Women and Hollywood

Melissa Silverstein 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. Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender parity across the entertainment industry.

She is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Athena Film Festival. The 4th annual festival will take place from February 6-9, 2014 at Barnard College in NYC.

Melissa recently published the first book from Women and Hollywood, In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing, which is a compilation of over 40 interviews that have appeared on the site.

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Cross-Post: Seven things Glee gets wrong about The First Time by Therese Shechter

Warning: Brimming with spoilers.

Last year, during Glee’s Madonna episode, Rachel, Finn and Emma (the guidance counselor with OCD) attempted to lose their respective virginities during a sexy montage set to “Like a Virgin.” Only Finn ended up having sex while the two women decided they couldn’t go through with it. This week’s Very Special Episode, called ‘The First Time’, is the sound of the other shoe dropping.

Here’s the premise: Rachel and Blaine are the leads in West Side Story, and director Artie thinks they’re not emanating enough passion as Tony and Maria*. His reasoning is that because they’re both virgins, they can’t call up those bursting, burning feelings that deflowerment apparently brings. Artie, who is clearly Method, suggests Rachel and Blaine fix this by having sex. Which they do, eventually, although alas not with each other.