Monday, October 24, 2005

What We Need to Know Today- October 24, 2005

News
For those of us keeping track -- As of Saturday, the count of dead soldiers in the Iraq war stood at 1,996.

It's getting really nasty between Judith Miller and the NYTimes. Maureen Dowd wrote a scathing piece on Saturday and the public editor had a piece on Sunday. Judith responds to the public editor piece and to me she is getting more and more defensive and shrill.
JUDITH MILLER IS LOSING IT

Condoleeza Rice continues to get signals all over the place about running for office. She says she's not running- for now.
From the NY Times: CONDOLEEZA RICE

All things equal? Women are getting arrested and incarcerated in increasing numbers.
WOMEN IN PRISON

Harriet Miers is so screwed. She is slowly eroding the minimal support she had after some visits to Senators on Capitol Hill. Someone close the Senator Specter said this: "All Specter is hearing from colleagues on both sides is that they're getting nothing from Harriet but vague generalities and how wonderful the President is." Yuck and double yuck.
From Time: HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS

Film
Professor Martha Lauzen does a yearly analysis of the amount of women working in front and behind the scenes of all of the prime time TV shows. Here is the latest report.
BOXED IN

Diane Keaton, is a big star, but if she were a guy she's be monstrous. Who is Diane Keaton? From the NY Times Magazine: ANOTHER WOMAN

Sounds delicious and wierd: Susan Sarandon will play Doris Duke to Ralph Fiennes' Bernard Lafferty — the flamboyant butler who drank himself to death after inheriting most of Duke's money — in "Bernard and Doris," which starts shooting next week under the direction of Bob Balaban.

TV
Human Trafficking, Lifetime's mini-series on the trafficking of women premieres tonight on Lifetime TV.
A review from the NY Times: SELLING SEX, THAT RENEWABLE RESOURCE

Nathan Templeton that nasty Speaker of the House on Commander in Chief will soon be getting a wife who, dare I say, might be more liberal?
CHIEF RIVAL LOTS TWIST

Sport
The US National team played its final game of 2005 looking much better than they did last week. They pretty much decimated Mexico 3-0 with two goals by Abby Wamback and one by Kristine Lilly who now has 299 caps (games) on the books!

Thursday, October 20, 2005

What We Need to Know Today- October 20, 2005

News
Harriet Miers, who is supposed to be miss efficient and miss organized, has her law license suspended in Texas and DC and her questionnaire that all Supreme Court nominees fill out rejected for being "inadequate," "insufficient" and "insulting."
From the NY Times: HARRIET MIERS CAN'T ANSWER THE QUESTIONNAIRE PROPERLY

The Return of the Sponge
From the Village Voice: IS HE SPONGEWORTHY

Gender Gap in college grows- 57% of college students are women.
From USA Today: WOMEN ARE MORE COLLEGE STUDENTS

Film
It's Shirley MacLaine's year. She will receive this year's career achievement award at the upcoming ShowEast confab; has In Her Shoes out now, and Rumor Has It is coming in December.

Dakota Fanning just keeps making those movies. She stars in Dreamer a movie about a girl and her horse out Friday.
From the Seattle Post Intelligencer: DAKOTA FANNING IS THE BUSIEST GIRL IN HOLLYWOOD

Courteney Cox has signed on to star in an untitled comedy for Paramount Pictures. The story centers on a Southern socialite whose daughter's transformation from little princess to street hip-hop dancer at first shatters her world, then gives the two common ground.

Claire Danes stars in Shopgirl based on the novel by Steve Martin opening Friday.
From USA Today: CLAIRE DANES

TV
Commander in Chief the new ABC drama starring Geena Davis has been given a full season pickup.

Books
Books no woman's library should be without
From the Village Voice: OUR BODIES, OUR BOOKS

Sport
Time Magazine has a great piece on Candace Parker the new basketball phenom who dunks regularly and was the only player -- man or woman -- to win the high school player of the year for two years. She's playing for Tennessee and the season kicks off next month. Can't wait.
READY FOR LIFT-OFF

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

What We Need to Know Today- October 19, 2005

News
More Judy Miller fallout
Editor and Publisher: JUDY MILLER FALLOUT AT THE NY TIMES
Fishbowl NY: A ROUNDUP OF JUDY MILLER POSTS

Sarah Silverman is one of the funniest chicks in the world. The New Yorker does a well deserved profile on her.
QUIET DEPRAVITY

Film
Tilda Swinton will star as a forensic psychologist opposite Amber Tamblyn's murder suspect in the indie feature "Stephanie Daley."

TV
For fans of Alias the good news is that Vaughn may not be dead. Michael Vartan was seen on the set shooting this week. Stay tuned for more information.

There is justice: ABC's Grey's Anatomy (18.3 million) has been steadily growing over the past three weeks even as Sunday lead-in Desperate Housewives (25.8 million) has declined. The gap between the shows has narrowed by 2 million since the season's start.

Barbra Streisand's early TV special will be available on DVD for the first time in November. "My Name is Barbra," "Color Me Barbra," "A Happening in Central Park," "Belle of Fourteenth Street," and "Barbra Streisand...and Other Musical Instruments" will all find their way to disc and a number of the specials will be broadcast on PBS stations in December. The DVDs will make many Streisand performances that have not been seen since their original broadcasts available to the public.

Books
Julie Powell took Julia Child's recipes and first put them on a blog and now into a hit book- Julie and Julia 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.
MSNBC: CHANNELING JULIA CHILD ONE RECEIPE AT A TIME

Sport
Roger Federer's part-time coach Tony Roche has agreed to help Indian rising star Sania Mirza on a short-term basis. Roche will work with the 18-year-old for three weeks over Christmas, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Music
Just cause I love her- "When Joni Mitchell arrived in Los Angeles from Canada in 1968, she landed in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Barney Hoskyns tells how the hipsters who all hung out together in Laurel Canyon fell both for Mitchell and her music - and turned Sixties rock on its head..."
read the rest from The Guardian: LADY OF THE CANYON

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

What We Need to Know Today- October 18, 2005

News
Conservatives were assured that Harriet Miers would overturn Roe v. Wade if confirmed.
From CBS News: ABORTION AT CENTER OF MIERS DEBATE

Maria Shriver, in an effort to look like she is actually doing something, created the Minerva awards named after the the Roman Goddess of Wisdom and Justice. The award is given to "California women whose indisputable humanitarian qualifications demonstrate the enduring power of great acts of service." In its second year the recipients are: Former First Lady Betty Ford; sports advocate and former Olympian Anita L. DeFrantz; Sister Jennie Lechtenberg and poet and humanitarian, Janice Mirikitani.

Judy Miller saga continued:
Even though she was out of legal jeopardy, Judith Miller worked with her attorney to write the piece that appeared in the NYTimes this past Sunday. Guess she was rusty from the 85 days in jail. The criticism continues on and on and on.
LA Times: NY TIMES STORY ON LEAK RAISES QUESTIONS

Happy birthday to Emily's List- the PAC that raises money for democratic, pro-choice women candidates threw itself a 20th birthday party in Washington yesterday.
From the Washington Post: EMILY'S LIST CELBRATES CLOUT AS IT TURNS 20

In another showing of right wing small mindedness, James Dobson has urged people (which people I don't know) to boycott the American Girl doll because the company gives money to Girls Inc. an organization that supports the empowerment of girls across the country. Every time I think Dobson has jumped the shark he just jumps higher.
From the Progressive: FEMINISTS IN THE NURSERY

Newsweek has a whole package this week on women's leadership- do we lead differently than men? Again, my usual answer- well, duh.
HOW WOMEN LEAD


Film
Kirsten Dunst has signed on to play Marla Ruzicka in a film about the 28-year-old American relief worker who was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber.

TV
It's the fourth episode tonight of Commander in Chief which is by the way the most watched new show of the season and critics are still writing about the show.
From the Chicago Sun Times- A NEW LOOK AT GENDER POLITICS

Candace Bushnell's new book Lipstick Jungle will be optioned by NBC and produced by Sex and the City creator Darren Star.

Theatre
Wonderful casting- Eileen Atkins, British actress extraordinaire, will take over the lead role in Doubt in early January when Cherry Jones leaves to begin rehearsing The Faith Healer.

Sports
Michelle Wie was disqualified from her first pro tournament after a reporter told officials that she did something incorrect during a penalty drop after she shot her ball into the brush. She lost out on about 50,000. Did the reporter do the right thing to involve himself in the story?
From USA Today: WRITER DEFENDS REPORTING WIE

Monday, October 17, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Should there be a woman's seat on the Supreme Court
THE WOMAN'S SEAT

The Judy Miller stories. Oy vez. This is tough stuff. The NYTimes had a very nasty story about her trials and tribulations yesterday and the second day quarterbaking continues. Will she quit? Will she be fired? All I know is that she is taking a leave of absence, will proably sign a book contract, if she hasn't already, and will most probably never return to the Times where she was afraid to enter after her incarceration. Upon her return, she said she felt vulnerable and was nervous to go back into the news room. It seems to me and I know nothing except what I read, that she made her own bed even calling herself "miss run amok", by refusing to work with editors and returned to a beat covering Iraq after she was removed for writing crappy stories on the WMD that didn't exist.
Here are some pieces to read.
THE JUDY CHRONICLES
MORE ON JUDY
EVEN MORE ON JUDY

Books
Dee Dee Myers, former Clinton spokesperson and West Wing writer is writing a book Why Women Should Rule the World. The book will be published by William Morrow in time for the 2008 election.

Film
Emma Thompson has just finished work on her second screenplay- Nanny McPhee which opens in the US later this year. There was a ten year period between her first screenplay the Oscar winning adaption of Sense and Sensibility and her current work in which she also stars. Can't wait to see Emma back on screen even if she is a scary looking nanny.
THOMPSON EXPLAINS TEN YEAR WRITING GAP

Director Niki Caro took her new film North Country, based on the first class action sexual harrassment lawsuit, to the place where the harassment occured, the Minnesota Iron Range for a premiere.
NORTH COUNTRY PREMIERES ON THE IRON RANGE

FilmFour has bought the Zadie Smith novel On Beauty, with Alison Owen and Scott Rudin producing.

TV
Lifetime has created a niche with their movies and campaigns that actually mean something. meredith Wagner is the woman behind these campaigns.
LIFETIME'S PLACE IS IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE

DVD
Saving Face
Dutiful daughter Wil (Michelle Krusied) sidesteps her mother's (Joan Chen) attempts to marry her off in Alice Wu's romantic comedy set in New York. At 28, Wil's the old maid of her traditional Chinese family, so there's no way she can tell them about her budding romance with Vivian (Lynn Chen). But there's no avoiding mom's meddling matchmaking when she shows up on Wil's doorstep looking for a place to stay. (from netflix)

Mad Hot Ballroom
Ballroom dancing goes from lame to cool for a group of New York City public school kids in this insightful documentary. The film follows a group of 11-year-olds as they learn to dance old-school styles including the merengue, rumba, tango, foxtrot and swing. Candid interviews capture the kids' initial reluctance at learning ballroom dance and their transformation into serious competitors determined to win a citywide competition. (from netflix)

Theatre
Rosemary Squire is co-founder of the Ambassador Theatre Group and one of the leading women working in British theatre.
MAKING THEATRE WORK AT THE BOX OFFICE

Sports
The US Women's National team tied Australia in a match they are very lucky they didn't lose. Australia played very aggressively and the US was a step behind and flat on almost every play. The US is going to have ahard time being comptetive in the next World Cup and Olympics if there is not a strong financial investment in training the team on a regular basis.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
A judge in Missouri ordered that a pregnant woman be driven from her jail cell to get an abortion even though the state won't pay for it.
THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE- EVEN FROM JAIL

Karen Hughes is going on the road again this time to Malaysia and Indonesia. Can't wait for another disaster.
KAREN HUGHES

Even in Sweden, men and women's crime reports are treated differently with women getting the short end of the stick.
CRIME REPORTING DISCRIMINATION IN SWEDEN

A public official in England wants all men who have sex with girls and women who have been forced into prostitution charged with rape.
SEX WITH TRAFFICKED WOMEN IS RAPE

Condoleeza Rice has emphatically declared that she has no desire to run for president or any other office.
CONDI WON'T RUN


Movies
Why Jodie Foster is so successful at what she does.
JODIE FOSTER

Isabelle Huppert is having quite a month- a film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art; her US stage debut at BAM as well as a photography exhibit. I'm exhausted just writing about it.
ISABELLE HUPPERT IS EVERYWHERE THIS MONTH

Charlize Theron takes on sexual harrassment in the new film North Country opening Friday. The film is loosely based on the first class action sexual harrassment lawsuit.
CHARLIZE THERON

Friday, October 14, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Tiina Rosenberg, one of the founders of Sweden's feminist party which launched in April of 2005 has quit citing homophobia and media pressures. TIINA ROSENBERG

Judith Miller has been cleared of contempt charges in the Valerie Plame case after spending 85 days in jail. Now maybe she can tell the whole story.

Vivian Malone Jones, one of two black students whose effort to enroll at the University of Alabama led to George Wallace's infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" in 1963, died Thursday. She was 63.

A woman in the UK was raped after smoking a "spiked" cigarette. Terrific now they can slip roofies in your cigarettes. Just another reason to quit smoking.
A ROOFIE CIGARETTE

Monica Roa has been working to change the abortion law in Columbia. She has received death threats but refuses to back down. She has been fighting the Church in this overwhelmingly Catholic country, but also is fighting US foreign policy that prevents people from talking about abortion for fear of losing foreign aid.
MONICA ROA

Film
I highly highly recommend In Her Shoes. I saw it the other day and thought it was extremely well done. I'm not a big fan of Cameron Diaz but she really took her acting to another level in this film. Toni Collettte, was amazing as usual, and Shirley McLaine was understated as the long lost grandma. This is not just a light chick flick film. It's about love and loss and is very moving. As I left I was thinking, this is one of those films that when it is on cable I would watch it over and over again. It's just plain good drama.

Other films opening this weekend: Nine Lives- a look into the everyday lives of nine women by Rodrigo García. Film stars Glenn Close, Amy Brenneman, Dakota Fanning, Elpidia Carrillo, Robin Wright Penn, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek and others. This delicious cast just makes me want to see it.
NINE LIVES

TV
Marta Kauffman, one of the creators of Friends, has taken up the mantle on the WB's Related, a one hour drama about four sisters.
MARTA KAUFFMAN

Madeleine Albright will appear as herself on the October 25th episode (8pm WB) of the Gilmore Girls to help the ongoing negotiations between Lorelai and Rory.

Books
Susan Estrich is out with a new book making the case for a Hillary Clinton presidency.
THE CASE FOR HILLARY

Women on the Edge, a new colelction of essays by female writers in California consists of "women who have very brave voices and women who have a very daring view."
WOMEN ON THE EDGE

Sports
Catherine Tubb is the first female president of the Cambridge University boxing club. Halfway through her PhD in Organic chemistry Tubb said: “I can die happy knowing I’ve done my bit for feminism now."
CATHERINE TUBB

The US Women's National Team plays its last two games of the year over the next several weeks. The first is this Sunday, October 16 6pm on ESPN2 vs Australia and the second is Sunday, October 23rd at 1pm on ESPN2 vs. Mexico. Tune in!

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in Britain, has formally abandoned its ban on women competing in the Open Championship. Maybe Hootie Johnson and those who control the Masters in the US will finally get the picture.

Penn State is looking into allegations that Rene Portland, the women's basketball coach, made discriminatory allegation about one of her player's sexual orientation.
PENN STATE LOOKS INTO ALLEGATIONS

The short list for the Fifa Player of the year includes just a couple of US women: Shannon Boxx and Christie Welsh but they have no chance of winning. The European women are much stronger with Birgit Prinz of Germany and Kelly Smith of England in the running.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Women in Africa are on the forefront of taking on some powerful leadership positions in several countries. One is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a former World Bank official and grandmother of six, is a front-runner in the race to head this small West African nation.
THE RISE OF AFRICA'S WOMEN POLITICIANS

So is all the stuff about Harriet Miers sexist? Or is the Bush machine just using the sexist card as a way to temper down conversations related to her competence?
HARRIET MIERS

Ellie Smeal of the Feminist Majority and Senator Barbara Mikluski thinks that Harriet Miers is being subjected to a double standard.
SEXIST OR NOT?

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says 99% of maternal deaths are preventable yet every minute a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes. How is this possible? Women's health is a global issue- addressing this issue will save lives and will reduce poverty.
IMPROVING WOMEN'S HEALTH WILL STEM POVERTY

Film
How the North Country writer found the story and what it takes to make a movie script.
NORTH COUNTRY

Sports
Another WNBA has been taken over by a male coach. The Phoenix Mercury hired Paul Westhead a former NBA and college coach.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Germany has a new chancellor and its a girl! Angela Merkel was named Chancellor after several weeks of negotiations making her the first East German and the first woman to run Germany.
ANGELA MERKEL
More on the biography of Angela Merkel
MERKEL 2

Uncertainty about Harriet Mier's political beliefs specifically related to choice (give me a break- she's a Bush crony- she's anti) have given both sides of the issue some food for thought.
HARRIET MIERS

Anna Burger, a longtime union activist, has been named chairwoman of the new breakaway labor coalition - Change to Win Federation.
ANNA BURGER

From Slate- Condi, Hillary and Angelina- are politicians celebs and are celebs becoming politicians?
POLITICIANS AS CELEBS AND VICE VERSA

Condi Rice is taking a trip into Afhganistan. Hope she handles her trip better than Karen Hughes did.
RICE LOOKS TO BROADEN US RELATIONSHIPS

Elizabeth Nicole Jacobson, the first female U.S. airman killed in action in Iraq, was laid to rest Sunday in Pompano Beach, Florida. How come today is the first time I'm even reading about this?
FIRST FEMALE AIRPERSON KILLED IN IRAQ IS BURIED

Bush's team are now playing the gender card for the attacks against Harriet Miers. it's not that she is unqualified because she has no constitutional law experience, its that people are sexist. They've enlisted the First Lady in the fight.
FIRST LADY STANDS UP FOR HARRIET

Film
Susan Sarandon just continues to impress as a woman of a certain age in Hollywood. She rocks. She her this weekend as Orlando Bloom's mom in Elizabethtown.
SUSAN SARANDON

TV
Two weeks into the run of Commander in Chief, the question is whether a woman on TV will have any effect on future presidential tickets. The answer is- who the hell knows. Only time will tell.
MADAME PRESIDENT

Cynthia Nixon will guest on Fox's House in December.

For the last week or so I've been thinking about how bad Desperate Housewives sucks. It's still the number 1 show and I watched it this past weekend and it just sucked hot air. It's off the Tivo list if one more week stinks. At least I'm not alone. Here are some other opinions. On a positive note, Grey's Anatomy totally rocks!
HOUSEWIVES IS GETTING BAD
HOUSEWIVES IS GETTING REALLY BAD

Mags
Rodale will mark the official launch of Women's Health with its November/December issue, on newsstands Oct. 18. The magazine will publish ten times yearly and have a 400,000 rate base and a $4.99 cover price.

Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, got hit by a tofu pie by anti-fur activisits at a fashion show is Paris this past weekend.

Sports
Miranda McOsker, a 15 year old football player at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, CA entered the game on Friday night after the 2nd string quarterback was injured and threw three touchdown passes.

Maria Sharapova who adopted America at age 7 wants to play Fed Cup for her home country of Russia.

Monday, October 10, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Rania al-Baz, the Saudi TV presenter who was beaten senseless by her husband last year escaped to Paris for a conference on women's rights after she was prevented from leaving the country.
RANIA AL-BAZ

Angela Merkel has been named Chancellor of Germany following several weeks of coalition discussions since neither the Social Democrats or the Christian Democrats received enough votes to create their own government.
ANGELA MERKEL

Ten Women including Senator Hillary Clinton and Maya Lin were inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls this weekend.
WOMEN'S HALL OF FAME

Joe Klein on why Hillary Clinton should remain a Senator and not run for President.
HILLARY SHOULD REMAIN IN THE SENATE

Women in Afhganistan are stepping up to the plate and running for office all across the country.
WOMEN'S WORK

Movies
Glenn Close, who awesome on The Shield this past year and who was robbed of an Emmy, has been on a binge of independent filmmaking lately.
GLENN CLOSE

I've always been a bit in awe and facinated by Tilda Swinton. She is so different from American actresses and each of her performances are exciting and completely different.
TILDA SWINTON

Friday, October 07, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Feminist Activist, Malalai Joya has become one of the first people to be elected to the new Parliment in Afhganistan.
MALALAI JOYA

Dr. Frank Davidoff has become the second official to resign from the FDA over the controversy over making emergency contraception available over the counter.
DR, FRANK DAVIDOFF

Girls in Uganda who can prove they are virgins are being offered scholarships to college at no cost. This is antoher tactic of the Bush administration trying to spread its abstinence program around the world. Let's blame the girls for getting raped and let's not continue to educate them about sexually transmitted diseases so if they are alive by college then they can go for free. Fucked up shit.
PROVE YOUR VIRGINITY, GET COLLEGE FOR FREE

Ellen Goodman weighs in on Harriet Miers.
ELLEN GOODMAN

Movies
Opening this weekend.
In Her Shoes - starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley McLaine- can't get any better than that. Jennifer Weiner, the author of the novel the film is based upon is happy with the cast and the film. Not many authors say that.
IN HER SHOES

TV
The Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Supergirl Concert, a kind of American Idol, is the title of a TV show from China that attracted 400 million viewers. The winner is was the 21 year old Li Yuchun who has become the most famous woman in China virtually overnight.
A POP IDOL FOR CHINA

Thursday, October 06, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Why won't NOW support a pro-choice female candidate running for City Council in Boston?
PATRICIA WHITE'S TROUBLE WITH NOW

MOLLY IVINS ON HARRET MIERS

Why does the media continue to declare work and family a woman's problem?
RAW STORY- A WOMAN'S PROBLEM

George Will took it hard at Harriet Miers.
"If 100 such people had been asked to list 100 individuals who have given evidence of the reflectiveness and excellence requisite in a justice, Miers's name probably would not have appeared in any of the 10,000 places on those lists." Ouch.

Just a rich working mom! Karen Hughes took in $450,000 between her appointment as Undersecretary of State and her swearing in. From Time:
"The bulk of Hughes's income before her appointment, about $1 million, comes from paid speeches to business and other groups, usually for $50,000 per appearance. The remainder comes from a $750,000 advance for her 2004 memoir, titled "Ten Minutes from Normal," and $45,000 in consulting fees for work on Bush's 2004 re-election campaign."

Film
Jennifer Lopez is starring in a film that focuses on the 400 missing women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
BORDERTOWN STARRING JENNIFER LOPEZ

TV
The changing world of pregnancy for women on TV.
PREGNANCY ON ALIAS

ABC's "Commander in Chief" attracted even more viewers than its debut last week, with an audience of 16.66 million.

Rachael Ray, host of the Food Network series, 30-Minute Meals, $40 a Day, Inside Dish, and Tasty travels, will host a daily syndicated talk show beginning in the fall of 2006.

Books
Doris Kearns Goodwin is back in the saddle with the upcoming release of her new book on Abraham Lincoln.
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN'S SECOND ACT

A review of Kayla Williams' Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Harriet Miers is a born again Christian who is anti-choice. Don't think because she has no record, she has no opinions.
MIERS IS ANTI-CHOICE

Some school girls in Togo were sent home to have their hair cut because playing with their hair prevented them from concentrating. What?
CUT YOUR HAIR!

Jennifer Gonnerman of the Village Voice looks at self-mutilation inside the Bedford Hills prison.
TANISHA'S SCARS

Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of an Afghan women's rights magazine was jailed after a presidential adviser accused him of publishing un-Islamic material -- including an article critical of the practice of punishing adultery with 100 lashes.

Judy Miller went on the air last night with Lou Dobbs at CNN in her first post jail interview. Here is a transcript.
JUDY MILLER ON LOU DOBBS

Books
Jennifer Weiner is a bona-fide star writer. Her second book, In Her Shoes, will open this weekend with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette in the leads and her fourth book, Goodnight Nobody, was just released and is already a best-seller. I am so jealous.
JENNIFER WEINER RULES

TV
Its been 10 years since the awesome BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and now the same writer Andrew Davies is adapted Sense and Sensibility for broadcast in two years. Why do we have to wait so long?

Sports
15 year old golfer Michelle Wie turned pro today. She immediately is a millionaire with the endorsements she has lined up with Sony and Nike. She's also going the Serena Williams route by signing with the Hollywood agency William Morris.

Monday, October 03, 2005

What We Need to Know Today

News
Harriet Miers, the new nominee for the supreme Court is described as a pit bull in size six shoes. Yuck. Harsh. Who is this chick who is described as the President's work wife? Another mediocre Bush lackey promoted up the ladder for loyalty rather than ability.

Quote from Senate Judiciary Committee member Dianne Feinstein from today's LA Times: "She's a woman, she's clearly bright, she's very intelligent, and she clearly knows the issues because she's been involved in them for years," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said at a San Francisco news conference. "Now what her values are and where she will stand in this very conservative court, we don't know. And that's what we have to take a look at."

The only thing that's giving me a little hope is that the folks on the right seem much more upset about this than those on the left- so far.
Here's a quote from Bill Kristol: "I'm disappointed, depressed and demoralized."

What abortion people think about Miers.
ABORTION AND MIERS

Slate's Emily Bazelon on Miers.
LET DOWN LADY

Women in China can now get out of crappy marriages with cheating husbands with more ease now that the stigma of divorce has been eliminated.
WOMEN IN CHINA SEEK DIVORCES

Books
I can't remember seeing as big a roll out (except for Harry Potter) for a book than I have seen over the last several weeks for the new Joan Didion book, The Year of Magical Thinking, her memoir about the death of her husband John Gregory Dunne and the severe illness of her daughter. I have not read much of her work but this one looks facinating.
REENTERING HER LIFE

You knew it was in the works- recently released from the slammer New York Times reporter Judy Miller has landed a $1.2 million book deal with Simon & Schuster to be edited by uber-editor Alice Mayhew.

What We Need to Know Today

News
President Bush has nominated Harriet Meirs, the White House Counsel who has never been a judge, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. Great, now she has no record for anyone to scrutinize. We are so screwed.

Nadia Yassine, a leading Moroccan activist is facing trial and possibly five years in jail for insulting the monarchy by saying prefer a republican system to Morocco's hereditary monarchy.
NADINE YASSINE

Get ready for the Afhgan Oprah. Farzana Samimi is hosting a show called Banu which means woman in the Dari language. She has teamed up with Kabul-based psychiatrist, Mohammed Yasin Babrak, to talk about the "psychological and social problems" of women.
BANU

The time is right for a woman president- interview with Marie Wilson, President of The White House Project.
MARIE WILSON

More on Karen Hughes' disastorous trip last week.
FOREIGN WOMEN REFUSE TO IGNORE WAR

Film
Jodie Foster kicks ass again! Flightplan held off a number of films opening this past weekend to retain the top spot with 15 million in ticket sales.
LEARN MORE ABOUT JODIE

Books
BERYL BAINBRIDGE on why she writes.

Cathleen Black, President of Hearst Magazines, is shopping a management memoir.

TV
Melissa Etheridge is moving to TV. She's developing a sitcom with ABC about "what my life might have been like had I not left to find my fame and fortune, and stayed in Kansas and became a teacher and been gay and dealt with life there.

Did You know?
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary newest edition has added the word chick-flick.

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