Female, forty and furious

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[Sub-Driver]

Female, forty and furious January 19, 2004 - 11:24AM

On the attack ... Sharon Stone, Holly Hunter and Meg Ryan.

Hollywood's most formidable female stars have united to condemn "sexist" film moguls for failing to find roles for women over 40.

Meg Ryan, Holly Hunter, Charlotte Rampling, Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg are among a group of 30 actresses who have taken part in a documentary by Rosanna Arquette to be screened in Britain this summer.

The documentary is seen as a thinly veiled attack on moguls such as Harvey Weinstein - the portly co-owner of Miramax - who control the film industry and the careers of Hollywood actresses.

Arquette, 44, who rose to fame when she starred opposite Madonna in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, said that her interest in what happened to 40-year-old women in Hollywood was sparked by the experience of

Debra Winger, the star of Terms of Endearment, who announced that she was quitting in 1996 aged 40. "Ageing," Arquette said this week, "equals career death."

In the documentary, called Searching For Debra Winger, Winger, who has been nominated for three Oscars, tells how she decided to quit and reveals that while she was working on An Officer And a Gentlemen the notorious producer Don Simpson told her that she needed diet pills.

Julianna Margulies, 37, who starred in ER opposite George Clooney, speaks frankly about the rigours of the casting couch. "You ask anyone that has been in those [audition] meetings. They say, 'Yeah that actress is great but would you f*** her?' And they ask all the men in the room."

The documentary will provoke heated debate in Hollywood, which has long been accused of discriminating against women for their age and beauty. Arquette told London's Sunday Telegraph that she had already received criticism from film bosses. "There are a lot of misogynistic men who are very angry about it," she said. "They've told me, 'It's just a bunch of chicks sitting around bitching about us'."

In the film, Daryl Hannah, 43, says that the root of the problem lies "with the guys who run the studios. They choose projects that they identify with and they say, 'I'd like to be that man having an affair with a chick of 18'."

Samantha Mathis, 33, agrees. "It's the revenge of the nerds syndrome, all these guys couldn't get a girlfriend in high school. They are smart but they have no social skills; suddenly they are running studios in a position of power."

Arquette's subjects are candid and often angry about the way the industry has spat them out once they have aged. Martha Plimpton, 33, says: "For women it's either, she's a starlet or she's an old hag." Whoopi Goldberg adds that film producers "want you to think that you're done" once actresses had turned 40.

Arquette, who is currently filming another documentary about musicians, continues to act and has recently been filming two comedies with the British actresses Imogen Stubbs and Jennifer Saunders.

She says that certain elements of Hollywood have always annoyed her. "I find it offensive that in Hollywood a 68-year-old movie star is paired with a 30-year-old, or someone even younger. You think, 'Come on, who are you kidding'. It is offensive."

Other interviewees said that they had financial problems when the parts dried up. Theresa Russell, 46, says: "It was really hard, I didn't get an audition for years and I started running out of money. I thought, what else can I do? I resent being in this situation. They want to put you out to pasture."

In any other profession, she says, "your work would get better the older you got". Holly Hunter, 45, who won an Oscar for The Piano, believes actresses are at their peak at 40. "The deal is that actresses who are good have probably never been better once they hit 40. Once I hit 40 I had charms that I didn't have when I was 30 and I want to use them."

Teri Garr, 53, who has appeared in more than 50 films, including Tootsie, insists that films should reflect the existence of older women in real life. "There are people who are my age and older who still exist in the world, so there should be writers who write stories that include them. There should be parts for us, even if they are smaller."

She adds: "I remember when I was young the great actresses telling me, 'Wait till they tell you your face has been ravaged by time'."

Diane Lane, 39, dislikes the vocabulary used to describe older women's looks. "If you want to live you must age. Beauty has to be a certain way [in Hollywood]." If you age, she says, "it is described as 'damaged beauty' or 'sad beauty' or 'aged beauty'." She adds: "Character actresses will always work freely because they are not coming from the immaculate time when one looked perfect." Adrienne Shelley, 38, the star of The Unbelievable Truth, tells of how much sex plays a part of being a Hollywood actress. She says: "I get a call in my car on the way to an audition from the agent. He said, 'What is really important is that they think you are f***able'.

"The man walks in and looks right at my tits and I saw in his face that there was no way I was going to get the part. And yet in the real world there is no way I would give this guy the time of day."

Lane urges women to make more of an issue of the problem. "When women don't want to talk about these issues it is so awful," she says. "Hiding away just perpetuates the problem.

"Women want to watch other women of their own age sometimes. All these young people are great but let them watch each other. We want to watch us."

[BooBoo1000]

face it girls, you may be waiting, but the bus had gone. You are yesterday's chopped liver.. Better check on your S/S

[longtermmemmory]

could it be that these 40 something shrews are just ugly on the inside?

How about Linda Evens or Bo Derick. Those women are still attractive and over fourty.


I don't want to see or be around a wacko leftist socialist woman why should anyone else.

[jordan8]

Teri Garr, 53

If Teri Garr is 53 I'll kiss a squirrel's hindquarters. I've seen her on talk shows and wondered just how old is this woman? I think she's immortal. Remember that Star Trek episode she was on? That's pushing 40 years ago!

[Stewart_B]

Another "over 40" lady who works when she wants.

[utahagen]

I've seen this documentary and what I thought when I watched it is: what a bunch of whiners! Why don't these over-40 actresses pool their money and make independent films or produce plays to star in? It doesn't take much money to rent a small theater in Los Angeles. Actresses like Meg Ryan have megabucks; Ryan should sell one of her Aspen condos and finance a film or play. Then again, if she did that, she'd have nothing to complain about, so it's no surprise she doesn't.

[longtermmemmory]

What happens when nobody pays money to see these hags act? or act in leftist propaganda films? Will they demand the goverment pass a law ORDERING people to like them and see their movies?

They have pooled their money. They have made movies. The have bombed like the fem fests that they are.

It is not about spending money on them. It is about NOT spending money on some younger eye candy so that particular money could be spent on their 40 something posteriors.

[longtermmemmory]

in shakespear's day

get thee to a nunnery was often used as a coy reference to a brothel.

[Floratina]

How many geeks in High School did you laugh at?

Now we're getting to it. After reading all of the schadenfreude-glee I see on this thread, I began to wonder what was driving it. With some it's about idealogy and with the uh, less attractive among us, it's about envy and getting even.

[oceanperch]

Good scripture.

We have noticed a lot of actors/actressess that are older are in christian made for tv movies.

Time Changers is really a good one.

Our biggest let down in movies now adays is the lack of depth and storyline.

Someone said Sea Biscuit was good so it is sitting on the DVD waiting to be played.

I am not thrilled about losing my youth either but have come to the conclusion that taking on the role of a mature mother, someone for those who need a surrogate mature mom for a good old fashion hug or ear is fine as long as it is a way for Jesus to shine.

Far from perfect I fell off of the 13yr chaste truck last summer to have an affair with a younger man, by nine weeks I missed being 43 and a older woman and "mom".

I was lucky that only feelings were hurt between the two consenting adults when it ended, and we are now very close emotionally as the physical part ended,yet have moved on.

Maybe these woman complaining need to asses their goals in life and accept the gifts that come with being an older woman.

I have found that the smile from a younger man observing me working ect. is much more richer than the thought of him thinking of me as a sexual object. Attractiveness is not always reflected in flesh.

At the same time I can understand some mens veiw on younger woman being "hotties". Not unhealthy to admire art. Heck I like that Irish actor Colin whatever for his looks.

Jack Nicholson is a great actor all manly and sexually arrogant but I do NOT want to see him in a nude sex scene.

[Jaysun]

When I was a young buck, I thought women over 30 were old too. Boy did I have a lot to learn....a nice lesson too I might add.

My comment was meant to be overzealous and somewhat humorous. I know lots of women over 40 or 50 who are gorgeous. These actresses were labeling themselves as hags when they claimed that they were being passed over because of their age. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But it seems awfully idiotic for someone to claim that they're being seen as useless because they're over 40.

[Smokin' Joe]

Let me tell you, bubbie, I got just the story, about these aging film actresses, y'know, not so pretty anymore, losing their edge, all plotting to kidnap and mutilate the pretty young things of the day, just to get even. They've lost it, but as a group.... they're crusty, they're nuts, and they are dangerous! We'll call it "Hack,hack, sweet Charlotte"!

[Hank Rearden]

That's Melanie Griffith? She get hit by a bus or something?

[Siamese Princess]

You make no mention of male actors, and their "sellability" after the age of 40. You might want to address that one.

My observation is that male stars have a longer shelf-life than female ones, but that they tend to fade after 50, with a few megastar exceptions such as Sean Connery or John Wayne. Many faded over-50 male actors end up working mostly on TV, such as Tom Berenger or Burt Reynolds. Arnold Schwartzenegger hasn't had a hit since Eraser (1996), when he was in his 40s, with the exception of Terminator 3. Harrison Ford, in his early 60s, doesn't seem to be doing too well lately box office-wise. Also, if a male actor hasn't reached the A-list by age 50 he almost certainly never will, with a very few exceptions such as Ian McKellan and Charles Bronson.

I wonder how Mel Gibson, a Freeper favorite and in his late 40s, will do in a few years.

[Stewart_B]

One last 40 year old beauty who picks and chooses when she works.

[independentmind]

Actually, there is a rational explanation for the problem: the men controlling the hiring are in arrested development and haven't the ability to appreciate women over forty because these men have remained teenaged boys in their libido area rather than grow up and appreciate a woman companion instead of a p!ece of tail ... put another way, they are stuck still thinking sex is far and away the most important thing in life.

Hmmm....I don't think the problem you describe is limited to film producers in Hollywood. :)

[grumple]

Welcome to "Red state" America where when we start running out of money....WE GO GET A FRICKIN' JOB...the difference being, of course, THAT WE DON'T HAVE 4 YEARS TO SIT AROUND AND PONDER WHAT WE'RE GONNA DO WHEN THE MONEY RUNS OUT!!

[macrahanish #1]

Melanie G. is a hideous freak. She should be in a circus sideshow.

[AAABEST]

It's hard to feel sorry for people whose profession in a moral-liberal industry is to be pretentious and superficial.

From your lips gal. If they weren't so fouled and vain and were more concerned about what is important in life, this wouldn't be an issue for these millionaires. Poor babies, they're considered "hot" anymore.

Then they take this idiocy up as some kind of pathetic "cause".

[cupcakes]

Diane Lane looks like she smokes too much although she is still quite sexual in my view.
______
And I have no idea what she is complaining about. She had a very lusty part in "Unfaithful" which was out in 2002 and they really played up her "assets" in that film.

Here is a rundown of some of her more recent roles.

This past September, Lane starred opposite Lee Lee Sobieski in Colombia Pictures thriller "The Glass House," playing a woman who, along with her husband, takes in a teenager after her parents die in a car accident. Sobieski's character realizes her new caretakers aren't who they seem to be, and may actually be responsible for the death of her parents. This fall, she also starred in Brian Robbins' "Hardball," playing an inner-city Chicago schoolteacher opposite Keanu Reeves' urban little league coach.

Notice she's got TWO movies coming out this year, one with a very marketable YOUNGER male actor, Keanu. And she was in Perfect Storm just a few years back playing a younger character than what she really is.
I can't fathom what Diane Lane is b*tching about. She still seems to be quite marketable and if the "Hardball" movie is any indication contrasted to "Unfaithful" she is flip flopping still between lusty movies and real acting parts.

[maggief]

"I find it offensive that in Hollywood a 68-year-old movie star is paired with a 30-year-old, or someone even younger."

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Remember Sharon Stone's comment regarding Clinton ... if he wasn't married she'd be all over him "like white on rice."