‘The Early Show’ Blasts Hollywood Executive for Allegedly Sexist Remarks

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You know the media are saturated with political correctness when it becomes necessary to defend Hollywood. And the October 9 CBS “The Early Show” was no exception.

LA Weekly’s Deadline Hollywood Daily reported Warner Bros. President of Production Jeff Robinov made the decree “We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead.”

The article, written by Nikki Finke called Robinov’s comment “Neanderthal thinking.”

“The Early Show” agreed. Entertainment Contributor Jess Cagle blamed Hollywood culture: “There is a tremendous amount of sexism in Hollywood, just as there’s a tremendous amount of sexism in our culture.”

But even if Robinov said that – Warner Bros. had denied it – couldn’t the issue really be the bottom line known as box office sales?

CBS’s National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman poorly tried to refute that possibility. She pointed to three movies that weren’t exactly blockbusters to make the case that movies with female leads do make money.

“In fact, if you look at the biggest moneymakers over the last year, three of them were driven by women,” Kauffman said. “‘The Devil Wears Prada’ took in $124 million in the U.S. alone. ‘Dreamgirls’ was another $100 million movie. And you couldn't do ‘The Queen’ without a female in the lead. The movie tallied $122 million worldwide.”

However, “The Devil Wears Prada” was 17th out of the top 100 domestic grosses for 2006. “Dreamgirls” came in 19th and “The Queen” was 57th. “The Queen” barely broke the top 20 (19th) in the 2006 gross box office rankings that include United Kingdom – where conventional wisdom would suggest the movie would do well.