New research reveals–not surprisingly–that female writers, directors, producers, etc. fare better in the world of indie films–though still make up only about 24% of the field.

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.

On the heels of the release of Hilary Swank’s new Amelia Earhart biopic, which is getting horrid reviews, critics are asking where have the strong female characters gone?

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.

Peggy Robertson was denied insurance coverage because she previously had a c-section. But her insurance company told her that if she got sterilized, they would give her coverage.

This is absolutely ridiculous and NOT the first time women have been denied coverage because of issues that women typically face. In eight state including the District of Columbia, getting beaten by your husband is a pre-existing condition. This madness has to stop.

Everyone knows how I feel about the term “chick flicks” and the deep-rooted misogyny in our culture that puts female-centered media at a huge disadvantage in mainstream television, film, and publishing.  Many female authors have had to use pseudonyms because publishers have found that otherwise men will see a woman’s name attached to the book and not give it a chance.

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.

Halle Berry is reportedly in advanced talks to star in the film Dark Tide, an action-thriller being produced by the people that brought us Twilight.

Variety says:

[Dark Tide] concerns a diving instructor who returns to the deep after a near-fatal incident with a Great White shark. “Dark” is set to lense in South Africa later this year.

Social Capital Films is arranging financing for the $15 million-$20 million pic. Company’s Martin Shore and Christopher Tuffin produce along with Tax Credit Finance’s Matthew Chausse and Plum Pictures’ Celine Rattray.

I’m always excited to see more action/thriller type movies starring women, though for some reason they rarely seem to do well.  I’m having a hard time remember the last one that actually did.  I could say Wanted, though Angelina was a supporting role.  Last one I remember after that is maybe Red Eye starring Rachel McAdams, but someone feel free to correct me.  This film is also written by a woman named Amy Sorlie, who as far as I can tell is a first-time screenwriter.

It bugs me that people bash “chick flicks” and say they’re the reason women’s films do so poorly at the box-office then when films are made that don’t fall into the stereotypical chick flick category like Invasion or The Brave One or North Country, no one goes to see them.  Speaking of The Brave One–Flightplan was in 2006 and that film did quite well.  We miss you, Jodie!

All of that said, Halle Berry’s never been a huge box-office draw, her highest grossing films are not films where she was given top-billing, and quality-wise her movies tend to be hit and miss.  I took a chance on Perfect Stranger and it was one of the worst films of that year.  Conversely, Things We Lost In The Fire was amazing and it was certainly her best performance to date.

It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.  The budget is going to be between 15-20 million dollars, so there’s a lot of room for profit.

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