Movie Industry Women

Just how hard is it being a woman director, dealing with male bonding? It's one thing, says Nancy Savoca, on a business level, just to break through the buddy system that is upper-echelon movie studio management. It's another thing altogether to earn the trust of actors and direct scenes of sexism in vivid action.

After months with barely any significant female roles on the big screen, the fall season is suddenly awash in interesting portrayals by actresses. And not just the usual handful of Oscar-hopeful leading roles. Coming releases such as "Dr. T. and the Women," "The Yards" and "Requiem for a Dream" afford a number of seasoned talents the opportunity to shine in ways we'd almost forgotten they could, among them Ellen Burstyn, Farrah Fawcett, Faye Dunaway and Shelley Long.

Mary Pickford is a bit of a surprise. Everyone knows the legendary actress' name and her famous Beverly Hills mansion Pickfair, but not many know exactly what she accomplished. "Basically, she was one of the most important women in film history," says Elaina Archer, who manages the Mary Pickford Library for the Mary Pickford Foundation. "It's kind of sad that people are just starting to realize it just now in a lot of ways."

Turner Classic Movies funded the George Eastman House restoration of "Cleopatra," which screens Aug. 10 as part of the cable channel's salute to women in film. The lavish 1912 period drama about the Queen of the Nile was the first 6,000-foot, six-reel feature film made in the U.S. Starring and produced by actress Helen Gardner, it was herfirst independent production and was produced by her company, Helen Gardner Picture Players.

About six months ago, two women working in the film industry found themselves musing over cocktails at the Dresden Room in Los Angeles, wondering why it was that so many of their peers were excluded from the Hollywood Boys Club. When, they asked each other, would female filmmakers finally get the break they deserved? What had happened to the Year of the Woman, anyway?

To the casual observer, Femme Fatales magazine might just be another cleavage report from the Hollywood fringe, a girlie rag for males too young to buy Playboy or Penthouse. True, FF, a quarterly devoted to B-movie queens, is plump with pictures of scantily clad women staring open-mouthed into the camera.

Laudatory awards shows are the routine stuff of Hollywood, and Friday's 17th Annual Women in Film luncheon easily could have fallen into instant hazy memory if not for the uninhibited remarks by recipient Michelle Pfeiffer. Taking the podium to accept her Crystal Award, the last of several given out during the ceremonies recognizing individuals who "represent the highest ideals of the film and television industry," the actress admonished some of the people there to honor her. "So . . .

With a provocative title like "Live Nude Girls," an attractive ensemble cast that includes Dana Delany, Cynthia Stevenson, Kim Cattrall, Laura Zane and Olivia D'Abo and a scant $1-million budget, one would assume that all writer-director Julianna Lavin had to do was keep the camera in focus and distributors would be lined up outside her door.

A 23-year-old graduate of Cal State Northridge set a new Hollywood record late last week when Paramount Pictures bought her screenplay for $1 million, believed to be the highest fee ever paid for a woman's script.

Bette Midler is grabbing a business lunch in the Rotunda, the mouse-motif restaurant frequented by the top rung of Team Disney, when a sandy-haired executive interrupts her, mid-bite. "You're my favorite . . . seen everything you've done," he says, both excited and apologetic. "I was in the second row at Radio City [Music Hall]--the one who caught your hairpiece in the mermaid act."

It has taken the new millennium for female film pioneers to finally achieve some of the recognition they have long deserved. Names like Frances Marion, Lois Weber, Alice Guy, Helen Gardner and Dorothy Arzner are taking their rightful place in the annals of film history. At a time when most women were housewives, mothers or secretaries, these plucky and brave women were writing, directing and producing films when the medium was in its infancy.

She is known as La Dona, The Devourer of Men, Maria Bonita, La Generala. She is a woman of power, fame, fortune and charisma, who in a land of machos, threw their machismo back in their faces with near supernatural force. Maria Felix, the iconic Mexican movie star, is scheduled to receive a lifetime achievement award Saturday at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. Festival organizers have been gingerly and frantically trying to confirm her appearance.

The title of the movie scheduled to open this year's Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, "Woman on Top," is a fitting description for the prominence of women filmmakers represented in the fourth annual event. The festival, beginning Friday and continuing through July 30 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, will feature a special program, "Women's Visions," highlighting the work of several contemporary Latin American and American female directors.

Four pioneer women filmmakers--directors Alice Guy, Lois Weber and Dorothy Arzner and writer Frances Marion--are the subject of AMC's "Reel Models: The First Women of Film,' which airs Tuesday night. Executive produced by Barbra Streisand--who also hosts--and Cis Corman and directed and produced by Susan and Christopher Koch, the hourlong documentary features clips and interviews with various film historians, including Anthony Slide, about these trailblazing women.

Five minutes into our meeting, Drew Barrymore starts telling me about her watch. It's bright blue--plastic, of course, since Barrymore is an ardent vegetarian and won't wear leather--and was a promotional item from the company that makes "Otter Pops." * "Otter Pops," she says politely, because Barrymore is the kind of person who will say "bless you" when anyone within earshot sneezes.

In a bleak assessment of female employment in Hollywood, two separate studies have concluded that women continue to lag significantly behind their male counterparts in key creative positions even as the movie and television industries enjoy boom times. The Directors Guild of America came out with a report this week showing that the number of days worked by female film directors fell from 8.

Exactly what happened to Jan Eliasberg? On Feb. 1, the 30-year-old theater and television director was riding high. She had begun shooting her first feature film, a 20th Century Fox-financed teen comedy called "How I Got Into College." A week later, Fox dropped Eliasberg for director Savage Steve Holland.

Like thousands of aspiring actresses before her, Jean Kini Chang arrived in Los Angeles looking for a career in film. She found it, but not in the form she'd originally envisioned. Rather than wait tables when parts failed to come her way, the Dallas native recognized there was plenty of work to be had on the other side of the camera.

TV, or not TV? For Helen Hunt, despite winning a best actress Oscar last week for "As Good as It Gets," it made sense--and more than 2 billion cents, based on her estimated $1-million-per-episode salary--not to give up her day job on the NBC sitcom "Mad About You." For George Clooney, star of "Batman and Robin" and "The Peacemaker," continuing to make the rounds on "ER" no longer seemed a practical use of his time, given the opportunities that beckon.

So where are Demi, Julia, Jodie and Barbra? Granted, not every deserving movie star can have hand and footprints immortalized in the pavement in Mann's Chinese theater's famed forecourt, but take a look at these figures. Since Ted Mann bought Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1973, 28 men, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Eddie Murphy, Jack Nicholson and, most recently, Denzel Washington in January, have been enshrined in cement at the Hollywood Boulevard landmark.