>actually, in hindsight, a couple of people I'd love to hear from on this subject are Jodie Foster and Sandra Bullock<

I'm sure Lemmons (who is African-American and female) has a lot to say on this subject as well. She did one of this year's best movies--TALK TO ME--and has done some solid, interesting work. If she had had Sofia Coppola's press, she'd be regarded as one of Hollywood's most promising directors and have any number of shots at the kind of big studio projects that make a career.

>These days, if I want convincing, engrossing characters--either male or female--I turn to TV. . .wonderful, wonderful television. The Sopranos, Deadwood, Huff, Mad Men, The Wire (my god! The Wire!)...<

...or CBS' COLD CASE, or THE CLOSER, or WITHOUT A TRACE, or 24. Hell, you can find solid female characters any given night on any one of the LAW AND ORDER or CSI franchises. When even the networks are giving up what should be the standard in women characters, why should I spend money to see movies that most treat women mostly from a frat-boy perspective? Or act as if fluff-headed "wanna marry" women that populate chick-flicks represent real women.

...were abused as children. O'Reilly got physical and emotional abuse from his dad; Oprah was raped. That helplessness has never left them, for all their success--and as a result, they head into "blame the victim" territory. (O'Reilly has made a career on this stuff, whereas Oprah has gotten more into that head the more successful and "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" she's become. They go hard after this kid because they are trying to prove they are now "strong;" and to erase the guilt they feel for being "weak" enough to be abused.

"I still kick myself after dates, because I am too nice and polite when I should have been a CLEVER SHIT to get the woman to take me seriously."

Is any woman who would want you do to that worth it? Honestly, Brightstar, you are setting yourself up for failure. Why do you think those high-maintenance beautiful "bitches" you want are the _only_ women worth having? In your posts you often seem to look down on "plain" or "fat" or "unattractive" women, and it's clear you don't think they are worthy of your time. But when those high-maintenance women prove as shallow and selfish as they obviously are, you get angry that "all" woman are like that. Result--you keep going after the same kind of woman and thinking all women are like that. I've seen a lot of average guys make this mistake--and what's ironic is that if they finally get to the point where they attract pretty women, those guys still never feel worthy because they figure those women just want them for them money or whatever. You see? You are sentencing yourself to endless unhappiness because you won't see beyond the superficial--or see women as individuals.

...the MAD MEN writers haven't really spelled out what the deal is with her. Folks on the AMC blog figure it's probably a combination of 1) gaining weight because she's on the Pill (side effects of the drug back then included substantial weight gain); 2) gaining weight to fend off the guys' attention and give herself breathing room to establish herself as a serious copywriter. I doubt she's pregnant--the poundage distribution doesn't look right.