Women and Hollywood

Melissa Silverstein is a writer, blogger and marketing consultant with an expertise in the area of social media regarding women and Hollywood. She is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture. She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Athena Film Festival – A Celebration of Women and Leadership at Barnard College in NYC. The third annual festival will take place from February 7-10, 2013.

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Trailer Watch: New Snow White and the Huntsman Trailer

Video

It's all about Charlize vs Kristen.

By Melissa Silverstein
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March 19, 2012 11:47 AM
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1 Comment

Blogs

You can't tell me that Stephen Daldry is going to get an Oscar nomination for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He's great and I love The Hours, but please, why is he in this roundtable conversation and not any women? And George Clooney for The Ideas of March? Not going to happen. But I guess they are both sexier than Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin which won the Best British film from the London Film Critics last week.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 23, 2012 11:27 AM
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0 Comments

I like the Golden Globe show cause it's always goofy. People drink, say funny stuff and you get TV and film people in one place. People who are awards watchers don't take it too seriously because they have two different film categories -- comedy and drama -- which no other awards do. The also kiss a lot of celebrity butt in order to have a star ladened show rather than a serious awards show. So you must not take anything these people do too seriously.

But they do get coverage and they do get talked about so it matters that with 11 films nominated in the two categories there is not a single woman directed film nominated for best drama or best comedy/musical. The Help and Bridesmaids continued their good week and I think that we will have to settle for one (The Help) or hopefully both of these films representing the chicks at the Oscars. So it will be films about women that will represent women, not films by women. But weirdly, the Bridesmaids writers did not get nominated here, nor did any other female film writers (except for Angelina Jolie who got a best foreign language film nomination).

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 16, 2011 9:49 AM
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1 Comment

Reviews

I heart Young Adult. I heart it because it is an awesome and original story. I heart it because Charlize Theron hits it out of the park as the horribly bitchy Mavis a woman stuck in her high school self because that was when she was queen. You know when you look at the male football players in high school and they are so cute and so dumb but they rule the world because it is high school. But you know that those are the same guys who wind up selling vacuum cleaners and developing a beer gut by the time they are 30. The guys you were in awe of become the sad ones. Mavis is one of those guys, but she is a girl. She peaked at 16. She was the golden mean bitch who I'm sure roamed the halls spilling slushees on the plebes.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 9, 2011 12:39 PM
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4 Comments

Diablo Cody

Diablo Cody was kindly able to take a few minutes to talk Young Adult and feminism in the film business on the eve of the opening of her new film. It's good to know that we have a strong feminist voice out there unafraid to own up to her convictions.

Women and Hollywood: One of the narratives of the film is that you created an unlikeable female character. We see unlikeable men all the time. Why is such a big deal that we have a female lead who is unlikeable?

Diablo Cody: The conventional knowledge in Hollywood is that an unsympathetic female character can tank a movie. I’m hoping that’s not true. I’m knocking on wood really emphatically right now but honestly I have a lot of theories sometimes I wonder if it comes down to mommy issues. The idea of a cold, unlikeable woman or a woman who is not in control of herself is genuinely frightening to people because it threatens civilization itself or threatens the American family.

But I don’t know why people are always willing to accept and even like flawed male characters. We’ve seen so many loveable anti-heroes who are curmudgeons or addicts or bad fathers and a lot of those characters have become beloved icons and I don’t see women allowed to play the same parts. So it was really important to me to try and turn that around.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 9, 2011 10:16 AM
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1 Comment

Charlize Theron Talks About Her Life and Young Adult

A very impressive woman. She started a foundation in her home country of South Africa to end sexual violence and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. Young Adult starts rolling out this weekend and will open wide on December 16.

By Melissa Silverstein
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December 5, 2011 9:25 AM
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Dirty Trailer for Young Adult - written by Diablo Cody

If you think you knew what Young Adult was about, this will throw a wrench in those thoughts. Just please don't play this around the kids - it's good and dirty.

Film opens in NY and LA Dec 9 and then rolls out across the country.