Poor, poor Jennifer

The treatment of women, we are told, is terrible. It shows, it seems, in the pittance we pay them for the same work as men.  Jennifer Lawrence, the ...erm.. actress, tells us that we cannot avoid dealing with this pressing issue for too much longer or we shall be swept away in a flood of tears, and stamping feet, and holding of breath until a legion of waifs turn blue.

I was not going to mention this at all except the issue was raised to me quite personally when I moved my quarters recently. I took the opportunity to have a 'spring clean' in the Tavern and gathered my cleaning staff around. It was only when I totted up the cost that it really hit home. I must use my towel far more than I have been, just to save some of the outrageous outgoings.

Earns more than a normal man who supports a family, and she still
has the cradle marks on her bum.

That was partly Jennifer's point although she focused her attention on the difference between what outgoes from her employer's pocket into her clutch baggage and that of a similarly endowed male actor getting his crust. My cleaners all recieved a flat rate of $300 for an eight hour sweep, mop and wipe. Clearly I saw no need to differentiate on breast size when it came to pay up. They take home a reasonable average Oz wage of around $45000 a year.

Not so Jennifer. You might recall the lass. She was the poor village girl taken away to the forest to hunt down her teenage colleagues, kill them with her bow and arrows, and get some glittering prize. 

Not in reality of course; it was a film.

She was spared the sweeping and mopping and wiping, (and even smiling, or any facial expression) and simply had to read the lines that barely literate scriptwriters has written for her and goto, stand, sit, run, smile and grimmace as the Director instructed, (she doesn't do grimmace either) then retire to her make up artistes for a redo of her face.  

And for this she was paid.... not enough, it seems. A mere one million bucks.

My average wage cleaners would have to work for 22 years to earn  that much.

But she's a canny lass, and having caused a fuss she now has organised herself (well, ok, her agent has) $20 million up-front or fully 30% of the next film's profits.  And there will be next films. 

That's 440 years of cleaner's pay.

Jennifer still had a lot to say though.

Jennifer Lawrence expresses anger at Hollywood's gender pay gap

‘I’m over trying to find the adorable way to state my opinion,’ the Oscar winner says of her disappointment at finding she was paid less than her male co-stars

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/13/jennifer-lawrence-hollywood-gender-pay-gap

Jennifer Lawrence has come out hard against the gender pay inequality in Hollywood, in an impassioned essay she wrote for her friend Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter newsletter.

The Hunger Games actor for the first time addresses revelations from the Sony hack that she earned considerably less than her male co-stars in American Hustle, despite her major role in the film and bankable status as a Hollywood A-lister and Oscar winner.

 “When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn’t get mad at Sony,” she writes. “I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don’t need.”

She writes that a need “to be liked” and the fear of seeming “difficult” or “spoiled” kept her from demanding more money.

“This could be a young-person thing,” she writes. “It could be a personality thing. I’m sure it’s both. But this is an element of my personality that I’ve been working against for years, and based on the statistics, I don’t think I’m the only woman with this issue … Could there still be a lingering habit of trying to express our opinions in a certain way that doesn’t ‘offend’ or ‘scare’ men?”

Lawrence peppers her essay with her trademark self-deprecating tone: “It’s hard for me to speak about my experience as a working woman because I can safely say my problems aren’t exactly relatable.”

You have to love that. 'Self depreciating'. Whining over an enormous pay check. 

She 'compares', you see. With MEN !!! (tm) (Hiss, boo, the all-purpose bogeyperson)

She writes that she has kept mostly quiet until now on the subject of feminism because she tends to veer away from topics that she fears are “trending”. “I’m even the asshole who didn’t do anything about the ice-bucket challenge – which was saving lives – because it started to feel more like a ‘trend’ than a cause,” she writes. “I should have written a check, but I fucking forgot, OK? I’m not perfect.”

Nor her language, it seems. 

Lawrence’s essay is notable for its anger, something the actor rarely expresses during interviews. 

She is angry at being paid a huge sum to ACT. ??

“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable,” she writes. “Fuck that.”

Script-writer's pithy phrase.  You have failed the 'adorable' hurdle, m'dear.

Forbes recently ranked Lawrence as the highest-paid female actor of 2015. Since the Sony leak, Lawrence made headlines for negotiating a higher salary than Chris Pratt, her co-star in the upcoming blockbuster Passengers. Pratt will earn $12m for the film, while Lawrence will net $20m upfront or 30% of the film’s profits.

Lawrence joins a long list of actors including Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Patricia Arquette, Cate Blanchett and Rose McGowan who in recent months have spoken up about misogyny in the entertainment industry.

The heart has to bleed over this egregious victimhood.

It isn't just actors, of course. There are other 'professions' that have no code of ethics, produce not a damned thing except hyper-inflated egos and do nothing at all to make life better for anyone but themselves.

Perhaps poor Jennifer should take acting lessons from another Jennifer.

It's been a rough year for the actress, but at least she has her millions of dollars to ease the pain. 43-year-old Jennifer Garner has taken the No. 1 spot on People With Money’s top 10 highest-paid actresses for 2015 with an estimated $96 million in combined earnings.

Poor gal cannot afford more than $10,000 for a dress.

In 2013 it looked like the actress’s spectacular career was winding down. Suddenly, she was back on top. People With Money reports on Thursday (October 22) that Garner is the highest-paid actress in the world, pulling in an astonishing $96 million between September 2014 and September 2015, a nearly $60 million lead over her closest competition.

The American actress has an estimated net worth of $275 million.

Oh my. How does she manage ? Some bloke, who is just as grossly paid, gets more.

And she is right. Here is the evidence, M'Lud. of this gross miscarriage of pay equity.

Hollywood's gender pay gap 

Actor's name Paid (m)   Actresses's name Paid (m)

Robert Downey Jr. $75   Sandra Bullock $51

Dwayne Johson    $54   Jennifer Lawrence $34

Bradley Cooper    $46   Jennifer Aniston $31

Leonardo DiCaprio $39   Gwyneth Paltrow $19

Chris Hemsworth   $37   Angelina Jolie   $18

Liam Neeson   $36     Cameron Diaz $18

Ben Affleck   $35     Scarlett Johansson $17

Christian Bale   $35      Amy Adams         $13

Will Smith           $32     Natalie Portman $13

Mark Wahlberg  $32      Kristen Stewart $12

That's millions of dollars, by the way.

Frankly I just don't know how Natalie and Angelina get by.  Most don't get near to Mark Wahlburg. (Who?). Mind you, the Jennifers are avoiding comparing their pay to Sandra's. All those ladies (nearly all) are clearly very hard done by. It is scandalous.  There they are reading lines and being moved around by Directors and for such little benefit to themselves, and for less than Mark ! Crikey, they may as well be cooking in an old folks home or perhaps walking the beat as a police... er.... person.

(A Police Officer's average pay in the USA is $66,000 pa, by the way)

(That's 303 years for him to earn the Hunger gal's salary for one film)

Hmmmm. I shall get around to CEOs another time.

Its enough to make a woman (?) cry.

Pax.