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=Beatrice Arthur: A Towering Comedic Talent From Another Era (Los Angeles Times)

=Bea Arthur: That Voice, That Wit (New York Times [Slideshow])

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May 4, 2009 Posted by ej | Career, Entertainment, People, Television | Business, Career, Disparity, Entertainment, Television, Women | Leave a comment

A Tribute to Bea Arthur AND The Theme from Maude!!!

We wanted to start off the week with a tribute to one of our favorites – Beatrice Arthur who recently passed away. We loved her on “The Golden Girls” and we also loved her on”Maude”.

Bea Arthur – Thanks for all the great memories and the great laughs!! You will be missed!!!

See below for a tribute to her talent and we’ve even included the Theme from Maude!!! Enjoy!!

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Bea Arthur: Grand Dame of Comedy; Click to read Courier-Journal.com Article

From The Courier-Journal.com

Beautiful Bea Arthur

Editorial

Some people have a time with talented women who aren’t stereotypically “easy on the eyes.” Witness the recent global meltdown over the realization that a woman with prominent eyebrows, an unstylish ‘do and a sturdy body could actually — yes! — sing like an angel.

Maybe that explains why, when the great comedic actress Beatrice Arthur passed away earlier this week, The New York Times — another “grey lady,” incidentally — ran this inelegant headline: “Bea Arthur, TV Battle-Ax, Dies at 86.” We would note that when Carroll O’Connor died several years earlier, the same pub did not use a headline to call him a “TV Bellowing Bigot,” but that would take us away from our point, which is to praise the body of work Ms. Arthur left behind for those of us in TV Land.

Click to hear "The Theme From Maude"

In “Maude,” she was a liberated woman trapped in the older traditions of a changing world. She was a housewife-plus a brash political junkie and pontificator but ultimately a pussycat.

Her softer side made loud and proud “Maude” palatable. She wore her white liberal guilt like one of her extravagant tunics, the flip side of Cousin Archie’s buttoned-up conservatism. When John Wayne came to visit, everyone expected a showdown; instead, she melted and said, “What the hell, let’s dance.”

Ms. Arthur rang the TV legend bell a second time with her portrayal of Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls.” Smart, sassy and again vulnerable, Ms. Arthur scored in a role that showed post-menopausal women in fine fashion and even finer fettle — no matter that she had . . . More . . .

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Click below to read a great article from the Los Angeles Times and to see a slideshow from The New York Times:

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May 4, 2009 Posted by ej | Art, Entertainment, Film, People, Television | Business, Career, Disparity, Entertainment, Events, Television, Women | 1 Comment

“Slumdog Millionarie” Child Star Rubina Ali for Sale by Her Father?

Rubina Ali – We loved her in the movie. We thought she was gorgeous in her Oscar dress. We smiled at the pictures of her at Disneyland and now we hear reports that her father is allegedly offering her for sale. . .

Her father says he isn’t.

Read below for both sides of the story.

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From News of The World.

Father Tries to Cash In on Daughter’s Fame

Mazher Mahmood, News of the World

The poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself – by SELLING his nine-yearold daughter.

In a bid to escape India’s real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.

As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World’s undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: “I have to consider what’s best for me, my family and Rubina’s future.”

Rafiq tried to blame Hollywood bosses for forcing him to put his daughter up for SALE.

As he tried to fix the illegal adoption deal, real-life slum dweller Rafiq declared: “We’ve got nothing out of this film.”

Then, almost embarrassed to speak it out loud, he whispered to an accomplice the price tag he has put on his innocent young daughter: “It’s £200,000!”

That was an astonishing FOURFOLD increase on his opening demand. But Rafiq’s equally demanding brother Mohiuddin insisted: “The child is special now. This is NOT an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child!” More . . .

Picture Credit: News of the World

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From Times Online (UK)

Rubina Ali’s Family Brawl After Father Denies Offering “Slumdog Millionaire” Actress For Sale

Rhys Blakely, Mumbai, Times Online (UK)

There were ugly scenes outside the home of one of the child stars of Slumdog Millionaire today when Rubina Ali’s mother demanded that the young actress be removed from the care of her father.

Rafiq Asghar Ali Qureshi is alleged to have offered the nine-year-old for sale for £200,000 in an illegal adoption deal.

“We are considering Rubina’s future,” he is claimed to have told an undercover newspaper reporter from the News of the World, who was posing as an interested buyer from the Middle East.

“We’ve got nothing out of this film. They haven’t looked after us. They gave some money at the start but they gave nothing afterwards. They gave us around 150,000 rupees (£2,000).

“They’ve been talking about giving us a house, but all they do is talk.”

Mr Qureshi and his brother-in-law Rajan More allegedly initially asked for £50,000 for Rubina – a sum that was hiked to £200,000 at a later meeting.

More . . .

Picture Credit: Gautam Singh/AP

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April 20, 2009 Posted by ej | Entertainment, Film, Global, People | Business, Disparity, Entertainment, Girls, International, Newspapers, Women, World | Leave a comment

Afghan Women Protest New Law That Regulates Marital Sex, Ability to Work Outside the Home & Their Freedom to “Dress Up”

Afghan women are fighting back! More specifically, many of them have been participating in protests against a recently enacted law that regulates their home life.

Their goal is to have Parliament repeal a new law that imposes restrictions on women and permits – among other things – marital rape.

Update: According to Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, “The law will be revised.” In an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN’s GPS, he states, “This law was signed without knowledge of the articles in it.” >:| Click here to see video of the interview.

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Women critical of new restrictions applying to Shiites demonstrated Wednesday in Kabul.

Women critical of new restrictions applying to Shiites demonstrate in Kabul.

Afghan Women Protest New Law on Home Life

Dexter Filkins, The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The young women stepped off the bus and moved toward the protest march just beginning on the other side of the street when they were spotted by a mob of men.

“Get out of here, you whores!” the men shouted. “Get out!”

The women scattered as the men moved in.

“We want our rights!” one of the women shouted, turning to face them. “We want equality!”

The women ran to the bus and dived inside as it rumbled away, with the men smashing the taillights and banging on the sides.

“Whores!”

But the march continued anyway. About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times larger than their own, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday to demand that Parliament repeal a new law that introduces a range of Taliban-like restrictions on women, and permits, among other things, marital rape.

It was an extraordinary scene. Women are mostly illiterate in this impoverished country, and they do not, generally speaking, enjoy anything near the freedom accorded to men. But there they were, most of them young, many in jeans, defying a threatening crowd and calling out slogans heavy with meaning.

With the Afghan police keeping the mob at bay, the women walked two miles to Parliament, where they delivered a petition calling for the law’s repeal.

“Whenever a man wants sex, we cannot refuse,” said Fatima Husseini, 26, one of the marchers. “It means a woman is a kind of property, to be used by the man in any way that he wants.”

The law, approved by both houses of Parliament and signed by President Hamid Karzai, applies to the Shiite minority only. Women here and governments and rights groups abroad have protested three parts of the law especially.

One provision makes it illegal for a woman to resist her husband’s sexual advances. A second provision requires a husband’s permission for a woman to work outside the home or go to school. And a third makes it illegal for a woman to refuse to “make herself up” or “dress up” if that is what her husband wants. More . . .

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Picture Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images for The New York Times

April 19, 2009 Posted by ej | Global, Leadership, Politics, Protests & Boycotts | Business, Disparity, International, Leadership, Politics, Women | Leave a comment

PINK Magazine Will Protest All-Male Masters Golf Club in April

All-Male Masters Golf Club Will Draw New PINK Protesters

David Markiewicz, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Move over, Martha Burk.

PINK magazine CEO Cynthia Good plans to be at the Masters next month to protest Augusta National Golf Club’s all-male membership. Activist Burk caused quite a stir over that in 2003.

“We’re not going to be throwing ripe fruit or anything,” Good says, “but we’ll make our presence known. We absolutely believe women ought to be admitted to private clubs.”

The protest is one small way PINK is trying to “move the needle on issues that impact professional women.” The company, which targets women 25 to 54 who are successful, high-income and influential, has become More . . .

Click here to see how they gathered the data

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Picture Credit: Pink Magazine

March 22, 2009 Posted by ej | Golf, Protests & Boycotts, Sports | Business, Disparity, Events, Golf, Sports, Women | Leave a comment

Men’s Salaries vs. Women’s Salaries: Women’s Basketball (ACC, SEC)

The Atlanta Journal & Constitution recently took a look at the salaries of basketball coaches in the ACC and the SEC.

Click here to see the Men’s Salaries

Click here to see the Women’s Salaries

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March 14, 2009 Posted by ej | Career, Education, Women & Sports | Business, Disparity, Education, Money, Women | Leave a comment

Terminated: Why the Women of Wall Street Are Disappearing

forbes-women-terminated-03-09 This is the Cover Story on this week’s Forbes magazine.

After the scandals of the 1990s, didn’t investment banks put sexist employment practices behind them? Evidently not.

“Nadine Mentor, 29, had just landed in New York – and found out, she says, that she’d bagged one of the biggest gets of her career at Citigroup: a role for the bank leading a bond offering, valued at as much as $400 million, for the U.S. Virgin Islands. The deal was worth potentially more than $500,000 in fees. A day later, on Nov. 21 2008, as she headed to a business meeting, she got an anxious call from her boss. Sensing something was up, Mentor said, “Just tell me, just tell me.” Her boss gave her the bad news. Mentor who had been lured to Citi from UBS in 2005, was included in a round of downsizing.

When her boss was laid off last summer, Amy Bartloletti, 38, says she was asked to run a Citi group that securitizes home loans through state authorities. But one of her peers in New York complained, she says, and the bank wound up making him a cohead of the group, asking both to take the Series 53 licensing test, required of mangers in the municipal securities business. Bartoletti took the exam and passed in October. On Nov. 21 she was axed, told later by the bank that she was too expensive. Bartoletti contends that she and her male counterpart made the same base salary, $175,000 and that she is more qualified than he. As of late February her cohead, who now runs the group, still doesn’t have his Series 53 certification. “It’s the old boys’ network,” says Bartoletti. “It’ s very hard to imagine that that what is happening in this day and age.”

Mentor and Bartoletti are among five former managers and rising young stars who were cast out that day. They say that in all, 24 professionals in the public finance department lost their jobs , in roughly equal numbers of men and women. Yet the women claim they were victimized by more than economic necessity.” More . . .