Getty ImagesWe don't really spend too much time thinking about the poor, underpaid female movie stars in Hollywood. We see the gowns and the jewels and the at-home closet tours, we read the Forbes lists, we shell out for movie tickets, so it's
But just like in any industry, any office, any school and any sandbox, a hierarchy forms, lines are drawn and habits repeat themselves. And it turns out that glamorous, fancy Hollywood is still only a microcosm of the real world, with its real-world problems—such as the troubling persistent wage gap between men and women.
Women are still making less on the dollar than men even in the movie biz—and while that isn't news, the lid was really blown off the racket when one of the leaked Sony emails showed that Jennifer Lawrence was paid less than her male co-stars on American Hustle despite having just won an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook, both of which were directed by David O. Russell.
In an refreshing op-ed on Lena Dunham's new Lenny Letter site, the queen of saying what we're all thinking admitted that when she first found out (via the hack!) about the pay discrepancy she was mad at herself at first for not being a better negotiator. But Lawrence concluded that the very reason she worried about being perceived as difficult was a symptom of a greater problem.
"Based on the statistics, I don't think I'm the only woman with this issue," she wrote. "Are we socially conditioned to behave this way? Could there still be a lingering habit of trying to express our opinions in a certain way that doesn't 'offend' or 'scare' men?"
"If anything, I'm sure [Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, et al.] were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share."
Well! Fear not, J.Law, you are not raging against this machine alone. Her spot-on essay puts her among the ranks of many other stars who are staying silent no longer about this issue that is somehow still an issue in the 21st century.
The intent of the Fair Pay Act, signed into law just this week by California Gov. Jerry Brown, is to help balance the wage scale in all industries statewide, but all eyes can't help but be on Hollywood at the very mention of reform.
And in the meantime, here are 12 more stars who are sick and tired of the status quo:
1. Meryl Streep: The three-time Oscar winner may have rattled a few fans when she declared herself a "humanist" when asked if she was a feminist, but that doesn't change the fact that La Meryl has spoken up repeatedly for the need for more women—female actors, filmmakers, studio execs, etc.—running the biz alongside the men. "We're not to discuss [it] amongst ourselves, and certainly not to ask our male co-star: 'What are you making?'" Streep—who recently pushed Congress to reconsider passage of the Equal Rights Amendment—told the Los Angeles Times, referring to the so-called way it's always been. "Very few women would ask that for the chief reason that it's unattractive."
2. Gwyneth Paltrow: "You were considered ungrateful, you were considered entitled, so I think it's amazing that women now are saying 'we're going to talk about this. This isn't fair,'" the Oscar winner and Goop founder told Reuters at the Variety Power of Women luncheon last week. Noting that she believed a change was in the works, she added, "When I look at my daughter and her peers and I look at the millennial women, I think it's all about to change." She also noted frankly to Variety, "Your salary is a way to quantify what you're worth. If men are being paid a lot more for doing the same thing, it feels s---ty."
3. Salma Hayek: Also at the Variety lunch, the actress and filmmaker addressed the issue: "I feel that women are more united than ever, and I think it's now more obvious than ever and that people are beginning to show some support because we are—our demographic—a very strong economical power also as movie-goers." She added, "This is a problem that is in every single industry. If you have the same capacities and you are doing the same job, it is criminal not to pay the same salary."
4. Rose McGowan: The actress surprised the audience at a political dinner in New Hampshire when, during the part of the evening where folks were asked to recognize the celebs in attendance, she took the opportunity to speak up. "I would say to you, one, get out of my body; two, equal pay for women; Three, integrate," the Charmed star said. "You cannot make laws for America without knowing it...I know real America. I am not from Hollywood."
5. Patricia Arquette: A natural Medium for the cause. The Hollywood veteran took up the cause using perhaps the most prominent platform possible—the Oscars stage. Upon accepting her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Boyhood star stated intensely, "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It is our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America!"
6. Sienna Miller: Reacting to Lawrence's essay, the Burnt star just shared with E! News her own personal experience of fighting the good fight, "I walked away from a play that I wanted to do because I was offered less than half of what the other man was offered and it was just the two of us. [I did] what we have to start doing, unfortunately, at the expense of our creative dreams."
7. Lena Dunham: Obviously the woman responsible for the very platform J.Law used to express her views on the subject is on board, and has always been on board. "If you are a feminist you believe in equal rights as a whole. That's not a concept you can really shoot down...We're going to be compensated fairly for our jobs, we're going to be given the opportunity to make choices about our bodies and we're going to be safe," the Girls star asserted.
8. Sarah Silverman: "Every year the average woman loses around $11,000 to the wage gap. Over the course of her working life, that's almost $500,000. That's a $500,000 vagina tax," the comedian mused in a video for the Equal Pay Project, in which she pretends to consider gender-reassignment surgery to get her fair share.
9. Amanda Seyfried: "I think people think that just because I'm easy-going and game to do things I'll just take as little as they offer," the Les Misérables said in an interview in which she recalled being paid 10 percent of what her male co-star was getting. "It's not about how much you get; it's about how fair it is."
10. Reese Witherspoon: "I went to Harpeth Hall, a wonderful all-girls school in Nashville that encouraged us to see ourselves as working women in the world, to speak up for ourselves to ask for equal pay and advocate for gender equality," the Oscar winner told InStyle earlier this year. "Outside that school, I experienced the full force of a patriarchal society, but I had a core value system that said, 'No, you really deserve to be treated equal to men.'"
11. Emily Blunt: "I think now it's my responsibility to fight in my deals so that I'll be paid the exact same as a guy in the same position as I am," the Sicario star told the Los Angeles Times in September. "That's what I'm fighting for now, and if they don't want to come up with that, I might not do it. I'm OK walking away. If they're going to be stingy and not be equal, then I'm not so interested anymore."
12. Daniel Craig: Contrary to how it looks on screen, James Bond has the right idea about the ideal balance of power. "Women are responsible for two-thirds of the work done worldwide, yet earn only 10 percent of the total income and own 1 percent of the property…" the British star said in support of International Women's Day back in 2011. "So, are we equals? Until the answer is yes, we must never stop asking."
Damn straight, 007.