Showbiz Sandbox 35: Women In Hollywood… It’s Complicated

December 28, 2009

You know it’s a slow entertainment news week when J. Sperling Reich, Karen Woodward, and Michael Giltz wind up talking about their personal arrest records. However even during the holiday season we can find showbiz news to talk about, not to mention places to talk. Michael joins us from the boisterous Cranky Café where he was enjoying homemade mac and cheese (and free Wifi).

America was sinning over the holidays, and by that we mean seeing movies on Christmas Day. Avatar set box office records with a $75 million North American gross and a $145 million international gross, but is it really a good movie? One movie that Karen and Michael agree is not at all good is “It’s Complicated”, and yet it’s doing rather well at the box office – is that because women are so starved for a decent “women’s film” that they will see whatever is in theatres?

Speaking of women’s films, or lack thereof, Karen digs up a couple of interesting news pieces focusing on the lack of a strong female presence in Hollywood, both on screen and off. Read more

Showbiz Sandbox 33: “Avatar” Is A $100 Hamburger

December 14, 2009

James Rocchi was one of the lucky entertainment journalists invited to the “Avatar” premiere and press junket in London and he joins us this week to tell us all about it. Rocchi also helps us dissect all those year-end “Top 10” critics lists, not to mention one that rates the year’s best unproduced screenplays. Who do you think will be on the red carpet at Oscar time?

And the Best of 2009 lists extend into television and music territory as well. The Los Angeles Times rounded up the TV winners and losers for the season (and we compare them to our own predictions for this year’s television series from Episode 22). Meanwhile, SoundScan released the best selling albums and artists of the decade. Guess how many of them were released before 2002? Listen to the podcast to find out.

We sail through some of the week’s top entertainment news headlines in our Big Deal/Big Whoop segment, including the possibility of a “Ghostbusters 3” sequel in the works. Read more