The Fempire Strikes Back?

In a recent New York Times article, writers Lorene Scafaria, Liz Meriwether, Diablo Cody and Dana Fox, were profiled as the fempire, or the female entourage taking over Hollywood. I read the article on one hand happy that someone was giving female screenwriters some attention, but sort of annoyed at how this attention was framed.

I think of this as one those good/bad articles. Supposedly it is an article about writerly camaraderie in the highly male dominated world of Hollywood screenwriting, but somewhere along the way the focus seems to veer off in the direction of drunk wildchild pillow fighting.

There are very few chances to profile several successfully female screenwriters in one sitting, and this writer having this chance, could have asked them more about how they made it, where they find their inspiration, maybe even advice for fledgling writers. I know these are cliche questions but at least it offers something to readers hoping to learn from this women. Instead this article is framed as these women are hot, but they aren't successful just because they are hot, but, by the way they are hot.

The good quotes--
“There are so few slots for us in Hollywood,” Ms. Cody said. “Sometimes you hear the lobsters-in-a-pot metaphor — if the lobsters cooperated, they could get each other out. We’re cooperating. We refuse to just lie there and boil.”

These women also (the also was not necessary) work hard: Ms. Cody, Ms. Fox and Ms. Scafaria can command seven figures to write a movie that makes it into theaters with big stars. Ms. Meriwether (the others call her “the freshman” is on her way to joining them. That’s no small achievement when you consider that among the screenwriters who are in steady demand for major projects, only about 20 are women.

So among them there is also a battle-scarred camaraderie. “Whenever you have a project out in wide release, there are haters,” Ms. Cody said. “Blogs, imdb, Rotten Tomatoes, reviews. It’s a lot to deal with. When most people get Googled, they get maybe a Facebook page. When we get Googled, there’s criticism, bad reviews, commentary on the way we look. You need people who have been through it.

The was that necessary quotes-
She looks as if she could be cast as the love interest in a Woody Allen movie, a thinking man’s Scarlett Johansson in dark framed glasses.

“This is weird because we hang out a lot,” she said. “We’ve seen each other naked.”

“We’re usually drunk by the third theater,” Ms. Cody said. “It’s super porno and tacky, and we love doing it.”

“I flew to New York a couple times to hold Diablo’s bag when she was doing press,” said Ms. Fox, who also held Ms. Scafaria’s handbag at the Toronto Film Festival. (This is usually a job relegated to publicists.) “I love holding my ladies’ bags.”

And the good turned into the was that necessary quote-
You can find them at work in their Laurel Canyon homes in their pajamas, or sitting next to one another at laptop-friendly restaurants. To see them gathered amid the dinosaur topiary around Ms. Fox’s swimming pool with their dogs (they all have dogs) is to see four distinct styles of glamour that bear little resemblance to traditional images of behind-the-scenes talent.

We get it, they wear dresses, and they write oh my. They look hot in these dresses, and they write oh my. How about we talk a little more about what they write, and why, rather then the novelty of a pretty chic having a brain.

And really would you ever show, a high power entourage of male writers, laying around with eachother in bed.