Popcrunch has created a list of famous people who have gone on the record about suffering with depression. The list included more than 100 people from all walks of life: politics, Hollywood, sports, journalism, anthropology, etc. For our purposes here, I’m interested in the women on the list.

Now, some of these women were pretty obvious candidates — I think we all had a hunch Sylvia Plath wasn’t happy every day — but others caught me by surprise and, again, illustrated what we all sort of know: that depression hits anyone, regardless of status, success, talent, smarts, looks, fame, love or lack thereof. Getting depressed is starting to feel like a given in the world today. I mean, times are bad: We’ve been at war for several years. Gas costs too much. It’s hectic out there. We’d be mad not to get sad.

The key, obviously, is dealing with our depression healthily. Talking to friends works for some of us, or sometimes journaling or jogging. Some of us need counseling at times, and despite what Tom Cruise says, medication can help sometimes, too.

It’s important to know that were not alone, and that some of our heroes have been depressed. Several of the people who are responsible for our favorite books, songs, and films, even. (Hey, isn’t it ironic that some of the people we turn to when we’re depressed get down, too?) Here are a few wonderful everyday women who get the blues:

—Politicians, their spouses, and sex scandal partners (regardless of party affiliations): Tipper Gore, Barbara Bush, Betty Ford, Monica Lewinsky, Marilyn Monroe

—Royalty who may or may not have despised each other: Princess Di, Queen Elizabeth II

—Athletes who grunt while playing and/or had a trend-setting hairdo in the 1970s: Monica Seles, Dorothy Hamill

—Women who sing about sad stuff: Shirley Manson of Garbage, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Sinead O’ Connor

—Women who sing about happy stuff: Sheryl Crow, Melanie C

—Women who sing about hot stuff: Donna Summer

—Women who sing about the importance of holding on: Carnie Wilson … continue reading

The Cannes Film Festival is finally over, after almost two weeks of movies and red carpet glamour. Since we can't see most of the movies in competition at the festival yet, I thought we'd take a look at some of the red carpet highlights. Whether in Armani, Chanel, Versace or Lacroix, you need to look couture fabulous if you want to be at the biggest film festival in Europe. Some can pull it off. Others, well, not so much.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

I feel nothing I could say would do justice to Angelina: She's pregnant with twins and she still manages to walk down the red carpet looking absolutely beautiful. She attended the premieres of The Exchange and Kung Fu Panda, both movies she has roles in. And even though my immense amount of drool is distracting me, I can also see a very handsome Brad Pitt in a classy Tom Ford suit. Yep, they're a great couple. Their secret? Brad takes care of the kids while pregnant Angelina does Cannes in comfy Cole Haan shoes.

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart

Yet another fabulous couple, Harrison Ford (so not looking 65) was in Cannes presenting Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull and he was accompanied by the elegant Calista Flockhart. I use the term "elegant" because her dress is indeed beautiful, but I wished there was more meat next to those bones. Calista, eat a cookie. Please. You're starting to look like Shane. … continue reading

Apparently, I harbor an inner redneck. Earlier this week, I blogged about country music, and today I'm blogging about football, both of which I like a great deal. I'm not sure how all of this meshes with my musical theater–loving New York ways, but I guess we all have our contradictions. Happily for me, my girlfriend tolerates the country music (and the showtunes) and embraces football. So we do OK. I'm mentioning all of this right now, of course, because this Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday, and I will be rooting for my hometown Giants. (Although my regular season team is the Pittsburgh Steelers.)

Despite the emergence of numerous women's professional football leagues over the years (you can check out a pretty good history here), football is a guy sport. Women can and do play, but next to nobody pays attention — including me. While I generally like women's sports more than men's, I simply cannot get into women's pro football. But I do like women in football movies when I can find them. Here are the very, very few.

1. Tami Maida — Quarterback Princess (1983)

I'll bet I wasn't the only young adolescent who developed a crush on Helen Hunt in her turn as high school quarterback Tami Maida. I had already seen her on Family, The Facts of Life and that ABC Afterschool Special, Desperate Lives, where she jumps out the window while on angel dust. But in Quarterback Princess, she played some football and crusaded for the rights of girl athletes everywhere. Of course, she also made a point of how straight she was. And how she didn't like other boy things, like logging. But still, both Helen Hunt and the real Tami Maida were pretty cool. … continue reading

Not surprisingly, Halloween week gets people talking about horror movies. Dorothy Snarker recounted the horror background of various actresses this week. And recently, Jamie Lynn got hoards of you reminiscing about the horror films of yesteryear. I'm not a big horror aficionado — I blame a babysitter who, in an ill-advised move, allowed me to watch Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. However, I stumbled across a horror movie “best of” list this week that intrigued me.

Time.com counted the 25 Best Horror Movies from 1896 to the present. I was surprised to note that I had seen 10 of the movies. I was even more surprised to note that Bambi was one of them. Not Bambi Meets Godzilla. Bambi. You know, “You can call me Flower if you want to.”

I'm pretty sure Bambi's inclusion was the result of a double dog dare, but here's what the list-maker had to say:

“Amazing that the first movies parents took their tots to in the '30s and '40s were the early Disney features. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo all exploited childhood traumas. Parents disappear or die; stepmothers plot the murder of their charges; a boy skips school and turns into a donkey. Kids were so frightened by these films that they wet themselves in terror. Bambi, directed by David Hand, has a primal shock that still haunts oldsters who saw it 40, 50, 65 years ago.”

While I don't buy that Bambi is legitimately a horror movie, I do agree that elements of it are horrifying — and haunting. The movie certainly gets at some primal childhood fears: loss of a parent, violence, fire, etc…. And the images stay with kids long after they leave the theater. So that got me thinking about other movies that are haunting without actually being horror movies. (And, yes, I could, but will not, delve in a discussion of how the supernatural or over-the-top dangers in horror movies symbolize real dangers, blah, blah…) So I conducted a thoroughly unscientific poll and asked some friends and colleagues what movies haunted — or still haunt them.

Here are the results, plus a little glimpse of some of my neuroses. Some of these are deliberately creepy or contain intentionally scary elements, but none are traditional horror films.

1. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) … continue reading