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Female, forty and furious
smh.com.au ^

Posted on 01/18/2004 5:53:14 PM PST by 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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: actress; aging; castingcouch; hollyweird; hollywood
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To: Sub-Driver
waaaahhhhh
21 posted on 01/18/2004 6:08:56 PM PST by tutstar ( <{{---><)
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To: WIladyconservative
This perpetual whining with hands out for entitlement parts just irks me no end. It gives the really strong, smart, middle aged woman a bad name

I agree. Why don't some of them write their own screenplays with parts of women in their 40+'s and pursue it from there?

Doesn't make these middle aged women sound very "stong or smart" with their insistent whining.

22 posted on 01/18/2004 6:09:38 PM PST by kstewskis (38 more days until Lent and "The Passion" is released...and no I am NOT giving up Mel for Lent!)
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To: Ben Chad
I can say it (shadenfrauden) but I don't remember what it means. Dang I hate when that happens!
23 posted on 01/18/2004 6:11:33 PM PST by Ditter
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To: AngrySpud
I am absolutely nauseated when I see over-the-hill actors like Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford paired with 25-year-old actresses.

"Reality check on aisle four!"

more like clean up on aisle four from the nausea....

24 posted on 01/18/2004 6:12:30 PM PST by kstewskis (38 more days until Lent and "The Passion" is released...and no I am NOT giving up Mel for Lent!)
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To: cyborg
botox and male baby foreskins

Botox I fully understand. What are male baby foreskins used for?

25 posted on 01/18/2004 6:13:58 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Man rises to greatness if greatness is expected of him)
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To: Sub-Driver
I admit it, I'm a male sexist pig, there are movies I watch just because there's a sexy female in it. I have a list of several actresses that are NOT on my watch list:

Rosie O'Dnell

Kathy Bates

Babs

Of Course, there's Farah Fawcett well over 40 that really sold Playboy.

Yea I'm a male pig, I admit, I love looking at beautiful women.

26 posted on 01/18/2004 6:14:14 PM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
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To: Sub-Driver
Kate Hepburn, Angela Landsbury, Patricia Neal, Faye Dunaway, Jessica Tandy, . . . . .

Yeah, no good roles for actresses over 40.

sarcasm off

27 posted on 01/18/2004 6:14:54 PM PST by TexasNative2000 (This space left blank intentionally.)
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To: Sub-Driver
Please we have enough RINOs!
Shouldnt they have saved the cash when they were making the big bucks?
Dont all those professional athletes who make the same insane incomes have to do the same, because the money tree dries up quickly when they age?

28 posted on 01/18/2004 6:16:45 PM PST by sarasmom (If I get a fake blue card, does that mean I wont have to pay for health and auto insurance?)
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Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: AngrySpud
I gotta agree with the complainants on one point. I am absolutely nauseated when I see over-the-hill actors like Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford paired with 25-year-old actresses.

Why? Nicolson and Ford dont deal with 40 year old women in their real lives, so why should they do so on film? How many things look good at 40 except for currency, precious metals minerals and liquor?

30 posted on 01/18/2004 6:18:47 PM PST by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
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To: Sub-Driver
Maybe it has something to do with talent...I know times have changed, but Bette Davis, Kathrine Hepburn and Joan Crawford etc didn't seem to have trouble finding work.....let me qualify that by saying that I am referring to their roles when they were in their 40's and 50's...not when they turned to B films in ther 60's and 70's....LOL
31 posted on 01/18/2004 6:18:50 PM PST by mystery-ak (YooHoo, Mr. Rumsfeld....I need a word with you.)
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To: Sub-Driver
Maybe these "has-beens" are angry because now they're ugly "has-beens." Hollyweird is about looks only, these have all lost theirs and Whoopie never had any to begin with!
32 posted on 01/18/2004 6:19:48 PM PST by Lucky2 (Before I die, I want Bill and Hillary tried for treason and jailed (executed) for their crimess.)
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To: Sub-Driver; Lancey Howard; billorites; Mr. Jeeves
In any other profession, she says, "your work would get better the older you got". Holly Hunter, 45,

Yeah Holly, like football, baseball. boxing, basketball, modeling, any friggin' women's sports you care to choose and I could go on.

33 posted on 01/18/2004 6:22:09 PM PST by BOBTHENAILER (One by one, in small groups or in whole armies, we don't care how we do, but we're gonna getcha)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
You're right. My position is a bit more extreme: I won't pay eight bucks to see any of them. The last movie I went to was Private Ryan...before that, I can't remember which one it was. May have been Silverado or Wind and the Lion.

Heck with 'em. They don't have a clue as to what makes a great movie.

Semper Fi,
34 posted on 01/18/2004 6:23:49 PM PST by 2nd Bn, 11th Mar
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To: sarasmom
easy answer, they are not grown up's....unlike US Freeper's...
35 posted on 01/18/2004 6:24:23 PM PST by Sub-Driver
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To: Sub-Driver
Basically what they are saying is all too true. However...this same discrimination also applies to men in Hollywood. Perhaps to a lesser degree, but its there.

And honesty, some of these actresses have only their looks to thanks for working in the film industry. IMHO, Daryl Hannah peaked in SPLASH.

"The new Penthouse is in! The new Penthouse is in! They published my letter - A LESBIAN NO MORE." (John Candy plug)

36 posted on 01/18/2004 6:24:24 PM PST by Khurkris (Ranger On...)
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To: AngrySpud
'Reality check on aisle four!'

Reality? What reality? Hollywood deals in everything BUT reality. That's why practically everyone you see acting in any movie, male or female, has had most parts of their anatomy altered in some fashion. And the only reason you do see the over-the-hill actors paired with the twenty-something starlets is people like Harvey Weinstein are only projecting their fantasies; as for the actresses who are complaining, they've got plenty of room over at Lifetime Television and Oxygen.

-Regards, T.
37 posted on 01/18/2004 6:25:36 PM PST by T Lady (Who Let the 'RATS Out?!!)
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To: Lancey Howard
They didn't complain when they once got roles only because they were young babes.

You nailed it straight away.

38 posted on 01/18/2004 6:25:39 PM PST by waterstraat
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To: FormerACLUmember
Trendy hollyweird types are using anti ageing creams containing a small amount of infant foreskin... everytime I hear this the doctor never gives a reason why. La Prairie sells a face cream that costs $150. It contains caviar. My ex is a cosmetics chemist thinks it's all overpriced vainglorious crapola LOL
39 posted on 01/18/2004 6:26:13 PM PST by cyborg (feed marmite to the prisoners and they'll never go there again)
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To: exit82
Also, no way is Teri Garr 53. She was dancing in Elvis movies in the mid sixties. Nice try, Teri.

Teri Garr would have been 16 in 1966, perfect age for dancing in an Elvis movie.

40 posted on 01/18/2004 6:26:48 PM PST by Inyo-Mono
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