According to new!Magazine, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Geena to a state commission established to promote women’s equality. Geena, who is a Democrat, was appointed to California’s Commission on the Status of Women on Tuesday, July 20. The nonpartisan panel works to promote equality and justice for all women in areas such as education and access to health care.

Geena has previously worked to promote the cause – she is involved in the United Nations Development Fund for Women and is founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which encourages film and TV writers to create more roles for the fairer sex. She will serve on the commission for four years.

Congratulations on the accomplishment!

The project was developed at ABC Studios by writer Michael Nankin and studio-based producers Gene Stein and Nina Wass, whose overall deal there was terminated during the writers strike. Stein and Wass then took the script to Davis, with whom they had worked on ABC’s comedy series “The Geena Davis Show.” Davis, who had a holding deal with CBS Paramount Network TV, in turn took the project to CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, who ordered a major rewrite. Jeff Bell was tapped to pen the new script, which was greenlighted by the network.

Bell, Stein and Wass will executive produce, while Davis will serve as a co-executive producer. CBS Paramount will produce with ABC Studios.

Read the full article here.

Writer Jeff Bell will exec produce the project along with Geena, Gene Stein and Nina Wass. CBS Paramount Network Television is producing in association with ABC Studios.

Sources tell that CBS president Nina Tassler has been trying to develop a project with Geena for several years (most recently Criminal Minds, when Mandy Patinkin walked out). She and Geena are both Boston University graduates, some sources even claim that they were roommates.

Sources: Variety, TVSquad, Reuters

“The studies include these recommendations for entertainment executives and creators: Include more females as main characters, secondary characters, in crowds and as narrators; provide female characters with aspirations beyond romance and develop the inner character of female characters.”

Read the full article here. Also see photos from the event here. This photo shows Geena with principal researcher, USC Annenberg School for Communication professor Stacy Smith. (photo: Dan Avila)

Thank you, 77517!

The Yankee Dental Congress is one of the top five dental expos in the country and lines up as the second biggest convention in Boston for 2008, with an estimated economic impact of $22 million. The city’s largest convention this year is the AIIM and On Demand combined expo, scheduled for early March and expected to draw about 35,000 people involved, respectively, with the information management and digital printing industries. The event runs Jan. 30 to Feb. 3.

The Yankee Dental Congress kicks off Wednesday night with a reception and awards ceremony at the Seaport Hotel in South Boston, with the convention center opening Thursday and events there running through Sunday.

The event typically features top-notch entertainment and this year singer Sheryl Crow performs Friday night in the convention center’s ballroom. Actress Geena Davis and mystery author Harlan Coben will make guest appearances.

Thank you, 77517, for the heads up!

Mallory Potosky (MM): From Thelma & Louise to A League of Their Own and “Commander in Chief,” you’ve taken on quite a few strong-willed, independent women over the course of your career. Is this something you look for in a role?

Geena Davis (GD): I didn’t ever try to find a pattern in my choices in the beginning, I just seemed to know what I liked. I thought it was just about wanting to be challenged or to do something unique. But as time went on, I realized that what I was looking for were female characters that take charge of their own fate, that—for good or ill—are determined to captain their own ship. (And I also played a pirate captain!) As I’ve said for a while now, I’d rather play baseball than cheer on someone else doing it.

MM: The impact of these roles remains especially important today with so many female celebrities in the media for their negative actions. Plus, we might now have an actual female contender to become the real Commander in Chief of the United States. How do you think Thelma, Dottie and President Allen add to cinema’s legacy of female characters?

GD: Well, let’s not get confused about role modeling. Those three characters of mine that you mentioned have been particularly appealing to women, but I am not trying to only play role models, by any means. I mean, Thelma & Louise really struck a chord with people, but when they take the law into their own hands, commit robbery, drive drunk and kill themselves… well, that’s not something to dream of copying. What resonated, I think, was their willingness to fight to the death for the right to choose their own destiny.

As for how any characters I’ve played add to cinema’s legacy, I’ll let people who write about that stuff decide.

MM: As part of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the “I Want to See Jane” campaign asks females to explain which female character meant the most to them growing up. How would answer that same question?

GD: Actually, it’s which character meant the most. And, bizarrely, I would have to say “The Rifleman.” Really! At least, that is the character I wanted to pretend to be when my friend Lucyann and I played. I would be Lucas McCain, and she would be my son, Mark. I can’t exactly remember what “playing” Rifleman entailed, but I know we constantly ran around her backyard pretending it was the Old West. And it never occurred to us that it was weird that there were no female characters we wanted to play. I grew up watching a lot of “The Rifleman” and “Bonanza” (no female characters, and both good examples of the “dead mother” syndrome so common in movies and TV), “Star Trek” (one female regular, but Lt. Ohura didn’t get to do much but have that thing stuck in her ear), “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Bewitched.” Now, the last two at least had female characters with cool superpowers… but it seemed like every episode was about them having to sit on their abilities so as not to piss off their men!

“The Rifleman” is part of why I want to dramatically affect the percentage of female characters in kids’ entertainment—so girls will have lots of choices for characters they like, and ALL kids can see that girls and boys, and men and women, share the space in the world. Pretty much equally, as it turns out.

By Mallory Potosky, published January 25, 2008

In the video below, director Crystal Allene Cook tells about the origin of GDIGM and the inaugural conference in 2008: Children and Gender in Film and Television.

Ms. Davis and DADs have previously been engaged in litigation over See Jane. However, Ms. Davis has recently withdrawn that litigation and retracted all claims against DADs as well as its President Joe Kelly and former Executive Director Nancy Gruver. Davis said, “I am very grateful for what DADs, Nancy and Joe have done for the See Jane program in bringing it to life, and I have great respect for the integrity and skill of their work.” Davis continued, “This is an exciting and strategic development for See Jane, and I will do everything I can to make See Jane reach its full potential as an independent nonprofit organization.”

See press release at www.dadsanddaughters.org