All things gender, feminism, humor, social justice, kittens on treadmills...
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Zoe Saldana on Actresses, Age and Inequality
Via Upworthy
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Diane Keaton Stars in Feminist Porn-Themed HBO Show
Diane Keaton--beacon of civility, Oscar winner, and delight--is slated to star in a new HBO series about her starting a porn mag for women. The so-far-so-untitled show will be produced by Keaton and a production team consisting of Marti Noxon and Dawn Parouse Olmstead.
Marti Noxon, for anyone who gives a hoot, is a former Buffy writer, and apparently grew up with a radical feminist mama. The Hollywood Reporter does some apologies for this fact by cherry-picking this quote from Noxon: "I wanted to be a gal, I was very interested in men, and I wanted to shave my legs." PHEW! We don't want this show to be *too* feminist, do we? If her writing for Buffy is any indication of her skills, though, Noxon is as top-notch a feminist as Hollywood can offer.
Reports say that Keaton will be portraying a Steinem-like feminist helming the magazine in an effort to rouse the sleepy Second (or Third?) Wave masses. That's really all we know of the premise. I'm interested to see how they pull it off, since I personally do not believe that sexually objectifying men = feminism, but hey, that's just one school of thought. My hunch is that they're taking the sexual liberation = feminism angle, which is fine.
Other than that, I think know what you're thinking: Diane? In television? Isn't she too classy?
Just comfort yourself that it's HBO, where many things, such as polygamy (Big Love), male prostitution (Hung), 'fang banging' (True Blood) and other fantastic and/or subversive sexualities are allowed and welcomed in the network's series. So the writers of Keaton's show just might go interesting places. The magazine at the center of the series may even shed light on something pop culture rarely allows us to see or understand: women's sexuality. I'm crossing my fingers!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Nia Vardalos on Women and Hollywood
A little-known fact: some studios recently decided to no longer make female-lead movies.
Lately, I've been in meetings regarding a new script idea I have. A studio executive asked me to change the female lead to a male, because... "women don't go to movies."
Really?
When I pointed out the box office successes of Sex and The City, Mamma Mia, and Obsessed, he called them "flukes." He said "don't quote me on this." So, I'm telling everybody.
...It's called show business for a reason. The theater owners want to make money, and understandably so. My Life In Ruins is the highest testing movie in Fox Searchlight history so we've been given a chance. And, the theater owners said they'll keep the movie in their theaters if people go.
So, women: can we speak up with our wallets?