Innholdsfortegnelse for 3/29/2023 i Variety

Every editor has their dream “get.” We’ve long thought about how we could land the legendary Judy Blume for the cover of Variety. The author of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” is not only one of the most powerful voices in young adult literature, but she’s inspired millions of young minds with her books. Just mention “Fudge” or “Freckle Juice,” and most of us can practically smell (and see) our grade school libraries. Blume, who is 85, only recently allowed her work to be adapted for the big screen. On April 28, Lions-gate will release “Are You There God?” in theaters, starring Rachel McAdams, with Abby Ryder Fortson in the title role. And earlier this year, at Sundance, hundreds of fans lined up to see “Judy Blume Forever,”…

When John Owen Lowe began writing on “9-1-1: Lone Star,” which stars his dad, Rob Lowe, he couldn’t resist venting to members of his team. His complaints about going “stir crazy” were so funny that they told him to pitch it as a show. With that, Netflix’s “Unstable” was born: The sitcom, which premieres March 30, stars the two actors and co-creators as estranged father and son Ellis and Jackson. The comedy is fictional — but rooted in reality. “Jackson’s estranged from his dad. It never got that bad between my dad and me,” Lowe, 28, says. “[Jackson is] a little more socially awkward and lost than I am. I did experience pockets where I didn’t have an identity, because of what it was like growing up with a father…

PROLOGUE At the start of the 1950s, in the suburbs of Elizabeth, N.J., a nearly teenage Judy Blume found herself at odds with the rhythms of her body. She hadn’t inherited her Aunt Gert’s large breasts. (“My mother worried terribly that I would take after my father’s sister, who had to have bras made to fit her,” says Judy, now 85. “I always say she worried them right off me!”) And she hadn’t yet started her period. (“I wanted it so desperately. But when I finally got it, I couldn’t tell anybody, because I had told them I had gotten it in the sixth grade!”) She had discovered the joys of self-stimulation, but she was suffering from a lack of privacy. (“When I went to summer camp, it was like, ‘How…

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez first aligned herself with the Rainforest Alliance in 2019, as unprecedented wildfires destroyed thousands of square miles of the Amazon rainforest. “I just couldn’t help but get on social media and say, ‘Why are we not paying attention to this?’ If we don’t have the earth, we don’t have anything,’” she says. Because she’s such a prominent activist for the trans community, Rodriguez is not often asked to participate in the conversation about climate change. That’s where the environmental nonprofit comes in: Rodriguez aims to use her platform to spotlight their mission to preserve forests and protect the human rights of farmers and forest communities amid the climate crisis. “I’m always gonna fight for the trans community,” she says. “But I’ve realized a lot of people have…

Rosie Perez slides into a booth at an upscale Italian restaurant in Manhattan. She pushes up the sleeves on her wool sweater dress and settles in to talk about the state of Hollywood. And women in Hollywood. And Latinos in Hollywood. Or maybe that lack of cultural specificity in the homogeneous blob of film content that is created to appeal to the widest possible global audience. On this afternoon in early March, the Academy Awards are still dominating the conversation, and Perez, a supporting actress nominee for the 1993 drama “Fearless,” has some thoughts. “I think Brendan deserved the Oscar,” she says. “But I wouldn’t be mad if Colin had got it for ‘Banshees of Inisherin.’ He did something specific to his culture, right? How many other movies has he done…

Natasha Lyonne doesn’t need to travel too far to use her celebrity for good. As a Manhattanite, she loves the convenience of being able to walk to the Lower East Side Girls Club, a community center in Alphabet City where she volunteers. The organization was founded in 1996 to support girls and gender-expansive youth of color through mentorship and programming in STEM, the arts and other areas. “It’s a space to help these girls learn new tools,” Lyonne says. “Sometimes, it’s just a place to have lunch or go to after work — or in between home and school.” Lyonne finds herself inspired by the environment. “There’s nothing I appreciate more than a cerebral woman. So it’s so much fun to go there and see all these young girls thriving…

“General Hospital,” the longest-running scripted show currently in production, turns 60 on April 1, and to commemorate that momentous occasion, Variety gathered five of its iconic stars together. Here, Genie Francis, Maurice Benard, Kin Shriner, Kristina Wagner and Tristan Rogers discuss the ABC soap opera’s loyal fandom, and reminisce about its heyday, when supercouple Luke (Anthony Geary) and Laura (Francis) — creations of then-executive producer Gloria Monty — lifted the show into the pop-culture stratosphere. “General Hospital,” one of only four remaining daytime dramas, keeps breaking its own Emmy records — having won the daytime drama trophy 15 times. Frank Valentini, executive producer and showrunner since 2012, says incorporating the show’s legacy characters with new cast members is key to its longevity. “We’re not focusing on the history,” he says.…

“I didn’t really even know that [comedy] was a career option until 15 years ago.” Ever since she was little, Ego Nwodim has loved performing. In fact, that was why she was a ballerina for 10 years. Eventually, she stumbled, begrudgingly, into an improv comedy class and fell in love with it. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she’d be making millions laugh on a stage as big as “Saturday Night Live.” Nwodim, who joined the show in 2018, is set to host Variety’s Power of Women event in New York on April 4. When did your love for comedy begin? It started long before I could name what it was. I grew up watching “Martin” and “In Living Color,” but I grew up in a Nigerian household,…

Film and media reporter Rebecca Rubin doesn’t think she’ll be invited back — or at least handed anything fragile — after a mishap at Natasha Lyonne’s East Village apartment. Rubin previously profiled Drew Barrymore and Rita Moreno for Power of Women. Like Cinderella and her glass slipper, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez left her lip gloss behind after a lunchtime kiki with senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson. Jackson previously profiled Queen Latifah for POW. After interviewing Judy Blume, reporter Selome Hailu traveled to Texas to visit her parents. She wrote the article in the bedroom where she read Blume’s books as a child. “In my work, I have always aimed to celebrate women and their achievements and to tell their stories through photography,” says Celeste Sloman, who captured our Power of Women…

The problem of censorship is now more dire than ever, according to Judy Blume. And she should know — as the mind behind “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Deenie” and “Forever,” she’s one of the most banned authors in American history. Her first experience with censorship came when her children’s elementary school principal refused to put “Margaret” on the library shelves. “He believed that menstruation wasn’t a topic that girls should read about,” Blume recalls. “Never mind how many kids already had their periods.” But there was hope. “I discovered the little organization that could: the National Coalition Against Censorship,” Blume says. “NCAC is right there on the front lines. If a teacher or a librarian or a parent or a student needs help as books are being…

Kelly Ripa has spent 22 years as the host of a single daytime talk show, now earning a salary in the range of $20 million a year. She not only got movie-star rich as the co-host of “Live!”; she’s part of TV history, in a league of legends — Regis Philbin, Phil Donahue, Jerry Springer and Oprah Winfrey — who changed TV as they greeted millions of stay-at-home moms and dads each day. Following in Winfrey’s footsteps wasn’t a path that the actress born and raised in New Jersey dreamed for herself. When Ripa joined Philbin on “Live!” in February 2001, after a fierce nationwide search to replace Kathie Lee Gifford, she was a bubbly soap-opera star best known for her years on “All My Children.” Since then, Ripa has maintained…

When it comes to activism, Rosie Perez isn’t one to merely lob a tweet. She was arrested for disorderly conduct in 2000 while protesting the U.S. Navy’s deadly air bomb training off the coast of Puerto Rico. And the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actress, whose mother died of AIDS, served on President Obama’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, beginning in 2010. In recent years, her focus has turned to first responders, who “rush in when everybody rushes out,” she says. In 2017, Perez partnered with the nonprofit Heart 9/11 following Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm that pummeled the northeastern Caribbean, resulting in more than 3,000 deaths and becoming the worst natural disaster in recorded history to hit the area. “I went down to Puerto Rico, and there were all these…

The Women of A&E Elaine Frontain Bryant Exec VP and head of programming, A&E Networks Amy Winter Exec VP and head of programming, Lifetime and LMN A&E and Lifetime have always known how to tap into the zeitgeist with their often-true stories — and in 2022 delivered the hit doc “Janet Jackson,” and revived the “Flowers in the Attic” franchise with “The Origin” limited series. “With the exponential growth in platforms and content, discoverability of our new, exciting movies and series has been a top concern,” Winter says. There’s a ton to be proud of, Bryant says. “In an intensifying fight for viewers, we are a winning team.” Nicolette Aizenberg Film exec, A24 While her résumé includes stints at Miramax and 42West, Aizenberg made her name as a founding employee…

Our Power of Women issue celebrates those who give back, putting the needs of others ahead of their own. The five women featured as this year’s cover stars exemplify how you do that. Judy Blume, the author of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (among many other books), has always counted on the National Coalition Against Censorship to protect the written word. Natasha Lyonne wants everyone to know about the science classes and leadership opportunities offered at the Lower Eastside Girls Club. Kelly Ripa has volunteered for decades at Win NYC, a charity that provides shelter for homeless women and their children. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez is ringing the alarm bells about protecting forests and farmers, a cause important to the Rainforest Alliance. And Rosie Perez, a New Yorker in body…

It’s an unseasonably rainy afternoon when Michaela Jaé Rodriguez breezes into a Pasadena restaurant. She’s armed with only the essentials: a large black-and-white umbrella, her cellphone, a tube of Charlotte Tilbury lip gloss in Refresh Rose (she’s the first transgender spokesmodel for the makeup brand) and a rattail comb to smooth her long hair. The weather is a perfect metaphor for the storm that’s been brewing for the trans community, now that an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation has been proposed in mostly Republican-led states, from laws restricting drag performances to bills that would outlaw gender-affirming therapies for children under 18. After bursting onto the Hollywood scene with “Pose” — for which she became the first transgender performer to win a Golden Globe and the first to be nominated for an Emmy…

Thirty years ago, when Kelly Ripa was a soap opera star, a grassroots organization needed help handing out gifts to the children of homeless mothers during Christmas. The charitable group called on soap stars to assist during the holidays, thinking the moms might enjoy meeting an actor from one of their favorite shows. Today, that organization, WIN NYC, is the largest provider of supportive housing for homeless women and children in New York. Ripa has been working with WIN for more than three decades, and as her profile has risen on daytime TV, so have her philanthropic efforts. “For me, the importance of this issue is foundational,” Ripa says. “The mother is usually the head of the household in every aspect, and when a woman is fleeing an abusive situation…

You’ll have to forgive Natasha Lyonne if she’s irritable today. She just quit smoking, which is no small feat for someone who’s so synonymous with the habit that there’s an Instagram account dedicated to the coolness of her taking a drag. “I’ve been putting it off for so long,” she tells me, pointing to the small Nicorette pack on the coffee table in her East Village apartment. “I’m naturally wired for self-destructive crutches. I fucking love a vice.” Though she admits there are “immense” consequences of raging nicotine withdrawal, the health benefits far outweigh the discomfort (at least, that’s what she’s telling herself). “It might be a symptom of being in a pretty decent place,” she offers of her reason for quitting. “In a way, I want to meet that artistically…

PRESENTED BY JUDY BLUME NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CENSORSHIP Since its inception in 1974, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has been a first responder in protecting freedom of expression, a fundamental human right and a keystone of democracy. Representing 58 national education, publishing, and arts organizations, NCAC works with people fighting censorship at the local level. It encourages and facilitates dialogue between diverse voices and perspectives, including those historically silenced. NATASHA LYONNE LOWER EASTSIDE GIRLS CLUB Since 1996, The Lower Eastside Girls Club has supported young women and gender-expansive youth of color throughout New York City in leveraging their inner power to shape a better future for themselves, their community, and the world. Through free, year-round, innovative programming, we connect young people with their passions, celebrate their curiosity, and channel…

MUSIC REVIEW Artist: Boygenius Label: Interscope The three women of Boygenius — Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — have made alluding to their forebears a hallmark of their band. Witness the cover of their first EP in 2018, when they re-created the casual iconography of the debut album sleeve of a prior supergroup — Crosby, Stills & Nash — or when they posed as Nirvana on a recent Rolling Stone cover. In their first full-length album, prosaically titled “The Record,” the references come fast and furious, in song titles or random lines: the Beatles with “Revolution 0,” Sheryl Crow with “Not Strong Enough,” Virginia Woolf with “Letters to an Old Poet,” Joan Didion and the Cure with scattered borrowings or citations, and last but not least, Leonard Cohen…