Trick question. They both have zero.

According to the Writers Guild of America's 2009 Hollywood Writers Report, which drew on self-reported data from its members, Hollywood writers rooms remain stubbornly homogeneous:

White males continue to dominate in both the film and television sectors. Women remain stuck at 28 percent of television employment and 18 percent of film employment. The minority share of film employment has been frozen at 6 percent since 1999, while the group's share of television employment actually declined to 9 percent since the last report. Although women and minorities closed the earnings gaps with white men in television a bit, the earnings gaps in film grew.

Male television writers outnumber women by about 2 to 1. That's still better than in film, where women's participation has actually dropped by a percentage point since the last report. In fact, the study says, from 2001 to 2007, while male film writers in Hollywood were increasing their average earnings by 31 percent (from $73,332 to $96,250) between 2001 and 2007, women's earnings declined 4.7 percent (from $60,000 to $57,151.)

What accounts for such a dramatic pay gap? The WGA's director of Diversity, Kim Myers, offered one theory over at Women & Hollywood:

Although this is somewhat anecdotal, in conversation with women screenwriters most attribute this fact to the type of films that are being developed at the studios. The emphasis is on tentpole movies and franchises – many of which are comic book or graphic novel adaptations. Action is the main focus of these movies. While there are many women screenwriters who have written and continue to write action movies, this is often seen as the province of male writers.

Insert your dude/tentpole joke of choice here.

The report also ranked 133 television shows that aired during the 2007-08 season (or that were written during it). Here's their list of the writing staffs with the highest proportion of women:

1. Showtime's The L Word (100 percent)
2. CBS's Cold Case (69.2 percent)
3. Showtime's Californification (66.7 percent)
4. The CW's Life is Wild (66.7 percent)
5. NBC's Lipstick Jungle (66.7 percent, tied.)

Only two of these shows are still on. But hey, at least now we've got Mad Men! (Seven of their nine writers are women, which would put them near the top of this list.)

Fourteen of the 133 shows had no women at all writing for them. And not all of them are the ones you'd think.

1. 24 (Fox)
2. American's Funniest Home Videos (ABC)
3. Burn Notice (USA)
4. The Closer (TNT)
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
6. Flight of the Conchords (HBO)
7. Futurama (Fox)
8. Monk (USA)
9. Quarterlife (Bravo)
10. Rescue Me (FX)
11. Sarah Silverman Program (Comedy Central)
12. The Tudors (Showtime)
13. The Wire (HBO)
14. Zoey 101 (Nick)

Yeah, that's right. Sarah Silverman's show, which begins its third season early next year, has no women writers. (The study obviously doesn't count Silverman herself, though she's also credited as a writer on IMDB. The show also has a few female producers listed.)

So what difference does this make, besides annoying the crap out of us? A recent academic study that scrutinized whether sex and nudity boosted either box office or critical claim (the gist: they don't) also noted that "the greater the participation of women, the more thought-provoking but the less violent and fear-inducing is the resulting cinematic product."

The study's authors actually quantified this by creating an index of indicators like "blood/gore, disrespectful/bad attitude, frightening/tense scenes, guns/weapons, jump scenes, scary/tense music, and violence" in 914 films released from 2001 to 2005. Films with more women working on them scored high on "tense family scenes" and "topics to talk about."

So hire women writers, Hollywood! So we have "topics to talk about." Besides "same shit, different day."

2009 Hollywood Writers Report [WGA]
Still Sucks to Be a Female Writer In Hollywood [Women and Hollywood]
Sex Doesn't Sell-Nor Impress! [Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, sub req'd]

Earlier: Guess How Many Female Writers There Are On Late Night?

Hornaday argues that Amelia's box office results will essentially be a failure either way: "If 'Amelia' earns respectable receipts," Hornaday writes, "chances are it will be dismissed as a lucky break. If it fails, it will be cited as yet more proof that strong female protagonists are box office poison."

While fluffy romantic comedies and films based on television shows are still successful, due to excellent cross-promotion, branding, and the offer of escapism, Hornaday still wonders: "In an era when women in movies fall along a spectrum defined by Hannah Montana and 'Twilight' on one end and 'Sex and the City' and 'Mamma Mia!' on the other, where are the screen heroines of yesteryear, who could be strong, serious and sexy?"

She answers her own question later in the piece, conceding that television has become the home for dramas and the actresses who shine in them: Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Kyra Sedgwick, Mary-Louise Parker, and Sally Field, just to name a few, have found success on the small screen, starring in quality shows that provide them with a chance to play something other than "someone's mom," or "woman who stands looking shocked while giant robots attack the earth."

The shift of dramas from film to television, and the failture of Hollywood to properly market to women are at the heart of Hornaday's piece, and judging by the slightly depressing insights she receives from Hollywood insiders, it doesn't look like dramas are going to shift back to the silver screen anytime soon. Big budget blockbusters, superhero films, and bromance comedies are the money makers, and Hollywood is eager to cash in while it can. A film like Amelia, unfortunately, isn't going to be the turn around needed to push strong female characters back onto the big screen, and part of the reason, according to the critics, anyway, is that the movie just isn't that good.

Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com makes an interesting argument in Hornaday's piece, noting that women prefer films about shoes and vampires as they provide an excuse for a "Girl's Night Out" of sorts; silly, somewhat mindless entertainment that includes two hours of social bonding time with the ticket price. He has a point, I suppose, though one wishes it didn't take sparkly vampires or women waxing poetic about handbags and idiotic boyfriends in order to get women interested in seeing films together. It all comes back to escapism, I suppose; as Dergarabedian notes in a somewhat cringe-worthy quote: "It's almost as if in real life, women want to be empowered and in control, but on-screen they seem to like the old-fashioned damsel-in-distress, love-struck female."

I'll admit that I don't go to the movies as often as I used to; I typically go for an "event" film or for a comedy, as it's hard, at times, to justify dropping $10 on a ticket to a mediocre film that will most likely be out on DVD three weeks later. The loss of strong females on the big screen has turned movies, for me, anyway, into pure escapism: I go to laugh or to watch superheroes run around. Television, on the other hand, is where I turn for quality dramas; I'd much rather stay in on a Sunday night and watch Mad Men than drop ten bucks on the latest hooker-victim-doormat flick playing down the street.

I feel simultaneously guilty and frustrated by this: I should be spending more money in support of films that feature strong women as leads, but at the same time, those films are hard to find. I'm not sure I agree with Dergarabedian's claim that women are looking for "the old-fashioned damsel-in-distress," as much as they are, perhaps, looking for a happy ending to offset the often gloomy realities of the world. I suppose the only silver lining at this point is that those of us who leave the theater in search of something more than "happily ever after," can easily find it waiting for us at home, on our television sets.

With Strong Female Characters, Hollywood Suffers From A Fear Of Failure [WashingtonPost]

Earlier: Amelia: "The Entire Movie Is A Failure To Communicate"

Now, listen. People have often jumped in whenever I post anything remotely Megan Fox related to write a comment like, "Oh, so everyone hates Megan Fox now?" or "Why does Jezebel hate Megan Fox so much?" I don't think that's really a fair assessment of my personal opinion of Fox—I don't hate her, as I don't even know her—but I do admittedly find myself annoyed at the role she plays; the sex kitten who drops little quotes about how she's so crazy and sexy and cool or whatever while SexyFacing all over the red carpet. But as far as Megan Fox, Person goes, lately I've found myself laughing with her rather than at her, much to the chagrin of some of my friends, who feel she should be banished to SexyFace Island forevermore.

So why DO people hate Megan Fox so much? I suppose most of it comes from her interviews, wherein she says basically whatever the hell she's thinking, which often leads to scandalous headlines soon after. In several of these interviews, she intimated that women hated her because she came across as confident, and women found that threatening. Many of us, myself included, read those statements as "Whateva, you're just jealous, stupid bitches!"

But in retrospect I think what Fox, who often admits to having fairly shitty self-esteem, was saying has a bit of truth to it. Women don't hate Megan Fox because she comes across as confident; they hate the Megan Fox Archetype, because, in a way, it validates all of the high school notions of what sexiness is: porn-star poses, slow motion boob shots, and references to lesbianism and bisexuality as kinks instead of sexual orientation. What Fox is marketed to represent is exactly what the "bad girls" who came before her were marketed to represent: a "naughty," slightly crazy (as of course, no "sane" woman would ever say such scandalous things) woman who uses her sexuality to get what she wants. And for many women, the idea that we need to put on our best SexyFace and be a "man-eater" to feel empowered or sexual is an irritating one. She is the personification of the Cosmo brand of sex, and that is why women find her so annoying.

However, I don't think Fox is that person, and she admits it; "I think I understand why actors go insane, because you're merchandised, you're a product that gets sold," she says, "So the media has to brand you, to label you something. The lines between reality and fantasy get blurred and you can lose yourself in that." When Tracie compiled a list of Fox's most insane statements earlier this summer, one could see a pattern emerging: she'd be quoted saying something that sounded a bit shocking or offensive, and then quoted soon after, clarifying her remarks or noting that what she said was taken out of context. It's almost as if she's trying to balance being Megan Fox: International Sex Symbol and Megan Fox: Human Being, and her quotes represent a weird mix of the two.

She's smart enough to know that this character she plays is a career goldmine—nobody is going to send Megan Fox Cate Blanchett's reject scripts, you know? But she's also, through her wacky interviews, attempting, in a way, to take down the very thing she represents from the inside, constantly using any platform given to her to remind us all that she's not exactly what the press makes her out to be; she farts, she stinks, she fucks up, and she worries about her career after her looks go away: "The reality is, if you're nothing but a pinup, at 33 you're reaching your expiration date. I have to develop skills, I have to get better, I have to be a good actress."

There are only two roads for sex symbols in America: they can transition in to serious actress mode a la Angelina Jolie, or they can spiral out of control, like Lindsay Lohan or Marilyn Monroe. Often enough we end up posting stories on how we shouldn't kick the fallen ones when they're down, but I've realized that perhaps we should also consider not kicking the Megan Foxes of the world on their way up—instead, we should root for them to subvert the roles they're positioned to fill, and to find a way to break out of the boxes that Hollywood always tends to place women in.

If Megan Fox wasn't in that role, someone else would be, and at least Fox is willing to say things that don't necessarily fit her persona. This is not to say that Fox doesn't often drop some truly heinous statements, and that she isn't riding this thing all the way to the bank, or that she's not a willing participant in the SexyFace games, but I'm pretty sure she's in on the joke, and maybe, just maybe, she'll be the one the make the rest of the world realize how stupid all of this really is. If nothing else, she'll certainly give us something to talk about for the next few years.

Megan Fox: Crazy Or Sly Like A Fox? [ABCNews]
Sly As A Fox, Despite Her Handlers [Globe And Mail]
Earlier; Megan Fox's 50 Best (& Worst) Bon Mots

• Kiefer Sutherland may be looking at a minor assault charge in NYC for headbutting designer Jack McCollough. The real problem?

He may have violated the probation of his L.A. DUI conviction. If so, it's back to the slammer. [People]

• According to this report, Kiefer Sutherland will surrender today and be charged with with third-degree assault for his "attack" on Jack McCollough. [NY Daily News, TMZ, E!]
• Kiefer will get a desk ticket for the headbutt — meaning he won't be jailed and he's free to travel. [NY Daily News, NY Post]
• Donald Trump intends to make a decision about Miss California Carrie Prejean very soon; additionally, the guy from the website which has been releasing "controversial" photos of her says he has more, and he intends to post them. [E!]
• The Carrie Prejean semi-nude pictures will "roll out" slowly. [CNN]
• Chris Brown's lawyer, Mark Geragos, has filed legal papers asking the LAPD to state how the picture of Rihanna was leaked to TMZ. If there was misconduct by law enforcement, Geragos will file a motion to have the case dismissed. [TMZ]
• Oprah wrote her Time 100 essay about Michelle Obama on her BlackBerry: "And then I went to hit the wrong button and the whole thing deleted! I went to hit 'Save' and instead I hit ... 'Oh my God! Oh my God! It's gone!' That ever happened to you? And then you can't remember - not one sentence you wrote." What did she do? "I couldn't even think for two days… I couldn't even, like, think of a sentence. I stared at the BlackBerry, then I hit every button trying to make it come back. I hit 'Options.' I did everything!" Then she started over. [New York Mag, Gatecrasher]
• Lindsay and Sam: Romantic relapse? A source says Sam might take LL back. They've been texting and "having visits." But another source says: "Lindsay plays stupid mind games saying she is being pursued by major celebrity actors. She has a lot of free time to play all these childish games. Sam knows in her head, life is truly better off without Lindsay." [People]
• This paper claims that Lindsay Lohan "chased her ex-lover across LA yesterday before finally tracking her down at 2am and demanding one of those horrible late-night discussions." [Daily Mail]
• Steve Zahn had to touch Jennifer Aniston's ass for the new flick, The Management, and says: "We had to do it so many times. It's so weird, very awkward and bizarre. [But] she's a pro, a gifted actor, humble, modest, a genuinely kind person. She has no agenda. She's just a really beautiful person." So wait: she's not desperate and lonely, sobbing over an empty uterus? Huh. [People]
• Jennifer Aniston says if there's gonna be a Friends movie, "they should hurry up." [Mirror]
• Jennifer Aniston and Bradley Cooper: Flirting??!?!?!?! [Page Six]
• In the new Marie Claire, Beyoncé says that when she was singing for the Obamas in January, she was almost overcome: "I had to tell myself, 'They asked you to do this. You have to do a great job. This is their history. Calm down. Calm down… I barely made it. Literally seconds before the song started, I was crying like a 5-year-old." [People]
• In this video, some dude who works security at a Pennsylvania motel says Jon Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus 8 shows up frequently and was seen "romantically kissing" a woman who was not his wife. [Radar Online]
• "Twilight fans fell in love with Robert Pattinson as a vampire who makes girls swoon. But in Little Ashes, which opens on Friday, the actor explores a relationship that could reshape his heartthrob image." No one wants you to forget that he sexes a dude in this flick. No one. [Reuters>]
• Another day, another Michael Jackson lawsuit; this one involves a former publicist who claims, "Mr. Jackson has elected not to honor the financial obligations of our contractual relationship." She wants $44 million. [TMZ, Reuters]
• Reese Witherspoon is thought to be connected to a man named John Witherspoon, who left Scotland in 1768 and went on to witness the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A BBC series, A History Of Scotland, will tell his story. [Daily Express]
• Guess who's started working out with Tracy Anderson — Gwyneth and Madonna's trainer? Emma Thompson. [Daily Express]
• Are cops in Massachusetts targeting celebs in Massachusetts? What's with all the searches on Tom Brady and Matt Damon? [E!]
• Dr. Phil has fired 15 members of his staff. "It was a bloodbath… People who had worked together for years suddenly were unemployed," says a source. Ouch! Someone call Oprah. [Perez]
• WTF headline of the day: "When Harry Met Tranny." (Daniel Radcliffe had dinner with a drag queen.) [The Sun]
• JJ Abrams says of the original TV series Star Trek: "I remember appreciating it, but feeling like I didn't get it." He was not a Trekkie! "I had no idea there had been 10 movies! I still haven't seen them all." [Guardian]
• Speaking of Trek, Zachary Quinto couldn't do Vulcan fingers while filming and JJ Abrams had to glue his fingers together. [Page Six]
• Director Robert Rodriguez was working on an adaptation of Barbarella — with Rose McGowan playing the Jane Fonda role, naturally — but the project is now dead. No orgasmatron! [MTV]
• Jennifer Aniston, Holly Hunter, Elizabeth Banks, Catherine Hardwicke and cinematographer Petra Korner will be honored at the 2009 Crystal + Lucy Awards, presented by Women in Film. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Katie Holmes will star in a thriller called Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, scripted by Guillermo del Toro. Xenu knows she could use a hit flick. [Variety]
• Robert De Niro and Edward Norton will star in an indie psychological thriller Stone, about a a correctional officer (De Niro) who is seduced by the wife of a convicted arsonist (Norton) up for parole. [Variety]
• Susan Boyle is now in the top 5 list of most watched viral videos, right under Soulja Boy and something called Achmed the Dead Terrorist. [NY Daily News]
• Megan Fox wants to be like George Clooney: "He's sarcastic, and he has a different girlfriend constantly. It's considered charismatic. He's like this James Bond, sexy dude. The older he gets, the better he gets. It's a double standard. To be outspoken, or different at all, is a problem for women. As soon as you curse or, God forbid, make some sort of sexual reference that's a joke, you're (labelled a party girl). They don't do that with men, so I feel it would be a lot easier." [Mirror]
• This was in Midweek Madness, but here it is again: Sarah Jessica Parker's surrogate is a "tattooed bisexual." The horrors. [The Sun]
• Liz Hurley thinks people look sexier in the country than in the city. Also, she likes to have sex on sheepskin rugs in front of fireplaces. [Daily Mail]
• In 2000, Jemima Khan's plane was hijacked; she says her hair turned white after the incident and she's had to dye it ever since. [Daily Express]
• A new biography reveals that Stephen King "spent most of the Eighties on an extended drug and alcohol binge which so fogged his mind that even today he cannot remember working on many of the books he wrote during that period." [Daily Mail]
• Ryan O'Neal says Farrah Fawcett has "lost her famous hair" from battling cancer. [Daily Express]
• Ryan O'Neal also says: "It's a love story. I just don't know how to play this one. I won't know this world without her." [People]
• Trent Reznor is pissed at Apple, because a Nine Inch Nails iPhone app was rejected for having 'objectionable content." [NY Daily News]
• RIP Stanley Tucci's wife, Kate. [Page Six]
• Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen is returning to competitive figure skating. Will we see her in Vancouver for the winter Olympics? [AP]
• Stephanie Tanner Jodie Sweetin is being sued for not paying her Home Owner's Association fees. How rude! [Perez]
• James McAvoy, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Anna Friel will star in The Details, a flick about a a couple who discover an infestation of raccoons in their back yard. [Variety]
• Rare Marilyn Monroe photographs for sale — on eBay. [UPI]
• Blind item! "Which film director could give Robert Pattinson a run for his money in the odor department? The big-time movie man smelled so badly during a recent shoot that even his actors couldn't stand to be around him!" [Gatecrasher]
• "Would I run for public office? A delegation of Democrats from Ohio asked me if I wanted to run for a Senate seat in 2004, and I said it was a tempting offer, but no. We already had an old actor in national politics, and it didn't work out so well. He shall remain nameless." — Martin Sheen. [Mirror]
• "The rumours aren't true. We aren't moving. So many people come up to me and say 'I hear you're moving.' We love America. We've been very happy here." — Victoria Beckham. [Mirror]
• "I've never changed my name officially. I never have and I never will. In my heart, I am still Ramon. I love the name. I would never give it up." — Martin Sheen. [Mirror]
• "I'd like to see Benson and Stabler get together...but I can't let that happen. Mariska [Hargitay] and I have been a wonderful, solid married couple now for 10 years-we see each other more than our families. It's just nice to get a different dynamic in there every once in a while." — Chris Meloni. [E!]
• "I'm looking for an encyclopaedia and a dictionary. A bit of the Boy Scouts Handbook. A person who is conscientious about the trail he leaves behind him. I'm attracted to intelligence and creativity and passion — and not necessarily the romantic kind. I want to learn from someone who is greedy for information and light and laughter and the whole world." — Renée Zellweger, on what she looks for in a man. [Mirror via Glamour]
• "We know the people whose lives are on the line-those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender-will be there. But we need everyone there. Especially straight people." — Charlize Theron, who is encouraging Californians to attend a Meet In The Middle For Equality rally in Fresno. [E!]
• "I'm a big fan of Tyra's! She is sexy. I mean, I don't really get obsessed with anyone, but Tyra is definitely hot." — Idris Elba. [Gatecrasher]
• "I'm not fiddling about with myself. We're in this awful youth-driven thing now where everybody needs to look 30 at 60 . This is the law of diminishing returns. The trick is to age honestly and gracefully and make it look great so that everyone looks forward to it." — Emma Thompson. [Daily Express]

The Good:
Jenna Fisher looks uncommonly at ease in this elegant little number.


Jane Fleming, President of Women in Film, channels fail-safe, "slightly dowdy elegance" (as Barbara Pym described Ianthe Broome's church bazaar outfit) in an LBD.


Truth to power? Not digging on Jeanne Tripplehorn's severe 'do, even if I get how it balances the soft, voluminous dress. And love the shoes.


Elizabeth Banks rocks total bombshell glam!


As if that wasn't good enough, check out this clutch!


What Say You?
While I adore Diablo Cody's gamine crop, how we feelin' about her jersey frock?


Riddle me this: in combo with the long pants, is Kylie Sanchez's Flashdance shoulder simply too slouchy? Or does she work it?


What is it about the proportion of Busy Phillips' two-tone that's troubling? She looks cute, as usual, but there's some optical dissonance here! I want more bodice.

[Images via Getty]

The film played in only four theaters in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, but with its $54,000 per screen average it has the highest per screen gross of a limited or wide release film this year. In the coming weeks more theaters will begin showing the movie in New York and Los Angeles and the film will expand to theaters across the nation. [Women & Hollywood]

Earlier: Sunshine Cleaning Dusts Off Indie Movie Cliches

Winger, who was a leading lady in the 1980's, quietly left Hollywood to perform on stage throughout the past 15 years or so, dividing her time between plays, her family, and her job as a professor of Literature of Social Reflection at Harvard University. She was thrust back into the spotlight after Rosanna Arquette, using Winger as an example of Hollywood's cruelty toward actresses who dare to age, based a documentary, "Searching for Debra Winger," around her. Winger apparently was not pleased. "I was interviewed for it when it was called something else, and I said to Rosanna at the time, this is your question," Winger says, "I had no idea what she planned on calling the film, and she made me the poster child for something I was not talking about. I didn't give a shit [about what Hollywood was going to do to me]. I was just tired of it."

Winger, who is currently getting rave reviews for her performance in Rachel Getting Married, also takes a swipe at actresses (she refers to them as "boiled faces") who cave to the pressure, citing Nicole Kidman's permanently frozen face as a prime example: "Scary. They go in [to see their doctors] saying: make me look like myself - or like myself 20 years ago. But you know, I have a movie out now and I can't bear to watch it. I see myself up there, and it's not normal to scrutinise your own face on a screen this big; it's like opening a vein. So I do have some compassion for Nicole Kidman, or whoever, who has obviously looked at her face and sort of dissected it, like it's a thing. I don't want to be the poster child for wrinkles, and that's what they make you if you speak out about that whole culture. So I don't, mostly. But it has gotten so ridiculous as a job. [At the film festivals] the celebrities are dragging their movies in, going 'look at this!' instead of the movie being the thing, and they're just there to support it. It's a case of: 'Look at my dress, at my hair, at my face and ... oh, by the way, there's a movie here, too!'

In the end, however, Winger admits that she thinks the only way women are going to get good parts in Hollywood is if women actually start writing them: "Roles for women. There aren't any. They've been saying that since the 1920s, and it's true. [My theory is that] women don't write enough. Because who do they expect to write these roles? Men?"

Winger, who has just written a book, Undiscovered, has a point, yet it's a bit unfair to put the burden on female screenwriters alone, knowing that many of them wouldn't have final say over casting, anyway. Still, Winger has a point, and it is a point that has been made over and over and over again: Hollywood needs to understand that women do not fade out at age 25; they do not stop falling in love or messing up or being interesting or sexy or creative or troubled or worth watching. They do not all become a variation on a wacky Diane Keaton overbearing mother. And with Hollywood's A-list actresses all aging up, despite the amount of Botox they may try to use to fight it one wonders if Hollywood will finally begin creating more roles for what will be a representative of much of our population. As Winger notes, there are many actresses just waiting to bring real women to the screen: "In the early part of my life I carried the flame for fiery women: perky women who were not dumb. And now I feel like I could be the woman to play this role: the invisible woman."

Rachel Cooke Interviews Debra Winger [The Guardian]

• Daughters born to women with "wide, round hips" are more vulnerable to breast cancer? Jesus. Researchers hypothesize that "wide round hips reflect high levels of sex hormone production at puberty, which persist after puberty and adversely affect breast development of the daughters in early gestation." [Science Daily]
  
• Lousy relationship? It could kill you, according to a study released today in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which reports that couples with bad marriages were more likely to suffer from heart disease. The "good" news? Women and men are — for once — equally at risk. [MSNBC]
  
• Southwest Airlines forced yet another passenger to change clothes because an outfit was deemed offensive. But this time the offensive passenger was a dude! [CNN]

• More breast cancer news! Time Magazine takes a look at the variety of breast cancer treatments and surgeries, while ABC News spotlights an army of women currently fighting the disease who have offered up their own bodies for research in hopes of finding a cure. [Time, ABC News]
• Honor killings of unmarried pregnant Kurdish women run rampant in Iraq. CBS News has the story of an 18-year old woman who tried to commit suicide twice after becoming pregnant out of wedlock because of the "shame" she brought to her family. [CBS News]
• Thank god for this dissection of the contradicting studies which say that drinking alcohol will either kill you or help you live forever. We know which one we'll choose to listen to! [SFGate]