In 1976, with a certain trepidation, I went to Iran as part of a female American delegation invited to participate in a women’s film festival. There was the feeling in some quarters that Americans shouldn’t lend their “prestige” to the Shah’s dubious campaign to impress the West with the social and cultural advances of his Read More
Trying to defeat the terrorists in my own small way, I’ve gone about my business, traveling a good deal since Sept. 11. The first few trips were uneventful, but then I ran into a blitzkrieg of perturbations on land and air. The airlines in particular–having done their best to make the skies unfriendly even before Read More
I recently sat on a hush-hush committee of 13 that met in L.A. to nominate the year’s outstanding films and filmmakers for the American Film Institute, which just inaugurated its own awards ceremony. The setting was California-cool, the group adrenaline-high rowdy, full of passionate discussions and violent arguments. Having signed a confidentiality agreement, I am Read More
In the rash of trend articles in the wake of Sept. 11, a New Man is being envisaged. Of course, a New Man is always being envisaged–ditto a New Woman–by editors and writers desperate to fill pages and help their readers to “make sense of it all,” if not actually polish up their luster in Read More
I should feel elated. The skinny, cave-dwelling polygamist is on the run, and our bombing campaign-which I supported-has temporarily prevailed. Instead, I feel a curious letdown. It’s reminiscent of situations where I’ve been at the bedside of deathly ill relatives, giving my all as they slid downhill, only to find, when they showed signs of Read More
We’ve all been a little on edge, so when a mouse scampered across our kitchen floor just after dinner guests had left, I shrieked. Like the classic cartoon of the fluttery female, I would have jumped up on a chair had one been handy. This didn’t say much for my ability to show fortitude in Read More
How we Americans, with our sparkling optimism and perfect orthodonture, must grate on our friends and enemies.
With unconscionable meteorological chutzpah, New York had never been so day-after-day beautiful-blue skies and balmy temperatures, the crystal-clear air of the Upper East Side mocking the smoke and debris and burnt-flesh odors that filled the air of lower Read More
By any measure, the tiny slice of ocean on which I spend
July and August is a corner of paradise. It’s my aural environment, my sensurround: I listen day and night to its restless,
constantly changing song, from even-tempered purr to the angry thrashing of a
storm. And when I say day and night, I Read More
Granted, it’s been a slow summer for hard news, but with the
alarums and excursions over the computer-created film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within , you’d think the Martians had
landed and a digitized babe with a permanent good-hair day and her space-hunk
cohorts were out to get everybody in Actors’ Equity. “The synthespians are Read More
I didn’t go to the Jane Fonda tribute at Lincoln Center back
in May. My excuse was a long-standing engagement, but that wasn’t the real
reason. As much as I’ve admired many of her films, Ms. Fonda’s career-watching
her morph from Barbarella to barbells-brings out a sense of confusion and
embarrassment. Demi Moore taps the Read More
