This week Bridget brunches with a couple of entertainment industry bigwigs. Page Hurwitz, Co-Executive Producer of Last Comic Standing and the writer/director/star of Chutney Popcorn, Nisha Ganatra stop by to talk about being out in the entertainment industry, the making of Chutney Popcorn, and why Bridget should rename her show.

Along the way, Bridget defames Page's dog, Page mocks Nisha's spiritual practices, and together they develop the future hit television show, Is This Rancid?

Jane Austen once wrote, "Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery," and we couldn't agree with her more. This week, Dara and I attempt to put the "pleasure" back in "guilt" with an episode of Hit List devoted to our favorite guilty pleasures.

Be they musical, culinary, cinematic or esoteric, some of our most cherished guilty pleasures seem to have their origins in our childhoods. We're not sure what to make of that, but we're working through it by indulging them.

You might share some of our forbidden appetites, such as Bon Jovi, Showgirls, and Man vs. Wild, and if so, tell us more! (I'm disappointed that I forgot to mention Pants-Off Dance-Off, but I suspect we could devote an entire episode to it at some point in the future. Who cares what TV Guide has to say about it?)

If you can turn us on to some new guilty pleasures, please do. Dara and I are committed to furthering our education.

Finally, if you want to meet our friend Marbles Harsgrove, who we talk about at length in this episode, visit her here. Prepare yourself for extreme awesomeness!

Watch previous episode of Dara & Karman's Hit List, and visit Dara and Karman on MySpace at MySpace.com/KarmanKregloe and MySpace.com/bad_machine. … continue reading

Lists are verrrrry scarrrrry! At least our list is, on this particular week. In honor of Halloween, Dara and I decided to compile a list of the women who scare the crap out of us. Don't worry about our safety: We had our drums and guitar armor-plated for just such an occasion.

You'll see some familiar faces here — Margaret Hamilton as The Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, Linda Blair in The Exorcist, Kathy Bates in Misery. You will not, however, find your ex-girlfriend on our list; not because she hasn't earned her spot, but because she wouldn't sign the release form.

So grab your bucket of peeled grapes eyeballs and cold spaghetti worms and join us in our haunted parlor for a horrifying episode of Hit List. If we've forgotten someone really terrifying, give us her name and tell us why she belongs here. But do so at your own risk!

Watch previous episode of Dara & Karman's Hit List, and visit Dara and Karman on MySpace at MySpace.com/KarmanKregloe and MySpace.com/bad_machine.

More magazine recently had a "Women in Hollywood" panel, which Women & Hollywood blogger Melissa Silverstein attended and wrote about.

Silverstein summarized the event as a panel less about the lack of women's roles on the big screen and what that means for our culture, and more about how so many women work in TV and theater because there are no good movie roles for older women, and women in general.

None of this is really surprising, but there were some interesting comments made by the panelists.

(L to R) Cybill Shepherd, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Kate Mulgrew

Cybill Shepherd, who got her start in The Last Picture Show in 1971 and was recently on The L Word:

I've been fortunate, I started in the business at the top and look like I've worked my way down.

S. Epatha Merkerson, who has played Lt. Anita Van Buren on Law and Order since 1991, and starred in the award-winning 2005 movie Lackawanna Blues:

I am the longest running African American on TV. Why is that? ...Three years after Lackawanna Blues racked up all the awards and I went to someone with a project, they said not too many people want to hear a story about an older black woman.

Kate Mulgrew on her role on Star Trek: Voyager as Captain Janeway:

I didn't want [my character] to look like someone they wanted to have sex with. I argued the fact that I didn't want her to have any sex as the first female captain because I was not going to run the risk of walking down the path that leading ladies have taken before — to become a sexual object. I said I'm not going to do that because if I can't win them with my command, then I'm not the actress I think I am. But they allowed it. But the first question I am asked at every event is why didn't you have a love affair with Chakotay.

Nevermind Chakotay — why aren't more people asking her about why she didn't have a love affair with Seven of Nine?

Read more about the panel — and about other Hollywood news from a feminist perspective — on Women & Hollywood.

Dara and I have seen a lot of lesbian movies in our time, and this week we'd like to offer you the opportunity to learn from our viewing mistakes.

Rather than smack-talk the movies that have left cinematic scars on our fragile psyches, in this Hit List we talk about some of our favorites.

Whether you like your lesbian movies tough (Stranger Inside), sweet (Imagine Me & You), or downright dour (High Art), there's plenty of quality films to choose from.

Watch as we discuss the importance of happy endings, two movies in the making that we think will be on our list in the future, and how a couple of dudes managed to make our favorite lesbian movie of all time.

Did we forget one? Tell us what's on your list!

Watch previous episode of Dara & Karman's Hit List, and visit Dara and Karman on MySpace at MySpace.com/KarmanKregloe and MySpace.com/bad_machine.

This week, Dara and I talk about some of our favorite pistol-packing mamas in pop culture — the kind of women who gun down murderous cyborgs, retire vampires, or hide firearms in their hair.

Women like Sarah Connor in the the Terminator movies and TV show; Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight; Pam Grier in Foxy Brown; Scully/Gillian Anderson in The X-Files (does a cell phone count as a weapon?); and everyone in the upcoming movie Bitch Slap.

Watch as we debate who would make the perfect female version of Blade, why a woman with ass-kicking abilities is so very compelling, and the importance of well-maintained eyebrows.

Did we forget someone? Tell us who's on your list!

Watch previous episode of Dara & Karman's Hit List, and visit Dara and Karman on MySpace at MySpace.com/KarmanKregloe and MySpace.com/bad_machine.

Last May, when AfterEllen.com Editor-in-Chief Sarah Warn was shooting video of some of the AE vloggers waxing poetic about the women on the AE Hot 100 List, she grabbed my fellow writer/vlogger Dara Nai and me, stuck a fake guitar and drumsticks in our hands, and told us to opine about some of your favorite celebrities.

We were reminiscing about this recently over a session of Rock Band, and decided that we needed a reason to do it all over again. Thus, Dara & Karman's Hit List was born.

So each week, until we run out of random topics, Dara and I will sit down in front of the camera with our plastic instruments, fire up the lava lamps, and share with you lists of a few of our favorite things. These topics will include films, women, TV, women, music, women, or women.

In honor of the back-to-school season, our first episode is devoted to the most memorable co-eds from some of our favorite films and TV shows. Whether they wear plaid skirts, seduce their teachers, or pack some government-issued heat, we give all of the women on our list "A's" for effort.

The theme song is "Seven" by Vagiant — check them out at MySpace.com/vagiantboston — and of course, the awesome graphics were made by Kayla Jones. You can also hit us on our MySpace pages at MySpace.com/KarmanKregloe and MySpace.com/bad_machine.

Let us know in the comments who you'd put on your list, as we believe in continuing our own education.

AE reader Er1e has kindly transcribed the episode for our hearing impaired readers.

I like superhero movies. I really do. They’re fun and fast and the costumes are faaaa-bulous. Straight men in stretchy fabric and capes – this is better than figure skating! This summer’s heroic roster includes Iron Man, Batman and The Incredible Hulk. And as great as those crime fighters are, they’re also a reminder that when it comes to superhero movies, no women need apply – this is man country.

New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis recently opined on the lack of women heroes and women— period — in today’s big budget blockbusters. Could this be the realization of Warner Brothers exec Jeff Robinov’s decree that the studio would not make any more movies with female leads? Dargis thinks so:

“Nobody likes to admit the worst, even when it’s right up there on the screen, particularly women in the industry who clutch at every pitiful short straw, insisting that there are, for instance, more female executives in Hollywood than ever before. As if it’s done the rest of us any good. All you have to do is look at the movies themselves — at the decorative blondes and brunettes smiling and simpering at the edge of the frame — to see just how irrelevant we have become.”

Ouch, but true. … continue reading