Breaking: Men Still Rule Hollywood

USC has conducted a study of the 100 top-grossing movies of 2007 -- a year boasting such wrecking-ball-betesticled he-fests as Transformers, 300 and Wild Hogs -- and found that women made up only a small percentage of the Hollywood workforce who made them. Only 30% of the 4,379 speaking characters identified in the films were female, while 83% of the writers, directors and producers were male. On the bright side, when female executives were shepherding the films, it tended to increase the number of female characters in them. The same held when a woman was listed as at least one of the screenwriters. Said Geena Davis, founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (I really want a T-shirt that says that): "These important findings provide valuable insights that we will utilize as we continue to engage content creators to improve gender representation and portrayals." [USC News]