This week’s episode of Show Your Work was brought to you by… you. Many of you emailed and tweeted about the new Fast Company profile of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, that it’s perfect content for Show Your Work – and you were right. It is work from top to bottom, up and down. Reese’s work is not only creating more opportunities for emerging and often overlooked talent in Hollywood, she’s opening up opportunities in publishing too, and one of the results of her influence is that it’s challenging a status quo value system about whose work gets noticed, whose work gets valued, and who gets to do the valuing. And, as we know, it needs to be challenged. Because did you hear what happened last week with Variety?
They planned an event featuring writers…and well… this is what it looked like:
Hey @Variety! Here are some ideas for you! *Jenni Konner&Lena Dunham*Melissa Rosenberg* *Tina Fey*Marti Noxon&Sarah Gertude Shapiro*Liz Flahive&Carly Mensch*Nahnatchka Khan*Maurissa Tancharoen*Jessica Queller*Shonda Rhimes*Jenji Kohan*Rachel Bloom&Aliene Brosh McKenna pic.twitter.com/CbzL9Fppom
— Busy Philipps (@BusyPhilipps) June 5, 2018
So then they had to apologise:
On behalf of Variety, we apologize for the egregious oversight regarding the lack of female writers participating in our upcoming A Night in the Writers' Room event. We hear you loud and clear, and are currently working on rectifying our mistake.
— Variety (@Variety) June 5, 2018
But then this happened:
If any female showrunners want to do a panel on Thursday night, I will moderate and organize. https://t.co/R1IXBMOXWN
— Liz Hannah (@itslizhannah) June 5, 2018
And now this is happening:
I’m thrilled to announce that the female showrunner panel will be hosted at @TwitterLA next Wednesday evening! More details about live-streaming and invites to come soon. I can’t thank everyone enough for their passion for this!
— Liz Hannah (@itslizhannah) June 6, 2018
And all of that was going on just as Variety published an interview between Issa Rae and Michael B Jordan as part of their “Actors on Actors” series about breaking down diversity barriers in Hollywood. Is that ironic? Duana and I discuss Issa and MBJ’s perspectives on what they get offered and how they have each reframed their approaches to the work they will and won’t take.
Finally, Tiffany Haddish’s Proust Questionnaire. It’s amazing and hilarious, obviously. But also very specific – about how her happiness relates to her work and who and what she’s working towards. Can you relate?
Here’s that Harvard bias test I refer to during the podcast.
As always, thanks for listening and caring and sharing about work! Please continue to send us your work story ideas at @laineygossip and @duanaelise, and catch Show Your Work weekly on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.