NEW NETWORK, SAME OLD STORY

I worry. I really do. “A New Kind of Networking” (by Irene Lacher, March 2) looks great, if you happen to know the directors, producers, actresses, studio execs and editors mentioned in the article.

But what if you don’t? What if you happen to be a twenty-something- to thirty-something-year-old woman with a hot-off-the-press MFA from film school and you don’t know anyone out there? I see them all the time: smart, organized and talented women writer-directors with a purpose and a vision they see so very clearly in their mind’s eye. Perhaps it’s already in a final-draft screenplay. With luck, perhaps a baby agent has seen their thesis film, even likes it; maybe even gets them a meeting.

For every one that gets even that far, there are countless others who need a road map, because even the tenacious ones eventually give up. I know, there aren’t jobs enough for every film school grad hoping to direct to be able to do so. Still, they sure could use a leg up.

What do you say, gals? How about passing on some of your hard-earned smarts and mentoring some up-and-coming young women filmmakers? Surely you are all secure enough by now to pass a little something down to the next generation and ensure yourselves a place in history, or is it “herstory”?

BARBARA MARKS

Los Angeles

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Marks is acting vice chair of the directing/production program in the UCLA department of film and television.

As a nearly 80-year-old pioneer in the feminist movement, I am sorely disappointed in what the girls’ network is turning out--much of it low-level product validating 10-year-old minds and reinforcing young women’s romantic beliefs of males riding to their rescue.

The network’s contribution to raising society’s level of awareness and intellect is well summed up by this sentence about their get-togethers: “There are guest appearances by a jewelry designer, a manicurist or a masseuse.”

For shame, ladies! Why don’t you have speakers like feminist social critics Barbara Ehrenreich or Susan Faludi and get with the lives of real women? Your product is just a spinoff of the old-boys’ network.

HELEN COLTON

Los Angeles

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I appreciated your attempt to focus on the achievements of women in Hollywood, for any positive recognition of women in our industry is long overdue.

However, to achieve and maintain this success takes a helluva lot more than attending social gatherings. After all, Barbra Streisand and Dawn Steel did not achieve their success by attending bridal showers. It takes commitment, hard work and talent.

As an independent producer-director, I am also dismayed that this article focused only on women in the studio system and neglected the successful female producers, directors, writers, executives and others in the independent sector who endure and bring their projects to fruition.

An article focusing on independent women would obviously not be as colorful, since we’re knee-deep in the trenches and maxing out our credit cards to make our films. Yet it would demonstrate the camaraderie and support we give one another.

KAREN LEE ARBEENY

Sherman Oaks

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In the opening two paragraphs, Irene Lacher does not have all of the facts correct. Since I was one of the attendees at Dawn Steel’s bridal shower (I was her assistant for three years), there are a few things that should be corrected:

* First, Dawn was not at Columbia Pictures during her bridal shower or her baby shower a few years later. She was president of production at Paramount Pictures.

* Cher was not at either of Dawn’s showers.

* The title of Polly Platt’s video for Dawn was “Men of Steel,” not “All the Men I’ve Ever Loved.” On the video, Barbra Streisand sang a song called “To All the Men I’ve Loved Before,” a takeoff on the Willie Nelson-Julio Iglesias song.

If the first two paragraphs were reported incorrectly, then what about the rest of the story?

JERI BARTON

Culver City

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Your article on the gradual feminization of Hollywood’s executive suites is a troubling one for me.

Not only was there no mention of, reference to or discussion about African American female film executives, but the so-called old-girls’ network insults the intelligence of the African American moviegoing public by declaring that “Waiting to Exhale” was a surprise hit.

I can assure you that it was a surprise to everyone but black people, who were already buzzing about the film nearly a year before its release.

The attitude that Hollywood film executives have--and that the old-girls’ network is apparently willing to buy into--is that successful African American-themed films are surprises or flukes. This is nothing more than cultural bigotry.

If, however, the old-girls’ network would embrace women of color in their newfound executive sisterhood, their surprises would have less to do with the performance of African American-themed films than in the infusion of invigorating and dynamic ideas from a perspective few of them have any experience with or any inclination to pursue.

ROLAND S. JEFFERSON

Los Angeles