The XX Factor : Hollywood

Clinton/Lewinsky Scandal To Become HBO Movie

Susannah Breslin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:41:00 GMT

Just when you thought it was safe to channel surf, it turns out HBO is making a movie out of the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal of yesteryear. The title? The Special Relationship . Special , indeed. The casting is just plain odd. Dennis Quaid is...(read more)

Still More Reason to Lock Up Your Daughters

Kerry Howley — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:41:00 GMT

The talk of teacups and helicopters has me thinking about Taken , the fourth most popular movie in America and a film engineered to play on the worst, most irrational fears of American fathers—think Babel plus white slavery. A former CIA agent played...(read more)

Old Spice

Dahlia Lithwick — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:44:00 GMT

Susannah . The headline here is actually kind of worse than “Julia Roberts is OLD.” The headline — or subhed — is the coy suggestion that “Julia Roberts is a superstar, but her box-office reign might be over.” Then the piece is packed with arguments (as...(read more)

One Wedding, Three Children and ... a Funeral?

Dana Stevens — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:10:00 GMT

More for Susannah on Julia Roberts: I don't think either Dahlia or I were motivated to tear into that Newsweek piece on her by our undying love for America's sweetheart. Rather, we were struck by the article's disingenuousness, what I called its "eyelash-batting"...(read more)

That's Hollywood Ancient

Susannah Breslin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:41:00 GMT

Count me out on crying "sexism!" when it comes to Newsweek 's characterization of Julia Roberts as "Hollywood ancient." And that's exactly what the author said — Hollywood ancient — and you know what? He's absolutely right. By the response here, you'd...(read more)

Pretty (Old) Woman

Dana Stevens — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:51:00 GMT

Yuck. Like Dahlia , I hate the way this Newsweek article on Julia Roberts perpetuates sexist assumptions — 41-year-old women are "ancient"! Time off to raise children = career suicide! — while batting its eyelashes innocently. The author is effectively...(read more)

Hollywood Ancient

Dahlia Lithwick — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:23:00 GMT

Jamie Foxx. Paul Giamatti. Benicio Del Toro. Liev Schreiber. Guy Pearce. Philip Seymour Hoffman . Pretty safe bet that if any one of these 41-year-old actors had been the subject of this Newsweek piece they wouldn’t have been run through the gender double-standard...(read more)