Here's Lane on Kim Cattrall:

Samantha’s efforts to signal her appeal, which might have seemed languorous on the small screen, are blown up here into an embarrassing semaphore: thudding closeups of her slurping through a cocktail straw or swallowing a mouthful of guacamole. No self-respecting maker of soft erotica would countenance such shots, and, as for the matching dialogue (“Something just came up,” Samantha murmurs over the phone, as her boyfriend stands beside her in bulging briefs), it’s a straight lift from flaccid, mid-period James Bond.

And here's his take on Tina Fey in Baby Mama:

[Fey's character] Kate stalks around bare-legged in skirts that lurch to a halt two inches above the knee, which is a length that Christy Turlington would struggle to carry off. It’s possible that Fey, like other television stars, is unused to being framed in full length, and, though in complete command of her delivery—dry, spiky, but unthreatening—she hasn’t yet made up her mind how funny her body is meant to be. She isn’t big enough to make a joke of her ripeness, like Bette Midler, but she’s no Lily Tomlin, either. She could do worse than steal a trick from Lucille Ball—a lovely, elegant figure who taught herself to be graceless.

It seems that Lane has a problem with women of a certain age being sexual on the big screen; he can take mature sexuality in the bowdlerized form he sees on television, but once those over-30 legs are stalking around, larger than life on celluloid, he must object.

But Lane's female problem is nothing when you read Timothy Noah's comparison of Carrie Bradshaw and Hillary Clinton in Slate. Basically, Noah posits that the older white women who watched the SatC movie are the same ones who voted for Hillary, and went to see the movie because they were bummed about Hillary's primary loss. "By this past weekend, however, it was becoming clear to all but the most delusional Hillary supporters that the game was up. Sisterhood was powerful, but in this case it wouldn't prevail. That realization left a lot of white women all dolled up with nowhere to go. And so … they went to the movies," Noah writes. "The connection, I'll grant you, is somewhat glib," he adds…glibly. So glib, in fact, that it makes no sense whatsoever.

Even with all the punditry, the Sex and the City movie's popularity at this point, is similar to the appeal of the much-loved SatC-approved Magnolia Bakery cupcake. You have to wait on long lines to consume it; it is full of saccharine and empty calories; you might feel a little sick to your stomach when it's over, but you were happy to let yourself indulge, just for a little while, in a buttercream fantasy. And once it's out of your small intestine, you forgot it ever existed.

Sexism And The City [Newsweek]
The New Yorker Turns “Sex And The City” Gals Into Monsters, All Of Them [Best Week Ever]
Carrie [New Yorker]
Switching Places [New Yorker]
Hillary And The City [Slate]

Earlier: Sarah Jessica Parker Squeals In Dismay Over Time Out New York Cover

This is the exceptionally clean, crisp handwriting of a person who thinks matters through and then expresses herself brightly without impulsive emotions muddying up her judgments.

There are several prominent hooks at the beginning of letters. This writer wants to acquire things ~ not simply treasure but power, adoration, applause, even immortality. There are also many tenacity hooks at the end of letters. What this writer earns will not easily be taken away from her.

She is without excessive preconceptions and prejudices and the open loops in her "e"s indicate that she open-mindedly allows new ideas to engage her thinking processes.

The "m"s and "n"s are rounded and indicate a methodical and logical way of reaching conclusions. Method and logic can be slow work, but they don't slow this writer down because of her good intuition (signaled by unconnected spaces between letters within words). Intuition (sometimes called "gut" thinking) allows her thoughts to leap over the stepping stones of logic and arrive at trusted conclusions. Intuition speeds up thinking and allows slower-minded people to compete with the more naturally swift minded. The writer is also analytical (v-shaped) formations in "m"s and "n"s). She hunts and finds her own information and then pulls data together, examines and evaluates the ideas, and then makes up her own mind.

Her goals are in the middle-practical range (the t bars are crossed about midway on the t stem). She's not reaching for the moon. She goes for what she can get without stretching too much. Her drive is strong enough (assertive t bars) to get her through.

The "p" forms have bottom loops: She must be physically active and on the move. Enforced routine deskwork would soon send her to a loony bin.

The inflated "d" loops indicate sensitivity to criticism that's not constructive. She cares about what is thought and said about her, and malicious comments hurt her even when she may not let on.

The left-side loops in certain "a"s signal a slight case of self-deceit. She may not always be frank with herself and tends to rationalize away unpleasantness. Therefore, she may at times be less than frank with others.

Full lower loops on "y" forms signal a good imagination. However, she may stop short of making her dreams materialize in reality.

She will take the initiative and take action on her own without being told (breakaway strokes within words or at the end of certain words).

She is very good with details (closely dotted "i"s) and won't forget or neglect the small stuff.

The writer is relatively comfortable in crowds, but she enjoys her own company even better. This writer is the kind of person with whom intelligent people wish to become friends.

Earlier: Tina Fey Keeps Perspective By Cleaning Up Baby Poop
The Future Of Female Comedies May Sit Squarely On Tina Fey's Shoulders

"Anyone who's seen Mean Girls knows what a fierce comic actress she is," Lambert continues, in a well-argued essay lamenting the loss of the Hollywood "comedy of equals."

The Screwball Comedies of the thirties and forties really were a Golden Age of well-matched onscreen couples. Film critics like A.O. Scott and Anthony Lane, and David Denby are not just whistling Dixie when they claim that it was better back then...Women remain a much underserved audience and we deserve much better than How To Lose A Guy Wearing 27 Dresses. I'm just thankful the discussions have finally been opened back up. There are many millions of different modes for being male and female in the modern age. Maybe someday soon we'll get to see some romantic comedies that genuinely reflect that. Lord knows Woody Allen's not gonna make them.

And seriously? What. Happened. In the thirties, tough dames like Rosalind Russell sparred with Cary Grant His Girl Friday while Katharine Hepburn and Cary duked it out in Bringing Up Baby and the Philadelphia Story. One could argue that these films of male and female equals disappeared during the late 40s in the post WWII push to get women back into the kitchen, but uh, it's been 60 years since then.

I imagine film execs think that a "comedy of equals" couldn't sell tickets and so give us movies about equally repellent personalities like that forthcoming Cameron Diaz/ Ashton Kutcher shitshow What Happens In Vegas. Maybe part of the problem is that movie actresses are now solely seen as the sum of their parts (the New Yorker's Anthony Lane on on Tina Fey: "She hasn't yet made up her mind how funny her body is meant to be. She isn't big enough to make a joke of her ripeness, like Bette Midler, but she's no Lily Tomlin, either."). Fingers crossed that Tina Fey and Diablo Cody's successes can help change all that, but it's going to take time.

In Which A Comedy Of Equals Beats A Bromance Every Time [This Recording]
Weekend Results [Box Office Mojo]
Anthony Lane Thinks Tina Fey Is Fat, But Not Fat Enough To Be Funny [Emily Magazine]

Earlier: Baby Mama Is Fertile Ground For Mixed Feelings From Reviewers
Does The Female "Buddy" Movie Exist?

Premiere :

When the onscreen birthing scene in question involves certified Very Funny Lady and relatively new mother Tina Fey, you can expect honesty — and hilarity. Case in point: Baby Mama's climactic childbirth scene finds Fey running down the hospital corridor alongside a gurney-bound, flailing Amy Poehler. 'This is like shitting a knife!'

Fey's Kate, for all her trendy compulsiveness, is surprisingly likable, never succumbing to the tired stereotype of the sterile yuppie who has sacrificed her sexuality and her soul for success. Poehler's role gets the bigger laughs: she's a gifted rubber-faced comedienne, particularly winning when, caught red-handed in one gaucherie after another—like sticking her gum under the coffee table—she outright denies what she's done.

Baby Mama...is blithely unconcerned with gender-baiting. In fact, the movie hardly allows itself any sharp moments at all — it's much too sweet-natured to be cruel, and much too cheerful to be angry. It probably could have pushed a few more buttons, but 'Baby Mama' aims to please and succeeds.

This movie, which reunites the "Saturday Night Live" news anchors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, turns surrogate motherhood into an "Odd Couple" sitcom with conflicts of class that resolve into sisterhood. It's clumsy, not cute, an amateur show that's eager to amuse by any means — a stroller with airbags, a birthing counselor with an Elmer Fudd accent ("As your pwegnancy pwogwesses..."). Yet the show is redeemed by its co-stars, up to a pwoint.

Baby Mama is a politely bland retread of women's-movie clichés a generation old: the driven businesswoman who puts off motherhood till the last minute, then pursues it with type-A zeal; the guy who flees a first date when babies are mentioned; the down-to-earth potential boyfriend (Greg Kinnear) who, by his very existence, reminds the overly ambitious heroine of what really matters in life. Look, I have fond enough memories of Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard in Baby Boom, but that was more than 20 years ago. Have our ideas about working, parenting, and the formation of alternative families really changed so little since 1987?

The film never comes fully to term, as it were: the visual style is sitcom functional, and even the zippiest jokes fall flat because of poor timing. But, much like the prickly, talented Ms. Fey, it pulls you in with a provocative and, at least in current American movies, unusual mix of female intelligence, awkwardness and chilled-to-the-bone mean.

It's possible that Fey, like other television stars, is unused to being framed in full length, and, though in complete command of her delivery—dry, spiky, but unthreatening—she hasn't yet made up her mind how funny her body is meant to be. She isn't big enough to make a joke of her ripeness, like Bette Midler, but she's no Lily Tomlin, either. She could do worse than steal a trick from Lucille Ball—a lovely, elegant figure who taught herself to be graceless.

Uterine Chagrin [Premiere]
Baby Formula [Newsweek]
'Baby Mama' Is In Fertile Territory[Los Angeles Times]
Fey and Poehler Deliver Erratic 'Baby Mama' [WSJ]
Womb Service [Slate]
Baby Mama (2008) [NYT]
Switching Places [New Yorker]

Earlier: Tina Fey Keeps Perspective By Cleaning Up Baby Poop
Does The Female Buddy Movie Exist?
Tina Fey To Amy Poehler: I Wanna Put My Baby Inside You

The Good:
Christine Lahti looks classy in her red shift, albeit somewhat stiff.


Danica Patrick's dress is exactly what "flirty and feminine" should be.


Faye Dunaway is still rocking her Bonnie and Clyde look. But whatever: It works for her.


Fred Durst's ladyfriend has a pretty dress.


Is it weird that I would like Holland Taylor's dress? It's so old-school cool.


I'll take Maggie Grace's Audrey Hepburn-esque dress too, thanks.


What a relief to see a starlet not in a boob-flaunting dress. Thanks, Kristen Bell.


Please God let these be Lorne Michaels' daughters.


Molly Shannon's mod-styled dress and cutie-pie husband are both winners in my book.


Rachel Dratch once helped me hide when the Arctic Monkeys' publicist attempted to throw me out of a Saturday Night Live after-party. Her sweet dress is clearly a representation of her sweet-as-can-be disposition.


Tina Fey is like an old-fashioned glamor girl in this dress. (So why can't she seem to relax and enjoy it?)


The Bad:
Honestly, Amy Poehler's dress could be indeed hiding a bump.


Annabella Sciorra is bordering on caricature in the vampy dress and tousled bedroom waves.


Though I love Padma, I do not approve of her styled-by-Lauren-Conrad-esque look.


Sigourney Weaver: The elementary school art teacher you never knew you had.


The Ugly:
Dear Alice Kremelberg: Your moccasin booties sure do look comfy. But why are you wearing them outside of your house?

[Images via Getty.]

As someone who grew up on flicks like Desperately Seeking Susan and The Craft, I'm disappointed that, out of the 110 flicks counted, xkcd says, "There were over sixty movies in the sample with two male stars top-billed. The only movies with two top-billed female roles, on the other hand, were The Devil Wears Prada and Scary Movie 4." And sure, there's Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, but are they the norm? He continues:

My cousin has been working on tallying (by hand!) all movies with two top-billed female stars. She reports that there are staggeringly few of them, and the roles fall mainly in two genres: mother-daughter bonding movies and horror films.

Two Female Leads [xkcd]
Related: Whither Our Superheroines? An Outraged Culture Demands To Know [Defamer]
Earlier: The Future Of Female Comedies May Sit Squarely On Tina Fey's Shoulders
Where The Hell Are The Strong Women?
Women In Hollywood Speak Out On Women In Hollywood
"Cordial", "Charming" Studio Chief Explains Why Women Can't Sell Movies (Except Julia Roberts)

Because the film is not typical boy-meets-girl fare, the Times is wondering if two women in their late 30s can carry a comedy in a world where 14-year-old boys (and men with 14-year-old mentalities) are the comedy film "sweet spot" of ticket purchasers. Baby Mama has neither big boobs, nor big bombs. Here's what Poehler has to say on the matter: "Everything is a harder sell until it's a success and then it's not." She continues:

What I'm proud of about this film is that there was an actual beginning and middle and end, and characters change and all that kind of stuff. Which is kind of like an actual movie? It's nice to be a part of that. Especially coming from the world with a lot of sketch, where everything is transient and temporary. It's nice to explore an actual arc in an actual film. I like movies that 14-year-old boys like, I like a lot of those. I would hope that they would like the same things I like too.

Fey and Poehler Gamble With 'Baby Mama' [Los Angeles Times]
Tina Feytigue [Videogum]

Earlier: Tina Fey To Amy Poehler: I Wanna Put My Baby Inside You
Tina Fey: Comedienne, Cover Girl And "Great Role Model" For Women

Donna Langley, president of production at Universal, on Tina: "Tina really is the new woman who can have it all. [On TV], she navigates a man's world but maintains her own sense of self, she never has to compromise her ideals to get what she wants — yet she's not manipulative or coquettish. In her personal life, she's married, she has a lovely baby, she was the first woman to be the head writer at SNL — she's crossed all these barriers and milestones as a woman, so it makes her a great role model.''

Tina on late night munchies: ''I was playing a game with the camera guys: Guess What's Inside Me. 'Yes, there is Cheez Whiz inside me. Toll House cookies? Yes. Salami? Yes.''' Tina on Baby Mama: ''I liked the topicality of the fertility issues that affect so many people. There's so much weirdness and emotion about it. If you start with something juicy, you end up with a better [movie] than if you just start with some jokes. And Amy liked that it did not have anything to do with a goddamn wedding.''

Tina on Fame: "They should draw up an equation: What level of fame do you need to achieve to keep doing what you want? Because you don't want any more than that. You don't want someone to take a picture of your butt on the beach.... How do you get to be Christopher Guest? Just live your life, make hilarious movies with your friends, and then go home.''

Tina on "Real Women" in film: ''There was a time when Teri Garr was in everything. She was adorable, but also completely real — her body was real, her teeth were real, you felt like she'd be your friend.''

Tina on her big mouth:''Pretty soon my kid's going to understand what I'm saying and be able to access it on the computer. I screwed up something a few months ago and I was like, 'You know who wouldn't do that? Tom Hanks. You know who would keep his mouth shut? Tom Hanks. I should try to be like Tom Hanks.'''

Tina Fey: One Hot 'Mama' [Entertainment Weekly]
Tina Fey - "Marie Claire" May 2008 [Just Jared]

Earlier: Tina Fey To Amy Poehler: "I Wanna Put My Baby Inside You!"
30 Rock's Liz Lemon Drunk Dials, Sings Alanis Morrisette Into A Wine Bottle Microphone

Baby Mama Trailer Arrives Online [Cinematical]