Dear British Press... Kindly shove it. Love Kate

As an avid proponent of Kate Winslet's talent since my young seven year old self first saw her in Titanic, nothing could have made me happier than her Golden Globe win as Best Supporting Actress in the Reader. Until she won Best Actress an hour later. Her speech was perfect, fawning over Leo and Sam (DiCaprio and Mendes, her husband) respectably. She didn't behave as if she was so surprised and so modest and "But Meryl should have won!" as it would have come from her category-mates. Instead, she knew she deserved it and thanked those who helped her get to that point. She even forgot about Angelina Jolie as she started to list off her fellow nominees (take that waif!). Yet the crowd was all smiles and happy with the display of emotion. This got me super jazzed for the remainder of Oscar season.

Then the next day I found an column in British newspaper, The Independent, entitled "Get a Grip, Kate. You're Embarrassing us." According to Brian Viner, Kate's "irreproachably middle-class upbringing in Reading" should have held herself more upright. Be damned the fact that a Best Acting award is something that she has wanted for a long time. As Mr. Viner acknowledges, her husband had directed the film and it was a return pairing with a good friend that led to it, she should feel a certain sense of pride for it. But "Our (Kate's Countrymen) own pride... was diminished as soon as the first tear plopped onto that lovely cheek." Ok Viner, that is just harsh. What should have she done? Hold her statue coldly in her hand as she lists in a monotone those she would like to thank and how much they contributed to her performance and how much this award belongs to them above her. That would have been more expected of a "sensible girl from Reading."

Does sensibility mean that one should hide excitement and pride when they are being rewarded for their work? I should think not! I know that if I were to be recipient of such a well known award I would need to be carried to the stage, because of a fainting spell. And I would not be one to name my children "Bubblegum Eucalyptus Tree," thank you very much Mr. Viner.

Moral of the story? The stuffy British press may have their sensibility and reservedness. Kate's got two Golden Globes and and Oscar. Kate:3 Brian Viner and those who dislike emotion: 0.

Why Amy Sherman-Palladino

Thanks to the terrible invention of Hulu, I can say goodbye to my complete academic drive. Due to the fact that it supports so many forms of media for a self proclaimed media lover, I have found the ultimate form of distraction for myself. The first took the shape of Fox's recently failed series, "The Reutrn of Jezebel James." This came from Amy Sherman-Palladino, the mastermind behind the cult series "Gilmore Girls".
I loved that show for several reasons. The first was that it was very female-centric. In addition to this, past the fast-paced dialogue and the quick wit, it was also very real and relatable. My mother and I would sit down every Tuesday night like clockwork to take in the mishaps of Stars Hallow citizens and laugh at their antics. Then there was another thing. Though each of these women had a central character flaw (Emily was controlling, Sookie was ditzy and Loralai was crazy) they all had one thing in common. These were smart women, capable of their own lives.
This is where "Jezebel James" differed. Though the culture references and the quick dialogue was in place, something was missing. The two sisters, and all the female supporting characters, seemed that they should have been smart. There was everything in place for it. But somehow I found myself wondering how the two managed to match the right shoe to the right foot. They seemed to be lacking so much in common sense that it lacked the realness of "Gilmore." I was almost happy with the knowledge that the series did finish after nine episodes, because I knew there would be an end in sight.
Any Gilmore fans out there who have seen this short lived series?

P.S. ... I shouldn't watch this movie

So as my "me aculpa" for being a big enough dolt to forget to write my blog this week, I'm going to expound endlessly anyway on something extremely relevant to yesterday's date. February 14th, known by myself as singles awareness day and my dog's birthday (she's 11!), is a date where all of these couples come out of the woodwork. Its a date that girls expect grand gestures for and guys get sweaty palms and start freaking out over the types of chocolate, the dozen roses, the sweet cards, and on occasion jewelery. I personally find it all amusing to watch. Leading up to this date, my friend Rachel and I were contemplating what to do with our pathetic single selves. We decided that we would do the cliches of single girls on valentines day and get more pathetic as the day droned on. So we're going to the movies, going shopping where we will beg the people at Lindt to sell us chocolate at the prices they will be tomorrow, put on sweat clothes, and eat all of the chocolate while watching P.S. I Love You and crying our eyes out. Now while our plans are shifting to include a lot more social interaction, the thoughts of P.S. I Love You are still in my mind.

Now, I am not a girl who cries in movies. I'm not going to lie, when I saw Rent and Les Mis live, I was bawling like a small child, but for some reason movies never push me to that point. (And yes, that includes The Notebook, which by the way is just a ridiculous film) Then I saw Hillary Swank throwing herself her 5th floor walk-up wearing her dead husband's shirt and singing along with a black and white Judy Garland. By the end of the movie I could not see through my own tears I was crying so hard. The reasons for this shift are unknown. 

Why this movie was at the top of my selections for a day of single valentine's fun brings up the question of how women are shown they are supposed to behave when they are single. Granted her husband is dead and she is in mourning, but supporting characters give other examples of single women and the things that they do. My own personal favorite is the line of questions asked by Lisa Kudrow's character to unsuspecting men. Are you single? Are you gay? Do you have a job? And then a kiss to see if there's a spark. I like her methods personally. She's on a mission and determined to get her job done, which is not something you often see women in movies doing. Both of her friends are strong, self assured women who balance out the sadness emanating from both Hilary Swank's character and her mother on occasion. The mother suffers from the same heartbreak that her daughter has, but has had an additional ten or so years to deal with this. She strongly holds her daughter together and tries to make her see the hurt that never goes away.

Why does this film stand out for me? It could be that it is just a legitimately good movie (doubtful, I'm a film snob). It could be the endless amounts of Irish accents (possible, I'm an accent lover). It could just be that it makes me cry.  This is the most likely of the reasons. Emotional catharsis is cleansing for any person. Crying, one of the forms of it, is more indicative of emotional health than it is of emotional instability. So guys, don't be afraid of women who cry. It means that she is probably less psycho than other girls.

She may be the man... but so is he!

On a recent long drive from New York with three teammates (one female, two male) I decided that I wanted watch "She's the Man." My friend Rachel enthusiastically agreed. Then Channing Tatum appeared on the screen...We let it be known to the boys in the front seat how much we appreciated such an entrance and continued to drool over the rest of the film, where most of the principle males appear at some point sans top. I find this to be so detracting from the film which the storyline consists of Amanda Bynes prancing around in drag trying her hand at high school boys soccer.

Why would filmmakers want to do such a terrible thing to me? The storyline is completly detracted from by Channing Tatum's wonderful lack of cloth. This tells me that the filmmakers are concentrating on what makes women happy in a shallow manner, despite the fact that women often concentrate more on a story. Even so, I don't think that I would change something that makes me so wonderfully happy.