We frequently see articles about Hollywood guys helping one another and forming hard drinking or card playing entourages. Last year, we saw a great deal written about the Judd "Knocked Up" Apatow crowd who write for one another and act in one another's films.
The latest case in point for this phenomenon: Paul Rudd, who was in Knocked Up, is featured in Entertainment Weekly's cover story this week in an article that mentioned some of his high-profile Hollywood buds including Jon Hamm and Steve Carell.
However when I read this weekend's article about four women screenwriters in the New York Times, entitled, "An Entourage of Their Own," I realized it's not too often that we read about gal power in Hollywood, where behind-the-scenes female entertainment types support their peeps and form a tight bond. The article focused on four screenwriters who call themselves "The Fempire," whose members include Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar for Juno and writer for the Showtime dramedy The United States of Tara, and Lorene Scafaria, the writer of the critically acclaimed film Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. The Times noted that well paid female film scribes are scarce saying "among the screenwriters who are in steady demand for major projects, only about 20 are women."
Describing "The Fempire" members as creative sounding boards and as close to one another as family, the article said, "In addition to testing out dialogue and story structure with one another, the four women say they plan to produce one another's work and would even like to form a production company."
This got me to thinking: If we want to see solid films which reflect authentic women's points of view, women scribes need better support systems, like the guys have. I hope that other female entertainment folks read the piece and decide that what we need are more Fempires.
Image credit: Amy Dickerson/NYT.
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