Hollywood's coolest chicks

Entertainment Weekly's annual look at the gentler sex turns up some good stuff.

Published October 3, 2006 4:05PM (EDT)

A list of great reasons to check out Entertainment Weekly's chick-themed women in Hollywood issue:

1. An interview with Helen Mirren in which she discusses a personal pet peeve of almost every woman I know: the random wolf whistler on the street who takes it upon himself to tell you to smile. "I hate that!" the actor tells Clark Collis. "Someone comes up and says 'Cheer up, Love!' You know, fuck off! I want to head-butt them!"

2. A profile of Kate Winslet, in which she identifies one of my personal gods, Emma Thompson (with whom she starred in the sublime "Sense & Sensibility" in 1995), as the person who helped her stay sane as a young actor in Hollywood. "She set an incredible example for me when I was young," Winslet says, explaining how Thompson trained her to always balance work and life. Winslet adds, "And she also told me, 'If you ever lose weight, I will never fucking talk to you again.'"

3. Christine Spines' excellent piece, "Hollywood vs. Women," which chronicles the depressing ways in which women are losing the La-La Land battle to be taken seriously as audiences, actors, directors, producers and executives. "Women make up half the population, yet the studios continue to make movies and spend billions as if they didn't exist," Spines writes. She offers six suggestions for how Hollywood can do better, ending with an inspiring list of underused and incredibly diverse talent, and encouraging film executives to turn on their televisions and "watch the work being done by Kate Burton, Blythe Danner, Hope Davis, Edie Falco, Sally Field, Lauren Graham, Rachel Griffiths, Felicity Huffman, Virginia Madsen, S. Epatha Merkerson, Sandra Oh, Mary-Louise Parker, Robin Weigert, and Chandra Wilson ... and hang your heads in shame that you're not keeping them busy every hiatus."

Amen. Amen. Amen.


By Rebecca Traister

Rebecca Traister writes for Salon. She is the author of "Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women" (Free Press). Follow @rtraister on Twitter.

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