Freelancette

Last Tuesday night, I attended the Sci Fi Channel upfront presentation in the newly-renovated Morgan Library. Women's magazine writers don't usually top the invite list for this network's annual dog-and-pony show upfront, but I was on Sci Fi's radar after writing a short item about their marquee show, Battlestar Galactica, for the April issue of ELLE ("A Woman's Space", p. 224). I brought K.O. as my "VIP Guest" (after all, he's the one who introduced me to the show), and we had a total blast.

The event began with a one-hour press Q&A with the men responsible for Battlestar, Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, Sci Fi's head of programming, Mark Stern, and all of the major stars of the show. We scored great seats, and were eye-level with Katee Sackoff (Starbuck), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Grace Park (Boomer/Athena), Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama), Jamie Bamber (Apollo), James Callis (Gaius Baltar), Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) and Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol). Bestill my heart!

After taking a little while to get comfortable (the reporters seemed as nervous as the stars wriggling awkwardly in their director's chairs), there was a comfortable back-and-forth. Most of these actors, save for McDonnell and Olmos, were basically unknown before Battlestar. That means they haven't yet had time to develop celebrity-sized egos and still seem like really nice, down-to-earth people. They're also genuinely (and justifiably) proud of their work on the show –- they don't take this for granted. As they sat there on stage answering questions about the fourth and last season of BG, which starts April 4, you could tell that they've all enjoyed working on such a smart, progressive show, and they're going to miss the experience. Edward James Olmos was pretty frank about what a "helluva ride" it's been, and expressed how emotional it will be when the season draws to a close –- whenever that will be (the writer's strike means that there are still about ten unfinished episodes).

The big news of the night for hardcore fans was that Sci Fi has green-lighted a BG spin-off prequel called Caprica that take place 50 years before the period covered in Battlestar. Caprica, which is the name of now-destroyed planet, will explain the creation of the Cylon robots, will focus on the struggles and conflicts of two important families. Ronald Moore compared Caprica to a sci-fi version of Dallas -- a good, if unconscious, hook for female viewers (and Sci Fi could certainly use more of us).

After the Q&A, members of the press (and our VIP Guests) headed upstairs to join the crowds of advertisers and execs to eat, drink and mingle. There were more announcements about other new Sci Fi shows, one involving anime, and something about a tech web site called dvice.com (sorry, I wasn't really listening to this, as I was too busy worshipping Mary McDonnell from across the room). After the suits had left the stage, the stars were let loose to pose for photo ops and chat with everyone. The cast of one of Sci Fi's other shows, Eureka were also there, working the room. When I asked Mark Stern and Sci Fi/USA president Bonnie Hammer if they had any other programs that might appeal to women, they reflexively mentioned Eureka. However, I haven't had a chance to check it out, and at the upfront, I only had eyes for the Battlestar crew. My conversations from that night:

Mary McDonnell: It's hard not to get chills watching Mary McDonnell play Laura Roslin, former schoolteacher turned Leader of the Free Universe. Any aspiring candidate, black or white, male or female, could learn a lot from President Roslin's pragmatism, humanity, and ability to make tough decisions quickly and decisively. During the Q&A, a reporter asked Mary if Barack Obama had asked her to be his running mate. "Actually," she responded with a twinkle in her eye, "Hillary has." Can you imagine a Clinton-McDonnell ticket? Talk about experience: Mary's been doing the job for four years)! And, Mary's wit and charisma would be a nice balance for Hillary's aggressive opportunism. Later that night, Mary admitted to me that she was actually a fan of both candidates, but that Hillary was the "right candidate for right now." "She could "pave the way for Obama," she said. Time will tell if "President Roslin" has paved the way for "President Clinton"… In the meantime, wish I had a "Clinton/McDonnell '08" T-shirt.

Katee Sackhoff: In her role as Starbuck, the fastest, toughest and possibly craziest fight pilot in the Galactica fleet, this woman can make a drab cotton racer-back tank (part of the pilot's standard uniform) look sexier than a black lace g-string. She's fit, she's sassy, she's gorgeous, she completely fearless -- she's my hero. Sounds like I'm not the only woman who has a crush on Katee, though: she told me at the party that she "keeps getting offers from The L-Word." I personally think that with her up-for-anything grin and confident swagger, she could give slutty Shane a run for her money...but Katee said that while she has nothing against the L-Word, she wants to convince audiences that she's without-a-doubt straight (proof: she's got a director boyfriend in New Orleans), and fears that her roles in Battlestar and Bionic Woman may have given them the wrong idea. I don't get this, as everyone knows Starbuck has slept with just about every dude on the ship (she's never dating less than two men at a time) and is as hetero as they come. In person, Katee is beautiful and feminine: she was wearing a cute sleeveless black trapeze dress with gold patent stilettos, and her makeup looked great. I guess some people automatically assume that short hair + shameless sexuality + muscles = lesbian. What a shame. I also think it's a bit of a shame that Katee is growing out her hair, as it's still a little unusual to see sexually powerful women on TV or in the movies with short hair. Anyway, Katee was really fun to talk to, and devoted a lot of her time to us. The only time she tried to break away was to grab her dad (!) and ask him to tell her mom (!!) that Mrs. Sackhoff simply must try one of the little chocolate dessert tarts because she'd really like them. I love Katee -- platonically speaking, of course.

Tricia Helfer: Stunning (and tall -- she towered over me) Tricia had a successful career as a model before switching over to acting. In fact, she's posed for ELLE many times, and one of her covers from the mid-90's is still hanging in our main hallway. I look at her every time I walk down to our executive editor's office. She has caramel-colored hair in that photo, but has since gone white-hot-blond for her role as a cyber-babe Number Six, and is almost always shown wearing skimpy little outfits that look like they came from Victoria's Secret "Space Angels" collection. Honestly, Tricia is almost too gorgeous for her own good. Every time I've heard her speak (on last year's ComicCon panel, in interviews), she comes across as exceptionally sharp and pragmatic. Even dressed in the kind of second-skin minidress she was wearing Tuesday (my Spanx covers more surface area), she's also cool and likable, the kind of girl you'd totally want to get drinks with -- if only she didn't attract so much unwanted male attention. I was absorbed in our conversation at the upfront, and thus didn't realize that no fewer than five men were circling around the two of us like pinstriped sharks. Tricia chatted with me about how female viewers seem to really appreciate the complexities of her character (a robot with a preternaturally developed sense of morality, also surprisingly spiritual and empathetic. She sympathizes with the humans even though she is programmed to destroy them). However, Tricia said, men don't seem to pick up on that as much, and see Number Six as more of a sex object. Sigh. I'm not surprised, but I am a little dejected. Six is a profoundly conflicted character, and I think Tricia expresses that very well, with subtle facial expressions and anguished glances. I do hope that more producers and directors take note of her work on the show. I asked Tricia what else she had coming up, and she told me that one of her recent projects was a direct-to-DVD movie called Walk All Over Me. Tricia starred alongside Leelee Sobieski (cool!), but played a dominatrix (boo!). She sounded pretty excited about it (was it genuine?), but I'd love to see her in a role that makes takes more advantage of her acting talents than her model figure. She's had enough of that kind of exposure already. Tricia informed me that she looks a little more regular-girl and a little less blond in this season of BG, so perhaps that will be a little less distracting for the guys.

I also spoke briefly with Jamie Bamber (this Brit's dad is from Detroit, and that's why he's able to nail Apollo's American accent) and fawned over Ronald Moore (that man is brilliant. I could listen to him talk about writing for television forever). Such a great group. I'm looking forward to watching them in this season of Battlestar, and beyond.

Posted by Corrie at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After this year’s Academy Awards, during which she charmed the cattiest of red-carpet paparazzi and then later overcame jitters to sing solo in front of millions of film fans, Amy Adams can no longer be considered a new, relatively unknown face. Still, I feel duty-bound to point out that Elle was one of the first magazines to give the lovely actress her due, starting with an enthusiastic shout-out in our November "Women in Hollywood" issue, followed by the full-on cover girl treatment in March. So I’ve been looking forward to Adams’ new film, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, for months.

As homework, I just started reading the novel on which the film is based. It’s a surprisingly modern feminist fairy tale about a dowdy, down-trodden spinster who shrugs off the bonds of virtue and propriety for one day in order to experience how the other, non-virtuous, half lives. Miss Pettigrew finds herself suddenly thrust into a world she thought only existed in the movies, involving lots of indiscriminately jolly sex, cocaine, seedy nightclubs, dangerous gentlemen, foxy ladies, and dubious cocktails with names like “Snake’s Venom.” Acting as a de facto lady-in-waiting to a glamorous starlet named Delysia LaFosse, Miss Pettigrew gambols about London to the tune of lines like this one: "She was a gentlewoman ranker out on the spree, and, oh shades of a monotonous past, would she spree!" But beneath the candy floss, this novel contains golden nuggets of wisdom concerning the beauty of female solidarity and the importance of self-actualization. Simply irresistible!

My friend Priya Jain recently wrote an interesting feature for Film in Focus about the story behind the story behind the movie. In it, she explains that the author of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson, was popular English chick-lit writer who wrote just six books about love and marriage (sound familiar?). Miss Pettigrew (published in 1938) was a bit of a departure for Watson, and its representation of life in London's fast lane made it almost scandalously racy for its time. When her publisher balked, Watson swore that the book would be a winner (she also agreed to churn out another of her standard bodice-rippers as collateral). She was right, and the book's charms endure today. Unfortunately, Watson's writing career was one of the many casualties of WWII, and these six books (and now this one movie) are all that remain of her legacy.

I’m off to finish the book. I’m lapping it up, "as the vulgar say, with eager gulps!”

Posted by Corrie at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a beautiful gift from K.O.! This print was designed by Stuart Kolakovic, a young British illustrator who creates these whimsical folklore-inspired scenes. They remind me of dioramas and Russian marionettes (I used to have one with a kerchief and round specs. I named her Olga... wish I still had her). We discovered Stuart through a group blog that K.O. participates in, called Invisible Man. I hear he's working on a graphic novel about two brothers growing up in Serbia during World War II (Stuart's Serbian grandfather fought in Yugoslavia). His style really lends itself to fable and narrative, so I'm looking forward to checking out the book.

Posted by Corrie at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After the recent Huckabee hulabaloo in Iowa, I was inspired to dig up this piece I wrote for Salon back in 2004, during the Republican National Convention here in NYC. As a Salon editorial fellow hungry for clips, I was sent by the War Room editor to cover this ridiculous rah-rah governor's rally in Brooklyn. Armed with only my notepad and pen, I unfastened my "I'm Pro-Choice and I Vote!" pin from my bag and tried to mingle with the Republican Brooks Brothers dressed in suits and ties, feeling like an impostor in spirit and fashion (I was wearing a fluttery orange skirt and a bikini top as a bra under my shirt). I felt like everyone could see right through me, straight into my liberal bleeding heart. However, that event gave me a major scoop. I was standing right in front of the stage when Mike Huckabee, then-governor of Arkansas and now-Republican presidential candidate, started jamming with his band. Who knew Huckabee was guilty of such a "Capitol Offense"?

Posted by Corrie at 7:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recent headline from The Onion:
Man Finally Put In Charge Of Struggling Feminist Movement

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Image courtesy of NBC.com

I've been noticing a lot of unabashed, in-your-face cleavage on prime-time television lately. There's Tina Fey as Liz Lemon in her unbuttoned button-downs and plunging V-neck sweaters on "30 Rock"; Kristin Chenoweth and Anna Friel in low-cut frocks and push-up bras on "Pushing Daisies" (Friel recently acknowledged this to "People" magazine: "There's a lot of attention drawn to [costar] Kristin [Chenoweth's] and my breasts as the season goes on"); Julia Louis-Dreyfus in partially-unwrapped wrap dresses in "The New Adventures of Old Christine." On just about every channel, the ladies are busting out.

Stylists and wardrobe consultants have always tried to draw the viewer's eye to their clients' best assets, of course, but in the past, breasts were visual shorthand: Cleavage = bimbo. If the character was supposed to be smart and sexy, then maybe she'd reveal some leg, or the curve of a derrière in snug slacks, but she'd strive to remain brainy above the belt. This was especially true in the T&A-era of the late seventies: Sexy, spazzy Chrissy Snow pratfalled in tight T's and halter tops on "Three's Company" while sensible Janet stuck to collared polos, and the most clever of "Charlie's Angels," Sabrina Duncan, was far less likely to be karate-chopping in a bikini than co-angels Jill Monroe and Kelly Garrett. More recently, girl-"Friends" Rachel and Monica occasionally gave viewers an eyeful, but in the course of their daily squabbles, breakdowns, frolics and fantasies, they preferred to keep all eyes at hair-level. They were sophisticated, professional Manhattanites, after all.

The interesting thing about today's TV women is that they're baring more, but viewers are ogling less. All of this plunging, pushing and revealing seems to be flying under the radar. No one is making a big deal about breasts –- unless, of course, they're unavoidably enormous and patently fake, like the parting-shot pneumatic globes that belong to Michael Scott's girlfriend Jan on "The Office". But for most other characters, breasts have become irrelevant.

They certainly don't signify sexual prowess in the way that they used to. Christine's cleavage and Lemon's cantaloupes (I mean, check out the cleavage in this video) haven't been able to secure either of them a satisfactory partner. In an odd bait-and-switch (or a bad casting decision), Christine's supposedly sexy nemesis, "New Christine", is more covered-up than she is! Christine's ex-husband's new partner--a classic bimbette-- is often shown in sack-like shirts that reveal little more than a clavicle, while funny, take-charge "Old Christine" is practically popping out of her sweaters as she bops from her son's school, to her office at the gym, to (often disappointing) dates out at night. Christine is a stunning woman, but she doesn't use her looks or her figure to her advantage. Hmmm...maybe she should!

The same goes for Liz Lemon, the brilliantly funny and extremely capable TV producer on "30 Rock." Her wit and sass have made her top-dog on the set of her show, but not even her killer curves can get her a date with a decent guy. Listening to Liz's coworkers mock her looks, her age, and her semi-pathetic singleness makes us want to shake some sense into them. The woman is hardly mockable. She is smokin' hot! Am I the only one to notice this?

Over on "Pushing Daisies," cleavage is practically part of the uniform for women at The Pie Hole bakery, but the ladies aren't getting any bonuses for it. Waitress Olive Snook is constantly overlooked by her true love, Ned, despite her lovely, prominently-displayed wares (and I'm not talking about the pies). For Olive's sartorial sister and romantic rival, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles, those cute, low-cut dresses and snug cardigans pay off -- sort of. She got the guy, but he'll never be able to lay a hand on any part of her body (if he touches her, she dies). All that wasted décolleté!

These characters don't seem to have to worry about whether their sexy clothing choices will compromise their credibility or detract from their intelligence. In fact, Liz Lemon was recently shown wearing a loose-fitting but extremely low-cut J. Crew dress that I happen to own. I'm afraid to wear it to my casual office without a tank underneath, but Lemon wore it to NBC with pride, sans tank and sans bra. Instead of showing Liz in her cute, figure-flattering ensembles partying it up after work, the show makes a big point of telling us that Liz usually goes home alone, with only a meatball sub ("extra bread") as her companion. A nice rack doesn't hurt these women at the office (hooray for that!), but, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be helping them much outside the office, either (what's up with that?).

It's almost as if cleavage has been de-sexualized -- on TV at least. Or maybe it's more that breasts have been put in their proper place, and are no longer the clues or props they once were. Producers and stylists have finally realized that women can be brainy and buxom, they can be sarcastic and sexy, they can be neurotic and nicely put-together, they can be voluptuous and...lonely. Or not. One thing is certain: you can't judge a woman by her cleavage. Today's female TV characters are more than the sum of their parts.

Posted by Corrie at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nerve's recent review of Pushing Daisies totally nails this show's seductive power. Writer Bryan Christian describes Daisies as a "whimsical, deeply stylized, romantic murder-mystery fairy tale" that "took the piss out of the deathly serious murder porn that litters the network landscape" yet still "hews close to the classic screwball tropes." Think "Law and Order" meets "Moonlighting," with emphasis on the latter.

"Like Moonlighting," writes Christian, "Pushing Daisies knows that screwball means more than just snappy banter and sexual tension: it means having the discipline to be in constant pursuit of the good part of the story — the chase, the flirt, the best joke at hand — then move on to the next thing with giddy momentum."

I was initially wary that the show, with its saturated colorscapes, flouncy frocks, sweetly chaste lovers and CG sets would send my internal Quirk-o-Meter into spasms. But like Christian, I was lured in by the soothing, Potter-y baritone of venerable British actor Jim Dale, and charmed by the moony green eyes and expressive eyebrows of American actor Lee Pace. I'm still occasionally irked by the "Gilmore-ish" dialogue (add that to the Gen Y lexicon), but I'm really enjoying the bizarre weekly mysteries and the Chuck-Ned-Olive love triangle -- and Olive herself, played with lots of sass and cleavage by Kristin Chenoweth.

"Moonlighting's" ratings plummeted after Maddie and David finally slept together. Lucky for "Pushing Daisies," sex will never be an option for Ned and Chuck (if he touches her, she dies). So as long as the characters keep their libidos and their quirkiness in check, we'll be able to have a satisfying and fulfilling relationship.

Posted by Corrie at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)