An Entourage of Their Own

The New York Times Sunday Styles lead article was a decent piece on four female screenwriters who are taking Hollywood by storm–Lorene Scafaria, Diablo Cody, Dana Fox, and Liz Meriwether–all the while supporting, inspiring, and boosting one another. An excerpt:

You can find them at work in their Laurel Canyon homes in their pajamas, or sitting next to one another at laptop-friendly restaurants. To see them gathered amid the dinosaur topiary around Ms. Fox’s swimming pool with their dogs (they all have dogs) is to see four distinct styles of glamour that bear little resemblance to traditional images of behind-the-scenes talent. Whenever one of them has a movie opening, they all rent a white limousine and go from theater to theater to watch the first audiences react.
“We’re usually drunk by the third theater,” Ms. Cody said. “It’s super porno and tacky, and we love doing it.”
It sounds like fun and games — the boozy, all-woman answer to those close-knit gangs of Hollywood boy-men captured on screen in “Entourage” and embodied by the real-life Apatown, the industry moniker for filmmaker Judd Apatow’s coterie of actors and screenwriters including Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen. But these women also work hard: Ms. Cody, Ms. Fox and Ms. Scafaria can command seven figures to write a movie that makes it into theaters with big stars. Ms. Meriwether (the others call her “the freshman”) is on her way to joining them. That’s no small achievement when you consider that among the screenwriters who are in steady demand for major projects, only about 20 are women. Don’t even try to credit their bankability to their looks.

There are a lot of exciting things about these four women, who have given us solid (though flawed) films and television with a feminist sensibility: Juno, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,The United States of Tara, and lots of upcoming projects that I look forward to seeing. At a time when it seems like testosterone poisoned action flicks and sticky sweet, unoriginal romcoms are the movies that get the money, it’s critical that screenwriters like these get interesting, complex female characters onto the big screen.
But what’s even more thrilling is that they’re unapologetically supportive of one another and being recognized for it. Young women in their position are often pitted against one another, deluged with a psychology of deprivation by agents, producers, and mentors who urge them to look out for themselves, first and foremost, in the competitive LA landscape where there are very few spots for women writers. These women are bucking the conventional wisdom of dog-eat-dog and banding together to share the wealth, the networks, and yes, the alcohol.
What would make it ever more thrilling would be if they weren’t all white and/or if they managed to claim their feminism more openly. It’s clear that they’re all down for the cause, so it would be even more lovely to hear them assert that far and wide, and make sure its reflected even more resolutely in their work.