Oprah Winfrey got wind of Jennifer Lawrence’s essay about wage inequality. JLaw wrotee about her experiences in Hollywood, but the situation is reflective of most career fields. Women are often seen as less committed because of dumb stereotypes about child rearing and — god forbid — making the choice to not spend 97 hours per week at the office because of real-life stuff. It’s a tough world out there, and there’s a lot of favoritism. The sad thing is that Jennifer doesn’t like speaking out about hot-button issues, but she wanted to bring greater attention to an issue that affects so many women. People still accused her of being greedy and wanting more millions.
Oprah spoke about Jennifer’s essay on CBS This Morning. The mighty O has been in her own realm for decades, but back in the day, she was fighting for her female producers to get raises. According to Oprah, the management said, “Why do they need raises? Why do a bunch of girls need raises?” This was 1985 in Chicago, and Oprah ended up threatening to strike. And in 1980, she co-hosted People Are Talking in Baltimore but discovered her male co-host was “making far more money than I did and we did the same job.” Here we are in 2015, and not much has changed. Oprah feels that Jennifer can bring awareness to the issue, and perhaps she’s correct. If young girls see what JLaw is saying, they’re less likely to put up with gender pay disparity in their own lives. As Oprah said, “I think the conversation has hit a critical moment.” Yep, and we haven’t heard the end of this story.
More JLaw news. Variety says she’s circling a Darren Aronofsky project. After this year, her schedule will open up from The Hunger Games and X-Men franchises, and she could go back to doing prestigious Oscar-baity movies on a regular basis. Aronofsky really wants her, and we could end up seeing JLaw in a really dark movie, which would be interesting. The article mentions that producers and directors are clamoring for JLaw, and “several projects are being developed for her.” Thanks to the Sony hack, Jennifer will make sure she gets adequately paid for these films. Even with indie films, I imagine she’ll get her due now.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
It’s weird because she is one of my favorite actresses and Aronofsky is one of my favorite directors, but the rumor of their collaboration doen’t make me excited at all.
I feel like the camera loves her and she is a great interview but is she a good actress? Serious question. I often see the same character in all her acting despite brilliant writing etc
Donna! I’m soooo glad you graduated!! Haha.
I think you’d have to see Winters Bone to get an understanding of her range. Understated and somber she played that role amazingly well, and it’s such a different type of person than her character in Silver Linings or Hustle.
Knowing how she is in interviews and apparently in real life makes her acting chops much more visible in Winters Bone.
LOL!
Oh my yes. She has an incredible range.
I’ll also add Poker House to this list. Very dark movie. Winters Bone is my favorite JLaw project to date though
I did enjoy her in winter’s bone when it first came out and was hopeful about her future work but I’ve never seen anything as good since. However it’s good to see her speaking up re: equal pay since she has such an amazing platform to do it from. Thumbs up on that.
Winter’s Bone, The Burning Plain, Hunger Games are very different from Silver Linings and American Hustle. Lawrence can play subtle and showy
Yes, she is a good actress. The greatest ever, no. But she can act. The camera also loves Kstew and several other starlets and they aren’t getting the kind of steady acclaim Jlaw gets. There is a reason for that. I am not a great fan of hers i just remember being very impressed with some of her performances when she first appeared on the scene. And i wouldn’t say the character in winters bone is the same as the one she played in SLP.
I think she is, and I’ve enjoyed her work in everything I’ve seen so far.
I really can’t stand Jay Law.
She spends so much time being an idiot and now i can’t take her seriously.
I can’t take her seriously either. But that’s o.k.
Key here is that young girls who follow her and love her read her essay and know that it is not o.k. for them to be remunerated on a different pay scale/ system than the men. Critical that gender equality is not treated as an “old broad” thing. Important that every little girl leaving school be aware of their rights to have equal pay for equal work, equal access/ opportunity, etc.
She annoys me but she brings more girls to the reading table. Good on her for that.
Oh Yes, I agree! If she helps young women to get what they deserve kudos to her.
Back to being the Paolanquar again?
I’m ambivalent when it comes to J Law. I’ll neither seek something out cause she’s in it nor avoid because she’s in it. I’d be more likely to actively avoid David O Russel’s stuff.
Yes Bridget, but only because there’s another paola posting on here!
I think she is a good actress but yes a bit of an idiot. The way she is now reminds me of how obnoxious Julia Roberts became after Pretty Woman.
I love her!
Did Oprah somehow sleep through the whole Lilly Ledbetter Act saga? This conversation of wage parity has been going on for a very long time. Jennifer Lawrence’s statement may affect how Jennifer and some other elite actresses are paid but it isn’t going to trickle down elsewhere.
It’s been going on for a very long time because in 30 years almost nothing has changed!
In that first picture of her, she looks like a young Stiffler’s Mum.
Didn’t think she deserved the Oscar for SLP. Don’t care much for her nasty bathroom talk in interviews. She has an annoying personality offscreen, but it’s cute to audiences and fans for now. Also allegedly whispers still persist about casting couch Weinstein JLAW scenario, concerning that Oscar.
She makes a ton of money for studios regardless and should be paid her due. IMO She should get as much as she can now, because I have a feeling 40yr old JLAW, will not be selling huge tickets or be as in demand with audiences. JMO
She comes across as being an excitable personality – nothing wrong with that but agree it can get annoying. I haven’t seen SLP so i can’t comment on her performance in it but there have been rumours for many years about Weinstein, the casting couch and many known names in the industry. Some of the stories will make your hair curl.
@Betti
What rumors? From haters on internet? Please stop this misogyny and nonsense.
Thanks
@loris search Ashley Judd on this site.
@peakyhills and Betti
Every time that a woman has success is because she had sex with somebody…. Rolleyes
It’s for people like you that women has hard time to have respect and success at work. Congrats!
Erm, at what part did i say she had sex with somebody to get a job. I was replying to the OP’s comment about Weinsteins well known rep for abusing his position for his own personal gratification. It was a general comment.
@Betti
No your post on rumors was pure sexism
Really unnecessary comment Betti.
Here we have a post about the gender pay gap and how this woman is taking a stand
And you decide to decide to post some sexist comment about the casting couch.
I think the casting couch situation is actually the flip side of the pay problem. In both cases, women are treated as disposable commodities, there at the whim of more powerful, more important men. It’s the result of misogny and institutional sexism in Hollywood.
I don’t like rumours about the victims, but Ashley Judd came out to discuss a male power broker in the industry who sought to exploit her, and how depressingly common this is in the industry. It was a story a couple of weeks back, here on Celebitchy. If we’re worrying about equal pay, then worrying about sexual exploitation and harassment is part of the same conversation, surely?
The voting majority of the Academy disagrees with you. Haha. Seethe. Stay mad.
Is Jennifer Lawrence seriously going to get all the credit for people knowing that women have a right to pay parity?
zzzzz
Do you guys know that black sucessfull actresses make even way less that their white counter parts. Zoe Saldana although having highest grossing movies can barely crack a million . Rihanna was paid 2 million for. Doir while jlaw. And Charlize were paid 20 million
Saldana’s career is baffling. She is in more franchises than JLaw but failed at establishing herself as a action lead (I loved Colombiana). I don’t know, she’s very in demand yet not that successful really. I didn’t even know she made that little for such big movies! That’s a disgrace.
Same for Rihanna, she is much more of a fashion darling than Theron and Jlaw and actually cares about fashion so she should be on par with them or even make more.
Agree she should be getting action lead roles.
I don’t think it’s uncommon for an actor to be paid low for the first movie of a franchise – RDJ and JLaw both were paid low for Iron Man and Hunger Games (both reportedly $500K), but got a huge pay raise for the sequels ($9-10 million plus). Hopefully Zoe gets the same, as she’s got Avatar, Guardians, and Star Trek franchises. She’s not the main star of any of them, but still a big character in each.
The problem is Zoe is completely replaceable in all those films. If she were replaced for the sequels very few people would care, quite a lot probably wouldn’t even notice. Whether it’s her or the roles, she just doesn’t have that thing that makes her a stand out. A tree that only says it’s own name got more attention than her from GotG.
We can talk about equal pay for equal work, but that’s never been how it works for actors getting paid more than scale. 99% of it is about what value you bring to the production, not what hours you work. If one actor can get tens of thousands of people to the cinema based on their involvement, or can create a publicity storm without tens of millions of dollars of marketing, or brings prestige, and another actor doesn’t have any of that, they aren’t going to be paid the same.
I think it’s an important issue, and I’m glad people, including Jennifer Lawrence, are talking about it, but I wonder how much influence it will have if Hollywood is convinced to pay equally. Will that affect a store clerk? I don’t know.
@GNAT: Well, if the conversation gets louder and more people like Lawrence speak up, I believe it could trickle down. As Oprah said, the conversation has reached a critical point and more women are talking about their own experiences now.
Jennifer Lawrence’s essay has made quite an impression.
Good point. I really liked her essay. I was thinking in terms of how it would affect bosses. I forgot it might affect employees and they might demand more. Duh.
I’m hoping the visibility of the conversation will have an impact. And actually, the Miss Representation project talked about how, “you can’t be what you can’t see” and until women are fully and fairly represented, then we won’t have a society being reflected back at us that we’d like our young people to emulate – which of course applies to race, and disability as well.
The financial value placed on Hollywood actors seems pretty reflective of their gender and race, for the most part.
Where do I get that slip dress?!
@Kelly: I want the blazer as well!.
Glad this conversation is being endorsed by many including Oprah. Its something Oprah has talked about a lot in the past, and the actresses co-signing means they can also raise a voice to get equal pay. So many are quick to tear Jlaw down with her silliness is annoying – well she gives you a platform to raise awareness to serious issue and bring equality to the table – how about respect the message and her maturity. Jlaw wields lots of power in her stature as the leading female actress and isn’t just speaking up, she’s showing us how she put action to power change. Thats true equality and feminism.
I Think she has been affected mentally becoz of the phone hack thats why she is a bit off now a days during her interviews, i have seen her past ones and she is utterlutterly charming. Her acting career is unparalleled in its success for her age even if she has so much scope to improve and get better.The girl is everything Hollywood isnt. She is the resl deal.She is naturally funny,honest ,authentic, very humble and on top that she has a pair of steel balls on her.
I worked at a refinery doing the same job with a heavier workload as my male co-workers.. They all got paid between 17-40k per year more than me because they were dudes in a boys club…. Still happens people.
This is so shallow and I feel bad because she’s a fine actress and I admire her for taking this stance, but God I want those shoes.