Girl Power – Celebrating Women’s Month
In celebration of women's month in August 2008, we reviewed how women were shaping the entertainment industry.
As a collective, women may be a long way from being the power brokers of the world, but one need look no further than the entertainment industry to see that women are catching up in leaps and bounds. In few arenas are women more powerful than they are in the entertainment industry today.
In 2008 the world’s most successful author is a woman, a woman tops the Forbes list of Most Powerful Celebrities and the world’s most renowned photographer is a woman. J.K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey and Annie Leibovitz are leading examples of women who are setting new standards by which to measure commercial success.
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| Photographer Annie Liebovitz - source: Vanity Fair |
Apart from being the bestselling author of all time, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is also the world’s most bankable celebrity in 2008, with estimated earnings of $300 million (according to Forbes Magazine). This past weekend the public’s insatiable appetite for all things Potter again ensured that her short story collection, Tales of Beedle the Bard, sold faster than any other short story collection in British history.
Despite her rapid ascent to fame, Rowling’s feet remain firmly on the ground. She is fiercely private – illustrated by her recent court bid to stop the publication of paparazzi photos of her child – and puts family life first. Although Rowling vowed to have penned the last of the Potter series - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (released 2007) - the world will watch closely for what she comes up with next. Not bad for a struggling single mom who in 1996, spent a year trying to convince publishers that the young wizard and his friends were worth it.
Talk Show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey has a global following bordering on a ministry. This has earned her a top spot on the 2008 Forbes list of Most Powerful Celebrities.
Celebrity therapist Dr. Phil McGraw will testify to the fact that, if you’re in with Oprah, success is almost guaranteed. McGraw became a household name due to his regular appearances on the Oprah show, which later led to a successful TV spin-off of his own.
Scores of authors have gone on to become bestsellers because of exposure on Oprah's Book Club and although her show has been running for longer than most hackneyed soap operas, no network bosses are yet itching to edge the queen of talk out of her seat. How could they with those kinds of ratings?
If you are planning to celebrate Women's Day, make sure Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens, is on your list of things to do. The film opened on the Cinema Nouveau circuit yesterday and is a fascinating look at the life of the world's most famous and temperamental photographer. The film, made by Leibovitz’s sister, explores her career as the photographer who shaped the look of Rolling Stone Magazine and continues to raise the bar for celebrity shoots at Vanity Fair.
You may not have heard of Leibovitz, but you are more than likely familiar with her work. In 1991 her controversial photograph of a naked and heavily pregnant Demi Moore - on the cover of Vanity Fair - sky-rocketed magazine sales and became the subject of much heated debate.
Earlier this year Leibovitz pushed the boundaries again during a photo shoot with young Hannah Montana star, Miley Cyrus. The photos show Cyrus covered in nothing but a sheet, prompting angry parents to slam Leibovitz for ‘exploiting’ her young charge. Leibovitz defended her work as an honest portrayal of Cyrus as a woman-child.
In 1980 Leibovitz took the last photographs of murdered Beatle John Lennon. He was shot five hours after the photo-shoot that produced some of Leibovitz’s most memorable work. The photos featured John at home with wife Yoko Ono and included the Rolling Stone cover shot, of a naked Lennon embracing Ono.
The film shows Leibovitz in action with a number of contemporary stars like Keira Knightley and George Clooney; it uncovers her penchant for outrageously expensive, over-the-top props and locations and includes a moving interview about her private life with American writer/intellectual Susan Sontag. Sontag died of cancer in 2004.
Anyone with a passion for photography will be awed by this formidable woman who confesses to living her life through a lens.
PBS.org hosts a collection of some of the Leibovitz photographs mentioned here.
Beyond the leviathans there are thousands of women in the entertainment industry who have carved out notable careers. This Women’s Month, Buzz will hook up with some of these women; the first of whom is actress Diane Gaidry.
Gaidry’s off-center approach is evident in her choice of parts. She often plays characters confronted with uncomfortable subjects, including madness and physical abuse. Her MySpace page has become a popular destination for women around the world, in large part due to a refreshingly candid and revealing personal blog.