Synopses & Reviews
Over 125 remarkably candid conversations with powerful women who found success behind the camera In the 1970s, the women who produced or directed in film or television could be counted on one hand. By the 1990s, there were hundreds. What happened? That's the dramatic, firsthand story told in Women Who Run the Show. Based on interviews with women in virtually every segment of the entertainment business, this is the unfiltered account of women's lives in the Hollywood workplace over the last thirty years. Gregory had exceptional access to key players and got them to open up on a wide range of subjects, from the Hollywood "boys' club" to forgoing motherhood for career, and from the importance of mentors to learning on the job. The women whose voices are heard in the book include: Gale Ann Hurd, Mimi Leder, Kathleen Nolan, Barbra Streisand, Polly Platt, Martha Coolidge, and Sherry Lansing.
Review
"Women were subsidiary characters, the second story line." --Marcia Nasatir, producer
"At film school, all the boys were going to be directors and I was supposed to be Hedda Hopper." --Diana Gould, screenwriter
"Women competed with each other...If the pie is small, who is going to get the pie." --Anthea Sylbert, producer
"Everybody wanted to have one woman." --Joan Hyler, agent
"If I'd been a guy...I could have accomplished a lot more." --Loreen Arbus, producer
"No one told me that because I was a woman I couldn't do something. I just went out and fought for myself." --Debra Hill, producer
Synopsis
Conventional wisdom has it that women can't work in Hollywood unless they're in front of the camera. And while it's true that female studio heads and major directors are in short supply, it's equally clear that some of the heaviest hitters in Tinseltown are women. Mollie Gregory has interviewed over 100 of these pioneers, whose stories make up a chronicle of the last three decades of the entertainment industry.
No subject is off limits to these women who run the show: sexual harassment, the personal cost of success, the stranglehold the "boy's club" can have on major projects.
Featured are frank, revealing conversations with, among others: Julia Phillips, producer of The Sting and Taxi Driver; Gale Anne Hurd, producer of Terminator and Aliens; Mimi Leder, director of The Peacemaker; Barbra Streisand, director and producer of Yentl; Laura Ziskin, producer of Spiderman.
About the Author
Mollie Gregory has been a writer and producer of documentary films and has written a number of books, including
Making Films Your Business. She lives in Los Angeles, California.