Hollywood is full of masterful manipulators, the behind-the-scenes operatives who are determined to control our hearts and minds and actions. Their battlefields are TV, film and streaming platforms, where they challenge viewers to believe the worlds they create, using nothing…
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Today (4-30-18, not that the date matters) was a rarer than usual day for bizarre Trumpian headlines. You can spin, exploit or disregard these “news” stories, whatever your tendency, but there’s no denying their very existence is not normal. The…
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Hollywood needs to “wise up,” asserts the state of California’s leading advocate for older adults. The California Commission on Aging recently convened authorities from the entertainment industry and the field of aging to strategize how to improve the portrayal of…
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Don’t know what ageism is? Ask a millennial to describe “old age.” You will hear words like retired, sickly, frail, feeble, dependent. These are ageist stereotypes of older adults. And these stereotypes manifest themselves in various forms of discrimination that…
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There is a world where two wrongs make it right. Where you can get by on your looks. Where social-Darwinism evolves. This hotbed of sociopathic behavior is called high school. It is as easy as it is disturbing to imagine…
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Not since the heyday of Tower Records and the Webber-era Kings has Sacramento’s profile raised to the national level achieved by the Academy Award nominated film “Lady Bird,” written and directed by Sacramento native Greta Gerwig. We can only hope…
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Older adults are dramatically under-represented across the most popular television series -- making up less than 10 percent of all speaking characters. According to a 2017 study titled “Seniors on the Small Screen: Aging in Popular Television Content,” conducted by…
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“Ghostwriters” do work on behalf of politicians, business executives, TV anchors and other bigshots who need but don’t possess high-quality writing skills; and whose egos oblige their hired hands to contribute anonymously. With a notable exception, that’s to say one…
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Guest essay by Carla Gardini, Executive Vice President of Harpo Films. (Reprinted by permission from AgeWatch, publication of the California Commission on Aging) A work in progress, which like most everything in Hollywood, is probably the best way to respond…
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Helen Mirren plays a good badass, and not only when the cameras are rolling. For her, her art regularly imitates her life. She is more confident in presence and purpose than most people half her age (which is 72). Most…
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