Michele Willens

So, in one day I heard that Harry's Law -- a show I enjoyed for its wit and intelligence as much as the fact that its lead character was a 63-year-old woman -- was being canceled, and I gave Girls on HBO one more chance. I say "ugh" to both.

Jon Hamm doesn't even seem to fit in his clothes anymore.

I am trying valiantly to figure out what Matthew Weiner is doing on this weird season of Mad Men. As a longtime devotee of the AMC series, I am always willing to give him the benefit...

I am surprised at how sad I have felt since learning of Dick Clark's death. Now, I know this may seem odd, and I certainly can't equate it to losing my mother and father, for example. But I have been wondering why this one got me where it hurts and...

I was recently invited to be part of a "speed pitching" evening in which aspiring playwrights had one minute to pitch our theatrical idea to a room full of rotating producers. He or she then had one minute to ask what they thought were significant questions. ("What is the marketable...

It is interesting to be taking a course in memory at the same time that many my age are supposed to be losing it.

When I decided to return to college at 60, most of my friends had two reactions: "I wish I could go back and enjoy it more...

It seems that everything we hear about the state of education is dire and depressing. But two recent experiences make me smile. And hope.

First, I was taken on a tour of the new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools which, in fact, are six autonomous entities on one...

So you are all grown up but still get agitated every time you see your parents. They never were really there for you -- even if they brought pleasure to millions of others. Or maybe you realize it's about time you learned more about a grandparent whom you never really...

I woke up in sunny Los Angeles this morning, picked up the newspaper, and three stories caught my eye -- and broke my heart.

First, a serial killer has apparently been apprehended in Southern California. It turns out he had recently returned from a tour in Iraq. "I feel...

For a generation or so, we have been about empowering girls, whether on the ball field, in the math and science classrooms, or in heightening their political aspirations. So is it any wonder that boys should be making a comeback?

One place they are doing it this year is at...

I haven't been on a horse in many years, though as a young girl I rode every weekend and collected my share of the plastic versions. As an urban creature now, I rarely come across them -- other than the painfully tolerant variety leading tourists through Central Park. But I...

FACE IT: We Can Dial With Dignity

Face it, few of us really use phones for the right reasons anymore. Our kids prefer we text them, and most of us have gadgets that send a quick email message even to friends or business associates. When the phone goes off at...

It is hard to believe that I love Lucy, the iconic television series that competes with Law and Order in the "show that is always on somewhere" category, is 60. What's even more amazing is that Lucy seems less scatterbrained and a lot more entertaining than most the television housewives...

I have been hearing similarly discontented -- or at least conflicted -- mumblings lately: in Betty Friedan parlance, I'd say they are murmurs with no monikers. Are you too hearing more and more women saying either: they need time and space to themselves; they are happy when their spouses are...

The viewers have spoken. The Playboy Cub is the first show cancelled of the new television season. Women could have told the networks this would happen, but from the looks of the current lineup, the networks don't really care about how real women feel about their shows.

At lunch the other day, someone was marveling how uber-editor Tina Brown keeps taking on new endeavors, every one of which would be a full time profession for most people. Just hearing the list made me go home and take a nap.

When I awoke, I began seriously thinking about...

What does true empowerment mean for women?

Clearly, it means the right to choose, and that encompasses everything from having the baby to having the job to having a mate of either sex. But it also means proving ourselves at the box office, on the Billboard charts, on...

I was sitting in Starbucks reading my paper the other morning and in walked a startlingly lovely young woman. Long, perfect straight hair, pristine features, slender body wrapped in a black pantsuit. I immediately felt old, shapeless, short and unattractive. I played a little game: how long would it...

I know a woman who has 2,000 friends on Facebook and she is proud to tell you so. What I would never tell her is that she is one of the most awkward -- even tactless -- of people, with a minimal social life.

I also know...

So I was at a party recently and noticed that at least eight women were huddled around an attractive and charismatic fellow. I was informed that the man (not available on a sexual basis, by the way) is the face of Bravo, and the women were smothering him with...

With the humiliating burnouts of a group of powerful -- and horny -- men, we must turn once again to women to be the role models. The usual suspects emerge: Oprah for her classy exit and self-empowerment message; Hillary for her ability to roam the world doing good deeds, remain...