AddieStan

Cross-posted from The Huffington Post From the opening frames of Chérie , the viewer is drawn into an opulent, decadent world, at once foreign and familiar to those who have mixed with the denizens of high society in our own time. But the depiction of that world in director Stephen Frears' tour de force is no simple condemnation nor exaltation: the charms and moral ambiguities of France's Belle Epoch co-exist in this rendering of a gilded age at its apogee, most completely in the glowing figure of Michelle Pfeiffer as Léa de Lonval, an exquisite courtesan about to age out of her profession. At its core, Chérie is a movie about time and the constancy of change -- a theme that could be esoteric and depressing, were it not for the stunning visual and aural landscape the filmmakers grant us, the stylized repartee that screenwriter Christopher Hampton draws from Colette's celebrated novel, and Pfeiffer's grounded, sexy and elegant rendering of the woman at the center of ...

When MediaBistro announced its upcoming panel discussion titled "Finding a Business Model for News and Online Media", it listed only white men as panelists, thus joining a list of other apparently well-meaning organizations whose leaders tend to see only men as media innovators. In MediaBistro's case, this is particularly ironic, since the pioneering Web-based all-things-media outlet and consulting company was founded by Laurel Touby, a woman. The Women, Action & the Media (WAM!) community took issue with MediaBistro's treatment, issuing this letter , to which your humble blogstress signed her proper name: Dear MediaBistro and Demand Studios, We applaud your efforts to create an “an open discussion about the business models, innovation, and power of community that are changing journalism.” But your selection of presenters on this subject has forced us to wonder to whom, exactly, this discussion is open. We won’t stand for another panel exclusively composed of wh...

Photo by Fergus McNeill ; used through creative commons license Hope the longest day of the year was a beautiful one for you, mes amis . From the Times of London: Druids began their incantations, Wiccan priestesses drew their cowls tight against the damp morning air and four half-naked Papuan dancers waved their hands in the air and went: “Woo, woo, woo”. Only the guest of honour failed to put in an appearance at Stonehenge. A record 36,500 people had gathered at the prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain to watch the sun rise. So many turned out to celebrate the solstice that roads had to be shut and the vast field converted into a car park for 6,500 vehicles was full by 3am.

Here in our nation's steamy, sticky capital, as the annual Gay Pride celebration takes shape, temperatures are rising over the issue of marriage equality for queer folk. (Check out the Washington Blade for the skinny on the antics of the religious right's Rev. Harry Jackson, who was sent in by central casting to convince African-Americans that gays are their enemies.) This essay by noted DC poet and cultural critic Reuben Jackson (who is not LGBT) aired today on WAMU radio. In his commentary, Jackson writes of his recent experience of anti-LGBT sentiment in a District restaurant, and the link between racial prejudice and anti-gay discrimination. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO "WORDS LIKE PUNCHES" BY REUBEN JACKSON

The U.S. Justice Department has commenced a probe of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the physician who has been targeted for years by members of the far right for his willingness, at great personal risk, to perform late-term abortions to women in need. And Wendy Wright, president of the Concerned Women for America, has a problem with that. According to the right-wing Web site, OneNewsNow , Wright said: "This may be more of a nefarious effort than it appears on its face," she exclaims, "that in fact, the Department of Justice may be trying to smear pro-lifers, as if we all belong in the same camp, as if we all advocate violence, when it's [actually] just the opposite." The proof of the Obama adminstration's nefarious machinations, according to the right, is the fact that it has not dispatched U.S. Marshals to military recruiting stations in light of the recent murder of a recruiter by a man who says he is a convert to Islam. But U.S. Marshals have been di...

No sooner did your blogstress's Huffington Post piece about Ann Coulter's encouragement of violence against doctors who perform abortions then some wag who refused to even name your ecrivaine , called yours truly both dishonest and not reasonable for charging la Coulter with incitement.