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raybearI know later I will laugh at myself for writing this random rant, but yeahwhatever.
Madness Librarian and I discussed on Monday how we were surprised that Cybill Shepard agreed to play Martha Stewart in the Martha Inc. movie that aired last week (and was SO popular they showed it AGAIN over the weekend -- I got sucked in and confess I may buy it used on DVD just so I can sample the line "hey slut, I'm going to write your mother a letter and tell her you're a whore!"). The movie was a strange potrayal of the Miss Stewart (as I call her, because I'm nasty). For the most part it was supremely unflattering -- there would be a long scene of Martha interacting with business contacts, showing off her smarts and ideas and savvy, and then a montage of quick scenes showing her as controlling and calculated and mean and inhumane. To quote Missy, she's a bitch. Yes, yes, we get it. But here's why I'm confused by Cybill's involvement.
Some of you may remember this little movie called American Beauty that blew up a few years ago. And despite any other flaws and achievements you can argue, it's hard to deny that it had the most unflattering potrayal of female lead character ever in a movie, as played by Annette Bening. She was cold and bitchy and annoying and screeching and insincere. I tried so hard to like her, despite the director's obvious attempts to demonize her, but even I couldn't do it. The scary thing? The original character in the screen play was even MORE one-dimensional and a caricature of nagging boorish housewife. Annette beefed the role up. Who wrote this character? Alan Ball. Former television writer for the show Cybill. Who HATED his job and his boss and hated working for her and wrote the screenplay for American Beauty while working on the show and based the character on her.
So why would she turn around and agree to star in a movie that does the same backstabbing shallow painting of another successful powerful woman?
See, I'm not saying you have to like Martha Stewart's white-Stepford-wife-New-England shtick. I'm not even saying you shouldn't be frightened or scared of her occasional scary amounts of calculated savvy. But I'm starting to reach the point where any person who just cracks on her endlessly is a straight up misogynistic player-hater. (I've had this discussion regarding Oprah too. She gets criticized as a megalomaniac with a god-complex way more than any male entreprenneur and especially more than any white ones. If you think overly harsh criticsm is not based on sex and race, stop kidding yourself.) You just can't deny that the woman had a genius streak in her, even if it's a type of intelligence I don't really respect or care to include in my own life. But like they say, don't hate the player, hate the game.
I'm also not saying we're not allowed to look critically at the actions of people simply because they aren't white men. I'm certainly all about holding queer folks accountable for their actions and trying to see objectively without just giving them a free pass because they play on my team. But most people don't realize how unconsciously they're more critical and hold different standards to minorities/oppressed people in the spotlight (I use those words loosely).
It just seems so obviously a ruse to draw attention from the big real problems when it comes to money in this country and who has the knowledge (as well as shady stock dealing by people like, oh, vice president Cheney). I mean frankly, and I'm obviously no expert on the stock market, I don't understand what the big fcking deal is with the charges. I mean, from my perspective, the ENTIRE stock market is based around inside trading -- this rich white boys' club of people who have all the information and how it relateds to these little numbers ticking up and down and pretend profits and profitability. Trading and buying and selling is obviously not like gambling and based on hunches -- it's about having real information because your inside and you stay inside by using it to make money off the back of others by playing the market. I think the whole thing is fcked up so why should I throw some 61-year old woman into a jail cell, who knew how to play the game amazingly well, building up this billion dollar enterprise after buying out her contract from Time Warner, while the system just plays on, taking food off my and others' plate? Whatever, at least Martha hooked me up with some nice sheets from Kmart. What the hell did Lee Iacocca ever do for me?
Now that I mention it, I'm starting to go all conspiracy theory and thinking that some big boys decided this woman was getting decidedly too big for her britches to the staged some elaborate plot to take her down by setting her up to lose her entire name and reputation and billion dollar life over $20,000. Damn, I'm going to go write that screenplay for the made-for-television movie.
Madness Librarian and I discussed on Monday how we were surprised that Cybill Shepard agreed to play Martha Stewart in the Martha Inc. movie that aired last week (and was SO popular they showed it AGAIN over the weekend -- I got sucked in and confess I may buy it used on DVD just so I can sample the line "hey slut, I'm going to write your mother a letter and tell her you're a whore!"). The movie was a strange potrayal of the Miss Stewart (as I call her, because I'm nasty). For the most part it was supremely unflattering -- there would be a long scene of Martha interacting with business contacts, showing off her smarts and ideas and savvy, and then a montage of quick scenes showing her as controlling and calculated and mean and inhumane. To quote Missy, she's a bitch. Yes, yes, we get it. But here's why I'm confused by Cybill's involvement.
Some of you may remember this little movie called American Beauty that blew up a few years ago. And despite any other flaws and achievements you can argue, it's hard to deny that it had the most unflattering potrayal of female lead character ever in a movie, as played by Annette Bening. She was cold and bitchy and annoying and screeching and insincere. I tried so hard to like her, despite the director's obvious attempts to demonize her, but even I couldn't do it. The scary thing? The original character in the screen play was even MORE one-dimensional and a caricature of nagging boorish housewife. Annette beefed the role up. Who wrote this character? Alan Ball. Former television writer for the show Cybill. Who HATED his job and his boss and hated working for her and wrote the screenplay for American Beauty while working on the show and based the character on her.
So why would she turn around and agree to star in a movie that does the same backstabbing shallow painting of another successful powerful woman?
See, I'm not saying you have to like Martha Stewart's white-Stepford-wife-New-England shtick. I'm not even saying you shouldn't be frightened or scared of her occasional scary amounts of calculated savvy. But I'm starting to reach the point where any person who just cracks on her endlessly is a straight up misogynistic player-hater. (I've had this discussion regarding Oprah too. She gets criticized as a megalomaniac with a god-complex way more than any male entreprenneur and especially more than any white ones. If you think overly harsh criticsm is not based on sex and race, stop kidding yourself.) You just can't deny that the woman had a genius streak in her, even if it's a type of intelligence I don't really respect or care to include in my own life. But like they say, don't hate the player, hate the game.
I'm also not saying we're not allowed to look critically at the actions of people simply because they aren't white men. I'm certainly all about holding queer folks accountable for their actions and trying to see objectively without just giving them a free pass because they play on my team. But most people don't realize how unconsciously they're more critical and hold different standards to minorities/oppressed people in the spotlight (I use those words loosely).
It just seems so obviously a ruse to draw attention from the big real problems when it comes to money in this country and who has the knowledge (as well as shady stock dealing by people like, oh, vice president Cheney). I mean frankly, and I'm obviously no expert on the stock market, I don't understand what the big fcking deal is with the charges. I mean, from my perspective, the ENTIRE stock market is based around inside trading -- this rich white boys' club of people who have all the information and how it relateds to these little numbers ticking up and down and pretend profits and profitability. Trading and buying and selling is obviously not like gambling and based on hunches -- it's about having real information because your inside and you stay inside by using it to make money off the back of others by playing the market. I think the whole thing is fcked up so why should I throw some 61-year old woman into a jail cell, who knew how to play the game amazingly well, building up this billion dollar enterprise after buying out her contract from Time Warner, while the system just plays on, taking food off my and others' plate? Whatever, at least Martha hooked me up with some nice sheets from Kmart. What the hell did Lee Iacocca ever do for me?
Now that I mention it, I'm starting to go all conspiracy theory and thinking that some big boys decided this woman was getting decidedly too big for her britches to the staged some elaborate plot to take her down by setting her up to lose her entire name and reputation and billion dollar life over $20,000. Damn, I'm going to go write that screenplay for the made-for-television movie.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-05 02:00 pm (UTC)amen. i hear that.
hey slut, I'm going to write your mother a letter and tell her you're a whore!"
Date: 2003-06-05 02:11 pm (UTC)...but damn if I didn't love that movie. Much better quotes than 'no more wire hangers'
Re: hey slut, I'm going to write your mother a letter and tell her you're a whore!"
Date: 2003-06-05 02:21 pm (UTC)Re: hey slut, I'm going to write your mother a letter and tell her you're a whore!"
Date: 2003-06-05 11:07 pm (UTC)Two points
Date: 2003-06-05 04:21 pm (UTC)2. There were several points in American Beauty that I really sympathized with Annette Bening's character, but then again, I am pretty much an uptight white person.
Cheers, Nemo
no subject
Date: 2003-06-06 06:38 am (UTC)I think people see millionaires on television with sleeves rolled up baking cookies and digging in the garden, or crying sympathetically along with whatever sob story Oprah has dragged out, and understand that life is a lot different when these people go home to the mansion at night. People inherently suspect that these rich, powerful people are not as saccharine in life as the image they project on television, and they are more than happy to have their suspicions confirmed.
So I don't think it's just that they are rich and powerful, but that they are rich, and powerful, and phony.
My recollection of Lee Iaccoca's appearances on television, he was in a business suit and talking in a gruff voice about cars. That's probably how he is in real life. If he had come on TV and pretended to be pumping his own gas or doing an oil change on his car, or marching along with UAW members, people probably would have felt the same about him.
As to your point, Cybil Shepherd either a) doesn't see herself int he same light as others; or b) needed the paycheck, and sold a sister out!