Ambassador (if you don't know her, you must check out her site and join her actionist network) to find a young woman to go behind the scenes to ask the actresses and other members of The Women about what constitutes real beauty. We need to do all we can to get young women thinking about beauty in a new way or else they'll all be getting botox at 16.

Cammy Nelson, who has worked with Jess Weiner for five years, was picked and she has an impressive bio for a 40 year old and she's only 16. Here's some of what she's done in her 16 short years: Cammy has travelled the country speaking to students, peer groups and board members about media literacy, self-esteem and eating disorder awareness as a member of Go Girls!, a national nonprofit organization sponsored by Eating Disorders Awareness & Prevention, Inc. (EDAP). Cammy is a also member of PeaceJam, a Nobel-prize nominated foundation established to foster a new generation of young leaders committed to positive change in themselves and their communities. Cammy works alongside her peers to develop more diplomatic programs and actions to help incorporate them into local schools and communities.

I recommend that you check out The Women Behind the Women cause its so rare to see that many women working on all types of jobs on this film (like camera operator) which we know is so rare in the movies.

Cammy answered some questions about what she learned by visiting the set.

Women & Hollywood:What surprised you most about seeing a movie shot?

Cammy Nelson: This was the first time I had ever visited a movie set and I was definitely most surprised by the amount of people involved in creating a film – there were people everywhere! In the past, I had seen "behind-the-scenes" video footage about other movies, but seeing it up close was so much more than I expected. I didn’t realize how much work went into creating my favorite movies.

W&H: What was it like to be at a job where most of the people with responsibilities were women?

CN: While working with a movie called, The Women, it was wonderful to see that women were an essential piece of every part of the movie, not only in the cast, but the director, producer, film editor, film crew, costume designers, script supervisors, set designers, assistants and hair and makeup artists.

I’m very thankful for the time I was able to spend with Diane English because she taught me a lot about Hollywood. Hearing her talk about how few women have powerful roles in Hollywood really made me respect her for reaching her goal of writing and directing this film. This entire experience, especially working with Diane, has really empowered me to rethink my future and set my goals a little higher. For instance, I’m definitely reconsidering where I want to go to college next year and am now thinking seriously about what I want to do after college. The whole experience has really made me think about all the opportunities available to me as a woman and has made my world a little bigger!

W&H: As a young woman what type of movies do you like?

CN: I like a little bit of everything, but I love romantic comedies and I really loved The Women! My favorite movies are Hitch and Hairspray.

W&H: Do you think that young women get portrayed positively in TV and film?

CN: In my opinion, I don’t think all young women are always portrayed in a positive way on screen. I have been more than excited to see that more and more movies are coming out that show women in empowering roles – offering me and my friends more positive role models to follow. My favorite thing about The Women is the all-female cast – they really took it a step further to show how different and diverse all women can be - I would love to see more of that in TV and movies in the future.

W&H: When you left the set, what was the one thing you learned that you never expected to learn?

CN: This was a very new experience for me so I really learned a lot about the film and about me. During my time on set I learned that all these beautiful stars that I look up to and that my friends try to copy are just normal people. Dove sent me behind-the-scenes of the film to interview some of the cast and crew, including Meg Ryan Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith and Debra Messing, to learn how they defined “real beauty.” I learned that these women had the same type of insecurities as me and my friends and they don’t wake up looking like their characters. I think it is really important for girls my age to learn that the perfect images we see on screen are not always real, they are definitely created.

While I was on the set of the film one of the makeup artists and hairstylists gave me a full “Hollywood” makeover, and the wardrobe stylist let me try on some of the clothes used in the movie. I never realized how many people are actually working behind-the-scenes to create the images we see on screen. I’m so honored that the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty has selected me to help create their short film The Women Behind “The Women” so I can help other girls my age challenge today’s beauty stereotypes and encourage them to embrace their own real beauty.

W&H: What's next for you?

CN: Well, I’m a senior this year so I’m excited about finishing my last year of high school and looking forward to graduation. Next for me I guess is college! (I’m just not sure where I’m going yet!)

Winners of The Women Contest

Thanks so much to all of you who submitted your answers to the questions to win a copy of the soundtrack for The Women.

These were the questions:

• What year was the original film made? 1939
  
• Name two other films that starred women that opened that year? I was looking for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind
  
• Who wrote the original film? The screenplay by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin based on the Clare Booth Luce
  
• Diane English (the film's writer and director) created what TV series? Murphy Brown
  

The winners are:
Emily Benson of Kansas City and Zsa Zsa Gershick of N. Hollywood, CA.

I hope to have more contests soon. The Women opens in theatres tomorrow, September 12th.

Why Not a Woman Director?

I don't think that women should be restricted to directing only chick flicks or films about women, but looking at the film landscape and the pathetic number of films directed by women, it boggles my mind when a film like the upcoming romantic drama (thanks for the fix) Nights at Rodanthe turns out to be directed by a gay man with no previous film experience. Couldn't this film have been the perfect opportunity for a female director maybe like Martha Coolidge (who directed The Prince and Me) with experience dealing with relationship movies.

I intend no offense to George C. Wolfe -- a man known best for his theatrical directing (Angels in America- one of the best things I've ever seen) and for running the Public Theatre. He is a genius. But for a man not known for lightness is a strange choice for directing this Diane Lane-Richard Gere romantic comedy.

How does a man who has never directed a film before (he has directed Lackawanna Blues on HBO) get this gig when the many women who have experience in this genre continue to get passed over?

George C. Wolfe's big-screen debut is 'Nights in Rodanthe' (LA Times)

photo: Michael Tackett

Women Playwrights Missing from Fall Theatre Season in NY

The NY Times reported this past Sunday that the new upcoming Broadway season is a Male, Male, Male World: Like I'm shocked.

A handful of productions, probably converging by coincidence, will provide a season-long seminar on the subject of the male animal under pressure.

The Times continues and posits that maybe this is a reaction to last season's plethora of domineering women.

Is it a reaction against last season, when the New York stage seemed to be overtaken by domineering women?...Whatever the reason, wives and mothers are taking a definite back seat to their husbands, fathers and sons this fall on Broadway stages.

Playwright Theresa Rebeck takes on this bullshit in a great piece in The Guardian, Broadway's Glass Ceiling and makes it very clear that every season, no matter if there are a few good female roles, is a man's world because so few female playwrights are let into the club.

Could we get real? Every year is the Year of the Man, with a couple of women who manage to crawl their way into the lineup. In the 2008/2009 season, as it has been announced, the number of plays written by women on New York stages will amount to 12.6% of the total.

Rebeck knows what's going on in the business. She's one of the few women kind of allowed into the club and it's a tough, tough world. I know cause I hear all the stories from her as we work out at the gym. The stuff she says is too good to make up, even for a playwright and novelists.

There's some feeling in rehearsal halls and writers' retreats and drunken dinner parties, that maybe the American theatre participates rather too enthusiastically in the supposed gender bias that the American media tosses about willy-nilly while discussing candidates for higher office. Mostly it is women playwrights who feel that way; male playwrights think the system is really, really fair and that women playwrights who raise these questions are whiners or dirty feminists.

Last week over 100 female playwrights in NYC discussed the pathetic amount of women being produced in New York this upcoming season.

Here's some of the numbers:
Plays by Living American Playwrights for 2008-09 Season:
Roundabout: 3 white men, 1 white woman
Lincoln Center Theater: 4 white men
Manhattan Theatre Club: 5 White men, 1 black woman
Public Theater: 6 white men, 1 black woman
Second Stage: 3 white men, 1 white woman
Playwrights Horizons: 4 white men, 2 women (1 black, 1 white)
Vineyard: 1 white man, 1 black man
NYTW: 1 white man, 1 white woman
Primary Stages: 3 white men, 1 white woman
Soho Rep: 1 white man
Rattlestick: 2 white men, 1 white woman
New Group: 2 white men
Atlantic: 5 white men

Total Female Playwrights: 9

Pathetic Fact of the Day: A higher percentage of women were being produced on NY stages in 1908-09 season that 2008-2009 season!

Think about going to support a female playwright the next time you are going to the theatre and if there is not a play by a woman ask your local theatre why not.

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Annette Bening

For standing up against Sarah Palin: (By the way, I was enormously relieved that in The Women, Bening does not at all resemble her photo on the poster. When you look at the poster for the film is looks like Bening has gotten one of those scary facelifts where your face does not movie. I am happy to report that you can see emotions on her face in the film.)

"But the idea that people, who voted for Hillary, who tend to be Democrats, would change and vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin seems to me bizarre."

"I find that an odd idea because of course Sarah Palin's politics are to the right of McCain's. She's incredibly conservative and I think it's fair to say she's more conservative than John McCain. So whether she will rally more conservative people to get out there and vote, I don't know. But most of the people I know that were interested in voting for Hillary are voting for Obama."

Obama-backer Bening pillories Palin (Vancouver Sun)

Mamma Mia Continues to Kick Ass Overseas

In case you were wondering...Mamma Mia has now made $280 million overseas and has become the fifth highest overseas grosser of the year. Can they still say that people won't see films about women?

The New TV Season

I am a huge TV addict. There I've said it. I used to be ashamed but no more. I love the box that is the TV. September is my favorite month of the year for TV. All the new TV shows start and I excitedly dive into EW and TV Guide to pick the shows I want to watch. While being a TV addict, I am still picky and there are shows that I have no interest in -- all of reality TV, and many of the stupid guy sitcoms. Just keep in mind that this season could be a big bust because development was stunted by the writer's strike. Here's what I am looking forward to this season:

Fringe: (Fox, 9pm Tuesdays, starts tonight)
J.J. Abrams writes some strong women. Think Alias. His new show (which I really can't figure out what it is about at all) stars Aussie newcomer Anna Torv. I read that it is like a mixture of Alias, The X-Files and Bones. And any show that has Blair Brown as a co-star (with a mechanical arm) gets a couple of watchings from me.

Here's what Abrams told TV Guide about writing strong women:

It's funny because I don't consciously write strong women. I just hopefully write strong characters who may happen to be women. If Olivia were a guy, I don't think you'd be saying, "oh, it's a strong male."

The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS, Wednesdays, 8pm)
If you don't watch this show you are missing out. Julia Louise Dreyfus is brilliant. The ongoing story this season that sounds hilarious is the gay marriage between Christine and her friend Barb (Wanda Sykes) to prevent Barb from being deported.

ER (NBC, Thursdays, 10pm)
In its last season the show is bringing in a big gun -- Angela Bassett is checking in as the new head of the ER. Awesome.

The Life and Times of Vivienne Wyle (Sundance, Sundays)
Ab Fab's Jennifer Saunders in a new series. Need I say more?

The Starter Wife (USA, begins 10/10 at 10pm)
Show takes up a year after the end of the mini-series. Stars Debra Messing and the amazing Judy Davis.

Shows I will watch but am not yet convinced will be good
Kath & Kim (NBC, begins 10/9 at 8:30pm)
Molly Shannon and Selma Blair star as mother and daughter (they are more like sisters in age) in the remake of the hit Australian show.

The Ex List (CBS, starts 10/3 at 9pm)
Elizabeth Reaser finally gets her own show but I hate the premise. She is told by a psychic that she has to marry within the next year or she never will. Way to freak out women. I will give it a show because of Reaser and showrunner Diane Ruggiero.

Interesting Guest Star
Mary Tyler Moore at Brooke Shields' mother on Lipstick Jungle

Other things I am thinking about:

• I am hoping that Shonda Rhimes can get Private Practice on track cause I love all the actors on that show.
• The aftermath of the kiss between Callie and Dr. Hahn on Grey's Anatomy.
  
• Hoping that people will find Friday Night Lights on the Direct TV Channel.
• Wondering why CBS moved Without a Trace.
• Can't wait for the craziness that is Brother and Sisters.
• Tina Fey whose 30 Rock is the funniest most subversive feminist show on TV.