Move over, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn! Make room for that ultra-modern snap-and-wise-cracking couple, Aaron Sorkin and Maureen Dowd.
Emmy-winning "West Wing" creator Sorkin seemed strangely determined to answer the question/title of Dowd's new book, "Are Men Necessary?" with his stammering, fawning cross-examination of the ravishing redhead at her only L.A. book signing for the Writers Bloc, held Monday at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.
Sorkin, who started off by apologizing, "I'm not a professional interviewer, but I have to think that my being able to question you in a synagogue full of people is a little nightmare for you," initially seemed focused on Dowd's beauty. He repeatedly asked her to address the fact that people talk more about her looks than William Safire's, to the point that he made Dowd blush and ask him to stop because "You're embarrassing me."
Dowd did try to take control, talking about what Shakespeare could have done with Vice President Dick Cheney; the time she was almost jailed in Saudi Arabia for wearing a somewhat sheer burka; the growing popularity of Barbie, breast implants, Botox and Playboy bunnies, while making intriguing, insightful remarks on the decline of feminine consciousness -- from women fighting for equal rights in the '60s to girls trying to find their "inner slut" today.
But why, she wanted to know, "when women are running four of the six major studios, is Hollywood still making movies portraying women as maids, shop girls, hookers, ghosts and geishas?"
"Don't encourage her," Sorkin warned the wildly applauding audience before patiently explaining, "Hollywood is about what is successful.
"The films that appeal to most women are films like 'Bridget Jones' Diary.'
"Women like seeing films about how hard it is to get a date, then eating ice cream after a bad date and ultimately having a good date. It's women who make these films successful."
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