The Oscars on The Huffington Post

Carole Carson: Raising Awareness Of Diabetes

2009-11-23T14:33:25Z

"Between 60 and 70 percent of those age 65 and over are diabetic or prediabetic. Of these, half are unaware they have the condition because they are symptom free." This is the important message conveyed by Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis and her husband, actor Louis Zorich.

You can't spend time around Olympia and Louis without immediately sensing the strength of their 48-year marriage. Olympia begins a sentence; Louis finishes it. When Louis introduces an idea, Olympia seamlessly concludes it. The two speak as one. And the subject of diabetes screening brings out the passion in both of them.

Louis describes his shock at being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes seven months ago during a routine exam. Like many others diagnosed with the condition, Louis had no symptoms. His mother and three sisters had been diagnosed with diabetes, and he had concluded that only the women in the family were affected. Fortunately, Louis found out he was wrong before the condition damaged his body.

Louis was also surprised by the high incidence of diabetes in seniors. Once he began talking about his diagnosis with friends and colleagues, he confirmed the insidious presence of diabetes in an unexpected number of lives.

Olympia and Louis educated themselves about the different kinds of diabetes. Gestational diabetes mellitus occurs during pregnancy. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease and accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all cases. Individuals with type 1 diabetes must inject themselves with insulin, eat carefully and exercise regularly.

Type 2 diabetes is the more common form and accounts for 90 to 95 percent of the cases. It occurs when the body's processing of insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, starts breaking down. As a consequence, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream and can result in life-threatening complications, including stroke, coma, heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and erectile dysfunction. Persons can also experience difficulty healing wounds, particularly on their feet, and amputations are sometimes a consequence.

The personal toll in terms of individual health problems is one way to measure the impact of diabetes. Another measure is the cost of treatment and care. In 2007, the direct cost of treating diabetes was estimated at $174 billion, and the continuing increase in the incidence of the condition alarms public health officials. According to Dr. Catherine Cowie of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, "We're facing a diabetes epidemic that shows no signs of abating."

Yet with early detection and treatment, serious health consequences can be prevented or delayed.

Louis's diagnosis changed the couple's lives on a personal and professional level. Louis reduced his consumption of pasta and sugar, and the couple recommitted to a daily exercise routine. They also encouraged their children, friends and colleagues to get tested. But their efforts didn't stop there.

Olympia and Louis partnered with Novo Nordisk to launch a national educational program to increase awareness of diabetes, increase utilization of the Medicare diabetes screening benefit among adults 65 and over and encourage physicians to order diabetes testing for their at-risk patients.

Since 2005, Medicare has offered free diabetes screening to members who have any one of five factors:

• Family member with diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Surplus weight
• History of diabetes during pregnancy

Despite the free test, only 10 percent of the Medicare members who are eligible for the screening have taken advantage of the benefit. Given this startling underutilization and the rising incidence of diabetes, Olympia and Louis are trying to increase the number of people who get screened by providing information on the Ask.Screen.Know Web site.

Visitors to the site can learn about their risk for diabetes and prediabetes, see if they are eligible for the free Medicare benefit and access a health record to keep track of their blood sugar numbers. And visitors can send e-mails or voice mails to family members encouraging them to get screened.

Today Olympia and Louis realize more than ever that "our health is the greatest gift we have. Without it, we couldn't keep doing everything we love--acting, cooking, traveling and visiting our grandkids." Through example, Olympia and Louis convey their commitment to helping others manage their own health as well.

I have been a fan of Olympia's for years. But now I have another reason to admire her and Louis. When the couple alerted others about the need for diabetes screening, they also alerted me. After testing, I was surprised to learn that I am prediabetic. Thanks to the heads' up from Olympia and Louis, I learned about my condition before the disease progressed, and I can take steps to prevent complications. Their ongoing contribution to others through their public education program deserves a standing ovation.

Oscar Short List SNUBS Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'

2009-11-19T08:04:53Z

LOS ANGELES — Of the 89 documentary films eligible for Oscar consideration this year, 15 were selected for a short list of potential nominees. And Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" wasn't one of them.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 15 titles Wednesday.

Brad Balfour: Q&A: Actor Woody Harrelson Delivers The Messenger

2009-11-13T15:08:12Z

While actor Woody Harrelson has been characterized as a stoner, he's been no slacker lately, having worked hard on three movies coming out virtually back to back -- films that might help get him beyond his past. From starring in the hit television show Cheers to a film like White Men Can't Jump, Harrelson created such iconic characters that he's had a hard time escaping from them. No matter how well he immerses himself into characters unlike himself, he has struggled to get audiences to see past those cynosures with which he saddled himself.

Through his gonzo character Tallahassee, Harrelson helped propel Zombieland on to be an unexpectedly huge commericial success. The mega-feature 2012 -- which opened this weekend -- is likely to be a sci-fi blockbuster, and though Harrelson only provides a supporting role his character plays a crucial part in moving the story forward.

But it's with The Messenger -- a film also being released this weekend in New York -- that Harrelson tests himself and shines. The 48-year-old former Ohioan plays Captain Tony Stone, a hard-assed soldier who has chosen to deliver death notifications to the families of soldiers killed in Iraq. When it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival early this year, it garnered Oscar buzz even then. That only amplified its powerful message, that we can best understand the sacrifices being made by our troops by seeing it through the eyes of those who have been most affected -- the families of fallen.

Q: These three movies coming out deal with death in one way or another. Did you notice that commonality and what do you think about that?

WH: I hadn't really thought about that commonality until now. I guess that's kind of true. [Zombieland] is not really dealing with death as much as just it's post-apocalyptic and the end is nigh for everybody. I hadn't really thought about that, no.

Q: The end of the world is a death in a way.

WH: Yeah, that's true.

Q: When you deal with films that deal with death, how does that make you think about it, talk about it or accept it?

WH: Well, the most confrontation that I've had with death is when people told me about close people to me passing and it's one of those things, of course I guess that we've all had where it's an impossible task. The person can just deliver the news and get out of the way.

There's nothing more horrible than losing someone you love. Even losing yourself is not as big a deal as losing someone that you love. In the context of this movie, it was really intense because, thanks to Oren [Moverman, the director] as well as Ben [Foster, his young co-star who is his fellow notification officer] -- they really helped make the whole scenario seem real.

It was very emotional for me. [While] I was playing Captain Tony Stone I had to be stoic, but in reality, as soon as they'd say cut, I'd just start bawling. I was so moved by those experiences.

Q: So what sold you on the idea of doing it?

WH: I thought it was one of the more beautiful scripts I'd ever read; really powerful, full of emotion and humor. It was one of those things after meeting with Oren where I thought, "Well this guy is a sharp customer." He was so prepared and just on top of everything. I thought he could make a good movie here, but I didn't expect him to knock it out of the park the way he did. I love it.

Q: You talked to some of the soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital and to a Notification Officer; was it hard talk to them or ask questions about their experiences?

WH: With every person I've met that's done notification--which is quite a number now because there's people I've met since who have seen [the movie] and not just the people I talked to before -- there's no real way to describe it. You're walking in and breaking someone's heart; there are certain protocols that they obviously have in the Army and in the rest of the military, but I don't think there's any easy way to do it.

In this case, they just say, "The Secretary of the Army regrets to inform bop, bop, bop." For all of those guys, it's the hardest job in the Army. Even people in combat or the people I'd met at Walter Reed who've lost their leg, arm or whatever, when I tell them what the movie is about, they go, "Oh, God. I'd much rather go back into combat than do that." Nobody wants that job.

Q: In the context of a million Iraqis who have been killed based on an invasion that was based on lies about weapons of mass destruction, what do you feel about the film? And did you know that there are now more soldiers from there that are killed by suicide than by combat?

WH: I hadn't heard that statistic. Well, my feeling for quite a while was always more concerned with the victims of war. I was getting images because I wasn't just going to the standard press and so I was getting images from the first day of the Bush War II.

I saw all kinds of horrifying images, of children, that nobody in the United States was seeing unless they really went kind of a different route, but people in Europe were seeing them, I think. So I have a great deal of sympathy for them and always thought of the war as the biggest cost being for them. Perhaps that's appropriate.

So It's appropriate to be anti-war or pro-peace, especially when wars are being fought for resources and land. But the big missing piece to my whole philosophy or understanding was to find out what's going on with the soldiers, so having spent time with these soldiers and hearing their stories was really a great thing for me because it really made me start to care for them. Before I had always just lumped them with the war at large.

Now I do support the troops and think that a part of supporting them is not getting behind the concept of having to send them into harm's way for resources, for oil, etc. But I didn't know about that last thing, the suicides. That really makes me sad.

Q: In a way, your character had to set himself aside to deliver the notifications; is this a role where you put aside your beliefs or philosophies to play it?

WH: Definitely. With this film, I can never imagine being a soldier. I never would've have imagined it if I hadn't played this part. I never would've really gotten into the mindset of it and I don't do well with authority. There's a lot of reasons why I think I'd make a lousy soldier, but it's nice to try to fit your mindset into another framework.

I did this movie, Battle in Seattle. I didn't play a protestor, which would've been obvious I think, but I played a cop during the WTO [riot]. That was the backdrop of it, the whole WTO thing in Seattle. I find it intriguing to try and explore the thoughts and mindset of another [kind of] character.

Q: It must have been tough to imagine yourselves in these roles.

WH: There were two types of roles that I always felt I didn't know if I could play them, one being a cop, and the other being a soldier. There's something very interestingly complex about trying to take on a role of a guy who's hard core. The Army's his family, he's a lifer, he's just as gung ho as they get, longs to be in combat. So part of that was intriguing but challenging to a hippie peacenik from Hawaii. Well, I'm from Texas, but I live in Hawaii.

Q: How do you feel about a war movie that's not really a war movie where it has more emotional impact than an out-and-out war movie?

WH: I feel great about it. I think the response that we've had to this movie has been incredible. Also the response by soldiers has been amazing, particularly -- Oren might've told you -- the Vietnam vets who have responded. It's incredible. Tim O'Brien [author of the Vietnam War novel, Going After Cacciato has seen the movie], loved it and had a real emotional response. That's great.

I know that it's going to be a hard movie to sell because people don't want to go see something that at least, on the surface, is so depressing. But I do think that it's actually a very uplifting and hopeful movie in many ways. There's a lot of intense stuff in there but it's one of those things where if you're not prepared to feel something or get emotional then this is definitely not the movie to go see.

Q: What have been some of the reactions of the Vietnam vets?

WH: They really just felt connected, particularly with the notifications, to the families. It brought up a lot of stuff that had maybe been dormant for a while.

Q: Did you go out and see any of the war films along the way, particularly the late director Hal Ashby's films?

WH: I love Hal Ashby [director of such classics as Coming Home, The Last Detail, Harold and Maude]. He's one of my favorite directors, but now, so is Oren. Actually, Oren and I are going to do another movie together, Rampart.

Q: Did you talk to Oren about his experiences as a soldier in the Israeli conflicts?

WH: I think his whole vantage point really helped our character development a lot. He's a guy who's actually been in war theaters, as they call them. I think he's one of the greatest directors I've worked with.

I keep referring to him as a young Hal Ashby and yet he's got his own vision. It's not like he's Hal Ashby but I think his vision, and the way he managed to create a film that is shot very uniquely, as with that nine-minute scene between Ben and Samantha Morton, it's just breathtaking that he was able to shoot this thing the way that he did. I think his own sensibilities coupled with his experience in Israel, or really in Lebanon, that really helped him a lot.

Q: Did that help you in prepare; didn't you only have a week to prepare for the film due to working on another movie, Bunraku, that you were shooting in Bucharest before this?

WH: Yeah. He really helped with that. I had asked him. I was coming in a few days before we started shooting and feeling really at sea and was actually scared to death that I was going to botch this thing. I asked him to give me the background of Tony Stone and he sent a couple of pages that were really helpful, stuff from his past. He also had me go to Bucharest with my Class A's and my fatigues.

So I'm walking around Bucharest in Army clothes, boots, people are looking at me like, "There's an actor who wishes he was in the Army." It was that and he sent me a book called The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien which also helped, and a couple of other books [as well].

So while I was there, even though I was working intently on this other thing, I was thinking, "Okay, there's something, a big focused thing that's coming up." I really wanted to focus early on and then once we got there he took us to Walter Reed and that was just an incredible experience because for me this whole thing has been a journey of the heart and an opening to what's going on with those soldiers.

Q: Has this film change your opinion in any way?

WH: There have been a number of people who've seen it who have talked about the fact that prior to seeing it, they looked at the war more statistically, more in terms of numbers and figures. Particularly in the United States, other than recently with the President, we tend not to really show the cost side of war. It's a good thing that it helps people look at the war that way and maybe have a discussion about it.

Q: What do you hope people will take away from this?

WH: Certainly their Coca-Cola cups and whatever they have in the theater; it's best not to litter.

Q: People are now talking about this as an Oscar-worthy role. How does that make you feel?

WH: I guess it's better that they talk about it than don't but I can't get all emotionally charged about it. I don't think there's any actor who wouldn't want that kind of thing. To me, I'm just happy that the film turned out great and I honestly mean I think I did an okay job.

I don't know that it's award worthy but I do think that Ben did an Oscar-worthy performance. I think his performance in this is so seeringly beautiful and so calculated and perfectly rendered, and I can tell that although I have seen others who've maybe done as good I've never seen anyone more fully commit to any part than him. He just completely immersed himself in the character.

Q: Would it change anything for you if you did win an Oscar because you've been nominated before?

WH: I'm always more interested in what kind of reaction I'll have when I lose. It's easy to be a winner [laughs].

Q: You seem to be making some interesting choices. Battle for Seattle was a great film; Zombieland was a big hit. Did you expect that?

WH: No. I didn't when we made it. I really thought that this was so swinging for the fences but the odds of it were just astronomical. But the first time I saw it was in Orange County with a huge audience, a thousand people and it was like going to a rock concert. It was incredible, the response. Then I thought, 'Yeah, this thing is going to do okay.'

Q: Will that happen with Defendor another genre type of film
WH: It was made for like $2.5 million but it turned out fantastic. The direction was really good but I don't think it's going to have that kind of [reaction]. I don't think it could play like that because it's not a comedy although there is comedy in it. This thing, Zombieland, was just a lot of laughs.

Q: How close is your wacky long-haired doomsaying character in 2012 to the real Woody Harrelson?

WH: I don't think the end of the world is nigh. I do think though, ecologically speaking from what I've gleaned over the last several years of looking into it, that we're pretty much right on target. But I still have hope. I'm kind of hopeful that we're going to survive as a species.

I guess it involves some kind of intense transformation that some people think might be a mental transformation but I'm almost certain that it's a transformation of the heart that needs to take place because it's really about starting to care more about each other and our plight if you will.

Q: More as a person, since you are both an actor and political activist.

WH: I think there are probably some similarities.

Q: Okay. Are you more like Tony Stone or Tallahassee? At least you're not hoping for a zombie plague [laughs].

WH: Well, we had eight years of that.

Q: What would happen if Tallahassee had to do notifications?

WH: Jeez. I don't want to speculate.

Patricia Zohn: Culture Zohn Off the C(H)uff: Roger Corman and His Oscar

2009-11-13T00:07:21Z

The list of Roger Corman protégés is amazingly long and stuffed with goodies of all persuasions.

There are the famous men:

Scorcese (Box Car Bertha); Demme (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), Nicholson (Little Shop of Horrors), Joe Dante (Cockfighter), Francis Coppola (Battle Beyond the Sun), Ron Howard (Grand Theft Auto) Sylvester Stallone (Death Race 2000), Bruce Dern, Robert De Niro (Bloody Mama) Peter Fonda ( The Wild Angels), Peter Bogdanovich (Saint Jack) Curtis Hanson (Sweet Kill) and Jonathan Kaplan (Night Call Nurses) and those are just a few of the guys who wrote to the Motion Picture Academy to advocate for the award that Corman is finally getting this weekend.

Corman with Jonathan Demme.

They said, "it is virtually impossible to separate our various entries into the film industry from Roger Corman and his obsession with working with newcomers."

Or how about the European auteurs whose films might not have been seen in the United States without his advocacy: Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Schlondorff, Truffaut, Wenders?

Or The Intruder, The Wild Angels and The Trip -- three films that took on tough, important, politically charged subjects?

Fonda in "Wild Angels."

Shatner in "The Intruder."

The weight of the world should have been on his shoulders.

But the beauty is: It never was. Instead, he is the unbearable lightness of being a director, producer, actor, mentor. He is the most effervescent of gentlemen, one who has that gene for making it all look easy even though we know how hard he worked, on what a shoestring, how hard he made them work, on an even shorter shoestring, and how they are eternally grateful.

Many of them are talented and one presumes they would have been in the firmament. And yet.

Corman movies had their very own silk-purse-from-sows-ears ethic. And Roger led the way. If he could make Little Shop of Horrors in two days, well, then anything was possible.

Genre, exploitation, first time directors, imports, call them what you will: He was absolutely fearless and seems to have had a good time doing it too.

I lobbed a few quick questions at the honoree:

CZ: You practically invented the lemonade-out-of-lemons school of filmmaking. Directors talk about the famous lunch they have with you before they go to work--apparently once a couple of hours and then about ten minutes, where you gave them speed film school. Would you tell a young filmmaker now to go toward the Internet or would you advise learning how to make movies the old fashioned way?

RC: I believe young filmmakers should learn the basic techniques of filmmaking so that they can adapt them either to motion pictures or to the Internet.

CZ: Women-nurses, teachers, mothers, prisoners, molls and swamp creatures have all been given the traditionally male roles in your films. You have a strong and independent wife and two accomplished daughters. You have also launched the career of a few female directors -- Penelope Spheeris and Katt Shea among others. How is it that women still seem to be so lost in how to make Hollywood work for them rather than the other way around?

RC: Women are fighting against thousands of years of subordination. Their battle is being won but it will not be won quickly or easily.

CZ:Your wife Julie has given the high concept of Roger Corman as conservative meets outrageous. You seem to have made peace with living the life of a gentleman, cherishing school ties, encouraging your children to do well academically with a down and dirty way of getting work done. Wouldn't Freud have had a field day with you? And hey, maybe is there an idea for a new movie in there?

RC: An educated rebel can accomplish more than an uneducated rebel.

CZ: I last heard you were making a film called Dinoshark. What's the status of that? How active are you in producing and are you ever planning to step behind the camera again?

RC: Dinoshark is in the final stages of post production for the SyFy channel. I remain active as a producer but after all these years I would only return to directing if i found a project that truly interested me.

CZ:You are someone who is passionate about liberal politics who has supported the causes you believe in. Is it possible for creative people to still have an impact in a country faced with such pervasive Washington gridlock?

RC: I believe that creative people can have only a slight impact on Washington gridlock but a slight impact is better than none.

The Motion Picture Academy is long overdue in giving Roger an award. I tried to think why this might be. I 'm sure I know. It's because he's a different kind of tentpole -- one that's not just about money but also about the long view. The Academy tends to honor its own, and Roger is not one of its own, but rather our own, a maverick. Someone who has given to audiences -- without constantly looking over his shoulder at what the other guys were doing.

That thing about marching to your own drum? Roger has been marching to his own symphony.

Okay, I'm calling him Roger and so I have to say, Roger's a friend not a colleague and my vantage point is one of friendly fan and not objective journalist.

But to see directors smile and tell their "how I got my start with Roger" stories is a genre unto itself: basically, you take the ball, or whatever thing is the room at that very moment, or the set or location that was left over from yesterday and you go!

Ron Howard calls him a businessman and audience advocate. He says Roger's thrill came from how far he could stretch a production dollar.

Shooting 10 days or 18 days, can you make it happen? Can you find a formula that makes sense but still keeps it fresh? Can you put real people in a movie beside actors and make it work? Can you work backwards from the last scene of a shooting script because the light is better? Can you go non-union? Can you write, produce, direct and act in the same film? Can you do it for a price?

Robert Towne once apparently said to Roger, "Making a film is not like a track meet, it's not how fast you go."

But maybe it is. Because clearly we see that sometimes taking your time and fretting and adding layers of stuff you don't need doesn't work either. Restriction breeds creativity.

I would like to get a PhD in the Corman women and I'm sure somebody has. Roger, who has a fiercely independent wife and two talented daughters, has delved into the psyches of teachers, nurses, molls, swamp creatures and big bad blood crazy mamas. They should seem exploited. Instead, they rock! Mothers who say things like "A mother still got some rights in this country," and a voice over narrator who says, "Enter the female jungle where bodies behind bars ache with hunger for a man, any man," and just about every iteration of the female condition in between.

Gale Anne Hurd says she was shocked when she left the University of Corman and found out that the rest of Hollywood did not champion women in quite the same way.

And it's not just behind the camera. Actresses too found something they could sink their teeth into: Jane Asher (Masque of the Red Death), Nancy Sinatra (Wild Angels), Shelley Winters (Bloody Mama), Charlotte Rampling (Target: Harry).

Roger is legendary for his penny pinching, for his generosity, for his martinis, for his courtly manner, for his sense of humor, for his ability to vamp.

The model for filmmaking that we have today in Hollywood is working for only very few films. Certainly it is not bringing new young people with fresh ideas into the business. And in the down economy, it's getting even worse.

Is there no one out there who can be the Roger Corman of today -- for the next generation, for posterity?

Hey Roger?!

Diane Tucker: Women-Made Films Mostly Ignored by the National Film Registry. Why?

2009-11-09T12:27:35Z

Of the 500 films archived in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress, less than two dozen were directed by women. As I bemoaned this shameful statistic to everyone within earshot, my colleagues reminded me that very few women have ever written or directed a major Hollywood movie. They're right, of course.

The situation for women who want to make movies is grim. Despite the fact that film schools graduate as many women as men, just 4% of Hollywood directors are women. That's roughly the same minuscule percentage of women archived in the National Film Registry. (You can help change that by voting below.)

The movie business "is absolutely consistently more difficult for women from beginning to the end," said Debra Zimmerman, executive director of the nonprofit organization Women Make Movies.

How difficult? Did you know that a woman has never won the Oscar for best directing? Maybe more to the point, only three have ever been nominated: Lena Wertmuller for 1975's Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for 1993's The Piano, and Sofia Coppola for 2003's Lost in Translation.

"It always comes back to male being treated as the default state of humanity, and female a deviation therefrom. This creates a culture in which men's stories are considered human stories to which everyone is expected to relate, while women's stories are considered an inferior subset," said cultural anthropologist Melissa McEwan, who writes about the political marginalization of gender-based groups on the Web site Shakesville.

When a woman's story is dismissed as "less than," it makes women "others" and makes them seem mysterious to men, explained McEwan. "This underwrites the justification for ignoring women's stories on the ground they are inaccessible and uninteresting to men."

The majority of women directors today are indie, arthouse, or experimental filmmakers -- a creative bunch, however, the statistic also suggests women are being denied access to financial backing. Filmmaker Cristina Cassidy told The Huffington Post, "I honestly believe my current film would have gotten backing in a snap if I was a guy. I know that sounds like sour grapes, but it's true."

Even Nora Ephron, the writer-director (and fellow HuffPost blogger) whose hit movies include Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, has difficulty getting studios to greenlight her screenplays. "I always think every movie should begin with a logo that says, for example, Warner Bros. did everything in its power to keep from making this movie," scoffed Ephron.

It's a self-reinforcing cycle that results in women-centered films being branded genre films, McEwan told The Huffington Post. "Nora Ephron makes 'chick flicks,' but Michael Bay doesn't make 'dick flicks,' he just makes movies."

Hollywood is still an old boys' club. But does the National Film Registry have to be? Maybe not, because you can nominate films for inclusion. The Washington D.C. chapter of Women In Film & Video (disclosure: I am a member) has nominated the following women-made films to the Registry in 2009:

-- The Big House (1930), written by Frances Marion

-- New Sensations in Sound (1949), animated and produced by Mary Ellen Bute

-- Growing Up Female (1971), written and directed by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein

-- Will (1981), produced by Jessie Maple

-- Big (1988), directed by Penny Marshall

Clockwise from upper left: Penny Marshall, Jessie Maple, Mary Ellen Bute, Frances Marion
(Not pictured: Julia Reichert)

Why these women?

Frances Marion was the first woman to win the Oscar for an original screenplay, and is still the only screenwriter (male or female) to win back-to-back Oscars in this category. She is often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the 20th century.

Mary Ellen Bute was a pioneer in the use of abstract animation to "show" sound. Her short film New Sensations in Sound predates Disney's Fantasia, yet it is rarely seen today.

Julia Reichert's Growing Up Female is considered the first film of the modern women's movement. It's a vital resource for young women who have no idea how much has changed for women in just one generation. Since feminist films are not yet represented in the Registry, this movie would be the first one.

Jessie Maple is included in nearly every who's who of film except the Registry. Will is the first post civil rights feature-length film produced by an African-American woman. (Hollywood guilds are more than 80% white.) Maple's film received the Special Merit Award at the Athens International Film Festival.

Penny Marshall is the first woman to direct a film that earned in excess of $100 million at the U.S. box office. The film, Big, also received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay and gave Tom Hanks his first Oscar nomination. Marshall's long career as a producer, director, and actress deserves recognition by the Registry.

Vote today to include more women in the National Film Registry

The Registry has been charged with illustrating the vibrant diversity of American filmmaking, but how can they possibly achieve this goal if the stories they archive are almost exclusively told from a man's point of view?

To nominate the work of Frances Marion, Mary Ellen Bute, Julia Reichert, Jessie Maple, and Penny Marshall to the National Film Registry, click here through November 20, 2009.

Please do vote. (You, too, fellas!) The number of public votes a film receives is a factor seriously weighed during the selection process by the Librarian of Congress and members of the National Film Preservation Board.

Hollywood billboard courtesy of the Guerrilla Girls in 2006.

Snuffleupagus Google Doodle Next In Sesame Street Anniversary Celebration? (PHOTOS)

2009-11-06T14:28:20Z

Google's Doodle has been on a Sesame Street spree!

First Big Bird's yellow legs were pictured in place of the Google "L". Next, Cookie Monster came along and devoured the Google "O's". Then, Bert and Ernie, two more classic characters from the children's show Sesame Street, were front and center on the Google site. (see screenshots below)

Google is featuring these Sesame Street characters in honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, which will be celebrated on November 10.

Which character do you think will be next? Could it be Snuffleupagus, the wide-eyed woolly mammoth? Tell us below!

See the screenshot below of Google's Big Bird doodle:

Here's Google's other Sesame Street Doodle of Cookie Monster:

And here's Google's Bert and Ernie doodle:

Follow HuffPostTech On Facebook And Twitter!

Oscar The Grouch Google Doodle Celebrates Sesame Street Anniversary (PHOTOS)

2009-11-06T14:26:48Z

Google's Doodle has been on a Sesame Street spree!

First Big Bird's yellow legs were pictured in place of the Google "L". Next, Cookie Monster came along and devoured the Google "O's". Then, Bert and Ernie, two more classic characters from the children's show Sesame Street, were front and center on the Google site. (see screenshots below)

Google is featuring these Sesame Street characters in honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, which will be celebrated on November 10.

Oscar The Grouch is the latest character to grace the Google page. (see screenshot below)

See the screenshot of Google's Big Bird doodle:

Here's Google's other Sesame Street Doodle of Cookie Monster:

And here's Google's Bert and Ernie doodle:

Which character do you hope to see next?

Follow HuffPostTech On Facebook And Twitter!

Grover Google Doodle Next In Sesame Street Celebration? (PHOTOS)

2009-11-06T14:15:46Z

Google's Doodle has been on a Sesame Street spree!

First Big Bird's yellow legs were pictured in place of the Google "L". Next, Cookie Monster came along and devoured the Google "O's". Then, Bert and Ernie, two more classic characters from the children's show Sesame Street, were front and center on the Google site. (see screenshots below)

Google is featuring these Sesame Street characters in honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, which will be celebrated on November 10.

Which character do you think will be next? Could it be Grover, the valiant blue monster? Tell us below!

See the screenshot below of Google's Big Bird doodle:

Here's Google's other Sesame Street Doodle of Cookie Monster:

And here's Google's Bert and Ernie doodle:

Follow HuffPostTech On Facebook And Twitter!

Bert And Ernie Google Doodle Celebrates Sesame Street Anniversary (PHOTOS)

2009-11-06T07:24:50Z

Why are Bert and Ernie on Google's Doodle?

Google's Doodle has looked a bit different the past few days: First Big Bird's yellow legs were pictured in place of the Google "L". Then Cookie Monster came along and devoured the Google "O's".

Now Bert and Bernie, two more classic characters from the children's show Sesame Street, are front and center on the Google site. (see screenshot below)

Google is featuring these Sesame Street characters in honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary.

See the screenshot below of Google's Big Bird doodle:

Here's Google's other Sesame Street Doodle of Cookie Monster:

Which character would you like to see next? Tell us below!

Cookie Monster Google Doodle Celebrates Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

2009-11-05T08:41:48Z

The Cookie Monster, from the children's television show Sesame Street, has taken over Google's Doodle!

Yesterday, Google's Doodle featured Big Bird, another Sesame Street character, on the search engine's page.

Today, Cookie Monster is up on the site, pictured devouring the cookie letters spelling out "Google," his eyes in the place of Google's two "O's".

See a screenshot below:

Here's the Big Bird Google Doodle that was up yesterday:

Watch the Cookie Monster sing about words that rhyme with "oogle" in the video below!

WATCH:

Sesame Street On Google: Wallace And Gromit Star In UK Doodle (PHOTOS)

2009-11-04T12:48:01Z

As we wrote here, Google featured a new Doodle celebrating Sesame Street's 40th birthday: instead of Google's normal lettering, the site featured Sesame Street's Big Bird character front and center, with Big Bird's legs in place of Google's "L."

It turns out that the British Google featured a different Doodle altogether (see screenshot below).

The UK Google Doodle celebrates the 20th anniversary of the cartoon Wallace and Gromit.

Wallace, an absent-minded, cheese-loving inventor, is shown in the Google Doodle sharing tea with his intelligent and capable dog Gromit. The characters were created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations.

See the screenshot below of Google's Big Bird, Sesame-Street-themed doodle:

Follow HuffPostTech On Facebook And Twitter!

Andy Borowitz: Maine Bans Same-Sex Oscar Hosts

2009-11-04T12:45:20Z

AUGUSTA (The Borowitz Report) - Voters in Maine turned out in record numbers yesterday to repeal a law legalizing same-sex Oscar hosts, throwing the plans for this year's Academy Awards into turmoil.

By banning the hosting of Hollywood's biggest night by same-sex couples, Maine made it illegal for this year's Oscar telecast, helmed by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, to be shown in the state.

"We believe that the hosting of the Academy Awards by a same-sex couple would destroy the sanctity of Oscar hosting," said Carol Foyler, a key activist who worked to repeal the Maine law. "If Baldwin and Martin are allowed to do this, who will host the Oscars next year -- a man and a horse?"

In other election news, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg relished his election to a third term, calling New York "the greatest city money can buy." More here.

Big Bird Google Doodle Celebrates Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary (UPDATED, PHOTO, VIDEO)

2009-11-04T07:30:46Z

Google's doodle looks a bit different: instead of the regular primary-colored G-O-O-G-L-E, Big Bird, the giant yellow bird character from the children's television show Sesame Street, is featured front and center.

See the screenshot below of Google's Big Bird doodle:

Why the switch? Sesame Street, brought to you by Sesame Workshop, is celebrating its 40th anniversary!

UPDATED: It turns out that the British Google featured a different Doodle altogether (see screenshot below).

Big Bird's Google Doodle was followed by a Cookie Monster Doodle, and a Bert and Ernie Doodle. See screenshots below and read more about these Sesame Street Doodles here and here.

The UK Google Doodle celebrates the 20th anniversary of the cartoon Wallace and Gromit. Read more about it here.

Celebrate Big Bird's birthday by watching some of the Sesame Street classics below:
WATCH:

WATCH:

Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin To Co-Host Oscars

2009-11-03T19:49:28Z

LOS ANGELES — Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are taking on the Oscars.

The two Hollywood veterans will share hosting duties at the 82nd Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday.

John Farr: The Alarming Decline Of Expressive Language, In Life and On Film

2009-11-02T19:29:25Z

A month ago I attended a Parents’ Day conference at one of our kids’ private high schools. A history teacher set to retire after 45 years of service was musing on reading the old student literary journals from the forties and fifties. Asked whether by comparison he noticed an erosion in writing skills in the history papers he grades today, he answered “Yes”- vehemently and without hesitation- while also mentioning a decline in expressive language skills in the classroom.

There seems little doubt that even as today’s high school and college students are pushed harder in a highly competitive academic environment, they cannot write an essay or use descriptive language nearly as fluently as their parents and grandparents could.

I suppose we shouldn’t be that surprised. We live in an instant messaging world, where we’re encouraged to use as few words and symbols possible to get our basic message across. Hence, it’s “CUL8R”. At the same time, we’re so overloaded with various "pop-up images" everywhere we go that inevitably our concentration and sequential reasoning are affected.

Some of us old-timers may still find time to read and write descriptively, but are our kids following suit? I think not, or certainly, not enough.

Of course, our popular entertainment reflects this same phenomenon, movies included. As some of you know, I watch a succession of very different films all the time, but two I just screened back to back seem particularly relevant to this topic.

The first feature was Marcel Carne’s Le Jour Se Leve from 1939, new to DVD via Janus’s nifty “Essential Art House” series, the second a contemporary indie romance, Medicine For Melancholy (2008), which The Times’s A.O. Scott called “an exciting debut” for director Barry Jenkins.

A tragic tale of a young working class couple and the sordid character that comes back to haunt them, “Jour” remains poetry that touches all the senses - one of the seminal pre-war French pictures. I readily admit it’s a bit unfair to compare it to the humble Medicine, which, with apologies to Mr. Scott, is about as exciting as an enema. But I do it to make a point.

What struck me in the two films was the use of language, or lack thereof. The dialogue in “Jour” positively sings, even with its uneducated protagonists, while the couple in Medicine seem to speak very little, and when they do, they have very little interesting to say. Not the ideal ingredients for a memorable film, right?

In general, big budget offerings from mainstream Hollywood are even more script-challenged than their humble indie counterparts.

Yesterday, I walked in on our youngest boy watching Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx in Any Given Sunday (1999). As I listened to Al reciting his hackneyed lines, I detected a certain absence, a deadness behind his pupils. Because - I surmise - Pacino, the old pro, has done some very good scripts over his forty years in the business. This however is not one of them, and he knows it.

And though my son’s attention is momentarily diverted- the movie is easy for a fifteen year old kid to watch- what is he actually getting out of it? His eyes look dull too, as if he knows that he’s not watching something that will stay with him as our best movies do. It’s just slick filler to help pass a lazy day.

This leads me to believe, perhaps naively, that “bigger, faster, louder” won’t cut it for very long. The century-old history of this medium reveals that most truly enduring films are not only cast and shot effectively, but are also cleverly constructed and written.

One of the principal reasons I love to promote older classic films is that they remind us just how entertaining and rewarding really smart scripts with snappy dialogue can be. In the back of my mind burns the hope that somehow, the thoughtful public will crave this sort of quality again. At the very least, they should know where to go looking for it.

By the way, these films don’t all fall into the category of starchy historical dramas, or those more lofty literary adaptations. We’re talking crime stories, comedies, and romances here!

Here are just a few of my favorite vintage titles featuring solid gold scripts that exploit our language in magical ways to achieve their desired effect:

The Informer (1935)- During the Sinn Fein rebellion of 1922, hard-luck Dubliner and IRA reject Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaglen) gets into hot water when he informs on his best friend Frankie McPhillip (Wallace Ford), a fugitive from the British "Black and Tans" who winds up with a bullet in his head. Gypo had sought the 20-pound bounty so he could embark on a better life with his prostitute girlfriend, but the rebels aren't about to let him walk away clean. This blistering adaptation of Liam O'Flaherty's novel by John Ford features a searing turn by McLaglen, who plays the barrel-chested Irish boozer and Troubles-era traitor with gut-wrenching pathos, especially when he delivers his last line. A labor of love for Ford, outfitted with Joseph August's atmospheric evocation of foggy Dublin and a superb score by Oscar winner Max Steiner, "Informer" is the kind of full-blooded political drama we rarely get to enjoy today. And McLaglen's turn as the desperate, deeply remorseful brute makes the tragic story of betrayal and redemption even more worthy of struggle. (Writer: Dudley Nichols, who won an Oscar.)

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)- John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is a successful director of Hollywood fluff who decides he wants to make a serious picture about "real world" suffering. Disguising himself as a tramp, the earnest but naive Sullivan hits the road with a ridiculous entourage provided by his cynical studio bosses. Eventually, he meets a down-on-her-luck actress (Veronica Lake) and learns the hard way how poverty dampens, but doesn't extinguish, the human spirit. Widely considered the greatest of writer/director Preston Sturges's classic 1940s films, "Travels" is a stunning hybrid, blending giddy slapstick and razor-sharp humor with grim, unblinking social realism. McCrea and Lake make a fun pair, comically and romantically, while Robert Greig is a hoot as Sullivan's droll butler. It's hard to imagine anyone but Sturges concocting this incisively scripted, beautifully directed Hollywood satire, which ultimately has a lot to say about the restorative power of laughter.

Double Indemnity (1944)- Gorgeous schemer Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) enlists a besotted insurance salesman, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), to draw up a life-insurance policy on her husband without his knowledge - and then kill him. The murder goes as planned, but the two lovers lose faith in each other's motives when they face suspicious claims investigator Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), whose queries trigger a fatal game of cat and mouse. One of the quintessential noir films, Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" is a masterpiece of stark atmosphere and carefully stylized suspense. The talented Stanwyck, a familiar face in the 1940s noir universe, assumes her role with feline deviousness, while MacMurray - narrating the film via flashback - brilliantly plays against type. Raymond Chandler's screenplay sizzles with hard-boiled repartee and the great Edward G. Robinson is aces as always as the dogged investigator hot on the lovers' trail. Sinister, tense, and cynical, Wilder's "Indemnity" is riveting film suspense.

The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)- Fred Dobbs, Bob Curtin and an old-timer named Howard, three motley down-and-outers in Mexico (Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston, respectively), pool their meager resources and set off to search for gold. When they find some, they must decide how best to protect it-from thieves and each other- and thus the seeds of distrust and madness are sown. This potent feature helmed by the gifted John Huston delivers savage human drama in a thinking man’s adventure film. Containing suspense, action and humor (thanks to Walter Huston’s salty old coot) ultimately "Treasure" delivers a striking meditation on the destructive nature of greed. Widely considered one of Bogie’s best films, director Huston walked away with Oscars for direction and screenplay, while dad Walter also won a statuette for his indelible, career-capping performance as the cackling Howard. One of the all-time greats.

All About Eve (1950)- Joseph L. Mankiewicz's peak as writer/director concerns aging stage actress Margo Channing (Bette Davis), wise in the ways of fame and the theatre, who's nevertheless blindsided by an adoring fan named Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). Eve enters Margo's orbit as awed acolyte, then slowly usurps everything Margo has in one subtle, masterful act of manipulation. Don’t miss this sharp, caustic take on the theatre world, and the wide assortment of parasites, barracudas, and hangers-on that populate it. Eve is the wolf in sheep's clothing, a comer with just enough talent and cunning to penetrate Margo's inner circle and catch her when she's vulnerable and feeling her age. Davis gives the best performance of her long career, and young Baxter is outstanding. Oscar winning George Sanders also impresses mightily as jaded critic Addison De Witt, the only soul wise enough to see what Eve is up to. On his arm in one key scene is Marilyn Monroe, in a minor bit as a vacuous but decorative chorus girl. Mankiewicz took home directing and screenwriting Oscars that year, and “Eve” also won Best Picture. What a show!

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)- Desperate to promote one of his clients, slimy press flack Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) turns to the most powerful man he knows: acid-tongued gossip columnist JJ Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), who can make or break anyone in New York. Falco gets what he needs from Hunsecker, but then is maneuvered to help ruin a mild-mannered jazz trumpeter (Martin Milner) with eyes for the poison-pen scribe's younger sister (Susan Harrison).Turning from his comedic work at Britain's Ealing Studios to direct this noirish, all-American masterpiece about greed, ambition, and the perversity of power, Alexander Mackendrick relied on estimable playwright Clifford Odets and writer Ernest Lehman for their scripting talent. What resulted was one of the most cynical, caustic films ever made about the sleazy underbelly of Manhattan show business, featuring blistering performances from Lancaster and a young Curtis in his prime. "I love this dirty town," proclaims the Walter Winchell-esque Hunsecker, and you never once doubt him. Sinister, tawdry, and burnished with a tone-perfect jazz score by Elmer Bernstein, "Success" was never this twisted.

Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1963)-In this satirical doomsday thriller, a U.S. bomber piloted by Major Kong (Slim Pickens) receives a signal to release its nuclear payload on Russia. When the unfortunate Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) seeks out Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) to learn why he ordered the drop, and why he's placed his Air Force base on lockdown, it's quickly evident the general has lost his marbles. Meanwhile, President Muffley (Sellers again) meets with senior advisers, including a hawkish general (George C. Scott) and the oddly sinister nuclear scientist Dr. Strangelove (Sellers), to review their limited options to save the planet. The most inspired piece of Cold War satire ever and one of the screen's supreme black comedies, Stanley Kubrick's 1964 "Strangelove" confronted jittery audiences in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and not long after the advent of the H bomb. With Kubrick's twisted genius as director and screenwriter in full bloom, and peerless performances by Peter Sellers (in three roles), Scott, and the unhinged Hayden, the film is unbearably funny and extremely disturbing all at once. (Kubrick and co-writers Peter George and Terry Southern were Oscar-nominated, but lost to that year’s “Becket”, in retrospect a bad call.)

Network (1976)- Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) is a type A network television executive who rides the wave of an unfolding ratings sensation broadcasting deranged televangelist Howard Beale (Peter Finch, in his final performance). Beale hits a chord with disillusioned Americans, urging them to chant his mantra: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore." But the Beale phenomenon may not last, as Howard's ever more bizarre rantings signal an emotional breakdown in the making. Sidney Lumet's devastating, disturbing satire of the modern broadcast age (written by Paddy Chayefsky) still has a lot to say thirty years after release. Beyond portraying a business that bypasses quality in single-minded pursuit of the dollar, television serves as metaphor for a society mired in sensationalism and greed. Dunaway is commanding in a caffeinated performance as ruthless Diana, Holden unusually affecting as a washed-up veteran of TV's glory days, and Finch a revelation as the unbalanced Beale, winning a posthumous Oscar for his work. (Incidentally, Faye won too.)

For over 2,000 more outstanding DVD titles, visit www.bestmoviesbyfarr.com.

To watch John's videos, go to www.reel13.org.

Tom Matlack: Scott Hicks on Manhood

2009-10-15T13:27:05Z

The Good Men Project, a foundation whose mission is to spark a national conversation about manhood and help at-risk boys, hosted a Boston premier of The Boys are Back. I held a question and answer session about fatherhood afterwards. I caught up with director Scott Hicks by phone to compare notes on manhood. Hicks was twice nominated for the Academy Awards, for writing and directing the movie Shine.

****

TM: At the Good Men Project we have ten questions we ask men--authors, athletes, scientists, and so forth--about manhood. I want to pose those questions to Joe, Clive Owens' character in the movie.

So the first question is, how do you imagine Joe learned about manhood? Who in his life taught him about manhood?

SH: I have no idea how to answer that in relation to Simon Carr, who wrote the book, whose memoir the film is based on. And it's intriguing to me that Clive Owen responded so strongly to the material. Partly because of his own deep engagement as a father with his daughters but also because Clive grew up without his father.

TM: The second question we ask is, how has romantic love shaped you as a man? How did romantic love shape Joe as a man?

SH: I'd say it's been a very strong force. He describes how the relationship with Harry's mother, his older son's mother, was great to begin with. But they obviously battled a great deal as well. In the end, he says, he was no match for her in combat.

TM But then he meets someone else?

SH: Yes, he then forms a romantic attachment to this woman that he meets in the course of his work. She becomes pregnant, and he follows her back to Australia, leaving behind his son and his now former wife. So his direction has been hugely shaped by romantic love and to the detriment of his relationship with his son, who appears very wounded and obviously filled with abandonment issues.

TM: What's your sense of him as a man?

SH: It's interesting to speculate on Joe as a character. You might wonder was he, in some way, abandoned as a child? The only clue you get is when he's at the school with his eldest son near the end, and he says, "God, I hated this place." And his son says, "I never knew. Your name's on every board." Joe says, "It was awful here then." Then Harry says, "Well, it's awful here now." And Joe asks, "Is it?" He's completely disconnected from Harry's experience, but he obviously has a profoundly separated or negative experience growing up as a boy at that school himself.

TM: Is any of this ring true to your life?

SH: The English way of bringing up boys has always been a mystery to me. And this is personal now.

My father was born in Burma. At the age of three he was sent away, for his own good, up into the hills to live with nannies. At the age of seven, he was sent to England for seven years to go to school. And he boarded with his sisters with some distant relatives. So my father never saw his mother again until just before she died, when he was doing his final exams as an engineer.

TM: That's crazy.

SH: I was born in Uganda. At the age of six, when we were living in Kenya, I was sent to boarding school. The boarding school was right next door to my house, but I still never got to see my parents--even though, I think, my father had deep-seated issues about his own childhood, about understanding it was all for his "own good." I look back on my childhood, and I just wonder about the choices that were made.

TM: In your film and in our Project, one of the things that we're all about is conversation between fathers and sons. There's this alienation; there's this silence. For me, the turning point in the movie was when Harry took Joe on and just said flat out, "You don't know me."

SH: That's a critical moment.

TM: That was the moment where everything changed, and it was really based on the courage of the son.

SH: Yes. It stopped Joe in his tracks. In the next scene, Joe is staring in the mirror at himself. In other words, Harry forces Joe to look at himself. And Joe looks in the mirror and says, "I must have been awful to live with sometimes." That's the first time he really comes to grips with the fact that he has handled everything shockingly badly.

TM: In our book and in our film, we have collections of stories, first-person, real stories. The idea is that by allowing men to hear other men's stories, you get them to look in the mirror. It's that simple.

Let me try a couple more of questions about Joe. We have one other kind of trick question: How do you think the women in Joe's life would describe him, and is it accurate?

SH: That's a really good one.

TM: We think that women and men sometimes see things differently.

SH: Well, yeah. Laura, the girl he gets to know, finally cracks and says, "You drink too much and you live like a pig. And..."

TM: By the way, I've heard that before.

SH: Joe is, in fact, a little proud of that. When his boy arrives at the house for the first time, and he says, "I run a pretty loose ship," he's not apologizing. He's kind of proud of it. It's pretty unruly around here, he's saying, with a boastful sort of edge.

So, when Laura says, "You live like a pig," well, that's the reading. And objectively, you have to say it was true.

The grandmother says, "You're not fit to be his father." And I think that's untrue. But, in fairness to her, that comes from another place. It comes from her own grief and loss of her daughter.

And then his wife, Katie. The first time she appears in his mind after her death, she says, "Pick him up. Give him a cuddle when the kid is having a fit." And Joe says, "You don't cuddle people when they're having a fit, do you?" She says, "You're vile." And he says, "True."

Joe accepts that women are going to see him like this. And he's quite proud of that image in a way.

TM: What advice do you think Joe would give teenage boys trying to figure out what it means to be a good man?

SH: Joe is not frightened to say sorry for his behavior or how he's acted. The film has had some wonderful reviews; it's had some excoriating ones as well. In the paper this morning it said, if you want to watch a grand man saying sorry to a couple of brats for a couple of hours, you should go and see this movie.

I think, wow, is this someone who has not raised kids? I've been a father since I was 18, and I've found being a father is a succession of mistakes you make. You try to do good; you try to do the right thing, but you blunder. And then you learn, and you try to get better.

I think Joe is never afraid to say sorry. It doesn't undermine your authority or your position. If anything, I think, it increases it. It validates it some way.

That review sort of shocked me, because I think there are men--many, many men out there--who have no idea about how a relationship should be with a child.

TM: I agree.

SH: The writer of this review makes specific reference to Harry's explosion, when he throws the dishes on the floor, because he's so frustrated by Joe's bullying sort of behavior. And then the reviewer goes on to comment incredulously about how Joe apologizes to Harry.

TM: I think that was a very well-done scene.

SH: Joe should apologize, shouldn't he? Because he set it in motion. And Harry's response is completely inappropriate, but it's the only way he knows how to lash out.

TM: When was the last time you, Scott, cried?

SH: I have to credit my wife with teaching me how to cry. My boarding school years, from six to thirteen, taught me I was on my own and never to reveal my emotions to other people, because they would only take advantage of it. When I started living with my wife, I was 17, going on 18, and she really had to teach me how to open up emotionally. I haven't had any trouble really since then. Butno, there's no specific event that made me cry. Usually it comes as an accumulation of several stresses, or the frustration of existence sometimes.

TM: What is your most cherished guy ritual?

SH My youngest son is 26. He's a musician, so he has this whole own world. But I love that he will share with me things that are really important to him in the way of music or the things he's reading. He reads a lot, and he loves to unload, sort of download, all this stuff that he's processing in his own mind. Sometimes it'll come at an inopportune time, like when I think I'm busy. So I have to stop myself and think, what's more important: this stuff that I'm doing, or stopping and listening to him, talking with him for half an hour? Talking with him always is going to be more rewarding, I've found out.

TM= Tom Matlack, co-founder of THE GOOD MEN PROJECT
SH = Scott Hicks, twice Oscar-nominated director of THE BOYS ARE BACK

Robert Fuller: Why Do We Want to Be Famous?

2009-10-06T12:35:00Z

I'm gonna live forever.
I'm gonna learn how to fly - high!
I feel it comin' together.
People will see me and die. Fame!

I'm gonna make it to Heaven.
Light up the sky like a flame; fame!
I'm gonna live forever.
Baby, remember my name.
- From the musical Fame

I hope to persuade you that the seemingly frivolous title question holds a secret with the power to reshape human relations. That a wish for fame belies the existence of a crippling, undiagnosed malady, one rather like malnutrition, except that it's a disease of the self, not the body. Let me explain.

In a world that sees people as Somebodies and Nobodies, indignities abound. The primary source of man-made indignity is rankism. By analogy with racism and sexism, rankism is defined as what somebodies do to nobodies. To be sure, not all somebodies abuse their power advantage. We've all known somebodies who are devoted to serving others and wouldn't think of abusing their rank, just as prior to the civil rights and women's movements there were whites who weren't racist and men who weren't sexist. On the other hand, most of us, even quasi-somebodies, have gotten a taste of the indignities routinely visited upon those taken for nobodies.

Rankism is now appearing on the radar screen. To do so, it needed a name, and at last it has one. (If it's new to you, google "rankism" and see where the meme is taking hold.) But, many victims of rankism are still in the position of women before the word "sexism" elbowed its way into the language. Rankism's victims know that the indignities to which they are subjected are unjustified, but as yet they have few tools with which to resist their tormentors.

So long as rank-based abuse is regarded as business-as-usual, humiliation and indignity will remain unchecked. There are two ways to deal with this. We can either follow the example of identity politics and de-legitimize rankism (as the civil rights and women's movements have de-legitimized racism and sexism, and as the gay and disability movements are doing to overcome homophobia and ableism). Or, we can attempt to acquire enough power to place ourselves squarely in the Somebody camp and so enjoy the relative security that status provides in a society saturated with rankism. Everyone knows that it's imprudent to indignify a somebody. Who hasn't fantasized getting even with those who put us down when we were vulnerable by shoving our Oscar, Emmy, MVP award, Pulitzer, Nobel, or simply our promotion, in their faces? Accrue enough fame in life and you may even attain immortality and, in the words of the song, "live forever."

It should be noted that avoiding rankism by seeking status and fame is the same strategem employed by victims of identity groups who sought to blend into the dominant group. Passing as a somebody is like passing as a white or a straight. Until we can dismantle rankism, this is an understandable recourse for sidestepping its cruel injustice.

Dignity assures belonging. It's more than respect or courtesy. To live in dignity affirms, nurtures, and protects. Dignity is the social counterpart of interpersonal love. In the West Side Story ballad Somewhere, when the lovers sing "There's a place for us," they are claiming a right to the dignity of inclusion. Contrariwise, in her famous "nobody" poem, Emily Dickinson captures the indignity of exclusion:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
The there's a pair of us--don't tell.
They'd banish us, you know.

Nobodies are marginalized to the point of invisibility. Since humans are social creatures, banishment carries a threat of being deprived of social and material resources critical to health and happiness, and sometimes to survival itself. No wonder we're so sensitive to indignity. It poses an existential threat.

Fame promises an escape from whatever ghetto we're in, real or imagined. It deters detractors and may even squeeze a few crumbs of recognition from those who have begrudged us a smile while we were clawing our way out of Nobodyland. It's no coincidence that Oscar-winners enjoy better health and longer lives than runners-up.

Like liberty, we're often unaware of dignity until we lose it. A hint of disrespect may be a test of our resistance to subservience, or a reminder of our place in the hierarchy. A slight is often a precursor to pigeon-holing us as a nobody.

When strangers ply us with questions like "And you are?", "Who are you with?", or "Where did you go to school?" they are likely sizing up our power as belied by our affiliations.

The more recognition we can amass, the less likely it is that anyone will dare to nobody us. Fame is a bulwark against indignity. It proclaims our worth to anyone tempted to put us down and threatens retaliation if they persist. It even helps to quiet the critical voices we have internalized--of parents, classmates, and teachers--that echo in our heads long after these naysayers are gone.

The Miasma of Malrecognition

But alas, as everyone knows, there is not much room on the Red Carpet. Acquiring fame is like winning the lottery: many are called; few are chosen.

What then can we do until the dignity movement has garnered the support to put rankism in the doghouse with the other ignoble isms? Fortunately, there is an antidote to indignity more accessible than fame. It is called recognition. We gain recognition through the contributions we make to others and from their acknowledgment. These contributions need not be Oscar-worthy to gain us the dignity we need to thrive. In fact, they can be quite humble in conventional terms. But they must be accurately understood and acknowledged by all involved.

Genuine recognition must be differentiated from both false and inflated praise. The self-esteem movement fell into disrepute because the respect it offered was often disingenuous and exaggerated. What is required instead is a precise understanding and appreciation of each person's role, and the contributions he or she makes to others. These contributions can be anything into which time, effort, and care have been put--a home, a theory, a dance, a business, a garden, a pie, a blog, any job well done.

Children sense insincerity in exaggerated praise, and soon learn to discount it. The extreme adulation visited upon celebrities and superstars can be deadly. Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Di, and Michael Jackson were first lionized and then destroyed by their responses to celebrity. The situation is reminiscent of the grotesque distortion that ordinary bees impose on their queen by force-feeding her royal jelly.

Recognition is to the self what food is to the body. And like food, too little or too much can be harmful. We must understand the effects on those who suffer from either a deficit or a surfeit of recognition and take steps to avoid malrecognition, much as we now guard against malnutrition. Seeking fame to preempt indignity and heal the wounds of malrecognition is like overeating to protect against malnutrition.

Rankism and its counterpart--the miasma of malrecognition--lie at the source of much of the social dysfunction that now vexes human societies worldwide. Effective policies to overcome school failure, poverty, chronic disease, criminality, discrimination against women, terrorism, and war require a redistribution of recognition and the de-legitimization of rankism.

In a subsequent post, I will describe a dignitarian society, one in which rankism has lost its bite, dignity is secure, and, although some people are better known than others, we seek salvation not via the vain pursuit of fame, but through service.

eSarcasm: Best & Brightest: The eSarc 50

2009-09-22T20:55:31Z

The film industry has the Oscars. TV has the Emmys. In high tech, the closest you generally come to that level of glitz and glamor is a bunch of geeks getting up on stage to demo their products for five minutes in front of a room full of other geeks.

Which is why the most promising startups in the world of high tech gathered to demo their stuff at eSarcasm 50, held at the luxurious EconoLodge Motor Inn and Day Spa in heavenly East Pompano Bay, Florida.

Unfortunately, some of the hottest start-ups we invited chose to attend a competing geek demo fest instead, the TechCrunch 50. (Note to those companies that blew us off: We know where you live. After copies of NAMBLA Journal and Boys in BVDs start showing up in your mail rooms, you'll be lining up to kiss our asses.)

A total of seven companies showed up; two of them were actually looking for a Dustbuster convention but were at the wrong hotel. (We forced them to get on stage and do a demo anyway. They were totally awesome.) Here then are the best of the ~~eSarc50~~ eSarc7:

HipHype. You say you're a jowly middle-aged executive struggling to get funding for your start up after you got canned from your corporate job? Don't have a coronary, Gramps. Using Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, and edgy blog commentary, HipHype can make it look like you're really a bunch of 24-year-olds in Chuck Taylors and designer eyewear. For an additional fee they will impersonate you at meetings with venture capitalists and help you pick up chicks.

PTrollr 2.0. The software uses a patented search algorithm* to help you locate overly broad patent filings, purchase them for a pittance, then sue the pants off companies that build products using technology that vaguely resembles the patents you now own. Recent discoveries include patents on how to boil eggs, operate a zipper, and use Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

TwitWit. Even successful comedians find it challenging to be funny in 140 characters or less (@danecook, this means you). TwitWit promises to turn the most mundane tweets into wryly amusing bon mots, Seinfeldesque observations, and sidesplitting jokes. Your retweets will shoot through the roof, though your life will not change in any other measurable way.

RMNGL. Got a Web start-up with a boring name? The boys at the Random Meaningless Name Generation Labs can produce a new one using 100-percent organic techniques. For example, the microblog "Plurk" is named for the sound of an overripe banana hitting a cement traffic barrier at high speed. Or "Bing," which was generated by firing frozen betel nuts at a bronze bust of Steve Ballmer. RMNGL's fees will vary depending on the type of name requested, but discounts are available for companies that supply their own fruit.

The SuckMaster 5000. This industrial-strength shopvac can take the chrome off a bumper at 10 yards. It's especially well suited for removing forensic evidence at crime scenes, disposing of annoying family pets, and cleaning up after drunken, vomit-enriched tech conferences. Comes with Personal SuckMaster grooming attachments for removing unsightly moles and performing a 'Brazilian' with minimal pubic abrasion.

Of course, it was no contest. The SuckMaster Maestros won our $50 cash prize for best product and most convincing demo. That woman from Pensacola is still wondering what the hell happened to her Schnauzer.

* That patent is held by Google.

For more Geek Humor Gone Wild, visit eSarcasm. You'll be glad you did.

Lauri Lyons: Women in Hip-Hop: The B-girl Be Festival

2009-09-18T15:46:59Z

In the context of popular culture the history of Hip-Hop has been recited and mythologized many times over. Born in the 1970's South Bronx, from a foundation of Jamaican DJ techniques and verbal delivery, African-American soul music, Brazilian capoeira inspired breakdance moves, and technicolor aerosol paint, grew the international phenomena known as Hip-Hop. The one element of Hip-Hop that has never been fully acknowledged is the role of women in the spotlight and behind the scenes.

In 1979 Sugar Hill Records became the first record label to produce and distribute a rap record. The company's first single, Rapper's Delight became a national sensation and is considered to be a hip-hop classic. The co-founder of Sugar Hill Records was Sylvia Robinson. In 1981 Tommy Boy Records, released Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force. Tommy Boy Records was also co-founded by a woman, Monica Lynch.

Once again women were at the forefront when the female trio, The Sequence (featuring a young Angie Stone) released the hit Funk You Right On Up. The 1979 single is considered to be the first female rap record. Soon afterwards female MC's such as Salt -n- Pepa, MC Lyte and many others became forces to be reckoned with. For rhythmic backup women employed female dj's such as Spinderella and Jazzy Joyce for beats and rhymes. When the male MC's hit you with machismo, the women counterpunched with sass and class.

On the graffiti wall of fame you can most certainly see the name Lady Pink. Lady Pink is considered to be a female graffiti artist and muralist with artistic skills as strong as, if not better than her male peers. She painted nyc subway trains from 1979-1985 and now her work is collected by major art museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lady Pink also had starring roles in Wild Style and Bomb It, classic films about Hip-Hop culture.

In everyday life women are natural multi-taskers, and in hip-hop the fact remains the same.
Female artists that developed their artistic and entrepreneurial skills have taken the art form to another level. In the early '90's Dee Barnes, a former MC and radio host became the first woman to host a syndicated hip-hop television show, Pump It Up! Queen Latifah quickly followed in her footsteps with a very successful recording career, the TV sitcom Living Single, a talk show, major cosmetic campaigns and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Eve, has also done well for herself . Her empire has encompassed records, a sitcom, and a clothing line.

Wendy Williams (the original DJ Spinderella for Salt-n-Pepa) was a wildly popular radio host, and now has one of the most highly rated talk shows on television. DJ Beverly Bond is using hip-hop as an educational tool to reach the youth. She is the founder of Black Girls Rock Inc! Black Girls Rock! is a mentoring program focused on helping young black women interested in careers in music obtain the skills and guidance necessary to be successful in the business.

For every woman in the spotlight there are hundreds more behind the scenes. Women are the people primarily working as artist's publicists, sylists and choreographers in the hip-hop world. If you liked the designs worn by Missy Elliot and Busta Rhymes, you can thank stylist June Ambrose. If you are familiar with the many hip-hop album covers shot in the last ten years, you were probably looking at the work of photographer Sarah A. Friedman. When it comes to choreographers who got their start in hip-hop, think of In Living Color's Fly Girls alumni Rosie Perez, Jennifer Lopez, and Laurie Ann Gibson. All of whom have choreographed too many television shows, videos, movies, and concerts to mention.

Today the future is brewing in Minnesota and there are many women's names about to be known. Intermedia Arts, located in Minneapolis, has unleashed the mother of all hip-hop festivals; B-girl Be. The B-girl Be festival is the only arts festival in the world solely dedicated to the contributions of women in hip-hop. The mission of B-Girl Be is to influence and inspire leadership to change the perceptions and roles of women in hip-hop for current and future generations. The fourth annul event is curated by Michele Spaise and Theresa Sweetland.

This year's festival features Mama Said Knock U Out! an international visual art exhibition showcasing 28 female artists from around the world who use their art to empower, inform and organize. These women are employing hip-hop culture as a means of expression, connection, education and global social activism. Mama Said Knock U Out! will include work in video, photography, painting, sculpture, film, and textiles. I am this year's featured artist. I was commissioned to produce my first sculpture and sound installation, in the main gallery. Past participants have included Lady Pink, Martha Cooper, Faith47 and Roxanne Shante.

On Saturday, September 19th, Intermedia Arts takes it back to the streets with the B-Girl Be Block Party, an all-day festival that brings together women from Minneapolis and all over the world to celebrate hip-hop's girl power. The B-girl Be Block Party will showcase dance, live mural painting, film, a spoken world slam and an art marketplace.

This year the B-girl Be organizers will have the power to literally choose the belle of the ball.
The McNally Smith College of Music has donated a $10,000 scholarship to a B-girl participant for the McNally Smith's Diploma program in Hip-Hop Studies. The program is for prospective students who want to explore and develop in a cross-departmental curriculum that covers music, recording technology, language, music history, and music business.

When it comes to women in hip-hop, don't call it a comeback. Women have been here for years.

Purchase tickets online for the B-girl Be Block Party. The Mama Said Knock U Out! exhibition will be on view until October 23.

Lauri Lyons is a photographer, artist and author. Her books include Flag: An American Story and Flag International.

Oprah Winfrey & Tyler Perry Start The 'Precious' Oscar Push

2009-09-14T08:41:08Z

TORONTO — Lee Daniels has an Oscar-winning movie to his credit, but he still needed some big-time help to draw attention to his latest film about a girl who overcomes crushing abuse.

He got it from Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry. They are the executive producers of "Precious," which had a premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend.

Thelma Adams: Smile Pinki and the Great Movie Giveaways

2009-09-11T18:56:23Z

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well, yeah, unless you're still suffering through Philosophy 101. But if someone makes a brilliant documentary short and no one watches it -- does it have any impact? Even if it won the 2009 Oscar?

When the movie is Smile Pinki, and it has such potential for changing the lives of many children around the globe, that's just not good enough for Brian Mullaney, the co-founder of The Smile Train, an American philanthropist who refuses to rest on his laurels. When Smile Pinki, the story of two Indian children with cleft palates whose lives were changed thanks to Mullaney's charity, won the Academy Award it was a great moment -- and the impoverished Pinki came to America to show off her post-op smile. But that was not enough. Now, the organization is doing a major giveaway, sharing ten million DVDs via its website http://www.smiletrain.org to raise awareness -- and funds. And it's the first time ever that an Academy Award winning movie has been given away for free.

What struck me watching the short -- finally -- was how The Smile Train succeeds through simplicity as a charity. Based on the principle that to better one life is to change the world one smile at a time, the organization makes the simple cleft palate surgery available for free to children around the world. Over 120,000 in 76 countries receive the cleft surgery annually. The procedure takes only 45 minutes and costs as little as $250.

A child first made me aware of The Smile Train. My friend's son chose it as the charity at his Bar Mitzvah and requested that guests donate to that cause rather than give him gifts. What I appreciated was that this act of giving wasn't about aggrandizing the Bar Mitzvah boy -- and putting something on his resume to help him get college. This boy was genuinely a child reaching out to help other children around the world.

Another thing that impressed me with Pinki was the child's eye view of rural India it presents. When I was six, I lived in a Gujarati village for a year with my family and I was surprised to see how little had changed. Pinki had to walk for three hours on dirt roads with her father to get to the nearest village to travel to get the operation -- and she's barefoot! How many pairs of shoes do my kids have hidden under their beds alone? She doesn't even have a bed in her mud hut, nor does she have an Xbox360, or the internet, or a closet full of clothes. But she has a father and mother whose love is as strong as any American parents'. They're clearly devoted; in a tender moment Pinki's illiterate father smooths her hair into two perky pony tails following her operation. And despite their fears, they take the risk and travel to a distant hospital to get the life-changing operation.

The Smile Train couldn't have made it easier to see this Academy Award winning short. And watching it with your children has the potential to change your life and theirs and, more importantly, better the lives of cleft kids around the world.