Last week when the reports surfaced of actress Nicolette Sheridan filing a lawsuit against Marc Cherry (creator of the show) and ABC because of treatment she received on the set of Desperate Housewives, I shrugged. It seemed like a bitter axed actress who wanted to get back at her former employer for terminating her from one of the biggest gigs in television. Though when I read that part of her lawsuit pertained to reportedly being slapped by Cherry it raised my eyebrow.

I remember hearing rumors a year or so ago about there being a big blow up on set resulting in him slapping her in the face, but it seemed so ridiculous no one believed it. Of course now it seems there may be some truth to it all this time later. Not only has Nicollette cited it in her lawsuit, but former cast-mate Eva Longoria has confirmed that the incident did in fact happen, though according to her not necessarily maliciously.

“They did have a thing on set. I guess it was a couple years ago. It’s so long ago, the actual incident, and I wasn’t on set when it happened. Apparently, this incident had happened, and she felt it was wrong.

Longoria adds the context that Cherry was actually showing Nicolette how to do a scene in which Edie’s husband played by Neal McDonough slaps her.

“Something happened on set regarding them doing a scene. She was doing a scene, and … he was showing her how to do a scene. Honestly, I wish I knew [what happened]. During that time too, I didn’t work with Nicollette’s character.”

She also adds that Cherry “could not harm a fly, he’s just so sweet,” then said, “Nicollette’s a sweet girl, too.”

Then there’s a conflicting article from the NY Daily News where a “source” close to the show indicates Sheridan wasn’t the only woman on the show who had conflicts with Cherry.  Teri Hatcher apparently doesn’t find Cherry’s behavior completely kosher either.

The snitch adds that while Teri Hatcher is equally distressed by Cherry’s overbearing behavior, she’s unlikely to join Nicollette in her fight.

“Sometimes Teri doesn’t appreciate Marc’s ‘humor,’” says the source, while a rep for Hatcher didn’t comment by deadline. “But that doesn’t mean she’s going to get involved with this mess anytime soon.”

The Daily News article also implies that the rest of the women on the show are secretly supporting Sheridan but are afraid to do so publicly for fear of being killed off the program as her character was.

I’m not sure who to believe at this point.  I find the whole thing to be pretty shocking considering Cherry has always come across as cheerful, witty, and personable in all of his appearances on television to promote the program, and has always seemed to have so much respect and adoration for his actresses.  That said, appearances can be just that–appearances.

What I found most troubling out of this whole ordeal, was the strange language used in Sheridan’s lawsuit that seemed to imply she thought Cherry treated her badly because he is a gay man and she is a straight woman.  Which everyone pretty much agreed was about the strangest thing ever.  But after this new article by the Daily Beast where some former producers have broken their silence about Cherry’s treatment of female writers, it might start to make a bit more sense, and be much more angering.

The producers say they cannot imagine Cherry ever being physically abusive with the intention of hurting someone, but the one thing they all agree on is that he creates a difficult work environment especially for women.

One source said:

“He hates women. It’s apparent on set that he’s a fan of cute, gay men, not women.”

Another:

“He will dress you down in front of the staff. He will assault an idea,” said another. “He is very confrontational in this way. He has hissy fits.”

The biggest problem I have is with this part of the article which discusses the unfair way in which female writers were treated on the program.

It’s the more general charges in Sheridan’s suit that are bringing out a chorus of “Amens” among some former staffers, who strongly echo the actress’ claims of gender discrimination and a harsh work environment, saying the conditions are more severe than on other television shows.

Ironically, given the show’s subject matter, female writers on the show get the worst of it, and are mostly kept out of the “polishing room,” instead relegated to their “caves.” This person said that the writing “posse” that Cherry surrounds himself with and most treasures, consists of mostly straight men.

The former staffers also say that while the show tends to deal with issues very specific to women, he listens mostly to the male writers and is incredibly dismissive to the women who write for the program.  The situation is so bad, they say, that they have begun to refer to themselves as “the unwashed”.

The Daily Beast points out that of the 39 different writers who have written for the program since it premiered in 2004, only 14 have been female.  Not only that, but several of those writing stints were short lived.  Julia Sweeney left only a few months after she began to go to SNL.  And Alexandra Cunningham just recently left the program to go develop new shows for NBC (though to be fair, she was offered a huge seven figure deal).

Of course, these statistics for women writers on the show, as depressing as they may be, are much more favorable than the average primetime series is in general.  Which is obviously a travesty in and of itself. Take a look at these stats on the state of female writers in Hollywood.  In 2007 only 24% of the writers in television were female.  Not only that, but there is a wage gap in terms of what the working female writers earn versus their male counterparts.  When women make up more than half of the population this is not acceptable.

And if Marc Cherry is in fact giving preferential treatment to the male writers on his program, he’s contributing to the problem.  Which is not only discriminatory and unfair to these very talented women who deserve better but also detrimental to the quality of the program which is supposed to be about…you know, women.

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The issue has been talked about many times before, by Women and Hollywood blogger Melissa Silverstein as well as many other prominent female writers/directors/producers who struggle to get financing for their films. But it’s rare that young actresses are so vocal about the social inequities for women when it comes to Hollywood.

Oscar nominee Ellen Page spoke out in an interview with The Guardian about the difference between being pro-choice and pro-abortion as well as about the unfairness female-centric films encounter when they aren’t successful.

I am a feminist and I am totally pro-choice, but what’s funny is when you say that people assume that you are pro-abortion. I don’t love abortion but I want women to be able to choose and I don’t want white dudes in an office being able to make laws on things like this. I mean what are we going to do – go back to clothes hangers?

If there’s a movie starring a man that tanks, then I don’t see an article about the fact that the movie starred a man and that must be why it bombed. Then a film comes out where a woman is in the lead, or a movie comes out where a bunch of girls are roller derbying, and it doesn’t make much money and you see articles about how women can’t carry a film.

I love it. I loved Whip It, and I love Ellen Page.

A new trailer for the Phillip Noyce-directed action/thriller Salt just debuted a few days ago and thus far the film seems to be getting pretty good buzz. It stars Angelina Jolie and Liev Shreiber. Here’s the plot summary:

As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who is Salt?”

To be honest the film doesn’t excite me very much. I’m not a huge Angelina Jolie fan. I think she’s one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood. I do think she’s talented, but in limited roles. Girl, Interrupted and Gia for example, she was fantastic. Life or Something Like It, not so much.

That said, I’m all about more action films starring women, and Jolie is one of the few women in Hollywood who is actually bankable when it comes to these types of films. And I did love Wanted (which apparently has a sequel in the works, though she declined to be a part of it).

Here’s the trailer.

KRS-ONE says hip-hop needs more women. I’m not sure what happened to female rappers. We used to have Queen Latifah, Lil’ Kim, MC Lyte, where’d everyone go?

In its first weekend, the Michael Jackson documentary This Is It grossed over $100 million dollars across the globe, with 21.3% of it coming from the U.S.

A gay man in Karachi, Pakistan was beaten to death after being caught with another man in his home by an angry mob.

Oprah says audiences may not “enjoy” the gritty Lee Daniels film Precious but she says people will appreciate the experience.  The film opens on November 6.

West Hollywood, a gay hotspot in California, is trying really hard to reach out to gay and lesbian tourists in order to boost revenue for the city.

Black comedian Wanda Sykes is being criticized for using white sperm to impregnate her white wife–the couple now have two white babies.

Are the Bonobo apes riot grrls? An article about whether the primates known for living in an unusually matriarchal structure are feminist friendly.

A group of LGBT individuals in Boston are planning to protest President Obama for not being enough of a fierce advocate for gay rights, on issues like DADT and DOMA.

Two Sudanese women were arrested during a raid and  sentenced to $110 in fines and twenty lashes for nothing but simply wearing pants.

A judge in Cook County has dismissed a case brought against Craiglist for not effectively curbing prostitution ads on its website.  The judge says there are plenty of legitimate services being offered.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their crime-fighting ways are moving to Nickelodeon, as Viacom buys the franchise from the Mirage Group for $60 million.

A student in Australia has been attacked by a school supervisor for promoting a rally in support of gay rights.  The teacher yelled “Faggot kid, you don’t know what real marriage is!”

Couples Retreat star Kristen Bell says she’s excited to get back to her “snarkier roots” in the movie musical Burlesque where she plays Christina Aguilera’s rival. She also says Christina has written music for the film.

Ewan McGregor says he enjoyed kissing Jim Carrey in the film I Love You Philip Morris, which is set for a February 2010 release in the United States.

Gay screenwriter/director Mike White is at the helm of a new HBO comedy pilot starring the fabulous Laura Dern, who caught HBO’s attention with her priceless portrayal of Katherine Harris in the movie Recount.

The Hollywood Reporter scoops:

Mike White and Laura Dern’s comedy project at HBO is moving forward with a pilot order from the network.

The single-camera comedy, tentatively titled “Enlightened,” stars Dern as a self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work.

“The only thing I can think of cooler than making a show at HBO is doing it with Laura Dern,” White said. “I am totally stoked.”

I’m a huge fan of Mike’s because of his films The Good Girl (one of my favorites of all time) and Chuck and Buck.  Not so into School of Rock, Nacho Libre, and Year of the Dog, but hey, at least we have a gay screenwriter out there that’s making movies that appeal to mainstream audiences.

It doesn’t surprise me considering basically anything that comes out in theaters that isn’t about men going around killing each other or trying to get laid is considered a “chick flick”, which of course has a negative connotation.  Meanwhile women still turn up in droves to see whatever lame ass Michael Bay flick is out this month.

Yet for all the obstacles women’s films have, the ones that do quite well don’t get their fair share of credit.  Even after Juno, even after Twilight, even after Mamma Mia, even after Sex and the City, it’s still a huge uphill battle to get studios to greenlight films with female protagonists.  And as Meryl Streep explains, it’s not just the studios, but also the theater chains who decide which films to carry.

“It’s always a shock to the studio,” Streep says with real firmness, “because men run the studios and live their own fantasies through them. It’s harder for a man to jump inside a woman character’s mind and imagine, ‘This could happen to me’ than it is for a woman to imagine herself as a male character.” But surely the profits count? “They see it and they understand that there is a market and it will make them an enormous amount of money, but we all respond to instinct and it’s their inner boy that jumps up and goes: ‘Yeah, I wanna see another GI Joe’.”

“Parts are rare,” Streep says, “the amount of product is rare. It’s a large machine that markets these films, that makes theatre [cinema] owners commit their theatres half a year in advance — that’s how it works. Are they gonna buy GI Joe or are they gonna buy Mamma Mia!?”

Mamma Mia! did great business, I say. “They’re still not sure,” Streep counters. “You need a good salesman. Those films have done well, yes, that audience is there, but it doesn’t go on the first weekend [which the industry nervously observes].”

In a separate interview screenwriter/director Nora Ephron weighs in on the problem as well.

When she was inducted into the Academy of Achievement in 2007, Ephron said she took up directing because “90% of the men directing movies have no interest in women in any real way, except as girlfriends or wives. They don’t really want to make movies about them, and they don’t.”

They’re both absolutely right.  With Mamma Mia and Sex and the City grossing over a billion dollars collectively worldwide, and Julie & Julia already grossing over $80 million on its way to 90 million one would really wonder why Hollywood isn’t clamoring to cash in on more women’s films.   But as has been stated before, whenever a female film does well it’s always written off as a “fluke” or the the little film that could.  But every time some mindless action film with some “hot chick” running around like a piece of meat needing to be rescued does well at the box office, it’s reason to make 20 more just like it.

Drew Barrymore’s making her directorial debut in a film called Whip It which is about a girl whose parents want her to do pageants but she secretly discovers Roller Derby.  Barrymore’s also in the film along with Ellen Page, Juliette Lewis, Zoe Bell (that bad ass chick in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof) and Marcia Gay Harden.  She talks to Time Out New York about the film:

Your upcoming directorial debut, Whip It, is about roller derby. Why?
I relate to a theme of it: women who have not only an alter ego but a capability. I love these women who totally have day jobs—they’re nurses and librarians and waitresses.

And then they get the shit beaten out of them at night.
Yeah—what I love about the sport is that it’s real and high stakes. And by the way, it’s scary as shit to do. I wouldn’t have guessed that the first film I directed would have a sports element, but then again it doesn’t surprise me, because I love girls getting to do what boys do.

And you totally love having bloody snot hanging out of your nose, don’t you?
I do, I do, I love it! And I love when [women] get to be women and not feel like they have to become a man in order to play in a man’s world.

The movie comes out October 2 and unlike most movies I will be seeing it the first weekend it gets released. I’m not the biggest fan of Drew Barrymore as an actress (though I adore Boys On The Side) but maybe she’ll turn out to be quite the director.

Here’s the trailer

“You can be bi but not gay. Well, you can be gay and funny, like Ellen [DeGeneres] and Rosie [O'Donnell]. It’s really hard to be straight-up gay and serious. We’re still not over that.”

(via Jezebel)

It’s an interesting point, actually, and when I thought about it, it’s something that can be applied to all minorities who were often cast out from the mainstream media. Going as far back as blackface, when actual black performers would take part in the minstrel shows–of course not looking like themselves but dressed up as an exaggerated version of “blackness”. Then look at our most successful black actors. Will Smith, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, they’re actors that white people feel comfortable enough going to see because they make them laugh. But it’s usually a brand of humor that white audiences would expect of black performers based on common stereotypes.

I’m also reminded of Knocked Up, where, while the female characters are funny, they’re funny because we’re laughing at them, not with them. We’re laughing at them being overly emotional, irrational, killjoy harpies. Whereas when Seth Rogen or Paul Rudd make a joke, we’re laughing with them–we’re rooting for them, we identify with them (or so the filmmakers seem to think).

Gay people are no exception. Pop in Revenge of the Nerds, or My Best Friend’s Wedding, Too Wong Foo and more recently I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, or turn on the TV and see Will & Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Sex and the City, and Desperate Housewives. All shows where they gay men are meant to be light, funny, and of course, fabulous. Oh wait, but there is that guy Andrew on Desperate Housewives that had some dramatic storylines earlier on in the show. Of course, he was a raging sociopath.

In general, it seems if you’re funny, straight people can accept your gayness because it amuses them. But they become very uncomfortable when the gayness is serious. I remember going to see The Talented Mr. Ripley with my mother and people actually walking out during the homoerotic bathtub scene between Matt Damon and Jude Law (and nothing even actually happened!), and yet in films like Scary Movie, Shawn Wayans can get stabbed in the ear with a penis while trying to suck it through a glory hole in the men’s restroom, and everyone’s hooting and hollering. Hahaha, that silly fag!

Brokeback Mountain was a very serious film that garnered a lot of critical acclaim, but even the supposedly liberal Academy couldn’t given the film the Oscar and many members have since come forward and said they couldn’t vote for it because of the subject matter. To put it simply, straight people can’t deal with gay people that are complex, 3-dimensional, romantic, and human.  They’d much rather just crack the whip and yell “dance, queer! dance!”

But Michelle cites examples like Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres, though I would disagree with classifying the two of them together. People loved Rosie, but her popularity was at its highest before people knew she was a lesbian. After her coming out, and the infamous “dyke-cut” that she sported simultaneously, her public image was on a down spiral, especially given it was at the same time her adversary in her lawsuit was trying to kill her “queen of nice” shtick. It only got worse once she got to The View, as it seemed every other day FOX News especially, but other channels as well, portrayed her as the fat angry lesbian beating up on pretty thin Christian Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Nearly everything out of Rosie’s mouth made news. After leaving The View, she tried doing a primetime variety show, reminiscent of her former friendly image, and it failed miserably.

Ellen on the other hand, while her sitcom was cancelled shortly after coming out, Finding Nemo and  her daytime program The Ellen DeGeneres Show seems to have basically made her the gay, white Oprah in terms of popularity and clout.  But Ellen has a squeaky clean image, is always nice and friendly to celebrities, and rarely talks about being a lesbian on her program (not that she should have to).

I think with Michelle, it also has a lot do with her tough image.  I’ve been writing my senior thesis on male aversion to chick flicks, and in my research I’ve seen articles talking about how the public is very picky about actresses it will accept as action heroines.  Angelina Jolie is one of them, maybe Jodie Foster (though The Brave One didn’t do so well), but overall when a female action flick does well it’s usually considered a fluke.  So maybe that incidicates some sort of uncomfortableness with strong women in film.  And though straight men seem to love lesbians when they’re making out for male pleasure, they don’t seem to like it very much when you’re a lesbian that they think can kick their ass if they try asking for a threesome.

If you’ve seen Girlfight then you know Michelle is actually quite a good actress.   But for some reason Hollywood has embraced other latina actresses like Jessica Alba and Eva Mendes who can barely act their way out of a box.  Is it because of Michelle’s sexuality? Possibly.  I don’t know that her sexuality has even gotten enough coverage for people to really know about it.  Is it because she isn’t prissy enough to fit into tired old romantic cliches so prevalent in film that keep women as helpless damsels in distress desperate for a male hero?  I don’t know.  But I certainly will agree with Michelle that Hollywood like gay people a lot better when we make them laugh.