Okay, so it’s been a while. But we’re back, and onto a new publishing schedule: Tuesdays and Fridays.

I know, hard to believe, but we’re making a good faith effort to keep at it. There was soooo much to talk about in 2009, so much we’ve missed. And already this year we’ve seen the DGA award the first Woman Director, and watched Nikke Finke’s commententator fume at each other over the number of pilots picked up that are authored by women – so much juicy stuff! We can’t wait!

So we hope you enjoy these posts, and keep coming back for more.

-TVB

Normally I’m a one-post-a-day kind of woman, but thought I’d share that this weekend is Send One Suit weekend, encouraging women to donate one suit to the nonprofit Dress for Success an organization that “gives disadvantaged women entering the workforce a leg up by outfitting them in professional business attire, providing career counseling and setting them up with professional women’s networking groups.”

Downturned economy leave you with suits to spare? Donate one this weekend! Drop off your suit at a local Dress Barn store (find one here) and help a good cause.

Have a little backlog of posts due to the starting of a new job. Will post a couple of recent insights to sate the palate, and be back on a regular schedule next week.

So the jury’s still out as to whether it was Summit’s decision to kick Catharine Hardwicke out of the director’s chair, or Hardwicke’s decision to turn down directing the next installment in the Twilight series (based on what’s she’s described as a too-limiting budget). Either way it’s a disappointment, especially since since the budget for the first movie was 37M and grossed 70M on opening day weekend (setting a new record for highest opening weekend gross for a film directed by a woman), and it’s rumored that the modest budget planned for New Moon was increased upon hiring of America Pie helmer Chris Weitz to direct.

But now Nikke Finke reports that Summit is closing a deal for a third movie, director tbd, making it a little more bitter that Hardwicke’s no longer in the director’s chair.

And speaking of women directors, Defamer today railed against EW for its top 25 directors list, citing among other problems the lack of femmes at the top. They go on to post 26-50, and Sophia Coppola tops out at  no. 26, ahead of Mira Nair (46) and Mary Harron (49).

Sophia Coppola at 26? Mary Harron at 49? Where’s Karen Kusama (director of Girl Fight, Aeon Flux, and the forthcoming Jennifer’s Body)? Jane Campion? Jodie Foster? Sally Potter? Mimi Leder? Kathryn Bigelow? Kasi Lemmon? Patty Jenkins? There’s a serioiusly flawed rubric behind the present list, one that I don’t understand and that celebrates celebrity  in foregrounding Coppola at the expense of some more seriously acomplished directors, both critically and commercially.  Ugh.

But

I’ve been watching the reviews over the past couple of days and I must say, even if these movies are well executed, the fact that they got green-lightsays something. Here is some cinema featuring bad-ass ladies that you may not want to miss:

- Hong Kong thriller Chocolate features a martial artist savant, part autistic teen, part Muay Thai prodigy. 100% bad ass. I have to say I cannot wait to see this.

-The Countess – The summary reads “A 16th-century noblewoman turns to an unusual moisturizer for comfort after she’s been abandoned by her much younger lover” – the moisturizer? Virgin blood!! Talk about a woman scorned. Julia Delpy stars in a movie only the Germans could make.

-Cheri is about a love affair between an older courtesan (Lea) and a spoiled youth (Cheri). Okay, not as firce as the above two but still, nice to see Michelle Pfieffer in a substantial lead role.

Let me skip right past any homage to parenthood, my own parents, past my own desire to have kids and fears of a life without, and go right back over into the my-God-I-am-sacred-out-of-my-gourd phase. A few things floating around popular culture this week have scared the bejesus out of me.

The Times Op-Ed ‘Till Children do Us Part” and the  now vintage-3-year-old Salon.com article by Mary Elizabeth Williams are fiercesome reminders of the economic and physical toils of childrearing. Add to that the economy woes, and it looks like I’m not alone, as Lisa Belkin writes in “Postponing a Baby in this Recession.”

A couple other interersting issues are up in the air now too. The Balance between women and men workinging and the economic turmoil perhaps ushering a new age ofstay-at-home dads may be ne suprising outcome of this historic economic downturn, as Belkin points out in “Unemployed Dads at Home” and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” turned into a discussion about multitasking moms as host Neil Conan explored the culture of Blackberrying and the breakdowns between work at home with guest Dalton Conley, author of the book Elsewhere, USA. The current moment then raises all new kinds of questions about parenthood in the milenium. We’ll wait and see I guess.

On a lighter note, while there’s been much talk about Barbie recently – from the giant store planned in Shanghai to Allure’s article how she’s changed over the years to the forthcoming book on how she was conceived – here’s yet another fabulous piece of Barbie news: the Guardian reported on Friday that Mattel is announcing an Andrea Merkel Barbie.

Too bad she’s one of a kind (like the real Merkel!)

The Academy’s recognition ceremony for accomplishments in the area of scientific and technical contribution to film was held in Beverly Hills last night. As part of the commitment of this blog to comment on the role of women and men in popular culture including tech, I’m obliged to report that the winners were all white dudes. This is not so surprising, as the educational and cultural institutions which promote success in science and technology have historically given been populated by given preference to white men. But I have few doubts  that as these industries become less exclusive and girl gamers and programmers are on the rise, the demo of these awards will change a lot over the next twenty years. That will not however stop me from commenting that the choice of a gorgeous woman to host (Jessica Biel this year, succeeding prior hosting hotties Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson, and Charlize Theron) does not = gender balance:  it’s more like throwing chum to an audience of hungry sharks, hungry nerdy sharks.

A brief list of the winners is below, with details on the Academy’s webpage.