“When you read a screenplay, it doesn’t come with a picture on the cover,” said Adam Siegel, president of Marc Platt Productions, a producer who is friends with all four women and has worked with all except Ms. Cody. “I know a few beautiful women, but none of them write like Dana, Liz, Lorene or Diablo.”
The above quote is the best part of a New York Times piece from the weekend that made me throw up a bit in my mouth despite how delicious it is (this happens a lot to me with Mexican food, but rarely Times articles, even those in the Sunday Styles section). I would have used it for the Bloggery earlier, but of course Nikki Finke was more important yesterday. Coincidentally, there’s something about this profile on Diablo Cody and her “Fempire” that relates to the Finke story, at least to how Jeff Wells responded to Kim Masters’ take, claiming that if Finke was a guy she never would have been attacked in such a way.
Similarly, Cody and Co. wouldn’t be written about if they were men. But more importantly, they probably wouldn’t have been written about if they weren’t such good-looking women. So, while there’s something empowering about this foursome of female screenwriters who each boldly wear an identical necklace with an inscription that reads “**** My Face,” it was quite necessary to include a lot of tantalizing quotes about them seeing each other naked and sometimes being “super porno” like. And of course that double-edged quote from Siegel above. And another condescending (to men and women) bit from the piece’s author, Deborah Schoeneman, describing Elizabeth Meriwether (scribe of the upcoming Friends With Benefits) as “a thinking man’s Scarlett Johansson.”
If you recall, some had believed Cody only won so many awards from critics and peers because of what she looks like (and the profession she used to have). So, perhaps Oscar nominations should have also gone to Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and What Happens in Vegas? Related, would this article have been as interesting if the “Fempire” included Cody’s less-hot Oscar competitors Tamara Jenkins and Nancy Oliver?
More reactions to the piece from others from the last few days after the jump:
- First of all, kudos to Vulture for being the first to find out what those necklaces say.
- And secondly, kudos to Ryan Tate at Defamer for pointing out that “the photogenic, novelist author of the Times piece would fit snugly into such a project.”
- Melissa Silverstein at Women & Hollywood is thrilled about the Fempire (which she’d actually already written about last fall), though she does have the same issue with the way the Times piece portrays them:
Do I wish that the sexuality stuff was not a part of these women’s stories? Sure. Do I wish that the entire beginning of the NY Times piece would have talked about their films instead of what they looked like? Yup. But being a dancer in a strip club is part of Diablo’s backstory and it will never go away. I’m not going to let the sex talk stop me from admiring that these women are friends, real friends, and they are fighting against a difficult culture that does a damn good job of pitting women against each other.
- On the other side of the fence, The Blotter’s Emily Kaiser sees Cody’s celebration of her past as to blame for the tone of the piece:
The ladies go on to complain about how they feel pressured to look good all the time… more so than their male counterparts. Perhaps using and flaunting your sexuality and stripper days isn’t the best way to try to have others focus on your work rather than your body?
- Jossip’s David Hauslaib also sees Cody as worthy of blame, for the whole article’s existence:
Now, I’m as much for an anti-Apatow antidote as the next girl, but it’s a little bit obvious that the linchpin of these ladies’ coverage comes from Diablo. Would the Times ever run a profile piece on the man who co-wrote Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist? Or, god forbid, What Happens in Vegas (like one of Diablo’s Fempires?) It’s a condescending “Good for you ladies!” item that only got written up because one of the four women is a legitimate household name.
- Annalee Schafranek of Bitch magazine’s Love/Shove blog is another excited about the Fempire and sees some uplifting parts in the article. She concludes, “In a time where a bro-mantic comedy gets you number two at the box office, I am totally looking forward to the Fempire takeover.”
- Add Laurie at Bust Blog to the list of people with a positive response to the piece: “it’s about 4 female writers that support each other and are actually doing something for us girls by writing smart and funny scripts for women.”
- But add Mosa of Super Hella Awesome to the anti-Fempire list:
Being a woman, I’m all about the empowerment of women, obviously - but there are times when women just make it too easy to not take them seriously…are we really bragging about “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” and “What Happens in Vegas”?
- “The totally not-condescending article then goes on to compare them to Entourage and the Apatow posse, and it’s all very empowering, because it communicates the message that girls can indeed do many of the things boys can do. *Spice girls pose*,” writes FilmDrunk’s Vince Mancini, who needs to lay off my favorite ’90s pop group, even if he’s right to see a comparison. Cody’s obviously Ginger.
- Althea at TheFrisky sees another comparison: “The New York Times just cannot quit ‘Sex and the City.’ It seems like the Sunday Style section is always in search of the next Carrie & Co., which resulted in this weekend’s profile…”
- Ryan Adams of Awards Daily, on the other hand, can’t help but compare the foursome to the parodied version from MadTV, “Sluts and the City.” He shares both that sketch and then nearly apologizes:
I’d feel bad about posting that, except for this other enlightening slice from the Times about these four “glamorous” writers who “can command seven figures to write a movie that makes it into theaters with big stars.”
Then came Ms. Meriwether, a successful playwright in New York. Her agent, Cliff Roberts of William Morris, sent her first television pilot, “Sluts” — about a group of recent college graduates who move to New York —
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