It's been a week since the Oscars and one thing about it is still on my mind. There's been no story about how Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow, 58, and screenwriter Mark Boal, 36, are together -- or at least that's what people in Hollywood seem to think is the case. There's just cagey hints, like in last week's New York Times Sunday Styles feature on Boal's grueling awards season of too much buffet chicken:
"...Mr. Boal, who routinely attends events with Ms. Bigelow..."
Is it because Bigelow is way too badass and brilliant to be called a cougar, even in jest? Or because she was married to James Cameron? Or maybe because she seems to care less about her appearance than Demi? If Boal and Bigelow's genders were reversed, would people be talking about this? Would they be saying this breakout writer only got the gig with a superstar who would help out on 17 drafts because they were sleeping together? (Remember what happened when Kater Gordon and Matt Weiner won an Emmy for Mad Men and then she got fired?) Is it because in the first time in the history of Hollywood, a woman's work is so awesome that no one is going to even gossip about her personal life?
Instead, Manohla Dargis -- bless her -- wrote a deserving love letter to Bigelow in today's New York Times. The title? "How Oscar Found Ms. Right."
Progress? I think so.
*I don't have solid sourcing that they are indeed together, I've just been hearing they are from a lot of people who work in the industry.