Girl Power

There's some serious girl power behind the TV show “Nashville,” ABC's drama about the steamy, competitive country music scene. Leading the charge are show creator Callie Khouri, Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Thelma & Louise,” and veteran show runner Dee Johnson, formerly of “The Good Wife” and “Boss,” among other shows. Khouri even directed the show's season finale, which airs May 22. She'd directed a Steven Bochco pilot once, but it never made it on-air; so this episode will be her TV directing debut.

On a Friday a few weeks ago, the "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire's" first full day in theaters, I made my way into the real world - or at least as real as Rick Caruso's Americana at Brand gets - to see what the pre-"Games" party looked like, then take in the show. Teenage girls were everywhere. Cliques of them expanding, dividing, circling like amoebas in the consumer petri dish of the place. From ripped jeans to designer duds, fresh-faced to pink punk-streaked hair, they crossed stereotypes.

It was late October 2011, and their royal highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were still in honeymoon mode when Britain and its Commonwealth agreed that the first baby Cambridge, boy or girl, would become the future monarch. This is a bigger deal than you think. For nearly 1,000 years, the dumbest, least able royal boy was regarded as better monarch material than the smartest royal girl. A princess only got to become the sovereign if all her brothers died or were killed.

It was late October 2011, and their royal highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were still in honeymoon mode when Britain and its Commonwealth agreed that the first baby Cambridge, boy or girl, would become the future monarch. This is a bigger deal than you think. For nearly 1,000 years, the dumbest, least able royal boy was regarded as better monarch material than the smartest royal girl. A princess only got to become the sovereign if all her brothers died or were killed.

"Ladylike," imbued with all of its white glove, pearl and silk handkerchief meanings, has always been a corset of a term. One to be wiggled out of, like that stiff and scratchy Sunday best or those pinching patent leathers. What if ladylike were something more encompassing, including the likes of Gertrude Bell ("Gertrude of Arabia"), whose archeological travels in full Victorian dress upon a camel ultimately landed her as chief officer to the transitional British government in Iraq?

LONDON - Here's a bit of trivia worth hanging on to since it might win you some big bucks on "Jeopardy" one day. When women's boxing made its Olympic debut in these Games on Sunday, the first bout, a flyweight fight, was won by Russia's Elena Savelyeva, who beat North Korea's Hye Song Kim, 12-9. And for those doubters who said women's boxing wouldn't be competitive or compelling, Savelyeva won three of the four rounds by just a point while the final round was scored even. Then her coach celebrated the win in a way he probably never tried in a men's fight - he reached over and kissed his fighter.

Decades before the phenomena of Candace Bushnell's "Sex and the City" would redefine girl power in such sexually assertive terms, there was Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Girlfriends," a brisk tale about a clique of fashion-forward, independent-thinking young women in Turin, who went to all the best parties and slept with the men they wanted to. The year was 1955, the legendary Italian filmmaker was 43 and just 13 years into a career that would have a...

On a Friday a few weeks ago, the "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire's" first full day in theaters, I made my way into the real world - or at least as real as Rick Caruso's Americana at Brand gets - to see what the pre-"Games" party looked like, then take in the show. Teenage girls were everywhere. Cliques of them expanding, dividing, circling like amoebas in the consumer petri dish of the place. From ripped jeans to designer duds, fresh-faced to pink punk-streaked hair, they crossed stereotypes.

If this were a more enlightened world I wouldn't even be writing this. Because the news of a pregnant woman becoming a CEO wouldn't be news. At least the "pregnant" and "woman" part wouldn't be. But this is the United States in 2012 and Marissa Mayer's ascent to become the chief executive of Yahoo Inc. is still a novelty on a couple of counts. PHOTOS: Female tech executives of Silicon Valley First, of course, she's a girl in a guys' world. If Google mapped nerd testosterone zones, Silicon Valley would be the virtual Himalayas.

It was a treat to read about my aunt, Edith Gray, who in 1911 hiked the eight miles up Sierra Madre's Old Mt. Wilson Trail in 1:50:51 when she was 9 years old [Migrations, May 24]. In 1905 when my mother, Katherine Gray, was 8, she led a group of adults on a steep 15-mile hike from the top of Mt. Wilson to Big Santa Anita Canyon and back. My youngest aunt, Ernestine Gray, was born on Mt. Wilson in 1910. The doctor had to ride a mule to get up the mountain and didn't get there in time.

There's some serious girl power behind the TV show “Nashville,” ABC's drama about the steamy, competitive country music scene. Leading the charge are show creator Callie Khouri, Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Thelma & Louise,” and veteran show runner Dee Johnson, formerly of “The Good Wife” and “Boss,” among other shows. Khouri even directed the show's season finale, which airs May 22. She'd directed a Steven Bochco pilot once, but it never made it on-air; so this episode will be her TV directing debut.

LONDON - Here's a bit of trivia worth hanging on to since it might win you some big bucks on "Jeopardy" one day. When women's boxing made its Olympic debut in these Games on Sunday, the first bout, a flyweight fight, was won by Russia's Elena Savelyeva, who beat North Korea's Hye Song Kim, 12-9. And for those doubters who said women's boxing wouldn't be competitive or compelling, Savelyeva won three of the four rounds by just a point while the final round was scored even. Then her coach celebrated the win in a way he probably never tried in a men's fight - he reached over and kissed his fighter.

If this were a more enlightened world I wouldn't even be writing this. Because the news of a pregnant woman becoming a CEO wouldn't be news. At least the "pregnant" and "woman" part wouldn't be. But this is the United States in 2012 and Marissa Mayer's ascent to become the chief executive of Yahoo Inc. is still a novelty on a couple of counts. PHOTOS: Female tech executives of Silicon Valley First, of course, she's a girl in a guys' world. If Google mapped nerd testosterone zones, Silicon Valley would be the virtual Himalayas.

Proving that some musical phenomena can stay dormant for only so long, the Spice Girls are set to make a comeback of sorts with a new musical that's set to open on London's West End on Dec. 11. But before you imagine the lattice-work plot of the 1997 film "Spice World" being reworked for onstage audiences, Judy Craymer (creator of "Mamma Mia!") reportedly has something different in mind for the similarly exclamatory "Viva Forever!," which will prominently feature the sounds of Sporty, Ginger, Posh, Baby, Scary, Bashful, Sneezy -- wait, how many were there again?

Dear little girls and Gleeks of America: You can't have "Wicked. " Give it back, OK? When I first saw "Wicked" on Broadway in 2003, it seemed clear that the show was a subversive satire designed expressly for disillusioned middle-agers like me. With metaphorically disturbing scenes of mob rule, and intimations of fascism and genocide, the show sent the audience home thinking about an angry, ignorant, violence-prone populace running roughshod...

Having wrung what girl power can be gained from psycho-sexual manipulations ("Gossip Girl," "90210") and monster love ("Vampire Diaries"), the CW is getting physical. Though aimed at slightly different demographics, "Hellcats" and "Nikita" both celebrate long-limbed, well-toned females vigorously kicking butt. Starring Disney alums Alyson Michalka and Ashley Tisdale, "Hellcats," which premieres on Wednesday, is an energetic and occasionally sophisticated fish-out-of-water mash-up of "Glee" and "Bring It On" with top notes of "Flashdance," aimed squarely at audiences perhaps too young for "Gossip Girl" but seriously too old for " Hannah Montana.

It's not every girl who can argue the virtues of power tools. But after two weeks in a Santa Monica city summer camp program called Rosie's Girls, 24 Los Angeles area girls have formed some strong opinions. For instance, after Katie Peyton, 11, declares a preference for electric drills, fellow camper Veronique Goasdoue [cq] begs to differ. Veronique, also 11, favors the power saw, and can expand on its merits with some authority:.

Decades before the phenomena of Candace Bushnell's "Sex and the City" would redefine girl power in such sexually assertive terms, there was Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Girlfriends," a brisk tale about a clique of fashion-forward, independent-thinking young women in Turin, who went to all the best parties and slept with the men they wanted to. The year was 1955, the legendary Italian filmmaker was 43 and just 13 years into a career that would have a...

Girl Power The Nineties Revolution in Music Marisa Meltzer Faber & Faber: 162 pp., $14 paper Culture Is Our Weapon Making Music and Changing Lives in Rio de Janeiro Patrick Neate and Damian Platt, preface by Caetano Veloso Penguin: 224 pp., $14 paper Riot grrrls influenced and inspired young Marisa Meltzer. "I can't think of anything more exciting to my nascent feminist fourteen-year-old self," she writes, "than photos of girls in halter tops, torn fishnets, and smeared red lipstick."