Bill Maher has a bone to pick with his fellow progressives.
The comedian says America has made major cultural strides, from race relations to women’s rights, since the 1960s. It’s undeniable, even though some progressives suggest we’ve seen little change over the decades.
It’s why Maher sat, flabbergasted, as singer John Mellencamp told him on “Club Random” last year that black Americans have made little to no progress since the slavery era.
John Mellencamp slammed by Bill Maher over claim only ‘1 or 2%’ of Black people today live better than slaves https://t.co/M0bIZS9KJr pic.twitter.com/0k3edLVsil
— New York Post (@nypost) September 1, 2023
Maher would cheer recent comments from Lucy Liu and Jodie Foster.
The veteran actresses both addressed cultural shifts within Hollywood, applauding how much palpable progress has been made behind the scenes.
Liu, promoting her new film “Presence” at the Sundance Film Festival, addressed the possibility of a third “Charlie’s Angels” movie in a chat with Variety. The actress co-starred in two films based on the campy ABC series, both of which proved more successful than the woke 2019 reboot starring Kristen Stewart.
Liu downplayed any third film alongside fellow “Angels” Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, but the subject fueled her thoughts on women in Hollywood.
“At that time, when we were doing publicity, they had never before had three women on a magazine cover,” she continued. “They didn’t even know how to do it. It was such a strange thing for women to collaborate and be seen as colleagues and friends. It was such a big moment in time, and now it’s shifted [emphasis added]. Even when I was doing ‘Ally McBeal,’ there had never been a lead woman in that way. There was Mary Tyler Moore and things like that, but the focus has changed. I’m not in charge of that, but I always enjoy the time that I have and then I move on. I never really dwell on anything like that. But I really would be shocked if that happened.”
Her comments ignored plenty of shows that did just that. Plus, did the four stars of “The Golden Girls” ever grace a magazine cover together? Of course.
The Golden Girls star on the cover of 3-2-1 Contact magazine, May 1987. pic.twitter.com/EwYu0Oe2ew
— NBA Jam (the book) (@nbajambook) February 8, 2021
The original “Angels” also appeared on more than a few covers.
People Magazine Cover, December 6, 1976: Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett of ‘Charlie’s Angels’ pic.twitter.com/RUHDUuFk8q
— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) December 7, 2023
Still, Liu admits Hollywood culture improved over the years, and why that’s something to celebrate.
It is.
Jodie Foster took the progress baton from Liu in a separate conversation.
The Oscar winner, currently starring in “True Detective: North Country,” told Variety how impressive “Barbie’s” box office success last year proved in more ways than one.
“I’ve had the beauty of being able to be in the business since the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and so on,” Foster said to Variety’s Rebecca Rubin. “The progression or bettering of our audiences translates into a kind of new thinking about who our marginalized voices are. In the old days, they saw women as a risk. Not sure why they saw us as a risk — 50% of the population! That thinking has changed now. With a big success like ‘Barbie,’ they gave Greta Gerwig, who had made two mostly independent films, they gave her the keys to the kingdom and said ‘We’re going to give you our most important child’ and all the money to support it. That’s new for women. I hope that continues.”
“Barbie” may not make a splash come Oscar night, but the 2023 comedy proved female audiences shouldn’t, and likely won’t, be taken for granted moving forward.
Progress. It’s a beautiful thing. Embracing it is far more pragmatic, and encouraging, than lashing out at critics as “sexist” for disliking your female-centric film or straining to play the, “Here’s the first [fill-in-the-blank] to [fill-in-the-blank] card.”
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