Frances McDormand's Tony Night Mug Shot

PHOTOS By Broadway.com Staff June 13, 2011

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/awards/tony-awards/156747/wtf-frances-mcdormands-tony-night-mug-shot/

Some of My Favorite Films & Documentaries

AUNTIE MAME

"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" 

— Rosalind Russell's role as Auntie Mame (1958)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfIqvATTFJY&NR=1



BABETTE'S FEAST

Quotes from Babette's Feast (1987)

- Old Martina: [after learning Babette spent 10,000 francs on the dinner] Now you'll be poor for the rest of your life. 

Babette: An artist is never poor. 


- Narrator: At this very moment, he had a mighty vision of a higher and purer life, without creditors' letters or parental lectures... and with a gentle angel at his side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V7z-O1HG5E&feature=fvwrel


FOUR THE NEXT SEVEN GENERATIONS

http://www.forthenext7generations.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKGXpK8LXR4

2011 Summer Schedule of Grandmothers
http://acelebrationofwomen.org/?p=56019

RESURRECTION 

Eva Le Gallienne & 
Ellen Burstyn in
Resurrection (1980) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Hh08sGf74&feature=related


Trivia about Resurrection: When the idea was first pitched to Ellen Burstyn, the film was supposed to be more of a thriller, like The Exorcist (1973). Burstyn was not impressed with that approach, so when she heard the approach offered by writer Lewis John Carlino, she was impressed and this film is the result.




QUOTES FROM RESURRECTION


Edna Mae McCauley: I love you, Gramma. 
Grandma Pearl: Yes - that's it, ain't it. If we could just... Love... each other, as much as we say we love Him, I 'spect there wouldn't be the bother in the world there is. 
Edna Mae McCauley: I 'spect. 


Edna Mae McCauley: If we could just love each other as much as we say we love Him... I expect there'd be much less trouble in the world. 


Esco Brown: Go carefully with peace in your heart, love in your eyes, and laughter on your tongue. And if life don't hand you nothing but lemons, you just make you a bunch of lemonade. Book Brown, chapter one, verse one. 


Edna Mae McCauley: [Turning down an offer to have her healing ability tested] What's going on here has to do with people and feelings and not wires and machines. I dunno, it just doesn't feel right to me". 

Lillian Gish Accepts the 1984 AFI Life Achievement Award

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG7-t_hxIoU

QUOTES By Lillian Gish


"Never get caught acting."

"The stage was our school, our home, our life."

"What you get is a living -- what you give is a life."

"You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived, I'm sure I would have played his mother."

"Young man, if God had wanted you to see me that way, he would have put your eyes in your bellybutton."

"The older I get, the more I believe in what I can't explain or understand, even more than the things that are explainable and understandable."

"You can get through life with bad manners, but it's easier with good manners."

''I've never been in style, so I can never go out of style."

"Actors, like soldiers, can bed down anywhere." 


http://www.lilliangish.com/


Summer of Silents (2011) 
http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2011/06/summer-of-silents.html

Top 5 Regrets People Make on Their Deathbed

If you are reading this and would love to live and work as an actor, but are not, here is a quote for you from the deathbed...


"I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."

http://longtermtips.tumblr.com/post/6138846847/top-5-regrets-people-make-on-their-deathbed  and/or http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

Some "Empowerment for Women" Websites

This is a growing list...

BraveHeart Women, a women's online community 

http://core.braveheartwomen.com/direct/?gclid=CK7kn4HVl6kCFRFOgwodqT0uvw

Original Impulse, coaching +

http://www.originalimpulse.com/


Pearls of Wisdom, quotes
http://www.sapphyr.net/women/women-smquotes.htm




If you know of any others, post away below

"What happened to great stage roles for older women?"

Posted by
Lyn Gardner March 16, 2009 on the "Theatre Blog" at guardian.co.uk


http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2009/mar/16/stage-roles-older-women

"Theatre and Cultural Diversity" PDF Booklet

Check out pages 54-55 of this PDF booklet originally published by http://www.infotrac-college.com, 
a resource for online research. 


Here is the booklet http://www.wadsworthmedia.com/marketing/sample_chapters/0495001805_ch03.pdf

Documentaries about Older Women

Check out 

"Women Make Movies"

 Film Catalog 

Subject: "Older Women" 

http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/subjects/sub78.shtml

Ageism Stereotyping and Prejudice against Older Persons

Here is a scholary report:

"Ageism Stereotyping and Prejudice
against Older Persons"
Edited by Todd D. Nelson  http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10385


Here is"Ageism" on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageism

"Life after 40: Ageism in Hollywood"

"Life after 40: Ageism in Hollywood" is an 
an article posted on February 18, 2011 by Jennifer Shewmaker onto her blog called "Don't Conform Transform".


 http://dontconformtransform.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/life-after-40-ageism-in-hollywood/

Q&A: "Too old to start at 42?"

Check out the question and answers of the topic "Too old to start at 42?" at the 
 

http://bbs.backstage.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6031061/m/962102823/p/3

Check out 'In Praise of (much) older (women) actors"...a post by Kate Foy on her blog "Greenroom"

http://actorsgreenroom.net/archives/546

Jessica Tandy at the age of 80 Won Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy, 1989

Jessica became both the oldest winner and the oldest nominee ever in the history of the Best Actress category

Older women unhappy over their portrayal in films

Actor Celia Imrie 
in the 2003 movie 
Calendar Girls

The cast of "Calendar Girls" 
featured older female characters 


Older women unhappy over their portrayal in films, survey shows Sixty-one percent of women aged 50-75 want more focus on their sexual desire, according to UK Film Council poll...what do you think?...most women aged 50-75 felt they were under-represented in films.

By Ian J Griffiths
Monday 28 March 2011 
guardian.co.uk


Older women want to see more of their sexual desire depicted in film, a survey has suggested, while black and gay people would like to see less of a focus on theirs.


Sixty-one percent of women between the ages of 50 and 75 questioned for a UK Film Council survey of 4,315 people said women of their age were portrayed on the big screen as not having sexual needs or desires. Half said they were comfortable with older women being seen as attractive to younger men. Seven in 10 also felt that their group was generally under-represented in films and that younger women were glamorised.


In contrast, two-thirds of black African and Caribbean people said black characters were portrayed as being overly sexual. Eighty percent of the gay people questioned felt gay characters' sexuality commanded disproportionate attention.


The survey highlighted a series of stereotypes and imbalances in films, with 80% of black respondents also believing films contained too many black drug dealers, and 74% calling for more superheroes who are not white males.


Almost three-quarters of eastern Europeans who participated pointed to a tendency to portray them as poor, while 74% of Asian respondents said films failed to represent their culture authentically.


The release of the survey's findings is expected to be one of the last acts of the UK Film Council, which is on the verge of closure. Its funding responsibilities will be transferred to other bodies on 1 April, following the abolition decision announced by the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt last July.


Mary FitzPatrick, head of diversity at the UK Film Council said: "Film has the ability to change behaviour and shift opinion, so we in the industry all have a responsibility to ensure that these findings are not ignored.


"The figures speak for themselves in demonstrating there is a real opportunity for the industry to more accurately portray these groups in film. This research will form an important part of the UK Film Council's legacy and will help make a powerful and dynamic change to the way in which diverse groups are portrayed in film going forward."


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/28/women-unhappy-portrayal-films-survey

The Real Live Women 

Who Were the Inspiration 

for the movie Calendar Girls




Here they are again, 
ten years later, five out 
of the six 'girls'

Demanding Equal Pay in UK

Zoe Wanamaker is demanding equal pay for actresses

Photo: BBC

By Heidi Blake
27 Jul 2009  
Telegraph.co.uk

Zoe Wanamaker demands equal pay for actresses

Zoë Wanamaker, the actress, has joined the chorus of female performers demanding more money to match the pay packets of their male counterparts.

Wanamaker, who stars in the popular BBC sitcom My Family, revealed she had to fight the Corporation for equal pay with her co-star Robert Lindsay and said women were "always at the bottom as far as pay is concerned."

Her comments came after fellow actresses Imelda Staunton, Harriet Walter and Maxine Peake signed a petition earlier this year demanding better representation for women in drama on ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC.

They also follow accusations of sexism and ageism in the BBC after the corporation replaced the choreographer Arlene Phillips as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing with the much younger Alesha Dixon.

Wanamaker, who appeared alongside Simon Russell Beale in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre last year, said agents and bookers should be "more careful" when negotiating deals for female performers.

"Women are always at the bottom as far as pay is concerned – the equal pay business is a big struggle," she told The Stage newspaper.

The BBC refused to comment on Wanamaker's salary but said it was "absolutely committed" to equal pay for female actresses.

A spokesman said: "We will not go into specifics on talent pay but we are absolutely committed to equality for men and women. There are many factors which determine artists' salaries and which results in them being paid at varying levels. The BBC hugely values Zoë Wanamaker as an artist."

It is not the first time Wanamaker has spoken out on the issue of pay. She accused the makers of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone of being "notoriously mean" after appearing in the film as games mistress Madam Hooch in 2001. The actress declined a deal to appear in three Harry Potter films because of the "terrible" pay.

A recent petition demanding equal pay for women launched by Equity, the actors' union, states that though "over half the viewing public is female, in TV drama, for every female character, there are two male characters".

A survey conducted across 20 countries last year by unions representing nearly 80,000 performers found female actors get paid less than men and have fewer work opportunities.


Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5912078/Zoe-Wanamaker-demands-equal-pay-for-actresses.html

Why Can't These 64 Year Old Breasts Be Sexy?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Q&A: Is it Too Late to Start an Acting Career?

Thrifty Fun

March 11, 2010


The Question
"Is it too late to start an acting career at my age? I am trying to build my name quickly so my children who are as much interested in entertaining, have a foundation to stand on, as well. I know I will do well, I just need to know "how to" when the only experience I have is with shows and events that I played in as small characters/parts that were for the purpose of work training. I have had great comments on my performances."
By crystalpearl from Houston, TX


Some Answers 
By Top 10 Film Schools 05/05/2011
It's never too late, but there are a lot of factors involved. Hollywood is very fickle and there are never any guarantees whether you are Tom Cruise or just starting out. You are always going to be fighting for that next job. If you have the stomach for not having any type of security whatsoever in your career choice, them go for it. It is not like getting a job at IBM. You will be looking for your next job for the rest or your life. It's tough, but can be rewarding.


By MichelleTina 04/20/2010
It is not late! I am talented for music and I know that no matter when you start, if you have talent your gonna be someone! Keep on following your dreams.:)


 By witchwood 03/07/2010
Hmm... A little difficult as you didn't state what 'my age' is! Depends on what you are looking for.. big star, theatre tv, film. However I will tell you that I didn't start my acting career till I was sixty! I'm a writer, many poems and stories published, but then I saw an opportunity to get into local theatre something I'd always wanted to try, and since then have been in several different plays and I love it! This is not big money, sometimes no money, but oh, the joy, the fun, the audience appreciation. Try if you can.


By JustPlainJo 03/07/2010
Mrs.Story has a good point, but it's probably moot anyway. Who cares how old you are?
In spite of Hollywood, actors of all ages are needed. If you're in the right place at the right time, especially if you have "the look" the director wants, you'll get the part. And even extras make scale. Remember, Grandma Moses was 80 when she took up painting!


By mimijean 03/07/2010
Never! Look for local opportunities first in theatre. Consider taking a class at a community college as they will do doubt have performances they do for the public. Also, consider going to a local agency (not the kind that rip you off - beware of those) and see how to put together a "book" - it would consist of head shots of you. In the dallas areas where I live, it is the Kim Dawson agency. Good luck.


By foxrun41 03/07/2010
It is never too late to start any endeavor. Good luck.


By Suntydt 03/05/2010
I knew a guy that was in his 50's and was auditioning for parts as basically a background character. You know, someone needed in the scene but not as a main or secondary character.


By mrs.story 03/05/2010
Hard to say. You didn't mention your age.


Source: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf43078103.tip.html

Second Acts: The Late Bloomer

Kathryn Joosten won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2005 and 2008 and once again got nominated for 2010, and appeared as a presenter at the 2005 and 2008 Emmy Awards telecasts. She also received Screen Actors Guild Award nominations with the rest of the cast for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series from 2006-2008. 

By Kathryn Joosten 02.11.09


Some people in Hollywood think of me as a model for dramatic midlife transitions: suburban housewife to Emmy-winning actress. But I never plotted out a master plan for following my dreams. My career arc seemed perfectly normal to me as it evolved over time. Each phase just seemed to grow naturally out of the one before.


I started out as a nurse. As a teenager growing up in Chicago in the 1950s, I worked part time at a local hospital, where I spent my off hours hanging around the pediatrics unit with a friendly nurse. She inspired me to go into the profession. After graduating from high school and completing a training program, I landed a job at the Psychiatric Institute at Michael Reese Hospital. I was there nine years, eventually rising to head nurse of the largest psychiatric unit. Then I married one of the staff psychiatrists and gave up nursing for a new life as a housewife in suburban Lake Forest.




Ten years later, he got the mistress and I got the children. As a divorcee with two young boys and not enough child support, I had to go back to work. But I couldn't go back to nursing after so many years away from it. My skills were no longer current. So I got a job with a "Welcome Wagon"-type company that advertised local businesses to new residents. To supplement that, I hung wallpaper for people who were redecorating their homes, and served as a location manager for photographers and industrial filmmakers doing shoots in the Chicago area.


All this kept me very busy, which is one reason I signed my boys up for the children's program at the Lake Forest community theater. (It was the cheapest baby-sitting I could find.) Eventually I auditioned for a small part in one of the theater's productions.


As a kid in elementary school, I had loved performing onstage in school pageants. But my high school was too small to have a drama department, so I had never acted in a play. That all changed in June 1980 when the Lake Forest theater put on the musical "Gypsy." I made my theatrical debut in the role of Tessie Tura, a veteran stripper who offers career advice to Gypsy Rose Lee. "You've gotta have a gimmick," I sang, "if you wanna get applause!"


I got applause, and I liked it. That experience led to me doing a second show in the next town over, then to another show in another town and finally to a show in a nonunion theater in Chicago. I was totally hooked. I wanted to pursue acting and see where it led me. But I was 42, with two kids and three jobs. Not the most auspicious of circumstances for a person just starting out in show business.


I thought about my mother, who had died of cancer years earlier at the age of 49. She spent her last months bitterly regretting that she had deferred so many dreams, which now would never be fulfilled. It impressed me deeply, and I had vowed that I would never let that happen to me. So I knew I had to give acting a shot.


I laid it out for my sons, who by then were 10 and 12, and asked for a year to see if I could achieve success, which I had no real definition for. I did theater while hanging paper, selling advertising and finding locations. Eventually I got an agent and landed my first professional TV job, as a pingpong ball for the Illinois lottery. I had moved from community theater to semiprofessional theater, and I wanted to go further. After my year was up, I asked the kids for an extension, and they said yes.


All I wanted at this time was to achieve some recognition in theater in Chicago. I kept making progress. A big step came when I got my Actors' Equity union card while doing a play at the Goodman Theater. But I still wasn't making a living from acting.


Then in 1992, Disney-MGM Studios held tryouts in Chicago. They needed street performers for their Hollywood theme park in Orlando, Fla. After standing in line for five hours, I auditioned and won a job as a "Streetmosphere" player. By now my boys were older and on their own, so I could accept the offer and move to Florida. I played Annie Hannigan, cleaning lady to the stars. The contract only lasted a year, but it convinced me that I could make a living acting.


After the Disney job ended, I went to bartending school in Orlando so I could support myself while doing local theater. I also worked in catering. But after two years, I realized that my acting career wasn't going anywhere in Florida. One of my sons was now living in Los Angeles, so I went out there and spent a couple of weeks sleeping on his couch while I checked out the scene. I thought, "Well, I'll come out and try it for six months."


This was incredibly naive of me. I was in my mid-50s. I had no agent, no contacts and no track record likely to impress a Hollywood casting director. Then again, what did I have to lose? Five months later, I landed my first TV job--two lines in a scene with Jaleel White, who played Steve Urkel on the sitcom Family Matters. I played a grocery clerk in the episode, which aired on March 17, 1995. That job got me an agent, and I was off to the races. After that it was one job after another.


I went back to Florida, sold my house, packed my stuff into a truck and drove it to Los Angeles, where I've lived ever since. I've made guest appearances on dozens of TV shows, including Frasier, Monk and Grey's Anatomy; I've had recurring roles on Scrubs, Dharma and Greg and Joan of Arcadia; I played Martin Sheen's secretary, Mrs. Landingham, on The West Wing; and since 2005 I've had a recurring role as Mrs. McCluskey on Desperate Housewives, for which I have won two Emmys.


I didn't start out saying, "Gee, I think I'll try to win an Emmy." I just kept aiming down the path that seemed to shine before me. I've always adjusted my work life to be able to follow that path. Each step I took was a natural progression, and I always arranged that I could go back and resume my previous life if I didn't get to the next step.


I've come to realize that I cannot arrive at success. There is no "there" there. It is a continuum. I don't advise anyone to give up an assured life for a fling at a dream. Be flexible enough to envision what the future may hold, but also realistic enough to hedge your bets. Then you can follow the unknown path, one step at a time.


Kathryn Joosten is an actress in Los Angeles.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/11/starting-acting-career-leadership_0211_kathryn_joosten_print.html


Kathryn Joosten's website: http://www.kathrynjoosten.com/

What Is the Average Yearly Salary for an Actress? (For years 2009 & 2011)

What Is the Average Yearly Salary for an Actress?
By Wilhelm Schnotz, eHow Contributor updated January 07, 2011


Many actresses work in live theater situations.
Whether it's the rush from performing on stage in front of an audience or the allure of all the glamour that goes with a silver-screen career, there are many reasons women pursue a career in acting. Salary probably isn't one of them, however, as apart from the elite television and Hollywood actresses, work for actresses may be inconsistent and provide poor wages.


Average Actress Wages
Most actresses struggle to find steady work and many support themselves with another source of income, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Most don't work in long-term positions, so accurately tracking the average actress' annual salary is difficult. Instead, the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks the mean hourly wage those who work as actresses earn on each job, which is $16.20 per hour, as of May 2009. Half of all actresses earn between $10.18 and $29.33 per hour, though their earnings vary by their abilities as well as the type of work they perform.


Wages by Experience
Perhaps due to the preoccupation with image in the entertainment industry, actresses in the middle phase of their careers command higher wages than those in the first or second portion of their careers. Although wage ranges are large and depend upon the type of production on which an actress works, those with four or fewer years of experience earn hourly wages between $7.45 and $27 as of January 2011, according to PayScale. Those with five to nine years in the industry command the highest average hourly wage, and earn wages that range from $10.50 to $74.58 per hour. Actresses with 10 or more years of experience earn salaries that range from $12.33 to $44.22 per hour.


Average Full-Time Salary
An actress who's able to work the equivalent of a full-time position may expect to earn an average annual salary of $49,736 as of January 2011, according to Salary.com. Half of all full-time actresses earn salaries between $40,986 and $60,726. Actresses who live in New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver, where the majority of film and television projects are filmed, are the most likely to find full-time employment in their field.


Celebrity Actress Earnings
Although many actresses struggle to find work, those who become stars have little problem making ends meet. Sandra Bullock, the actress with the highest salary in the 2009-2010 shooting season, earned $56 million, according to Forbes. During the same period, Cameron Diaz and Reese Witherspoon earned $32 million and Jennifer Aniston earned $27 million.






Read more: What Is the Average Yearly Salary for an Actress? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7742787_average-yearly-salary-actress.html#ixzz1NzM2AhN1


Source: http://www.ehow.com/info_7742787_average-yearly-salary-actress.html

Quotes & Poems About Being An Older Woman

Feel absolutely free to post a quote or poem you created about being an older woman, and credit your name. 


"Gentle older women are like water on the edges of oceans. They are foam and mist after years of traveling miles."   
~Deborah Marchant'




The Dance 
by C.K. Williams


A middle-aged woman, quite plain, to be polite about it, and 
somewhat stout, to be more courteous still,
but when she and the rather good-looking, 
much younger man 
she's with get up to dance, 
her forearm descends with such delicate
lightness, such restrained
but confident ardor athwart his shoulder,
drawing him to her with such a firm, 
compelling warmth, and 
moving him with effortless grace
into the union she's instantly established
with the not at all rhythmically solid
music in this second-rate cafe. 


that something in the rest of us, 
some doubt about ourselves, 
some sad conjecture, 
seems to be allayed.
nothing that we'd ever thought of as 
a real lack, nothing not to be
admired or be repentent for, 
but something to which we've never
adequately given credence, 
which might have consoling implications
about how we misbelieve ourselves, 
and so the world, 
that world beyond us which so often 
disappoints, but which sometimes
shows us, lovely, what we are. 






August Third
by May Sarton


These days
Lifting myself up
Like a heavy weight, 
Old camel getting to her knees, 
I think of my mother
And the inexhaustible flame
That kept her alive
Until she died. 


She knew all about fatigue
And how one pushes it aside
For staking up the lilies
Early in the morning, 
The way one pushes it aside
For a friend in need, 
For a hungry cat.


Mother, be with me. 
Today on your birthday 
I am older than you were
When you died
Thirty-five years ago.
Thinking of you
The old camel gets to her knees,
Stands up, 
Moves forward slowly
Into the new day.


If you taught me one thing
It was never to fail life.  






An Old Lady's Poem
by Anonymous 


http://www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/AnOldLadysPoem.html