While we wait with '50s cocktails and bated breath for the last season of Mad Men, Elisabeth Moss shot Jane Campion's new Sundance Channel miniseries Top Of the Lake, in which she played a hard-boiled female detective and "damaged fortysomething women sleep in shipping crates." Sounds like my mom's house.

New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion, only the second of four women nominated for an Academy Award in directing (for Holly Hunter-starring The Piano), directs epic, offbeat, female-driven films about mortality and sexuality. Her 1987 directorial debut, Sweetie, was recently released by the Criterion Collection. Please…

• Last night, during the first concert of her Australian tour, Whitney Houston was breathless, barely finished any of her songs, and left the stage at one point, telling her brother to take over the microphone.

The Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow and An Education's Lone Scherfig are nominated, as Women & Hollywood points out. Both movies got eight nominations, as did.... Avatar. Jane Campion's Bright Star failed to find much favor (or, um, favour). [Guardian"]

In light of certain godly invocations within the actor-director dynamic, we wondered just yesterday what difference, if any, the gender of the director made in all this. The Daily Beast takes a stab at the question today.

Why have Jane Campion's well-reviewed Bright Star and its star Abbie Cornish so far been ignored in the awards race? There are several theories.

Last night, I had the privilege of attending a reception organized by Women & Hollywood's Melissa Silverstein for Bright Star director Jane Campion, given at the home of Gloria Steinem. In attendance: A small group of impressive women:

• Lindsay Lohan will host concerts coinciding with the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend because Nicole Scherzinger had to cancel. Linds says she's qualified because, "I studied NASCAR for almost a year for Herbie. It was very hot inside those cars..."

We scoured Variety's 12th annual Women's Impact Report, which recognizes the 50 female "movers and shakers" in entertainment, and learned Tina Fey may have been too honored this year, January Jones loves sharks, and Rachel Maddow is passionate about alcohol.

• Oh Christ: Jennifer Aniston "burst into tears in her trailer" while filming in New York.