Equality Watch: Hollywood Report and Variety Hold Conversations and Leave Women Out

This stuff makes me so mad. I just don't understand how stories can be written in 2008 where all the people quoted and talked to are guys.

But both the Hollywood Reporter and Variety ran pieces last week that did just that.

Variety had a piece Vet Critics Adapt to Challenging Times where they talked to veteran film critics about the decimation of their ranks. So we have the opinions of worthy men like Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel, Joe Morgenstern and Kenneth Turan, but no women. It's true that women make up only 30% of the critics according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film but doesn't that make it even more important to have women's voices in these discussions?

The Hollywood Reporter did a round table with several directors whose films are getting notice this season and again ALL WERE MEN including: Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle, Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Gus Van Sant and Edward Zwick. Both Kelly Reichardt and Courtney Hunt could easily have been included in the conversation.

Shame on both publications!

Vet critics adapt to challenging times (Variety)
Hollywood directors weigh truths, risks (Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo)