This past week weekend,
Power Up did the impossible. They locked a large group of lesbians together in a room for the entire weekend and there wasn't a single instance of acoustic guitar playing, golf, broken beer bottles and only a minimal discussion of cats (and by the way, I didn't hear a single woman utter, "I saw you looking at her!", a popular line at Dinah Shore Weekend and the Olivia cruises). There was, however, an abundance of lesbian drama. This was mainly due to the fact that the entire weekend was about drama... and comedy. You see the subject was women who make television, and Power Up assembled a group of the biggest names in writing to tell it all. Which they did.
The not-for-profit Power Up organization pulled together some pretty stellar female show runners and hosted a weekend on breaking into television writing at the WGA for 42 lucky attendees. The panelists included Lost's Executive Producer and out lesbian Elizabeth Sarnoff, Everybody Loves Raymond co-exec producer Ellen Sandler, SNL and Seinfeld writer and recent out-lesbian Carol Leifer, 10 Things I Hate about You scribe Lauren Iungerich (she was so fucking hysterical I immediately wanted a bobblehead of her for my dashboard with some of her killer one-liners programmed for easy access!), Claudia Lonow from The Cashmere Mafia and Accidently on Purpose, and another television lesbian icon Jan Oxenberg from Cold Case, Chicago Hope and Once and Again.
The women sat in a very casual environment where attendees could interact with them and they sang like canaries about all things writing for television. Talk about drama! Each woman was more hysterical than the last, and they not only told vivid stories of the writers rooms and network writing, but of breaking in and their personal lives (divorce! lesbian affairs! cancer! cancellation!).
Some of the highlights included the obvious question to Sarnoff, "Can you tell us what's going to happen on Lost this season?" to which she responded, "If someone would tell us!". She went on to tell us that it's next to impossible to remember what goes on with the show from season to season because so many ideas are pitched in the writers room that it's hard to remember which ones actually made the show. "We've even shot flashbacks that haven't been put in! So between that and the endless ideas tossed out, we have to constantly be reminded of what's happened. Fortunately, we have a gay man that keeps track of all this," she said referring to their Script Coordinator who - due to the large scope of his job - has recently been promoted to producer.
Sarnoff noted the one job she has on Lost which she never had before was writing fake sides. "Like I don't have better things to do, I'm up writing scenes with characters in fake situations that we can use for casting." She said this show has so many leaked stories, it's hard to stay on top. One way fans find out what's going to happen is from the sides - or script pages - that are sent out to audition guest characters. So these are fictionalized to hide upcoming plot points.
The job Sarnoff misses most is working on production for Deadwood. As a story editor on that show, she got to be involved on a daily basis in production. "Show creator David Milch doesn't even like to give the actors the scripts in advance, so everything was very raw on set," she said, "And sometimes we'd just write scenes for actors we liked at the last minute. There was one extra that Milch did this for so many times, he became a regular."
Traditionally, writing for television has been a man's world. Out of 8-12 writers on every show, generally, there are only one or two women. Even today, almost all of these women are the only female in a writers room. "We had one other on Lost," says Sarnoff, "But she rolled out pretty quick."
The writers room is where all the juicy stuff happens on tv shows. Depending on how the show runner likes to do things, all the writers are put in a room for 8 hours a day breaking down the season, the episodes then punching up each individual script. Carol Leifer talked about Larry David as a Show Runner, "He didn't want to hire anyone on Seinfeld that had ever written for a sit com." Leifer had been a popular comic with stand up shows on Showtime and the like when Seinfeld not only recruited Leifer to the show, but also based the character of Elaine on her. During her days working the comedy clubs, Leifer had dated Seinfeld as well as Paul Reiser, before meeting the girl of her dreams at a Project Angel Food fundraiser 13 years ago. She's now been with her partner ever since, with kids and 7 dogs. Leifer also just penned a collection of funny essays, "When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win."
"When I worked on Seinfeld, Larry always wanted to know about the most mundane things that happened in our lives and most of the time, those ended up in the show, " Leifer commented.
Due to the nature of their jobs, all the women were hugely entertaining and very funny, and the attendees got to interact with the women freely during the talks, and again afterwards over coffee and danish.
All of them also had very interesting breaking-into-the biz stories. Ellen Sandler had written a one act play that went up during a festival in Los Angeles and since it starred a then-relatively-unknown actress Rhea Perlman, her husband Danny DeVito and everyone from the hit show Taxi attended. Show creator James Brooks went up to Sandler immediately and from that alone, asked her to pen two episodes of Taxi.
Sarnoff had a similar path when a 2-person character play she penned got in the hands of David Milch who was on NYPD Blue. Oxenberg came from the world of independent film making and got her first break on a show called Relativity after making a few (lesbian) shorts followed by a feature that garnered critical acclaim at Sundance. Claudia Lonow hit big after washing-up as an actress. Whilst waiting tables at the improv, Lonow sold a series loosely based on her life to Showtime called, Rude Awakenings. It was about a trash-talking, alcoholic, sex addict and her experiences in AA.
All the women were both honest and hysterical and the entire weekend was very inspirational. Considering how hard it is to break into the business, much less be working in a man's world, these women were all incredibly charming and extremely encouraging.
For more information on Power Up and their upcoming educational panels (they have one on producing too!), check out
www.powerupfilms.org.
Here's some photos from the weekend:
Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer
This past Saturday, the Point Foundation hosted a gala at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel and - as usual - it was a star-studded evening with laughs, tears and fun.
When Cherry Jones took the stage, she refused to let Lily leave and the two of them continued an off-the-cuff routine that had the entire ballroom falling on the floor laughing.
Director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Erin Brockovich) is developing a feature biopic about the life of flamboyant entertainer Liberace, with Michael Douglas (Streets of San Francisco) attached for the lead. 
Screenwriter LaGravenese also penned The Mirror Has Two Faces for Barbra Streisand, so he clearly must know a thing or two about DIVAS to use in the Liberace biopic.
AfterElton.com just published their 2009 list of the top 50 gay films ever, based on reader polls, and I'm thrilled/elated/flattered/shocked that my film SHELTER came in at...wait for it.... okay, wait some more.... #2!!
When Jonah gave me the script for SHELTER (of all places at the Abbey at brunch one Sunday), I loved it on first read and called him immediately, knowing I wanted to produce this film. I was shocked to find out that it had not even won or made the Top 5 at that year's Outfest's Screenwriting Competition. 
I just finished production on my follow-up feature A MARINE STORY, and we had the same experience on that film. I love working with writer/directors, and this time it was another talented fellow named Ned Farr. Once again, I fell in love with the script on first read. We had an absolutely stellar creative team and again, relied on the kindness of strangers for handouts all over town. You can read more about that film - which is currently in post production - at www.amarinestorymovie.com For this film, we put together a production blog so everyone can see the process in photos and videos each day of the shoot. (thanks to the love and donation of Cyndi Greening!)
Out actress Jane Lynch sat down with me as part of TheSmokingCocktail.com Out-Celeb interview series and spoke quite candidly about her life, discussing everything from coming out to breaking in. 
I thought this was hysterical. The anticipation over the upcoming feature EATING OUT 3 - ALL YOU CAN EAT is so huge with the gay community, that the flick has hit #5 already on Wolfe Video's best sellers...and it's not even out yet!
After much speculation as to who would fill the fourth judge chair left vacant by Paul Abdul, Fox announced Wednesday that it would be none other than out lesbian Ellen DeGeneres.
Sometimes I worry about humanity. Especially when I accidentally turn on VH1 (I mean, Tool Academy, Rock of Love, et el?!), or realize this country voted for George Bush II twice.
The closeted and deeply repressed Sal (played by out-gay actor Bryan Batt) had a fantastically uncomfortable scene in Sunday night's MAD MEN.
Tennis legend and lesbian icon Martina Navratilova tells her life story in a new documentary produced by the Tennis Channel. The doc is both in-depth and revealing - no surprise considering the honesty and strength she's always had in tackling the ups and downs of her complex life. She even narrates it herself.
Ever sit around watching The Real Housewives of... and just wish they had a show like that about lesbians? I know, me neither. 
SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES NEW CATEGORY FOR LOW BUDGET FILM!
HOW NOT TO MAKE A SHORT FILM
I can't recommend this site highly enough. Fantastic site for screenwriters to post their pitches for producers to read, as well as a a go-to site for producers looking for undiscovered talent. Their search options make this an A+ resource, as you can specify searches by genre, name attachments and/or awards won. Check them out at www.inktip.com
Variety and The Producers Guild of America present: On September 23rd, representatives from California, New York and Connecticut will give an overview on what type of production incentives they have to offer, as well as commentary on their locations and infrastructure which will help producers meet their budgets and create the best looking film possible from a location stand-point.
DV EXPO
