Misogynist Hollywood

The movie business has never been kind to women over 35. After reaching this hurdle, women are suddenly offered roles as the mothers of men their own age.

In her Tuesday column, The Guardian's deputy fashion editor, Hadley Freeman, ponders the issue of Hollywood's misogyny and its aversion to mature women, offering up a few choice examples.

In 1990, Mel Gibson directed and starred in «Hamlet», casting Glenn Close, who is 9 years older than him, as his mother.

Before shooting to superstardom, Angelina Jolie played the mother of Colin Farrell in Oliver Stone's «Alexander», despite being only a year older than Farrell.

In 1994's «Forrest Gump», Sally Field played Tom Hanks's mother, when just 5 years earlier she played his love interest in «Punchline».

And the latest example: Hope Davis was miffed to receive an offer to play Johnny Depp's mother, even though she's one year younger than Vanessa Paradis' husband!

In her diatribe against Hollywood's obsession with youth, seen frequently in the form of old men playing the boyfriends of women barely in their twenties, Freeman points out that the trend has spilled over into the real lives of seasoned ladies' men like Jack Nicholson and Woody Allen, who found love with Soon-Yi Previn – his ex-wife Mia Farrow's adopted daughter.