LZ Sunday Paper Newsletter: The "It's Not What You Know" Edition
Dateline: 10/3/21
Dear Readers,
In honor of its 20th Anniversary of theatrical release, I had a fun time participating with Vanity Fair in an oral history with the gang who made Zoolander, the movie. Zoolander was the cinematic capstone on what I thought, at the time, was a (relatively) brief professional diversion into television.
The short story is that for about the first ten years after college I made films. Award-winning, ground-breaking films, like Swoon, Safe, and Kids. Then, I took a job in marketing at the then-Video-Hits-One network, and turned it into VH1, kind of like the channel it still (sort of) resembles. I moved over to programming about two years in. Amongst many other tv shows, we also created the character, Zoolander, for a Fashion Awards show, and then turned it into a feature film. I thought that was a sign that I was going back into film-making. It was the very last thing I delivered under my contract. I had financing for two films lined up to start in October. I left the network on August 31st.. I had a terrific Labor Day weekend and looked forward to my first weeks off in years. The following Tuesday, about five months pregnant, I dropped my two little kids at school, rounded the corner of 8th Avenue, and noticed a plane sticking out of the World Trade Center. It was 2001.
On the personal side, it was a horror show, totally. destabilizing and long-impacting. On the professional side, suffice it to say that the film-financing fell apart and I took a different job. It was a fabulous job in TV that I never could have predicted.
More on that in the B.I.W.L.N.W.* or in some future Sunday Paper intro.
So keep opening up your prized Sunday Morning email from me and see what I have to say! At the very least, you will always find the best of the best news of the week, from politics to tech, business to the arts, crime to pop culture. It's the news you need to know by and about other fabulous women in the news, every week.
If you don't get it already, click here to get the newsletter, hand-delivered, every week to your virtual doorstep, your inbox.
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THANK YOU to a particularly good few weeks of contributions by my trusty readers and, essentially, co-curators. Julie, Nancy, Emily, Lily, Karen, Jason, Lucy, David, Robert, Barbara, Lisa, Kathryn, and many others. The breadth of subjects is of course the main goal, but opening up avenues to varied publications that I am unlikely to come across on my own, whether academic journals or personal blogs, is really exciting.
October weather continues to delight, here in the NorthEast. My tennis thanks you, meteorological gods!
See you next week,
LZ
*Book I Will Likely Never Write
THE PIC(K) OF THE WEEK:
Invisible Child: What Happens When Trying To Escape Poverty Means Separating From Your Family At 13? via The New York Times
BUSINESS:
Despite Blockbuster Venture Investment, Female Founder's Share Of VC Funding Falls via CrunchBase
A Woman Of Color Cannot Save Your Workplace Culture via Time
POLITICS:
Why Hillary Clinton Fears The GOP's Next Moves via The Atlantic
ABORTION RIGHTS:
To Protect Abortion Rights, We Need To Start Talking About Miscarriage via Flux
The Pandemic Sparked The Rise Of Tele-Health Aborion. Can It Be Here To Stay? via Fast Company
HEALTH & WELLNESS:
At Last, An App For Menopause via The New Yorker
How Virtual Sex Therapy Is Helping Women Reclaim Their Intimate Lives via The Globe and Mail
CAMPUS CLIMATE:
After Rape Accusations, Fraternities Face Protests and Growing Anger via The New York TImes
MIT Sloan's First Female Professor Tackled Workplace Discrimination via MIT Management
JURISPRUDENCE:
Britney Spears, Carrie Buck, and The Awful History Of Controlling 'Unfit' Women via The Washington Post
'It's Like Noone Is Looking For Us:' How States Can Help When Women Of Color Go Missing via The 19th
Sexual Assault Survivors In Journalism Are Waiting For Their Reckoning via Vice
THE ARTS:
'Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills Is The Best Show On Television. No Really.' via The New York Post
Book Review: The Radical Women Who Paved The Way For Free Speech and Free Love via The New Yorker
THE CULTURE:
"Put On The Diamonds:" Notes On Humiliation via Harpers
How A Woman Becomes A Piece Of Furniture via The Paris Review
[editor's note: apologies, link last week did not work for some...]
SPORTS:
Sex Abuse Scandal Upends Women's Soccer League; FIFA To Investigate via PBS
OBITUARY:
Woman Who Survived Spanish Flu, World War, Dies At 105 After Contracting Covid via NBC News
Marilyn Golden, Champion For Disability Rights, Dies At 67 via The Washington Post
Irma Kalish, TV Writer Who Tackled Social Issues, Dies at 96 via The New York Times
AND WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE ABOUT...?
