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I came of age in the seventies, a time when girls were constantly pelted with mixed messages about what life held in store for them. Women began to pursue traditionally male careers (Yay!), then were sexually harassed in the workplace (Boo!). Title IX was enacted as law (Yay!), but at my high school, the girls still had to use the old gym while the boys claimed the shiny new one, and the girls’ field hockey team had to practice and play their games in an overgrown field behind the school, even when no one was using the more manicured areas reserved for boys’ sports (Boo!). Shows sprang up on TV that featured strong, crime-fighting women (Yay!), yet the only upper body strength they possessed was contained in a skimpy bikini top (or, in Wonder Woman’s case, a satin bustier). And they still all answered to men (Boo!).

It was a tough time to be a teenage girl, trying to figure out your place in the world.

Especially since the one message we DID receive loudly and clearly was that if we wanted to reach our fullest potential, if we wanted to be strong, independent women, we had to do it ALONE. Movies like “An Unmarried Woman” and “My Brilliant Career” (both of which I loved) told us in no uncertain terms that we had to make a choice: Either fall in love and remain personally unfulfilled forever, or live a solitary life and find complete personal satisfaction.

One line from “My Brilliant Career” has always haunted me. At one point, Sybylla’s Aunt Gussie tells her, “Loneliness is a terrible price to pay for independence.” My teenage self thought that was an incredibly pithy observation, and I went right home to record it in my journal. When I hear it now, I think, “Huh?”

Where did this come from, this idea that in order to be complete, we women had to be alone? That by falling in love and making a commitment to another human being, we were somehow diminishing ourselves? That our choices were: A) Fall in love and be unhappy, or B) Remain alone and be happy. Why couldn’t we fall in love and be happy? Nope, sorry. Not one of the choices, according to the world where I grew up.

Thankfully, I think most of us saw through that message and fell in love anyway. I mean, it’s not like falling in love or not falling in love is a choice, right? We meet someone who loves and respects us as we are, someone who shares our hopes and dreams and desires, someone who makes our life better just by being in it, and what? We’re supposed to NOT love them? Especially when loving them and being loved in return is a big part of what makes us complete?

I hope society today is sending out clearer, better, messages to its young women, but sometimes I have to wonder. There is so much TV devoted to women who are willing to compete for marriage to a complete stranger. We’ve lost so many of our female world leaders. (Remember Margaret Thatcher? Indira Gandhi? Golda Meir?) I look at my nieces--all hitting adolescence about now--and I wonder if they’ll be able to distinguish the right messages from the wrong ones. I think they will. After all, their mothers came of age in the seventies, but still managed to find both love and careers. They’re appalled when I tell them how, when I was their age, I was told I could never become President because I was a girl. And they all play their soccer and field hockey matches in much nicer fields.

So what do YOU think? Have we come a long way, baby? Or do we still have a lot of obstacles to overcome? What messages are we receiving these days that we should refute? Which ones should we embrace? Which ones AREN’T we getting out to our girls and young women that need to be front and center?

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a big proponent of lasting marriages and “Til Death Do Us Part” (unless one or both partners makes it impossible) and we all talked about how sad the Ryan Phillipe/Reese Witherspoon break-up made us feel.  But when I heard that Whitney Houston had filed for divorce from Bobby Brown, I’m ashamed to confess that my first reaction was “Finally!” Not to excuse Whitney for a series of increasingly destructive choices, but to me this relationship has always felt like a classic case of a “Bad Man Ruining a Good Woman.”

Does anybody remember the “Before-Bobby” Whitney?  The woman who sang with both the confidence and the voice of an angel?  The actress with the doe eyes and luminous skin who lit up the screen in THE BODYGUARD and WAITING TO EXHALE?  The former Baptist choir girl who seemed to have her feet planted firmly on the ground and her eyes on the heavens?  Since marrying Bobby, her career has spiraled downward and her personal life has consisted of an endless tangle of legal problems, allegations of abuse, stints in drug rehab and some really bad kaftans.  Now that she’s dumping Bobby and has professionally reunited with former producer Clive Davis, I’d like to believe that it’s not too late for her. 

So what about you?  Do you think it’s too late for Whitney to reclaim her professional mojo or do you think a Tina Turner-style comeback is a possibility?  Anyone have any similar thoughts about Britney/KFed?

A friend gave me the site address where you can turn yourself into a South Park character.  So I turned me into a Hunting Connie and Jenn Lind, the heroine of HOT DISH, into a “Caught in Fawn Lake with No Way Out” character. I also made Elizabeth, Teresa, Christina and Eloisa into characters but I have to live with them so I’m going to keep those images where they belong… as the wallpaper for my computer screen.

Of course, my crowning glory was my South Park Lisa. ((who has exciting news to share very, very soon!! So watch for the announcement!!)
So, go my squakers, go forth and South Parkify yourself by clicking http://www.sp-studio.de/

Well, now that Kitty has sunk back into whatever tequila induced oblivion she’s currently inhabiting, let’s play!

Reading the comments under Kitty’s so-called interview, I was struck by how many times I’ve been caught off guard by a case of character infatuation. They creep up on you unexpectedly, this desire to know (and I do mean this in the Biblical sense) characters that you wopudl never in a hundred years suspect you’d find appealing. Even more than appealing, downright tasty!

No, no, no. I’m not talking about bad boys, the hard-edged navy seal or dissolute duke that you know is damaged and troubled and dangerous...everyone lusts after them. I’m talking about Unexpected Heartthrobs.

Here’s a starter list. Sneer if you want. In fact, I encourage it because then I can come back and tell you about some of Teresa’s heartthrobs.

Yes, Alan Rickman has a yummy voice but who would ever have guessed he would completely usurp Kevin Costner’s unintentionally hilarious (and pitiable) Robin Hood with his over-the-top rendition of a would-be rapist, the Sherriff of Nottingham. Yet, this is the same guy who plays Snapes in the Harry Potter films, with a face like a unbaked custard framed by oily lank black locks.

And how about current hubba-hubba, Hugh Laurie? I secretly pined after him when he played Bertie Wooster in BBC’s Wooster and Jeeves series. I couldn’t quite (secretly or un) pine after him as Prince George in the Blackadder series. But as Gregory House? Be still, oh heart!

And speaking of Blackadder, who would have thought that frog-faced Mr. Bean (aka Rowan Atkinson) could sardonic up so nicely as both the Elizabethan and the Regency incarnations of Blackadder? Being able to atrike at a second’s notice with a scalpel sharp come-back always jacks up the sex appeal, too.

Okay, I know they’re all English. I’m on a roll. So let me finish the Anglophil-lustamania.
In the title role of Bernard Black, Dylan Moran, who wrote and starred in Blacks Books, another BBC series, is horrible, sour, bitter and unaccountably desirable.

Let me see… Any Americans come to mind? Ohhhhh, yes. My, my, my. As well as having a thing for despicable men, I also have a thing for guys with smoky bourbon-soft voices. And while I have always thought Alec Baldwin was physically delicious (The Shadow, anyone?) it is only as the driven, uber-controlling, slightly over-weight and preternaturally well-groomed boss in the new sitcom 30 Rock, he absolutely curls my toes.

How about you? Are there any embarrassing Objet du Lusts you’ve been wanting to reveal? Any Unexpected Heartthrobs you can think of. Tell. You know you want to.

Ya know--when I saw this scrolling across the bottom of my TV set this weekend, I did a double take.  But Xtina assures me this snippet of news is true:  “PEOPLE magazine reports Hilary Swank suffered a striptease-related injury Thursday on the New York set of the romance P.S., I Love You.  The two-time Oscar winner was shooting a scene with her co-star, Gerard Butler, when his attempts at Chippendales verisimilitude resulted in his suspenders dislodging and whapping her on the forehead.  Filming was suspended while Swank was sutured.”

What’s next?  Brad Pitt’s zipper puts out somebody’s eye?  The elastic waistband of Hugh Jackman’s BVDs breaks a nose?  Russell Crowe throws a phone and...oh...never mind.  So how many of YOU would volunteer to sacrifice your body parts (and qualify for workmen’s comp) by filming a striptease scene with Gerard Butler?

We have another MEMBERSHIP DRIVE winner!  If Squawk Radio member MaryMeg will e-mail her snail mail addy to , we’ll be sending along some Squawk goodies just for you, including an ARC of Christina’s December release THE PRINCE KIDNAPS A BRIDE! 

Since tomorrow is Halloween, we Squawkers are in the mood for spookiness. And what better way to spook yourself silly than by watching scary movies? So today, we’re all going to blog on a movie that scared the bejabbers out of us at some point in our lives.

For me, it was “The Haunting.” The original 1963 version with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom and Russ Tamblyn, not the phoney-baloney remake that blew chunks. I first saw it when I was twelve, when my sixth grade English teacher showed it in class--in two parts. The first half one day, the second half the next. Even with a break in the action like that, this movie scared me to death. To this day, it remains the only movie that thoroughly creeps me out, no matter how many times I see it. It’s just so wonderfully atmospheric and, well, creepy.

Based on a novel (I think--it may have been a short story) by Shirley Jackson, it’s the story of a haunted house with a history of violence and madness which is being investigated by psychic researchers (and, it goes without saying, one skeptic). As the action unfolds, the house itself virtually becomes a character in the film, and its guests, one by one, become its victims in some way or another. What’s so wild is that there is NOTHING in this movie that’s gory or explicit or violent. In fact, the scariest scene is one that focuses solely on a wall of the house. The terror comes from what the viewer generates in her own imagination. It’s a rare movie that can do that.

Ooo, I’m getting goose bumps just writing about it.

Hopefully the other Squawkers will jump in down below my blog and talk about their favorite scary movies. And you guys, too. What’s the scariest movie you ever saw? Why did it scare you so much?

And, hey, what would Halloween be without tricks and treats? We Squawkers have both for you! For treats, we have two bags full of candy and Squawk Radio goodies to give away. For tricks, we have two advanced reading copies of Xtina’s December release THE PRINCE KIDNAPS A BRIDE. We’ll be choosing the winners randomly from our membership list, so if you haven’t joined, now’s the time. After tomorrow, in order to post, you’ll need to be a member anyway. So now’s the perfect time to sign up. We’ll choose our winners from whoever’s on the list as of the witching hour tomorrow, PST. (That’s midnight Pacific Time Tuesday, dontcha know.)

What a choice to have to make. My favorite horror film? Do I go for the “creeped me out entirely” or “blood,gore and other fun stuff?”
After much sole searching (I just got in from the backyard and we have two dogs) I decided to go with the later. But this only brought up another set of ponders. Do I stick with American films or go international? I ran down the quick list and came up with three potential choices but finally I had to go with my heart and give the place of honor to that icon of Bad Taste, starring the King of Over the Top:

THE EVIL DEAD 2 starring BRUCE CAMPBELL.

For those of you who think swimming pools of gore, dismemberment and cheesey special effects (you can see wires the size of high tension cable throughout the whole thing) are the stuff of hilarity especially when paired with a super-annuated Walmart stock boy hero (Campbell) who reto-fits his arm stump with a chain saw in order to take on the, you got it, The Evil Dead, have I got a film for you! As the hero Ash would say… “Groovy.”