This insightful study places African American women's stardom in historical and industrial contexts by examining the star personae of five African American women: Dorothy Dandridge, Pam Grier, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Halle Berry. Interpreting each woman's celebrity as predicated on a brand of charismatic authority, Mia Mask shows how these female stars have ultimately complicated the conventional discursive practices through which blackness and womanhood have been represented in commercial cinema, independent film, and network television. Mask examines the function of these stars in seminal yet underanalyzed films. She considers Dandridge's status as a sexual commodity in films such as Tamango, revealing the contradictory discourses regarding race and sexuality in segregation-era American culture. Grier's feminist-camp performances in sexploitation pictures Women in Cages and The Big Doll House and her subsequent blaxploitation vehicles Coffy and Foxy Brown highlight a similar tension between representing African American women as both objectified stereotypes and powerful, self-defining icons. Mask reads Goldberg's transforming habits in Sister Act and The Associate as representative of her unruly comedic routines, while Winfrey's daily television performance as self-made, self-help guru echoes Horatio Alger narratives of success. Finally, Mask analyzes Berry's meteoric success by acknowledging the ways in which Dandridge's career made Berry's possible.

Set in the glamorous world of Bollywood, Kushi Café's cuisine is a heady mix of ambition, office politics, intrigues, and intricate relationships. Akansha persuades her mother to allow her to leave their small town and go work as a shop assistant in Mumbai while she secretly has plans of becoming an actress and perhaps meeting her heartthrob, Mega Star Aslam Khan. All Deep wants to do is to be just like his father and join the police force. But fate has other plans for him, and he finds himself thrust into the center of the entertainment industry. Clever and ambitious Parvez, the head of UFCL, a successful film production house, is a powerful presence in the industry and is always one step ahead of his crafty competitor Dheeraj, who was his former employee. Namit and Jivan try to maintain the flimsy foothold that they have managed to gain in the Hindi film industry. Rolls appears far too laid-back to survive the cutthroat competition while Jenny wants to move on and is determined to leave her past behind. It's the book to curl up with on a lazy Sunday afternoon with a hot cappuccino or cold frappé. The Kushi Café beckons with its eclectic clientele and cozy ambiance.

MOVIES ARE MORE THAN ENTERTAINMENT–THEY’RE A BUBBLE BATH FOR THE SOUL. On the verge of yet another major life change? Recovering from a rough day at the office? Or trying to figure out what makes him tick? Take heart–no matter what your issue, the help you need is no farther away than your VCR. From the dynamic duo who brought you the bestselling Cinematherapy comes Advanced Cinematherapy, a video guide that prescribes the perfect movie to cure whatever ails you. Whether you’re in the midst of a midlife crisis and need to join the parade and march to your own drummer (Hello, Dolly!), or vacillating between gullible and hyperparanoid and need to listen to your instincts (Sudden Fear), in Advanced Cinematherapy you’ll find movies that will help you laugh at your troubles or confront your issues, and inspire you to grow. Struggling with growing pains? Watch a Coming of Age and Coming Out movie like But I’m a Cheerleader and celebrate your true colors. Ready to cry a river? Immerse yourself in a Cathartic Weeper like Penny Serenade and let it all out. Face-to-face with a nuclear family meltdown? Pop in a Dysfunctional Family movie like Addams Family Values and laugh at your own kooky clan. Here are dozens of new reviews of classic and contemporary movies that confront women’s issues and nurture women’s souls. Feed your wildest fantasies, claim your power, and overcome your losses, all by taking charge of your own remote control! AND DON’T MISS: Bev’s Culinarytherapy: Foods for Every Mood, Nancy’s Momentous Minutiae, Diva Diamonds, Hoopskirt Dreams, the Handy Hunk Chart, and much, much more.... From the Trade Paperback edition.

Building on the work of star studies scholars, this collection provides contextual analyses of off-screen representation, as well as close textual analyses of films and star personas, thereby offering an in-depth study of the Arab star as text and context of Arab cinema. Using the tools of audience reception studies, the collection will also look at how stars (of film, stage, screen and new media) are viewed and received in different cultural contexts, both within and outside of the Arabic-speaking world. Arab cinema is often discussed in terms of political representation and independent art film, but rarely in terms of stardom, glamour, performance or masquerade. Aside from a few individual studies on female stardom or aspects of Arab masculinity, no major English-language study on Arab stardom exists, and collections on transnational stars or world cinema also often neglect to include Arab performers. This new book seeks to address this gap by providing the first study dedicated entirely to stardom on the Arab screen. Structured chronologically and thematically, this collection highlights and explores Arab film, screen and music stars through a transnational and interdisciplinary set of contributions that draw on feminist, performance and film theories, media studies, sound studies, material culture, queer star and celebrity studies, and social media studies.

Damsels and Divas examines the careers of three European stars of silent Hollywood: Pola Negri, Vilma Bánky and Jetta Goudal. Through the interrogation of their star personae - as depicted by their on-screen presence, film magazines, fan letters, popular press and promotional material - it analyses the meanings of Europeanness and whiteness in the United States.

What have different ideas about sex and gender meant for people throughout the history of the Middle East and North Africa? This book traces sex and desire in Muslim cultures through a collection of chapters that span the 9th to 21st centuries. Looking at spaces and periods where sexual norms and the categories underpinning them emerge out of multiple subjectivities, the book shows how people constantly negotiate the formulation of norms, their boundaries and their subversion. It demonstrates that the cultural and political meanings of sexualities in Muslim cultures - as elsewhere – emerge from very specific social and historical contexts. The first part of the book examines how people constructed, discussed and challenged sexual norms from the Abbasid to the Ottoman period. The second part looks at literary and cinematic Arab cultural production as a site for the construction and transgression of gender norms. The third part builds on feminist historiography and social anthropology to question simplistic dichotomies and binaries. Each of the contributions shows how understanding of sexualities and the subjectivities that evolve from them are rooted in the mutually-constitutive relationships between gender and political power. In identifying the plurality of discourses on desires, the book goes beyond the dichotomy of norm and transgression to glimpse what different sexual norms have meant at different times across the Middle East.

Are you tired of hearing, "Oh, you must start a family, have children?" Then "Fuck Them Kids, Get a Cat" is your sassy retort! Dive into this irreverent guide that celebrates cat parenting with an unparalleled wit, hilarity, and unabashed joy. If the traditional path just isn't for you, this book offers an entertaining escape into a world where feline companionship reigns supreme. With biting satire and riotous humor, it's more than just a read – it's a cat-tastic revolution. Get ready to roar with laughter and say unapologetically, "Fuck Them Kids, Get a Cat!" The claws are out, and they're beckoning you to join the fun!