Some thoughts on SEX AND THE CITY and the mainstream media response to Scott McClellan

Keeping this entry brief:

If you look at today's LOS ANGELES TIMES calendar section (or go onto http://www.latimes.com), you'll be educated and enlightened in terms of the limitations of mainstream journalism--be it about actual news or predetermined entertainment "events."

First, let's bring up the peeved responses of LAT's Tim Rutten and NBC's David Gregory to ex-George Butch press secretary Scott McClellan about the media failing to do its job and dig deep in reporting the runup to the Iraq War and the fairytales about weapons of mass destruction.  Essentially, Gregory and Rutten are offering the same kind of whining that college students do when their professors ask questions on exams that are in the textbooks rather than students' notes taken in class.

Now, let's deal with ex-Time Warner employee Carina Chocano of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY fame.  Carina's doing her best to Come Through for her ex-employers' SEX AND THE CITY movie.  Read the review and you'll find Carina comparing the film's 142-minute length to a 19th-century novel--and, most silly of all, implying that all men who don't want to see SEX AND THE CITY are the kind of sexists who objected to Hillary Clinton's campaign for Presidency (i.e. the kind of "don't criticize because she's a trailblazer" crap that insults the memory of Shirley Chisolm, who ran for the Oval Office in 1972).

I watched a handful of SEX AND THE CITY episodes; I wasn't overly impressed, though the series gave good roles to actors of both genders (particularly remembering perpetual villain James Remar's against-type casting as one of Samantha's lovers).

And I even remember Sarah Jessica Parker (although I never met her) from working as an extra on episodes of a now-forgotten TV series called EQUAL JUSTICE, where she played an earnest assistant district attorney.  By and large, I recall her as being personable and into recycling before it became Celebrity Fashion.

It's too bad that Ms. Parker's fine work in recent films such as THE FAMILY STONE and SMART PEOPLE have been largely ignored by the public.  So I'm guessing she feels like Sylvester Stallone--having to go back to an uberfamiliar role, being the only way to star in a film likely to achieve big opening-weekend grosses.

But if I don't see the SATC movie, it's because I don't want to see it--not for any reasons having to do with perfidious sexism.

Tags: Scott McClellan, WHAT HAPPENED, Tim Rutten, LOS ANGELES TIMES, David Gregory, NBC News, MSNBC, RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE, Sarah Jessica Parker, SEX AND THE CITY, Time Warner, New Line, EQUAL JUSTICE, Carina Chocano, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY