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Show Page 4 April 27 1997 Sunday Et Hollywoodis undergoing a role reversal for women By SHARON WAXMAN SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON Post of movies, though notthe lead and determiningfactor.” “There have been small chat LOS ANGELES — Threeyears ago the themeofthe in Hollywood as women have become more powerful, as demographics Academy Awards show — “Year of the Woman” wasa dismalfailure. Instead of being an occasion to laud the accomplishments of womenin film, it exposed the way Hollywood shut out women over 40 and reducedall therest to clinginggirlfriends, dutiful wives, sex kittens and prostitutes. This year, finally, was an Oscar year that belied all that, with strong performances by womenofwidely have changed,” says UCLA film professor Vivian Sobchack. “It’s also pushed and prodded by indepen- dent films, which, if they're successful, end upsuggest ing other possibilities where Hollywood might maki buck.” Thekeyto the shift, most seem to agree,is the growing numberof female executives at the studios where movies are conceived, financed and carried out Marketresearchers have long considered womento be important decision-makers in movie-going, butit is only The key to the shift, most seem to very recently that Hollywoodstarted to make movies agree, is the growing numberoffemale primarilyto attract them. That may be because Paramount Chairman Sherry executives at the studios where movies Lansingis nolonger the only womaninthe boardroom. are conceived, financed andcarriedout. There is also Columbia-Tristar Vice Chairman Lucy Fisher, Fox 2000 President Laura Ziskin, United Artists Market researchers have long consid- President Lindsay Doran and Fine Line Features Presiered women to be important decision- dent Ruth Vitale, to name just a few. Their presence adifferent sensibility to the process of greenmakers in movie-going, but it is only brings lighting movies. very recently that Hollywoodstarted to “There's a direct relationship there,” says Obst, who believesthat films such as Sense andSensibility and Litmake movies primarily to attract them. tle Women would never have been made without a female executive'searly involvement As many as 44 percent of the top creative executives varyinglooks and ages. Amongothers, there’s Diane Keaton as a middle-age at Paramount are women,according to Premiere mag: spinster with cancer in Marvin's Room,BrendaBlethyn as an aging working-class womanfound byachild she gave up for adoption in Secrets & Lies, Kristin Scott Thomasas a sand-swept heroine in colonial Egypt in The English Patient and Frances McDormandasadistinctly unglamorouspregnantpolice chiefin Fargo. Mostofthese performances camefromfilms made by small independentstudios, but last year there were also prominent roles for women in more mass-market movies. The First Wives Club, with Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Keaton, was an unexpected hit; Meg Ryan played a role that might have gone to a man in Courage zine, and some 35 percentat 20th Century Fox. But that does not mean that women have made progress everywhere. Theyare still relatively ce in other parts of the film-making industry, particularly screenwriting,directing and editing. And the emphasis in Hollywood remains on the action-adventure “event” films, inevitably starring a hunky male boxoffice star. “People are interested in making money,andsince big stars make big money, and since mostofthe big stars are men, mostfilms are conceived, planned and written for men, sadly,” says Gil Cates, longtime producer of the Oscar telecast and the person whoproposedthe “Year ofthe Woman”in 1994. Under Fire; the success of Waiting to Exhale helped lead to Set It Off and The Preacher's Wife; and Evita was therole every A-list actress wanted. It may be too soontocall all this activity a trend, but women in Hollywood don’t considerit an aberration, either, “We're getting somewhere,” says Lynda Obst, producer of One Fine Day and an upcoming moviestarring Jodie Foster. “This was the year in which four women’s movies came out at Christmas, in which women audiences becamea factor in the marketing and production Cynthia Leverhant, executive director of Women in Film, a nonprofit group that works to promote women in the entertainment industry, says that women have becomemorevisible but are still few in number. “Have wereally broadened the base, or are we just morevertically visible? Canyoureally name more than 10 womendirectors?” she asks, “Myperceptionis that the quality of women comingforth is so outstanding that you can’t ignore them anymore. Andit’s these women whowilltruly broadenthe base.” Diane Keaton(left) plays an uncharacteristically frumpyrole in Marvin's Room. Ex-J. Geils singeris still on the road and proudofhis old band By DaviD OKAMOTO THE DALLAS MorNING News As the scruffy, soul-drenched voice behind such J. Geils Band hits as “Must of Got Lost,” “GiveIt to Me” and the sarcastic “Love Stinks,” Peter Wolf has long been revered as one of rock’s staunchest traditionalists. But the mosttelling evidence of the 50-year-old Bronx native’s diehard allegience to the soul and R&B classicsthat helped make him one of the most exciting frontmen this side of Mick Jagger wasn't revealed until page 189 of The Mansion onthe Hill, critic Fred Goodman's plodding but pointed new book that chronicles how music deteriorated into the music “business.” In 1969, Wolf and his bandmates were offered a deal with Atlantic Records’ rock-oriented Atco subsidiary. But the idealistic 24-year: old Wolf was determined to have his music come out onAtlantic, the label that produced the scratchy singles by the Drifters, Aretha Franklin, the Clovers, Bobby Darin and Ray Charles that anchoredhis record collection. So the J. Geils Bandagreedto sign awayits pub: revenues to the label in exchange for what Goodman sug gests could have been changed withthe strokeof an eraser Looking back on the incident, Wolf who hasn't read Mansion onthe Hill yet says he doesn’t regret the naive negotiation that cost him and his bandmates hun dreds of thousands of dollars. “To me, it was a dreamthatif 1 was goingto makearecord, I want ed to be on the Atlantic roster, not on Ding Dong Records,” Wolf recalls by phone from his Boston home. “Though some of it was foolish, I never feel I have to apol ogizefor it. I'm proudI had certain The members of the J. Geils Bandin their wilder, more idealistic days. principles, as small as they might be in the big schemeof things. They might have beensilly busi a mere comeback. Back onthe road with his four-man band, the Street Ensem: ness-wise, but aesthetically, it was important to meand I feel good that I did it.” Wolf's smal! but pivotal presence ble, Wolf recently headed to a South by Southwest showcase at the Austin Music Hall. There, | headlined an offbeat bill featuring Junior Brown and Tony Ber nnet Despite his acnmoniou: th st he J, Geil in the controversial Mansion on the Hill which places the J. Geils Band at the maelstrom of rock's Band in 1983, Wolf is sti i ings from his ‘70s and "80s heyday, including “Must of Got Le Sanctuar Love Stinks" and, on a rare night, even “Centerfold corporatization but focuses most of despite the fact it its attention on Bruce Sprin, ) and David Geffen has increased man, whose growing influence as py er and songwriter after the success of 1981's Freeze-Frame was the chief reason writler the singer's visibility and renewed Wolf left the band. hard-rocking 1996 solo album was very dumb, Some people interest in Long Line, his superb, Long Line boasting two col- “I'm very proud of the J. Geils Band,” he says. of left me. They felt I wasr laborations with fellow Bostonian and myself were Aimee Mann wanted to get invol charts, but compared tc m the flailing funk of Wolf's last two albums, the Muscle Shoals strut of “Forty to One” and the Stoneslike snarl of “Break This Chain” make it seem keyboard wongs himself, mir \ ine ase someday that his record companies didn’t know howto handle, let alone market. his broad musical tastes A former valet for Muddy Waters who attended concerts at ¢ Apollo Theater with the religious conviction of the devout ade his first impression on rock audiences as jive ng late-night DJ on Boston's WBCN-FM, one of the |. th Just “Breaking up but the band sort sutposts of fr becoming Wolf « the een to eye, He ted to write with for hy wr the (his faith, But it i at nth lead si me "70s had Yet Wolf never v became famou for ble fi te "60s, » the back If you come » Lef lomon Bu ih “chill factor’ and to describe and its ability to raise the hairs tw \ mA will be Mc " kinds mv Horace Silv 4, a t I car ‘Hey unk” To me, what people arecalling ‘alternative music’ is just newer audiences discovering new bands and falling in. love with rock n’ roll. It’s no different than whenpeople were ating { nvolved in Buffalo Springfield or the Byrds, They were making music for a specific audience rock ‘1 roll will al ways be generational Wolf, who lists Guided by Voices, Mazzy Star and PJ Har ey among his current favorites; realizes that his barnstorming, ur-band legacy with the J, Geils Band will never be seen ak ndbrea actress Faye Dun of ye n I hear my contemporaries talking about the man, all rap soundslike noise, how could peoplelistento that Afte some fans wonderingif he'd'gone the phrase heartened w good old days and sounding like old reactionaries J. Geils Ba defenders of the d in his affection for music, 4 the litmus test of a ar gap between ( | Hollywood. first rote for the band but of the J. Geils B. wporate quag mn lanky, away in the early n the right direction. Seth havin: A solo album) Lights Out wer everyone else felt weren't really Wolf hy like more of an artistic rebirth than ak that I left, of his early solo efforts especially flawed hip-hop/pop collaboration with hot Michael Jonzun that Wolf hopes to remix and clear from the sound 1984's Lights Out, a but points to the band’s prolific 18-year nutt 18 an achievement that few of today’s band will ever match 1 don’t feel a band has to beeclectic or left-of-center to make & personal statement or have somecreative validity to it,” he says. “I think some songs like Sly and the Family Stone's ‘Family Affair,’ which youget a strongsenseofinti macy from, a very straight, simple, primal track, and it is hat it re a band that was together 17 years. 1 don't think we nut on bad show, We never got lazy when it came to our i an ur record werent suceesstul but it was: |