Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, co-creator and executive producer of Lifetime’s groundbreaking series Unreal, delivered candid remarks on the state of women in Hollywood to a packed house of filmmakers and industry executives at the 2016 AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) Showcase. Sponsored by Lifetime, the standing-room-only event took place Tuesday, April 12, at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, and served as an introduction to the 10 DWW Class of 2015 graduates and their original work in episodic and short film storytelling.
Shapiro (AFI DWW, Class of 2012) gave advice to female directors looking to break into the industry — and highlighted the value of the DWW program, which is supported by the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation, NBCUniversal and Google.
“I had a better chance of becoming an underwater welder, statistically,” Shapiro said, “than a working female director. It’s basically like becoming a really rare radical warrior.” She urged the female filmmakers in the room to “take Hollywood hostage. Bend it to your will.”
As announced in December 2015, Lifetime made a groundbreaking commitment through its Broad Focus initiative to guarantee employment to DWW filmmakers, starting with the Class of 2015 featured in the Showcase: Amy Barrett, Christine Boylan, Dime Davis, Claire Fowler, Mia Lidofsky, Erica Liu, Bella Monticelli, Rebecca Murga, Philiane Phang and Chelsea Woods.
DWW also announced director/producer/writer Angela Robinson (How To Get Away With Murder, The L Word, True Blood) as the program’s new Artist-in-Residence, as well as the following grants and awards:
Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation Grants:
Tannaz Hazemi (AFI DWW, Class of 2016)
Manjari Makijany (AFI DWW, Class of 2016)
Jean Picker Firstenberg Award:
Amy Barrett (AFI DWW, Class of 2015)
Nancy Malone Award:
Mia Lidofsky (AFI DWW, Class of 2015)
Rebecca Murga (AFI DWW, Class of 2015)
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More