"We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead."

This pearl, which has been all over the net in the past days for obvious reasons, was reported to come from Jeff Robinov, who, contrary to the logical assumption, is not a Neanderthal from the past, but Warner Bros.' President of Production.

The alleged quote would have been allegedly triggered by recent releases like The Brave One, with Jodie Foster in the lead, or Nicole Kidman's The Invasion, and their poor performance at the box office.

The reaction to this alleged statement was expected, of course. Gloria Allred, well-known women's rights attorney, addressed the issue: "If that's what he said, when movies with men as the lead fail, no one says we'll stop making movies with men in the lead. This is an insult to all moviegoers and particularly women. It is truly unfortunate that women get blamed for decisions which are made by men. Instead of taking responsibility for their own lack of judgment about which scripts to make, directors to hire and budgets to OK, some men in the movie industry find it easier to place blame for their lack of success on women leads and to exclude talented female actors from the top employment opportunities in Hollywood in favor of macho males."

If this insulting and disrespectful statement happened to be true, the implications would see no end. Are we talking about banning women leading roles for good? Why? What exactly is wrong with women leading films? Alpha males are more capable, I guess. Or is it perhaps because women aren't interesting enough for the general public? Or for the Box Office, maybe?

But I'm thinking...what if the scripts of those films were not the best? Maybe the direction was lacking (as I recall, most of the directors were male—perhaps we should stop hiring male directors since most films seem to be directed by men).

Perhaps it isn't a matter of a "woman" in the lead, but a poor story, with the actual responsibility resting on the studio that picked the script (led by a male), along with the male writer(s)... But no, that can't really be it. Because, to this day, no movie with a male lead has ever sucked.

This is not a joke, even if that's what I thought when I first heard about this. Not only because we are in the twenty-first century, and not in the middle of Pleistocene. Not only because women have been working far harder than any man to get their work and value recognized, and even after that, they are still undervalued. What made me think of this as a joke was the fact that it is not coming from the mouth of some Neanderthal in a filthy club having a drink with his wife-beater pals, but from the President of Production in one of the biggest and most influential industries in the world. That is not a joke.

The idea of someone in Mr. Robinov's position talking—and what's worst, thinking—this way is difficult to believe. But then, the idea of a journalist, a woman who knows a couple of things about the industry, risking her career by making this up about one of Hollywood's Big Fish, seems even more surreal.

After all this time, are women still going one step forward, ten steps back? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't even want to wonder about the position Mr. Robinov prefers women to be in, allegedly, of course.

I am, however, eager to see Warner Bros.' policy for their upcoming projects...because I can tell you one thing—there are plenty of movies out there with male leads that DO suck.

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Brian   |2007-11-12 01:07:20 Just out of curiosity, why are you (the article's author) questioning the veracity of the quote? Do you have something to base that on other than the boneheadedness of the comment? Because it's not difficult to imagine the head of production of a major motion picture company saying something that stupid, in case you were puzzled by that. People in important positions don't necessarily get there because they're smart, or open to new ideas--ruthlessness and naked ambition are often more salient qualities for success, and in an industry that's been white-male-dominated since its inception, it's not surprising that Robinov would have said what he was quoted as saying. It would actually be more surprising if he hadn't, frankly. So unless there's some reason to doubt the veracity of the reporter--and so far it doesn't seem like you've presented one--it seems to me that this piece is amateurish at least, and irresponsible at worst. Reply 0   0

Janice Struthers   |2007-10-15 14:36:15 Maybe we should all boycott male led films! What crap. I guess time will tell if he did say this when we see if there are indeed future lead roles for women at Warner Bros. I will be watching out for them with earnest now. Reply 0   0

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."