Tag Archive for 'movies'

Monday Coffee: Batgirl Fights For Her Rights

Published on December 20, 2010 in Week in Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The movie Made in Dagenham is about women pushing to get equal pay for equal work in 1960s Britain. – Picktainment

You know who else wants equal pay for equal work? Batgirl. – Comics Alliance

Napping at work is good for you. Someone tell my boss that the next time I get busted nodding off in a meeting. – Yahoo

To cut costs, many companies are making holiday parties employee-only, not allowing significant others to attend. But does this increase the likelihood of drunken coworker hookups? – CNBC

Can you get sued for unfriending one of your coworkers on Facebook? I don’t know, but this is why I warn you against accepting their requests in the first place. – Geekosystem

Two words: “underearners anonymous.” Where I’m from, they just call this “everybody.” – Bundle

Is Christina Aguilera Dating an Assistant?

Published on November 8, 2010 in Celebrity Assistant Soapbox. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Radaronline seems to think so. They have photos of newly-single Christina Aguilera out with a guy identified as Matthew Rutler, a set assistant who worked on her movie Burlesque. The pair reportedly went out on a double date in L.A. with Nicole Richie and Joel Madden. If they really are a couple and not just a tabloid invention, I hope Matthew doesn’t sell Christina out in a paid interview a la Amy Winehouse and Alex Haines.

Monday Coffee: Don’t Have Fun, Or Else

Published on October 4, 2010 in Week in Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

There is a “depressing vogue” for having fun at work. Methinks some people sound a little grumpy. – The Economist

Here are ten archetypes of bad bosses, including The Credit Hog and and The Put-Down Artist. Hmmm… why do these all sound so familiar? – Forbes

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps is finally out. But it doesn’t deliver as well as the original. (Note: do not click on this link if you are a spoilerphobe!) – AwardsPicks

Just because women are achieving pay parity doesn’t mean they’re achieving pay equality. Important distinction. – The New York Times

Sometimes, you have a horrible first day at work. But sometimes you can take that terrible first day and turn it into a really funny cartoon. – The Gloss

Women are leaving Wall Street at a much higher rate than men. Why? It has to do with a lot of factors, including institutionalized sexism and a desire to do something less evil for a living. – Wall Street Journal

Monday Coffee: Enjoy Your Links, Sweetie

Published on September 13, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

What do chick flicks have to teach you about work? Lots, like “don’t take your bad day out on your cat” (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and “never cry at the office” (A League of Their Own). – Flavorwire

A quarter of women in the UK say they hate nicknames at the office. The most hated nicknames include “love,” “babe,” and “hon.” – The Daily Mail

Is it a good idea for a boss to play a joke on his employees by bringing a “poop cake” into the office? The answer is always, always “No.” – The Stir

Not getting enough sleep, combined with working late, makes for unproductive employees. If you need be, I’ll be napping under my desk. – Huffington Post

The Black Cloud, The Feeder, The Jezebel. No, they’re not pro wrestlers – they’re some of the coworkers you should never, ever be friends with. – Lemondrop

The Grateful Dead have a lot to teach us, and not just about drugs. They’re great managers! – The Atlantic

One upside of the recession? Failure doesn’t really mean what it used to. Yay? – Newsweek

Has anyone contacted you via Facebook claiming to offer you a job? Like most things on the internet, it’s probably a scam. – BizJournals

For some reason I have yet to figure out, Real Housewife of DC and White House party crasher Michaele Salahi has a personal assistant. – Monsters & Critics

‘Hangover’ Writers Working On Movie About Office Parties

Published on August 17, 2010 in Fictional Assistants. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

After the huge success of The Hangover, screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore could pretty much do whatever they wanted. And they’ve chosen to make their next movie about the workplace. The still-untitled project will center around that office staple: the drunken company Christmas party. If they’re looking for ideas, we might suggest starting with some of these holiday party themed horror stories:

Either way, I’ll definitely see this movie whenever it comes out, especially since there will probably be a couple of assistant characters on display. Who’s joining me?

Alison Brie to Become Fictional Assistant

Published on July 7, 2010 in Fictional Assistants. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Until now, I was opposed to the making of Scream 4. I mean, unless they were going to try and go all 3-D line Jaws 4, then there was no point. But now there is! Alison Brie, who plays the wonderfully be-hatted Trudy on Mad Men as well as Annie on Community, will be joining the cast of Scream 4 as “a jealous personal assistant” to Neve Campbell’s character, Sidney. It’s not clear who/what she’ll be jealous of, but her addition to the cast and to the list of silver screen assistants is more than welcome.

Besides, remember when Pete and Trudy did the Charleston? That ruled.

Tim Gunn to Play Smurf Assistant In Best Movie Ever

Published on May 6, 2010 in Fictional Assistants. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I may not know much about the upcoming Smurfs movie, but I know two things: Hank Azaria is playing Smurf-hater Gargamel, and now word is that Tim Gunn will be in the movie as well! He will be playing an executive assistant at a cosmetics company. In other words, everything about this is amazing.

Who Is Your Favorite Fictional Assistant?

Published on April 15, 2010 in Fictional Assistants. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

In a poll conducted by Movietickets.com and news-pegged to Administrative Professionals’ Day (which is next week, bitches!), Anne Hathaway’s character Andie in The Devil Wears Prada has been voted the all-time best assistant character in film. While I agree that her character was very relatable and hit a lot of the right notes for me, I always disliked Andie’s (in the book and in the movie) entitlement complex and holier-than-thou attitude. I probably would have voted for one of the 9 to 5 ladies, personally, but I also am hugely biased toward anything that involves Dolly Parton. Apparently, I’m not alone, since Dolly came in second. Here’s the list, clearly written by someone who cared more about using the actors’ names than the characters’:

  1. Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada
  2. Dolly Parton in 9 to 5
  3. Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich
  4. Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man
  5. Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary

Interesting that all the winners were ladies. Perhaps this has something to do with our culture’s view of assistants as primarily female? I sort of wonder if this list was more of a “vote for the most recent assistant character you can remember,” although the inclusion of 9 to 5 would be the exception. Maybe this is a “which assistant character would you most want to sleep with?” I’d believe that one. Memories are short, and not everyone cares as deeply about people who play assistant roles in movies as I do.

if hitler were an assistant

Published on February 2, 2010 in Video. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I really love this “Hitler freaks out about something” video meme that’s been going around YouTube for awhile. The footage, taken from the movie Downfall and starring Bruno Ganz as Der Fuhrer (a role he also played brilliantly in Inglorious Basterds), is in German and different people have added unrelated English subtitles in order to make Hitler mad about everything from the Nintento Wii to the Conan O’Brien/Jay Leno fiasco. In this one, Hitler plays his greatest role yet: a teaching assistant.

elisabeth moss, assistant once more

Published on December 29, 2009 in Fictional Assistants and Video. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Elisabeth Moss may be a brilliant actress, but it seems like her success as Mad Men’s secretary-cum-copywriter Peggy Olson could be backfiring for her. Since the show has started, she’s been part of two other high profile projects – and she played an assistant in both of them. First, she costarred with Raul Esparza and Jeremy Piven in a Broadway production of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, which concluded with Piven’s hilarious fake “mercury poisoning” incident. Now, she’s in the new Sarah Jessica Parker/Hugh Grant vehicle Did You Hear About the Morgans?, where the two actors play a couple who accidentally witness a murder and are placed in the Witness Protection Program. Elisabeth plays SJP’s character’s assistant. First Jennifer Hudson and now this – how does Sarah Jessica Parker keep getting such high-caliber actors to want to play her second banana?

Anyway, Elisabeth is pretty awesome playing non-assistants too. I loved her as Zoey Bartlet on The West Wing (minus that whole terrible storyline with the gross French boyfriend and the kidnapping), and recently she did this great Funny Or Die video with now-husband Fred Armisen: