Lotussan said:
Thanks for the quotes Serena!
TD, I'm a bit concerned about your comment though, ...
I'm talking about the general trend in movies today that tends to pair middle-aged and, frankly, old men with tender young things. The message that sends is that women who are closer in age to "the leading man" are not worthy of attention - they are and *should be* cast off for younger women. When was the last time you saw a film that paired an older leading man with a woman his own age in a romantic union; or, in the case of an action film, as his action partner? (I didn't see "About Schmidt" so I'm not sure what the outcome of that one was.) When was the last time you saw Steven in a movie with a spouse or girlfriend that matched him in age? (Out for Justice, to my recollection, is the last one. Jill Henessey doesn't count because she wasn't his girlfriend or spouse in Exit Wounds.)
No - middle aged women on screen are generally portrayed as uber-bitches making the poor middle aged man's life miserable in every way possible. Only the young woman - girl, really - treats her man right.
Some of these movie pairings are gross, some are merely ridiculous (the latest one with Anthony Hopkins is a case in point). All seem to proclaim that only young women are worthy of a man's attention - that only a young woman is a woman worth fighting for. The message being sent in today's films is that a middle-aged woman is a harridan, a screech, a fish-wife and a nag, and should be discarded as quickly as possible, or worse, disregarded and disrespected for the simple reason that she is middle-aged, and no longer the slender, doe-eyed beauty she was in her youth.
As in the case of Steven's upcoming film, the love interest has to be a sweet young thing - he's said himself a woman 26 years old is already too old for him. So it's his own personal preference as well as the general trend in films that will dictate having a sweet young thing as the "love interest" for a guy almost old enough to be her grandfather (of course, now that he's changed his date of birth on screen from 1951 to 1959, making him two years younger than me, this may be a moot point).
Middle aged women in the film industry really do have a raw deal. They are confined to playing "mom" while men the same age are portrayed as superstuds. If a middle aged woman on screen goes out looking for romance, she's generally portrayed as being desperate, pathetic and maybe even a slut with no self-respect or sense of responsibility ("Why aren't you home with the kids?" demands her irate ex-husband when ex-wife comes home after a date to find the baby-sitter had to take the kids to the hospital because the younger one took a handful of aspirin. Meanwhile, he's been out painting the town red, and this is okay.). She has no dignity, and no right to romance. But a middle aged man on screen goes out looking for romance, and he's a cool guy.
What films are doing is sending a message that women of a certain age are of no consequence in the lives of men. They are not worth fighting for; they are not worthy of being loved; they are, because of their age, necessarily and inherently evil and should be shunned at all costs. Only the young are beautiful, good, worth fighting for and worthy of love. And that, in my opinion, is just plain wrong.
-TD, on her soapbox really early in the day
.She is very pretty,good actress,great fighter...the list goes on.However,I have a feeling they may get someone not as famous for the part.
I knew when I first posted this I should have been more specific. I guess I should set the record straight, even though I can just picture some of you shaking your head in amazement. What I meant to say is that I never heard of them BEFORE they were in his films. 
