I saw Elizabeth on Friday night. Enjoyed the spectacle, even if this one was a bit, well, over the top with the wide-angle. (Apologies for the confused metaphors; it’s Monday.) So remember Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov’s lovely comment the other week that “We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead”? Definitely check out Rebecca Traister’s chat with 10 of the most powerful women in Hollywood and see what they say about it all.

Meanwhile, I’m still paging through Newsweek’s spread on women leaders. The issue that hits the stands this week has an article on young women and feminism in it–I think I’m quoted. Really enjoyed talking with the supersavvy reporter, Jennie Yabroff, on this one. Off to get a copy…

People often ask me about media coaches. I’ve worked with a fabulous one, Karen Braga, who is more of a “performance coach.” Karen helps writers with book talks as well as media appearances. (And graciously fielded my “I’m-going-on-MSNBC-help!” call last week.) She works with writers individually and in groups. Her method is more mind-body than put-your-arms-here-and-your-eyes-there. She helps you feel like you, but on stage, and writ large. If you ask me, the woman works magic. Interested? Email me and I’ll send you her email. Happy to share a good thing.

The Brits sure are talking it up. The Myth of Mars and Venus pubs here on October 19. Check out coverage at The Guardian here, here and here. Author Deborah Cameron is the Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at Oxford University. My what an interestingly named chair.

Bottom line: Counter to all the John Greyism out there, there is as much similarity and variation within each gender as between men and women. I’ll let you know what I think…soon…! Venus here signing off til Sunday. Have an excellent Saturday, and see you then!

I’d like to add to New York Times columnist David Brooks’ short list of “country’s best sociologists” in his op-ed today, “The Odyssey Years.” UPenn sociologist (and fellow Council on Contemporary Families member) Frank Furstenberg is the bomb on this one. And for a wider look at the latest thinking about the expanded transition to adulthood, check out what the good folks over at the Network on Transitions to Adulthood have to say about it all. I imagine you’ll find a more rounded view of the phenomenon–and not just Brooksian calls of “hook ups!” and “no more church!”

In response to Shifting Careers blogger Marci Alboher’s recent profile, a reader wrote in to ask how free agents–like me–make ends meet. Do we have inheritances? Divorce settlements? Lottery winnings? Would that it were true!

Marci posted my response today, here, and I thought I’d expand on it a bit. I earn my living freelancing for magazines, writing books, giving talks, consulting for organizations, and teaching (sign up for my online course, “Making It Pop: Translating Your Ideas for Trade”!). You could say I live a life of improv. I don’t always know where a venture is leading me, but I’ve learned to have tremendous faith in the journey and to trust my instincts. It’s been well worth the ride so far.

So here’s a little clip Elizabeth Curtis (a 20something mentee/tor o’ mine) and I did, as part of a larger project, as we like to say, about authors using the blogosphere to spread word about their books. Note: I was having a very bad hair day here. Please don’t hold it against me.

Nobel Prize committee, kudos: Doris Lessing. Al Gore. Who’s wooden now?!

Broadsheet has a good one up on Lessing. Upon learning the news, apparently, quod she: “I can’t say I’m overwhelmed with surprise.” Lessing continued, “I’m 88 years old and they can’t give the Nobel to someone who’s dead, so I think they were probably thinking they’d probably better give it to me now before I’ve popped off.” I loves me a salty Nobel prize winner.

Since I know my boy’s gonna post somewhere on Blade Runner at the Ziegfield soon, I thought I’d beat him to the punch (left)–hehe. I’m home vege-ing out over Big Shots, which btw has got to be the stupidest new show of fall. Though the guys do throw out some superintelligent zingers. Like this:

“Quick! Someone talk about baseball so they don’t kick us out of the men’s steam room!”

I’ll take Harrison Ford over these caricatures any day. Happy birthday, Blade.

So tonight, while Marco was (ahem) watching Blade Runner at the Zeigfield with the boys, I was moderating a panel at the Tenement Museum on the LES–with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Pulitzer-prize winning historian and author most recently of the much-anticipated Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History) and Pam Thompson (far left), author of the just-released novel, Every Past Thing.

Pam’s writing is gorgeous and I highly recommend her book. Here’s Pam on YouTube. Meanwhile, Laurel’s title has launched a thousand t-shirts and has, of late, been the subject of much discussion. For more on the travels of the slogan since its emergence in 1976, definitely check out Laurel’s introduction, where she writes:

“The ambiguity of the slogan surely accounts for its appeal….To a few it may say, ‘Good girls get no credit.’ To a lot more, ‘Bad girls have more fun.’ Its popularity proves its point.”

BTW, the young lady to my right is Amanda Lydon, who organized us all and is a true dynamo. The house was full, and I loved the generational span. Ann Snitow was there, and told me about a course she’s teaching at The New School called–guess what–Feminist New York! Oh to be a fly on that wall….

Congrats to Women in Media and News (and Jen Pozner) on their successful action to correct history in the Tampa Tribune. The Tribune ran a follow-up article (“No Bras Burned, But They Did Revolt”) to correct the myth they were perpetuating in an earlier piece. The correction begins:

It’s a myth so pervasive, most of us believe it’s true.

I know I did.

So when information about ‘feminist bra burning rallies’ turned up in a timeline Maidenform provided for a Sept. 27 story on the history of the bra, I didn’t think twice about using it.

Bra-burning women’s libbers have become an important part of 1960s lore. I’ve heard stories about them. I’ve read about them in books and magazines.

The problem is, things didn’t go down quite the way those stories tell it.

That’s not to say bra-burning never happened as a public protest anywhere during the turbulent ’60s. But feminists didn’t set their bras ablaze in the spectacular way that has become legend….

In the groovy pic above, an unidentified member of the Women’s Liberation Party drops a bra in the trash barrel in protest of the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., on Sept. 7, 1968.

And speaking of getting history straight, if you’re in or around NYC, don’t forget to come to the Feminist New York panel I’m moderating at the Tenement Museum tonight! Details here.