Angelina Jolie – Actress, Director, Mother, Daughter, Warrior…

For my blog, International Womens Day – Its Not About Vaginas, I listed Academy Award winning actress, Angelina Jolie as one of my “Top Women That Have Made a Difference“.

I had to ‘sell’ why I thought Jolie was just as important as say Hilary Clinton. Which is a shame when you consider Jolie gives almost one-third of her earnings to charity. And that’s the least of her admirable actions as a global activist.

Now I count her as Brave and a Warrior.

Jolie, known as the “Most Beautiful Woman on Earth” made what I can only guess was a heavy-hearted decision earlier this year to undergo a preventive double mastectomy to minimize her risk of breast cancer, which is hereditary. Cancer killed her mother at the age of 56.

After getting the BRCA1 test by her doctor for cancer, Jolie’s results came back that she has the gene for both ovarian cancer and breast cancer; with a 50% chance of getting ovarian cancer and a startling 87% of her getting breast cancer. She decided to get the mastectomy to save herself for her children.

If that isn’t enough of a statement, Jolie wrote intimately about her experience with her decision and her surgery in an Op-Ed for the New York Times Opinion Pages which was published quietly just after midnight EST today.

Jolie’s mother, French actress and producer Marcheline Bertrand fought ovarian cancer for 10 years before succumbing to it’s clutches January 27, 2007. Jolie was 32 at the time.

Jolie Speaks about Cancer with her Children:

We often speak of “Mommy’s mommy,” and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Well into motherhood before her mother’s death, Jolie adopted her first boy, seven-month-old Maddox Chivan, from an orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on March 10, 2002. Jolie was married to Billy Bob Thornton at the time, but in fact adopted Maddox as a single parent.

Jolie then adopted her first daughter, six-month-old Zahara Marley, from an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 6, 2005. On May 27, 2006, Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, in Swakopmund, Nambia.

Shortly after her mother’s death Jolie adopted another son on March 15, 2007, three-year-old Pax Thien, from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Jolie Says in Her New York Times Opinion Pages Op-Ed:

MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

Jolie’s ‘other children’ are biological son, Knox Léon, and a daughter, Vivienne Marcheline (named after Jolie’s mother), whom she gave birth to on July 12, 2008. The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and the UK publication Hello! for a reported $14 million dollars. The proceeds were donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation she runs with partner Brad Pitt.

What’s amazing to me about Angelina Jolie’s choice to not only undergo a double mastectomy, but then to quietly make that decision private is that she will be the first celebrity to really sacrifice her natural beauty for the good of all women. Can you name another celebrity to do this…?

What’s more important is that Jolie through her low key approach will have managed to educate women from first-hand experience and she is honest about the process. I for one had not realized that re-constructive breast surgery after a mastectomy was even a viable part of the treatment plan. I, like many other women thought that once you lose your breasts, they are gone for good and that the only option was a silicone bra with “cutlets”.

By all marketing numbers, Angelina Jolie has a Q Score that is off the charts. Her face is familiar to 81% of the United States population. Worldwide, it must be in the same range.

What if her bravery could ultimately save ½ the population of women who have Ovarian and Breast Cancer in their family history…? Jolie will have done something no award could ever give her. A real connection to women and families that no politician, doctor or health guru could ever hope to reach.

I implore you to read to full story at the link below, penned by Angelina Jolie herself.

I’d love to hear your feedback on this new kind of Celebrity-
Angelina Jolie Actress, Director, Mother, Daughter, Warrior…

My Medical Choice
By ANGELINA JOLIE

By the way, below is a picture of my beloved rescue cat named Bizo. He passed away March 16 just 2 weeks shy of his 14th Birthday. He was my cuddle buddy, my ‘thunder buddy’, my big man and my writing partner. When I wrote from my home office he’d sleep in a pillow on my desk. He also liked to snuggle in my big Italian leather chair when I watched Films and Awards shows.

If you’d like to learn more about him, feel free to friend his FaceBook Page Here.

Stay healthy and creative… and drop me a line

Bizo Boudreau O’Kelly March 1999-March 16, 2013

Apparently portions of a “fake movie” made in 2011 in the UK whereby “producers” told investors they had signed up A-list Hollywood and UK actors was a complete fraud. Parties involved were sentenced yesterday in England.

“A Landscape of Lies” really was a Landscape of Lies to defraud the British Government of VAT Tax Dollars

Andrea McLean, 43, TV presenter and the star of the UK’s “Loose Women”, was tricked into starring as a bisexual therapist in a low-budget film as part of an elaborate scheme for tax breaks. McLean was cast alongside former EastEnders actor Marc Bannerman for a movie called  “A Landscape Of Lies“.

Aoife Madden, 31, an Irish actress-turned-teacher worked with 4 other male producers lying to get support for their £20 million gangster film in order to claim fraudulent VAT tax breaks and reap the benefits.

Madden said Irish actress Sinead Cusack was a close relative of hers and between the two of them, they’d be able to persuade Cusack’s husband Jeremy Irons to also star in the film.

According to the the HeraldScotland.com

Inspectors were told A-listers from Hollywood and McLean would be starring in a £19.6 million production that would be shot in the UK.

However, the film, Landscape Of Lies, was never made and the only footage shot was seven minutes of “completely un-usable quality” filmed in a flat and costing just £5000.

McLean, a former presenter of the weather on GMTV and guest panellist on Loose Women, was duped into signing up for the role of a bisexual therapist called Dr Audrey Grey.

Bashar al Issa, 34, a former Iraqi national who is now British, of London, described as the orchestrator of the fraud, was jailed for six-and-a-half years at Southwark Crown Court.”

 

To read the rest of the article, please Click Here. I would love to hear your comments…

Even though there’s still snow on my terrace from two days of winter’s last gasp, I wish you all a very
Happy 1st Day of Spring.

I was reading a few blogs this morning and came across an article from AwardsLine.com, a site I visited for the first time today. I almost didn’t read it due to the landing page style. Then I realized it was a feature site dedicated to this years Oscars. When you click through you’ll find some interesting Q&A’s with key creative directors, producers and stars such as: Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Jackman, Grant Heslov and Kathleen Kennedy from this years 85th Annual Academy Award® nominated films.

The article was a snapshot of how the nominated directors envisioned their ideas, but more so, some of the hoops they had to go through to bring their film to life.

Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry Show Their Strengths in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” by director Benh Zeitlin

I saw all of the films below, and while Lincoln and Argo were terrific films, it was the quiet independent, ‘crew and actor sourced’ film “Beasts of the Southern Wild” that stole my heart. In every sense of the word, this film was truly “independent”. Made for 1.8 million dollars it has grossed 100 times it’s budget at the box office due to (I think) an audience craving for something fresh and original.

The crew of 13 professionals shot the film on 16mm. They sourced residents to add to cast and crew from the small Louisiana town of Montegut that also stood in as the “Bathtub” region affected by an approaching storm.

The man who plays the father “Wink” is actually a baker whose store was located across from the “Court 13″ production office, an abandoned gas station. One day when business slowed down for an hour or two, they went in and, after a few attempts finally convinced Dwight Henry to audition. He got the part.

Quvenzhané Wallis who played his daughter Hushpuppy, was nominated for an Academy Award® and was the youngest nominee in Oscar history. Quvenzhané was only 5 years old when she answered the casting call that was originally for girls aged 6-9 years of age.

When director Benh Zeitlin and his casting people saw her, they were impressed with her advanced reading skills. Also, she was required to scream blue murder and burp on command. Quvenzhané nailed both.

The first few moments of this film, I felt I was watching something special. I didn’t know what to expect. As someone who’s been to Louisiana 22 times, I will be automatically drawn to any film where that state is a backdrop. The town of Montegut and its then 1803 residents played characters in this movie, even to the point where sets for the “Bathtub” were hand built from rusted-out equipment and objects both cultural and from day-to-day living were found within the surrounding area.

I was completely and totally moved by this film. For the fantasy mixed realism, to the true-to-life portrayal of what happens to a town when hit by disaster people knew was coming, but too poor to stave off.

Noted New York Times film critic A. O. Scott named this film in his Top 3 of 2012. Roger Ebert called the film a:

“remarkable creation… Sometimes miraculous films come into being, made by people you’ve never heard of, starring unknown faces, blindsiding you with creative genius. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is one of the year’s best films.”

“Amour” writer, director Michael Haneke

Michael Haneke | “Amour”

Oscar pedigree: He has two nominations this year for screenwriting and direction. Previously, 2009’s The White Ribbon received two noms for best foreign language film and cinematography.

Birds and death: “The pigeon. You can’t direct a pigeon. At most, you can entice it to move it a certain way by placing corn on the ground. But even then, it won’t obey your instructions. Of course I’m joking when I say that. The most difficult scene in the film is the one in which (Georges) suffocates (his wife). The scene is preceded by a 10-minute monologue. And Jean-Louis Trintignant had a broken wrist at that time, so we had to shoot around that. And Emmanuelle Riva was concerned about her safety physically. So it was difficult for everyone involved,” says the Amour director.

No shame: When directing Emmanuelle Riva’s nude shower scene in which she is assisted by a healthcare worker, Haneke explains: “As a director, it wasn’t difficult for me. It was far more uncomfortable for her. But it was clear from the beginning that it was necessary to shoot this scene—to capture the fragility of her situation. My job as a director was to make sure I didn’t betray her, that she wasn’t shown critically or depicted in an unpleasant light, but just to show what people in such situations have to go through.”—David Mermelstein

Ang Lee | Life of Pi

Oscar pedigree: In addition to best picture and directing nominations this year, Ang Lee won a 2005 best directing Oscar for Brokeback Mountain. He was nominated in the directing and best picture categories for 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won best foreign language film. His 1995 film Sense and Sensibility rallied seven Oscar noms, including best picture, and a win for Emma Thompson’s adapted screenplay of Jane Austen’s novel, but Lee was overlooked in the directing category. In addition, Lee’s 1993 films The Wedding Banquet and 1994’s Eat Drink Man Woman were the Taiwanese submissions during their respective years and nominated in the best foreign language film category.

Power of persuasion: “Tom Rothman at Fox pitched (it to) me as a family movie,” Lee recalls. “I asked, ‘Why do you want to spend this kind of money?’ Because I’ve been in this business long enough to know that’s probably not going to be true. Tom said, ‘It’s a family movie.’ I said, ‘What do you mean a family movie?’ He said, ‘What happened to you when you first read the book?’ I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I introduced it to my wife and my family.”

Solving Pi: “I started to get hooked on, ‘How do you crack this thing? How do you examine illusion within illusion?’ We all know movies are based on illusions—the image, the emotional ride—but how do you do that while you’re examining the power of storytelling? Once I started to think about the solution, I got hooked. And I thought of 3D maybe adding another dimension. The whole thing could open up; what doesn’t make sense could make sense. And I thought of the older Pi telling stories, so I have the first person going through the story while the third person is examining it, but they’re the same person.”

Long days sinks ship: “The most challenging scene to direct and produce was the freighter sinking sequence. What was involved was the ocean, rain, lightning, and wind. We weren’t out at sea; we were in a wave tank that we created in Taiwan. We spent 78 days on that scene. It was a two-year preparation, so it was a big undertaking,” Lee told AwardsLine at the PGA Awards.

Harnessing visuals: “With new media (3D), nobody really can give you advice. People who have done it will tell you what it’s about. It will turn out most of that is not true. I took lessons, I took advice. But next year, people will look at this film and say, ‘Oh, he should have done something different.’ This is that new to us. It hasn’t been established in the audience’s mind. There are things like conversion points, you can make adjustments later, but how you frame it, how you separate the camera, the volume of depth, you have to decide on the set. You’re doing something you don’t know, how that depth works with the lens. You just don’t know, you’re guessing. That’s the scary thing.”—Paul Brownfield

Director David O. Russell, center, with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence on the set of “Silver Linings Playbook”

David O. Russell | “Silver Linings Playbook”

Oscar pedigree: He has two nominations this year for directing and best adapted screenplay. He was previously nominated for directing 2010’s The Fighter.

Pat Jr. comes home: “The first scene where Pat Jr. faces his dad was challenging because that establishes the entire tone of the picture. I directed it many different ways. Because Bradley (Cooper) had to create that character, we tried him more bipolar and less bipolar, with more Asperger traits and less, being more explosive with his father and more loving. We were finding that balance. We were also establishing the whole setup of the movie, because the mother is taking Pat Jr. out early, the father is a bookmaker, which is something I did in the adaptation. I chose to follow the 2008 season and locked into that, as it availed us of a lot of interesting information that I heard from Philadelphia Eagles fans, such as (wide receiver) DeSean Jackson. From that, we have Pat Jr. wearing his jersey. DeSean spiking the ball on the one-yard line is literally a metaphor for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, which symbolizes the Eagles’ struggle and symbolizes Pat Jr.’s struggle. I made Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) a bookmaker because the economy collapsed in 2008. In the book, one doesn’t really know exactly what he did. I imagined he was a DHL Express manager of a hub, and he retired and lost his pension, which happened to a lot of people. His obsession in the book with bookmaking is just an obsession, but in the movie, it’s an obsession that goes to the economic livelihood of the house. So in that opening scene, establishing the tone and characters was extremely important.”

Tiffany makes her grand entrance: “The scene where Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) comes in the house for the first time was also crucial in getting the emotional content to land hard. We collide the agendas. We invented the best friend, Randy, who is the nemesis who bets against Pat Sr. The nemesis’ role is important as he loves the wife and always thinks she’s beautiful. It also creates the world of the neighborhood. I loved that all the characters travel by foot. Nobody gets in the car unless Pat Jr. goes to therapy. They even walk to the dance.”—Anthony D’Alessandro

Director Steven Spielberg on the set of “Lincoln”

Steven Spielberg | Lincoln

Oscar pedigree: Eight picture nominations, one win for 1993’s Schindler’s List. Seven directing nominations, two wins for Schindler and 1998’s Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg also has a 1986 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award.

Intimate setting: “The difference between Lincoln and Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan is that the last two films take place outside,” Spielberg says. “Lincoln is within the intimacy of a set in actual, practical locations. So every room was like a library. It was quiet, there was not a lot of room to work. We didn’t want to tear down walls and suddenly have the actors see the entire crew and monitors just glaring at us from 20 yards away. So even the sets that Rick Carter built—he built a good deal of sets for this—did not have wild ceilings or wild walls. With Schindler’s List, I wanted actors to step out of character, step off the set, to return to reality as often as possible. It was different on Lincoln. It’s a beautiful literary piece.”

No drama in the Civil War: “The first screenplay draft I showed to Daniel Day-Lewis (in 2001-02) was also not a biopic. It was more like a Civil War drama. It was the story of the last three years of the Civil War, and it involved seven huge battles. Lincoln was prosecuting the war, first through Gen. McClellan and then Gen. Grant. But it was much more of a Saving Private Ryan, set between 1863 and 1865. And it quickly wore thin on me and became clear that it was not the story I wanted to tell. It took Tony (Kushner) and I a long time figuring out what part of Lincoln’s life would be able to give audiences an appreciation and understanding of his humanity, to take him off his alabaster pedestal and Mt. Rushmore to be able to understand that he was someone that could and should be related to. And that was not doable with the Civil War in his way. James McPherson, the great Civil War historian, once said that the Civil War is so vast that even a gigantic figure like Abraham Lincoln could get lost in it. And McPherson was absolutely right; Lincoln got lost in my first attempt to tell the story of the Civil War through his eyes, and I jettisoned that project within a year.”

Long story short: “This was going to be a story of his last three years, but the script was 550 pages long. For me, the most compelling part of that screenplay was a 65-page section which was the struggle to pass the 13^th amendment that abolished slavery. Tony and I found that the more real estate of Lincoln’s life we covered, the more it diminished him as someone who understood politics, personalities, and political theater. And it took us away from his family. It took us away from the deep cold depths he would find himself in that some people thought was his form of depression. It took us away from that because it covered too much territory. The Emancipation Proclamation and the struggle to find the right time to announce it, the Gettysburg Address—there were so many bullet points in Lincoln’s life that actually the more that we spread over 550 pages, the more superficial his character felt. Once we focused everything on two great issues, the passing of the 13^th amendment and ending the Civil War, everything got a lot more concentrated and a lot more focused.”—Mike Fleming Jr.

Director Benh Zeitlin on set of “Beasts of the Southern Wild” with Quvenzhané Wallis

Benh Zeitlin | “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

Oscar pedigree: Beasts marks Zeitlin’s first nominations in the directing and best adapted screenplay categories.

The Beasts of the BP oil spill: “A lot of our sets were on the wrong side of the barriers that they put up to block the oil, so we actually had to be in negotiations with BP to get a lot of our sets,” Zeitlin says. “There were incredibly difficult hoops to jump through, but they were looking so bad in the media they were actually uncharacteristically, I would say, willing to cooperate. Actually, it was amazing that we managed to get back there. Anything for good PR at that time, they were going to do. We used that to our advantage.”

Casting without preconceptions: “It’s part of the idea of (my film company) Core 13, to not just write something and fill in the blanks, it’s about trying to work on these ideas and concepts and work on trying to find the essence of the character, to search for that essence in somebody. When you are looking for something in that way, you can find it in unexpected places. We wanted to stay open to what we might find out in the world. We definitely had written the character as a girl—we wanted it to be a girl and focused on casting girls—but within that, we looked at a tremendous variety of people. If you see a brave little boy, you think it might work, but obviously we found a pretty great little girl. We were rehearsing at the bakery in the mornings so that Dwight Henry could get his work done. That was key to his taking the role—he had turned it down several times. On set, we tried to make sure that it felt like a game for Quvenzhané Wallis at all times. We tried to shelter her from the panic of a film set. We always tried to maintain energy on the set that a 5-year-old would want to be part of.”—Diane Haithman

Sidebar: Mike Fleming Jr. is film editor of Deadline. Anthony D’Alessandro is managing editor of AwardsLine. Paul Brownfield, Diane Haithman, and David Mermelstein are AwardsLine contributors.

The Veronica Mars ‘Kickstarter’ Campaign

Everybody’s talking about it and here’s how it all happened:
Two days ago, Rob Thomas creator and writer of “Veronika Mars” (2004–2007) started a campaign on Kickstarter, a crowd source funding tool for creative projects.

Thomas Said in the Campaign:

Of course, Warner Bros. still owns Veronica Mars and we would need their blessing and cooperation to pull this off. Kristen and I met with the Warner Bros. brass, and they agreed to allow us to take this shot. They were extremely cool about it, as a matter of fact. Their reaction was, if you can show there’s enough fan interest to warrant a movie, we’re on board. So this is it. This is our shot.

Thanks to the news of the campaign first blowing up on the hyper-geek early adopter social networking site Reddit, then followed quickly by Twitter and FaceBook – in less than 12 hours, with pledges ranging from $1. – $10,000., Thomas raised his $2 million target in less than 12 hours from VM loyal fan base.

And now with (at time of writing) 28 days left to go in the campaign, Thomas and key creatives like Kristen Bell, has 49,427 Backers and $3,273,558 raised which far exceeds Thomas’s $2,000,000 goal.

I pledged $35 and the image below shows what my perks are:

ShannonnKelly.com Veronica Mars Pledge Confirmation

So now, with the permission to proceed from Warner Bros. arriving just 24 hours the Kickstarter campaign, Warner Bros. has decided they will fund the cost of distributing the film and the marketing campaign as well. The entire production budget however, will come solely from the Kickstarter campaign.

According to Brent Lang at TheWrap.com:

The noirish “Veronica Mars” followed an aspiring private investigator through high school and later college as she was tutored in the art of deduction by her detective father. It was never a ratings blockbuster, but it did inspire a passionate following — something the intense response to the Kickstarter campaign demonstrated.

Thomas said on Kickstarter that the movie will be shot over the summer and post-production will happen in the fall. The film will get a limited theatrical release in 2014 before debuting on video-on-demand and electronic sell through.

I know gen pop often views International Women’s Day with apprehension, but that’s mainly because it’s one of the most misunderstood days of observance.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not writing this to man-bash. Dudes are pretty darn cool. Women also misunderstand this day. So I’m here to clarify that this day doesn’t mean you have to be a roaring feminist, this day doesn’t have to be sad, this day doesn’t mean you need a vagina.

Angelina Jolie and Gilda Radner – Two Women That Made Contributions You Might Not Realize…

International Women’s Day can be about anything you want it to be. You can use it to help empower women or simply to acknowledge it to pay homage to a woman who may have had a great impact on your life. Simply take this day to honor women and the difference they make or have made in your life or give them the opportunity to start making that difference today.

Below is a My Random List of Women that Have Made a Difference:

Alice Guy Blaché – 1st Female Film Director of Narrative Fiction (July 1, 1873 – March 24, 1968)
Born in Saint-Mandé near Paris, France. Blaché started out in 1894 as a secretary at the Gaumont Film Company, owned by Léon Gaumont in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

She directed her first film La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy) in 1896, where she continued to direct all the films made by the studio until 1905. Rising to the position of studio head, she continued to work for Gaumont until 1907, when she married her husband Herbet Blaché, British-born , French-American film director, producer and screenwriter.

After following him to the United States in 1910, she co-founded the Solax Company with her husband. As president, she both directed and produced their company’s films. In 1913 the company closed down, but Blaché continued to direct for her husband until 1922, when she returned to France with her children after her marriage failed. Though her career as a director faded, she is still remembered not only for being a pioneering woman in film, but for helping to shape the early film industry.

Sidebar: The Gaumont Film Company is still producing films to this date as the world’s oldest film company. It’s most recent foreign hit is the award winning “The Intouchables” (2011).

Marie Curie – Nobel Prize Winning Physicist and Chemist (1867-1934)
Mdm. Marie Curie co-discovered two elements, radium and polonium. She coined the term “radioactivity.” She was one of the first doctors to suggest using radiation to treat cancer. Curie was part of the atomic age and made revolutionary discoveries and applications for chemistry, medicine, physics for our world, while at the same time, she fought deep prejudice against women in the sciences. Curie is the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in two disciplines.

Dorothy Fuldheim – Pioneer News Woman (1893-1989)
Known as “First Lady of Television”, Fuldheim was born in New Jersey, June 26. 1893 and died November 3rd, 1989 in Cleveland Ohio, where she made most of her career. She grew up Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Prior to working in broadcasting, she was an elementary schoolteacher. A contemporary of hers would be Joy Behar who was also a schoolteacher and another Woman with an insatiable curious mind.

Fuldheim was the first woman to anchor a television news broadcast and host her own show even though she only started her TV career when she was 54, joining WEWS-TV, located on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland. (The biggest and best fried shrimp I ever had was in a rundown shack with a ‘gun window’ on Euclid) Fuldheim was also the first woman to have a news analysis show, The One O’clock Club.

When the Kent State shootings hit the news wires she asked, “What is wrong with our country? “We’re killing our own children.”, basically stating that the Ohio National Guard just committed murder. There was a massive public outrage by her viewing audience to get her thrown off TV and out of Cleveland, but her station believed in her and she stayed. In 1980, Fuldheim was inducted in the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame.

Fuldheim is the only news journalist to have interviewed both Mussolini and Hitler.

Rosa Parks – American Civil Rights Activist (February 04, 1913 – October 24, 2005)
Everybody can relate right…? A department store seamstress and moonlighting as a secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, Parks acted as a private citizen “tired of giving in“.

The mother of the “Freedom Movement” Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955. She helped end public segregation by putting a spotlight on the simple daily injustice she and many women and men had to endure on a daily life.

According to Wikipedia:

Others had taken similar steps in the twentieth century, including Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1955, and the members of the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit (Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) (were) arrested months before Parks. NAACP organizers believed that Parks was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws though eventually her case became bogged down in the state courts.

Today, any man woman or child can make their mark and stand up for something that will help a daily injustice to a female you know: Stop bullying at your sister’s school. Stop racial profiling at your mom’s place of work. Help someone in their job get past the glass ceiling and the male dominated top level of executives.

Factoid: Did you know that even though Women are responsible for 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions and 65% of global spending? And yet, in the United Kingdom for instance: Out of the Top 50 retailers in the country, 39 of those stores have zero women on their boards and less than 15% of remaining stores have less than 30% of Women on their advisory boards.

Dr. Mae Jemison – 1st Black Female Astronaut and Dancer (October 17, 1956 – ) Many little girls have 2 things they want to be in life. A Ballerina and a Veterinarian. Jemison was 5 years old on her first day of school in 1961, when her teacher asked her, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Jemison replied: “A scientist.”

Jemison’s love for science took her to the library where she read books about the universe and science fiction. Remembering Madeline L’Engle’s books “A Wrinkle in Time” and “The Arm of the Starfish”, Jemison said:, “Those books stand out because they had women scientists and girl heroines.”

Jemison was active in student government, school plays, and studied dance and gained an appreciation for: “hard work, physical strength and grace.” In college, she learned Russian and Swahili and earned a degree in chemical engineering, African studies and ultimately a PhD, becoming a medical doctor before she was accepted into NASA’s astronaut program in 1987. Jemison was the first African-American woman to orbit the earth when the space shuttle Endeavour launched into orbit in 1992. It’s reported that Jemison:

…looked down from the shuttle and saw Chicago. She remembered visiting the library, making science fair projects, and dancing. “I felt like I belonged right there in space,” she remembers. “I realized I would feel comfortable anywhere in the universe — because I belonged to and was a part of it, as much as any star, planet, asteroid, comet, or nebula.”

Can Nicki Minaj come anywhere close to these women…?

Hillary Rodham Clinton – Former Secretary of State, First Lady and U.S. Senator (October 26, 1947 -)
While I’m not a big fan of Ms. Clinton, I have to recognize that as a U.S. presidential candidate in 2008, she won more primaries and gathered more delegates than any woman in U.S. history. She’s paved the way for more women to get better positions of political power and has energized the young women of today making world politics a not too outrageous goal to aspire to-

Angelina Jolie Voight – Humanitarian, Golden Globe®, Academy Award® Winning Actress (June 04, 1975 -)
I can already hear the snickers. But hold on, let me make my case. In 2001, while filming “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” in Cambodia, Jolie became aware of issues for refugees. By February that same year, she was already making field trips to troubled ‘hot spots’ meeting refugees and internally displaced persons in over 30 countries, visiting what she terms “forgotten emergencies”.

Factoid: How many of you know that Jolie gives away – freely I might add, at least 1/3 of her annual salary to world-wide humanitarian causes?

As one of Hollywood’s highest paid actresses, that’s a LOT of money. But you don’t really hear about it. I heard about it in the early-mid 2000′s when during an interview Jolie said something to the effect, ‘How much money do I need. I mean really. I save 1/3 for myself, 1/3 for my family so they’re well taken care of and the other 3rd I give to charity. I don’t need the money.‘

I’ve said all along and I’ll say it again, it was Jolie who made Brad Pitt a better person. Since they’ve been together, he also created phenomenal community out reach projects and foundations. Before it was all about himself and his interests. Here’s a look at some of Angelina Jolie’s Humanitarian efforts:

Jolie has established several charitable organizations.

• 2003: She founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation—named the Maddox Jolie Project until 2007—which is dedicated to community development and environmental conservation in Cambodia’s northwestern province Battambang
• 2006: She partnered with the Global Health Committee to establish the Maddox Chivan Children’s Center, a daycare facility for children afflicted and affected by HIV in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh
• 2006: With partner Brad Pitt founded the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes worldwide
• 2007: Jolie and noted economist Dr. Gene Sperling founded the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which funds education programs for children affected by man-made or natural disasters
• 2008: She collaborated with the Microsoft Corporation to establish Kids in Need of Defense, a pro bono movement of law firms, corporate law departments, NGOs and volunteers committed to providing legal counsel to unaccompanied immigrant children in the U.S.
• 2010: She established the Jolie Legal Fellows Programme, which recruits lawyers to support governmental child protection efforts in Haiti

According to Wikipedia:

In 2007, she became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. After more than a decade of service as Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie was promoted to the rank of Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres on April 17, 2012. As Special Envoy, she represents the UNHCR and High Commissioner António Guterres at the diplomatic level and works to facilitate long-term solutions for people displaced by large-scale crises, such as Afghanistan and Somalia. “This is an exceptional position reflecting an exceptional role she has played for us,” said a UNHCR spokesman.

Asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, “Awareness of the plight of these people. I think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon.”

Over time, Jolie became more involved in promoting humanitarian causes on a political level. She has regularly attended World Refugee Day in Washington, D.C., and she was an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2005 and 2006. She also began lobbying humanitarian interests in the U.S. capital, where she met with members of Congress at least 20 times between 2003 and 2006, during which she pushed for several bills to aid refugees and vulnerable children in the Third World and the United States.

Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910 – September 05, 1997) “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun.”

Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, for over 45 years, ‘Mother Teresa’ helped the poor, sick, orphaned and dying in India and neighboring countries.

According to Wikipedia:

She was the recipient of numerous honors including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India. Her awards include the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Pacem in Terris Award, an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, the Order of Merit from both the United Kingdom and the United States, Albania’s Golden Honor of the Nation, honorary degrees, the Balzan Prize, and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize among many others.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was named 18 times in the yearly Gallup’s most admired man and woman poll as one of the ten women around the world that Americans admired most. In 1999, a poll of Americans ranked her first in Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. In that survey, she out-polled all other volunteered answers by a wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories except the very young.

But, in a weird Tom Cruise-like dictum, Mother Teresa refused to provide medical care or pain killers believing that suffering would bring people closer to God.

She was also charged for misusing charitable monies and widely criticized for maintaining positive relationships with dictators. Also by many accounts from co-workers, she herself was not the most likable person. So thank her for her deeds, but it’s okay to move to a more likable person, like say 1978 Emmy Award winner Gilda Radner.

Gilda Radner – Comedienne – Ballerina ((June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989)
Gilda Radner was not only a comedienne, but also a truly likable person that touched many people with her special brand of comedy. she once quoted: “I’d much rather be a woman than a man. Women can cry, they can wear cute clothes, and they’re the first to be rescued off sinking ships.”. Radner was best known for her work as a Saturday Night Live alumni as one of the original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players“, in the first season of SNL. She gave us memorable characters such as “Candy Slice” (her take on punk goddess Patti Smith), Emily Litella, an elderly hearing-impaired woman and “Roseanne Rosanadana” who both gave hilarious misinformed ‘Op Eds’ on “Weekend Update” segment of SNL. Her parodies of Barbara Walters and Lucille Ball are still copied and applauded today.

Radner met actor Gene Wilder on a movie set in 1982. She said it was “love at first sight.”. When Wilder and Radner made their second film, The Woman in Red (1984) their relationship grew and they finally married on September 18 in St. Tropez that same year.

Radner, improperly diagnosed for almost a year, found out she had ovarian cancer on October 21, 1986. After tests, she was declared “in remission” in early 1988. On May 17, 1989, Radner was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for a CAT scan and went into a coma during the scan. Radner never regained consciousness. She died from ovarian cancer at 6:20 am on May 20, 1989 with Wilder was at her side.

The amazing thing about Gilda Radner is that shortly after her death and to this day she still lives on. Part of her legacy is the Gilda Radner Ovarian Detection Center at Cedars-Sinai to screen high-risk candidates (such as women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent) established by her bereaved husband Wilder.

And in 1991, Gilda’s Club, was formed. The name came from a Radner quip “Cancer gave me a membership to an elite club I’d rather not belong to”…

According to Wikipedia:

…a network of affiliate clubhouses where people living with cancer, their friends and families, can meet to learn how to live with cancer, was founded. Many Gilda’s Clubs have opened across the United States and in Canada. In 2009, Gilda’s Club merged with another similar institution, The Wellness Community, under the new name of Cancer Support Community, which was legally adopted in 2011. As of 2012 there are over 20 active local affiliates of Gilda’s Club in the USA and Canada.

As you can see by my list, it doesn’t matter what walk of life Women come from. They can and have all made a difference. Who’s the Woman that inspires YOU the Most? I’d like to hear about it. Please leave me a comment so we can compare notes. Thank you for reading and have a Womanful Day

Actress Valerie Harper – ‘Always every awkward girl’s mentor’…

Such sad news around the celebrity world as we learn that feisty actress Valerie Harper was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer – - leptomeningeal carcinomatosis on January 15, 2013.

The sad news was announced this morning on the NBC “The Today Show“.

She says doctors advise her she may have as little as three months to live. This is such sad news as is comes on the heels after Harper, a 73-year-old nonsmoker, battled lung cancer in 2009.

Harper, best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spin-off “Rhoda“, received tweets that poured in for her from her acting community admirers:

“Valerie Harper, please know you will always be every awkward girl’s mentor. Love, Toula,” ~Nia Vardalos

“You were the ultimate comedy role model to me when I was growing up – the quintessential ‘best friend!’ Sending you love…” ~ Rachel Dratch

“My longtime friendship w/ @ValerieHarper has been 1 of the gr8est gifts of my life. I’m here 4 any/everything she may need one day at a time.” ~ Cloris Leachman

In an interview from 2002 with Larry King, Harper recounts how she was cast as Rhoda.

Harper won both a Golden Globe (1974) and and Emmy (1975) for “Actress In A Leading Role” for her show Rhoda. She also won 3 back-to-back Emmys (1971-1973) for “Outstanding Supporting Actress” in the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Harper told People Magazine, “I don’t think of dying, I think of being here now.”

A mantra we could all live by…

I’m sending my warm thoughts to Valerie Harper for her bravery and painless journey to wherever next she may travel…

Sidebar: To watch 2 full episodes of Rhoda when she gets married, please Click Here.

Bonnie Franklin with TV Daughters Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli

Beloved TV actress Bonnie Franklin who’s been suffering complications from pancreatic cancer is dead. She passed away yesterday at the age of  69.

In junior high, Franklin had two un-credited film roles – The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956) and The Wrong Man (1961) by famed director Alfred Hitchcock. She eventually graduated from Beverly Hills High School that produced other famous movie alumni such as Nicolas Cage, Betty White, Gina Gershon, and Crispin Glover to name a few.

A long standing advocate for Women’s Rights especially in the story lines for her famous sitcom “One Day At A Time” (1975-1984), Franklin also starred in stage productions, most notably in “Applause” oppsite the great Lauren Bacall. Here’s a clip of Franklin’s Tony Award nominated performance.

Franklin’s TV daughter from “One Day At A Time”, Valerie Bertinelli wrote on her website yesterday:

My heart is breaking.  Bonnie has always been one of the most important women in my life and was a second mother to me.  The years on “One Day At A Time” were some of the happiest of my life, and along with Pat and Mackenzie  we were a family in every way.  She taught me how to navigate this business and life itself with grace and humor, and to always be true to yourself.  I will miss her terribly.

According to the OBIT in the New York Times by Douglas Martin:

“…most widely known in the role of Ann Romano, one of the first independent women to be portrayed on TV wrestling with issues like sexual harassment, rape and menopause. Ms. Franklin — green-eyed, red-haired, button-nosed and 5-foot-3 — brought a buoyant comic touch to the part.

Some saw the show as helping feminism enter the mainstream.

“I know it’s just a television show, and I don’t think that I am changing the way the world is structured,” Ms. Franklin told The Washington Post in 1980, but she allowed that “sometimes we strike chords that do make people think a bit.”

“One Day at a Time” ran from December 1975 to May 1984, and its ratings ranked in the top 20 in eight of those seasons and in the top 10 in four. Ms. Franklin was nominated for an Emmy Award and twice for a Golden Globe.

The show’s topicality fell squarely in the tradition of its developer, Norman Lear, who had gained renown for introducing political and social commentary to situation comedy with “All in the Family” and other shows. Its co-creator was Whitney Blake, a former sitcom star who, as a single mother, had reared the future actress Meredith Baxter.

Like Archie and Edith Bunker in “All in the Family,” Ann and her daughters, Julie and Barbara Cooper (Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli), used comedy in the service of grappling with serious and thorny real-world matters.

As a divorced mother who had reverted to her maiden name and relocated to Indianapolis, Ann fought her deadbeat ex-husband for child support, for example. Or she dealt with a daughter deciding whether to remain a virgin.

Some story lines continued for up to four weeks, as when Julie, to Ann’s consternation, dated a man more than twice her age. In one plot twist Ann’s fiancé is killed by a drunken driver. Later she marries her son-in-law’s divorced father.

Comic relief came from the frequent visits of the building superintendent, Dwayne Schneider (Pat Harrington). But Ms. Franklin was said to have pushed the producers toward greater realism, urging them to take on issues like teenage pregnancy and avoid letting the show lapse into comic shtick.

In her 2009 memoir, “High on Arrival,” Ms. Phillips, who had come to the show after gaining notice in the 1973 George Lucas film “American Graffiti,” said that Ms. Franklin did not want “One Day at a Time” to be “sitcom fluff.”

“She wanted it to deal honestly with the struggles and truths of raising two teenagers as a single mother,” Ms. Phillips wrote.

By the time the show ended in 1984, Ann’s daughters had grown and married; Ann herself had remarried and become a grandmother.

In interviews. Ms. Franklin said she had refused to do anything that might diminish her character’s integrity. In particular, she said, it was important for Ann not to rely on a man to make decisions. But each year she found herself fighting the same fights.

“And I’m not working with insensitive men,” she told The Boston Globe in 1981. “But the men who produce and write the show still don’t believe me when I present them with the women’s point of view.

“After seven years,” she continued, “I just want to say, ‘C’mon guys, I’m an intelligent person, why don’t you just trust me?’ I’m so tired of fighting. But you can’t give up.”

Bonnie Gail Franklin was born in Santa Monica, Calif., on Jan. 6, 1944, one of five children. Her father was an investment banker while her mother pushed her children toward the performing arts. The family later moved to Beverly Hills, where Ms. Franklin graduated from Beverly Hills High School.

An excellent tap dancer by 9, she performed on “The Colgate Comedy Hour” in 1953. The next year, she played Susan Cratchit on “A Christmas Carol” on the CBS variety show “Shower of Stars.” In 1956 she had uncredited roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Wrong Man” and the comedy “The Kettles in the Ozarks.” She turned down an offer to be a Mouseketeer on Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club” television show.

After attending Smith College in Massachusetts, Ms. Franklin transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where she graduated with a major in English in 1966. Her marriage to Ronald Sossi, a playwright, ended in divorce in 1970.

She had her breakthrough as a performer the same year, when she was nominated for a Tony for her 10-minute song-and-dance performance on Broadway as a chorus gypsy in “Applause,” which starred Lauren Bacall.

Ms. Franklin also acted in episodes of other television shows as well as in regional theater and movies, mainly ones made for television, notably playing Margaret Sanger, the women’s rights and birth-control advocate, in “Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger,” a 1980 movie on CBS. On the Sanger set, she met the movie’s executive producer, Marvin Minoff. They were married for 29 years before his death in 2009.

Ms. Franklin is survived by her mother, Claire Franklin, and her stepchildren Jed and Julie Minoff.

Twenty-four years after her Sanger portrayal, Ms. Franklin spoke to hundreds of thousands of women at an abortion rights march in Washington.”

Bringing Color and Hue to Life of Pi at the Expense of the Visual Artists

A couple of days ago, you might have noticed some of your friends changed their avatar to a plain green block on FaceBook and Twitter.

Th green block represents the Hollywood Green Screen (or Chroma Key Compositing) and the issue  behind it was alluded to on Oscar night.

Since then Filmgoers, and Filmmakers have been showing their solidarity by replacing their profile pics with a green block to support approximately 250 Visual Effects Artists who worked on “Life of Pi” but were laid off without pay.

Due to these very same artists, “Life of Pi” won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but up many of the artists responsible for creating those gorgeous effects were laid off when their employer Rhythm & Hues filed for bankruptcy, resulting in those Visual Artists not being paid for five weeks.

Known for known for its work on “Babe” and also the Oscar nominated “Snow White And The Huntsman“, Rhythm & Hues was the studio that breathed life into “Life of Pi” on the big screen.

About 600 artists alone, were on staff to animate the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker. Without these artists you’d get scenes like the one at the right with just a boat and an actor on a sound stage.

While everyone else was stargazing on the red carpet, approximately 500 artists and technicians protested outside the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Oscar night to demand a “Piece of the Pi.” The movement has now migrated to social media.

When Life of Pi was awarded Best Visual Effects, VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer was played off within 45 seconds of his Oscar acceptance speech just as he started his explanation of the hardships going through Hollywood’s visual effects industry.

The solid green blocks people are using as their avatars to show solidarity with visual effects artists are inspired by green screens that make so much of the magic we see in movies possible.

Westenhofer Later Expanded on his Speech:

“What I was trying to say up there is that it’s at a time when visual effects movies are dominating the box office, that visual effects companies are struggling. And I wanted to point out that we aren’t technicians. It’s ironic that when visual effects are dominating the box office, visual effects are struggling. Visual effects is not just a commodity that’s being done by people pushing buttons. We’re artists, and if we don’t find a way to fix the business model, we start to lose the artistry. If anything, LIFE OF PI shows that we’re artists and not just technicians.”

According to Business Insider:

Rhythm & Hues is not the first VFX company to have trouble in the past few months. Digital Domain Media Group (DDMG), the company responsible for helping to bring “Titanic” to life on the big screen, filed for bankruptcy back in September. They were soon bought for $37 million by Beijin’s Galloping Horse and Mumbai-based Reliance Capital.

Show Your Solidarity for Visual Effects Artists – Replace your Social Media Avatar With This Green Screen

When you replace your profile pics on your social media with the Green Block it won’t automatically make Hollywood executives magically stop outsourcing visual effects work overseas.

But it will let others in the film industry and film fans know about the practice and they have the choice to show their support.

Oscar host Seth McFarlane flys in to pay tribute to Sally Field

As a big Family Guy fan from day one, I was not at all disappointed by Academy Award® host Seth McFarlane this past Sunday.

In fact I posted on my FaceBook page with the first 20 minutes:

William Shatner, Los Angeles Gay Men’s Choir, Charlize Theron + Channing Tatum ballroom dancing, Sock Puppet re-enactment of Flight and #JGL! And making out with Sally Field — Already up there with the Best AcademyAwards Ever

Seth must get a lot of humor from his dad Ronald, who outfitted in a kilt said on the red carpet, “Seth must be the only straight man in the world who loves show tunes”. From Seth’s opening line, “”The quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh starts now.” (which Jones did) to the William Shatner bit which was hilarious and the Flying Nun sketch showing how game Sally Field is for a well written joke as she finally gives in to Seth’s advances: “Oh, who am I kidding? They’re going to give it to Anne.”

Many critics had a lot to say about Seth’s hosting duties, running the gambit from:
“Offensive and Tired,”, “Provocative,” “Biting” and “Edgy.” According to gossip sheet Gawker.com Seth MacFarlane was “Predictable Sexist, Homophobic, and Racist”. Frazier Moore of the Associated Press enjoyed McFarlane and wrote:

“MacFarlane seized the camera Sunday as host of ABC’s Oscarcast and proved to its vast audience that he’s a ridiculously versatile entertainer, a guy who can be as charming as he is famously irreverent, even polarizing.”

Post-Oscars, a fan asked on Twitter: “@SethMacFarlane Would you host the #Oscars again if asked?”. McFarlane tweeted: “No way. Lotta fun to have done it, though”.

Whether you liked or disliked Seth McFarlane, he did bring in 40.3 million viewers on Sunday, which was the largest audience in three years for the Academy Award® broadcast.

I’m sure many of you already have some ideas on who should be the Academy Award® host next year. My vote would be for Joesph Gordon-Levitt.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Has All The Moves to Host Oscar 2014

Joesph Gordon-Levitt or simply #JGL as he’s known to his adoring 1, 360, 504 Twitter fans, was amazing on Saturday Night Live with his hip-popping dance tribute to the “Singin’ In The Rain” in the video seen Here. Not to mention his excellent sexy-dance-spoof of Magic Mike seen Here.

I have followed Gordon-Levitt since his days as the spunky, tweenaged alien on 3rd Rock from the Sun.

When Gordon-Levitt started acting for the big screen, he had some pretty good performances in Manic (2001), in which his character gets sent to a  mental institution for beating a student almost to death with a baseball bat during a game. It’s also the first time he works with Zooey Deschanel. He co-starred in Latter Days (2003) where he only got 7th billing playing a hypercritical missionary.

Next, Gordon-Levitt had a very layered role in Mysterious Skin (2004), as one of two boys who are sexually abused by their baseball coach (another baseball theme), and how it affects their lives. Gordon-Levitt’s character becomes a gay prostitute. In Brick (2005), directorial debut of Rian Johnson and won a prize at Sundance, is a film-noir about Brendan Frye (Gordon-Levitt’s first real leading role), a teen living in California who becomes involved in an underground drug ring while investigating a murder.

My most favorite role came when he played damaged janitor Chris Pratt in The Lookout (2007) who inadvertently becomes involved in a bank heist gone horribly wrong. Critics raved about Gordon-Levitt describing him as a “surprisingly formidable, and formidably surprising, leading man” and an actor who “embodies, more than performs, a character’s inner life“.

After those reviews, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s life on the big screen changed forever, with excellent supporting and co-lead roles in such film as Stop-Loss (2008), Killshot (2008), sleeper hit (500) Days of Summer (2009) opposite Zooey Deschanel, Inception (2010), the box office smash 50/50 (2011) and critically acclaimed The Dark Knight Rises, Looper and Lincoln all out in 2012.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt hasn’t the so-called “misogynistic, off-color humor” of Seth MacFarlane. JGL is warm, inviting and likable across the board for both men and women. Most importantly for the 18-40 target audience that Oscar (and marketers) wants to reach.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a triple-threat as a singing, acting dance-man. He also owns a collaborative music company called hitRECord where it’s evident he plays nice with others. He seems unspoiled by Hollywood even though he’s been in the trenches since he was 4 years-old starting out in TV commercials and acting in films since was 6 years of age.

It’s time we admit it:

I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
You love Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
We all love Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
(quote from Here)