Here's Lane on Kim Cattrall:

Samantha’s efforts to signal her appeal, which might have seemed languorous on the small screen, are blown up here into an embarrassing semaphore: thudding closeups of her slurping through a cocktail straw or swallowing a mouthful of guacamole. No self-respecting maker of soft erotica would countenance such shots, and, as for the matching dialogue (“Something just came up,” Samantha murmurs over the phone, as her boyfriend stands beside her in bulging briefs), it’s a straight lift from flaccid, mid-period James Bond.

And here's his take on Tina Fey in Baby Mama:

[Fey's character] Kate stalks around bare-legged in skirts that lurch to a halt two inches above the knee, which is a length that Christy Turlington would struggle to carry off. It’s possible that Fey, like other television stars, is unused to being framed in full length, and, though in complete command of her delivery—dry, spiky, but unthreatening—she hasn’t yet made up her mind how funny her body is meant to be. She isn’t big enough to make a joke of her ripeness, like Bette Midler, but she’s no Lily Tomlin, either. She could do worse than steal a trick from Lucille Ball—a lovely, elegant figure who taught herself to be graceless.

It seems that Lane has a problem with women of a certain age being sexual on the big screen; he can take mature sexuality in the bowdlerized form he sees on television, but once those over-30 legs are stalking around, larger than life on celluloid, he must object.

But Lane's female problem is nothing when you read Timothy Noah's comparison of Carrie Bradshaw and Hillary Clinton in Slate. Basically, Noah posits that the older white women who watched the SatC movie are the same ones who voted for Hillary, and went to see the movie because they were bummed about Hillary's primary loss. "By this past weekend, however, it was becoming clear to all but the most delusional Hillary supporters that the game was up. Sisterhood was powerful, but in this case it wouldn't prevail. That realization left a lot of white women all dolled up with nowhere to go. And so … they went to the movies," Noah writes. "The connection, I'll grant you, is somewhat glib," he adds…glibly. So glib, in fact, that it makes no sense whatsoever.

Even with all the punditry, the Sex and the City movie's popularity at this point, is similar to the appeal of the much-loved SatC-approved Magnolia Bakery cupcake. You have to wait on long lines to consume it; it is full of saccharine and empty calories; you might feel a little sick to your stomach when it's over, but you were happy to let yourself indulge, just for a little while, in a buttercream fantasy. And once it's out of your small intestine, you forgot it ever existed.

Sexism And The City [Newsweek]
The New Yorker Turns “Sex And The City” Gals Into Monsters, All Of Them [Best Week Ever]
Carrie [New Yorker]
Switching Places [New Yorker]
Hillary And The City [Slate]

Earlier: Sarah Jessica Parker Squeals In Dismay Over Time Out New York Cover

This is the exceptionally clean, crisp handwriting of a person who thinks matters through and then expresses herself brightly without impulsive emotions muddying up her judgments.

There are several prominent hooks at the beginning of letters. This writer wants to acquire things ~ not simply treasure but power, adoration, applause, even immortality. There are also many tenacity hooks at the end of letters. What this writer earns will not easily be taken away from her.

She is without excessive preconceptions and prejudices and the open loops in her "e"s indicate that she open-mindedly allows new ideas to engage her thinking processes.

The "m"s and "n"s are rounded and indicate a methodical and logical way of reaching conclusions. Method and logic can be slow work, but they don't slow this writer down because of her good intuition (signaled by unconnected spaces between letters within words). Intuition (sometimes called "gut" thinking) allows her thoughts to leap over the stepping stones of logic and arrive at trusted conclusions. Intuition speeds up thinking and allows slower-minded people to compete with the more naturally swift minded. The writer is also analytical (v-shaped) formations in "m"s and "n"s). She hunts and finds her own information and then pulls data together, examines and evaluates the ideas, and then makes up her own mind.

Her goals are in the middle-practical range (the t bars are crossed about midway on the t stem). She's not reaching for the moon. She goes for what she can get without stretching too much. Her drive is strong enough (assertive t bars) to get her through.

The "p" forms have bottom loops: She must be physically active and on the move. Enforced routine deskwork would soon send her to a loony bin.

The inflated "d" loops indicate sensitivity to criticism that's not constructive. She cares about what is thought and said about her, and malicious comments hurt her even when she may not let on.

The left-side loops in certain "a"s signal a slight case of self-deceit. She may not always be frank with herself and tends to rationalize away unpleasantness. Therefore, she may at times be less than frank with others.

Full lower loops on "y" forms signal a good imagination. However, she may stop short of making her dreams materialize in reality.

She will take the initiative and take action on her own without being told (breakaway strokes within words or at the end of certain words).

She is very good with details (closely dotted "i"s) and won't forget or neglect the small stuff.

The writer is relatively comfortable in crowds, but she enjoys her own company even better. This writer is the kind of person with whom intelligent people wish to become friends.

Earlier: Tina Fey Keeps Perspective By Cleaning Up Baby Poop
The Future Of Female Comedies May Sit Squarely On Tina Fey's Shoulders

1. Baby Mama - $18.3 million
Ladies can! Some industry pundits were concerned the sudden ubiquity of Tina Fey could spell disappointment for her latest big screen effort. Audiences, however, proved them wrong, as public interest in the 30 Rock star's useless, T-shaped uterus proved even greater than for Forgetting Sarah Marshall star Jason Segel's lower-case-g-shaped penis.

2. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay - $14.7 million
Doing over twice the opening-weekend business of their first cinematic outing, it's clear that audiences were hungry for the latest adventures of these munchies-afflicted slackers-of-color. Still, the filmmakers' choice to tackle a subject as controversial as homeland security and the war could ultimately affect longer-term grosses, particularly after word gets out about one disturbing sequence in which [spoiler alert!] Neil Patrick Harris waterboards a unicorn in a subterranean Gitmo rendition room, until its waterlogged lungs give out on the mythical creature.

3. The Forbidden Kingdom - $11.230 million
Fun fact about Kingdom director Robert Minkoff (who also directed The Lion King): He's married to Crystal Kung, a direct descendant of Confucius!

4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - $11.014 million
A 38% second-week decline, paired with the bitterness-inducing fact that it was nudged out of the #3 position by Michael "Fists of Nickel" Angarano's latest martial arts epic, only further cements the well-reviewed comedy's unblockbuster™ status.

10. Deception - $2.225 million
Still, it's faring quite well compared to this turkey, which, based on our analysis of the one-sheet, is an erotic thriller revolving around an unusual love triangle between Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, and the vestigial twin growing out of her neck (played by Ewan McGregor).

• WEEKEND BOX OFFICE April 25-27, 2008 [Box Office Mojo]

WHAT'S NEW: Baby Mama and Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay will duel for the top spot, with the latter film predicted to ride its franchise basis all the way to No. 1. Its R-rating won't help against the PG-13 Tina Fey vehicle, however, which could lure its core female demographic to an opening take of $13 million. Harold and Kumar's estimates are all over the place — from $11 million to $16.6 million — so wager now for Monday morning bragging rights. Also opening: Errol Morris's Abu Ghraib doc Standard Operating Procedure; the Burt Reynolds gambling drama Deal; and French legend Claude Lelouch's suspenser Roman de Gare.

THE BIG LOSER: Talk about dump-and-run: A-listers Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, and Michelle Williams are hiding in plain sight in the "thriller" Deception, which we didn't even know existed until Variety revealed Fox was throwing it on 2,000 screens this weekend. And the critics love it almost as much as last week's Pacino-Bomb 88 Minutes; with 6% favorable ratings currently at Rotten Tomatoes, the film "was made to be forgotten," writes Onion AV Clubber Scott Tobias.

THE UNDERDOG: We're of two minds about Helen Hunt's directorial debut Then She Found Me. Yes, the sex in the film is quite terrible, and yes, the story lapses perhaps too eagerly at times into rom-com convention. (First mistake: casting Colin Firth.) But! Hunt's story of an adopted, baby-craving New Yorker (Hunt) whose husband leaves just as her birth mother (Bette Midler) reenters her life has way more going for it than we'd thought — Midler, for starters, whose meddling, mendacious mommy is one of her most modulated performances in years. Paired with Hunt, their timing, vulnerability and overall chemistry are as worthy as any of the Fey/Poehler maternity schtick anchoring Baby Mama.

FOR SHUT-INS: You'd be crazy to stay indoors this weekend, but still: New DVD's include Cloverfield, Charlie Wilson's War, The Savages and the most heavily anticipated TV revival of at least the last seven days, Laverne & Shirley: The Complete Fourth Season.

So are you with Team H&K or Baby Mama in the Battle of the Middling Spring Comedies? Will you roll the dice on Deception? Will you trust us on Bette Midler? Go ahead: Now tell us how to spend our weekend.

As someone who grew up on flicks like Desperately Seeking Susan and The Craft, I'm disappointed that, out of the 110 flicks counted, xkcd says, "There were over sixty movies in the sample with two male stars top-billed. The only movies with two top-billed female roles, on the other hand, were The Devil Wears Prada and Scary Movie 4." And sure, there's Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, but are they the norm? He continues:

My cousin has been working on tallying (by hand!) all movies with two top-billed female stars. She reports that there are staggeringly few of them, and the roles fall mainly in two genres: mother-daughter bonding movies and horror films.

Two Female Leads [xkcd]
Related: Whither Our Superheroines? An Outraged Culture Demands To Know [Defamer]
Earlier: The Future Of Female Comedies May Sit Squarely On Tina Fey's Shoulders
Where The Hell Are The Strong Women?
Women In Hollywood Speak Out On Women In Hollywood
"Cordial", "Charming" Studio Chief Explains Why Women Can't Sell Movies (Except Julia Roberts)

Baby Mama as Tina Fey Vehicle:

Baby Mama as a film In Which Amy Poehler Steals The Show:

Baby Mama as something even dudes will like (note the use of 40 Year Old Virgin star Romany Malco):

Donna Langley, president of production at Universal, on Tina: "Tina really is the new woman who can have it all. [On TV], she navigates a man's world but maintains her own sense of self, she never has to compromise her ideals to get what she wants — yet she's not manipulative or coquettish. In her personal life, she's married, she has a lovely baby, she was the first woman to be the head writer at SNL — she's crossed all these barriers and milestones as a woman, so it makes her a great role model.''

Tina on late night munchies: ''I was playing a game with the camera guys: Guess What's Inside Me. 'Yes, there is Cheez Whiz inside me. Toll House cookies? Yes. Salami? Yes.''' Tina on Baby Mama: ''I liked the topicality of the fertility issues that affect so many people. There's so much weirdness and emotion about it. If you start with something juicy, you end up with a better [movie] than if you just start with some jokes. And Amy liked that it did not have anything to do with a goddamn wedding.''

Tina on Fame: "They should draw up an equation: What level of fame do you need to achieve to keep doing what you want? Because you don't want any more than that. You don't want someone to take a picture of your butt on the beach.... How do you get to be Christopher Guest? Just live your life, make hilarious movies with your friends, and then go home.''

Tina on "Real Women" in film: ''There was a time when Teri Garr was in everything. She was adorable, but also completely real — her body was real, her teeth were real, you felt like she'd be your friend.''

Tina on her big mouth:''Pretty soon my kid's going to understand what I'm saying and be able to access it on the computer. I screwed up something a few months ago and I was like, 'You know who wouldn't do that? Tom Hanks. You know who would keep his mouth shut? Tom Hanks. I should try to be like Tom Hanks.'''

Tina Fey: One Hot 'Mama' [Entertainment Weekly]
Tina Fey - "Marie Claire" May 2008 [Just Jared]

Earlier: Tina Fey To Amy Poehler: "I Wanna Put My Baby Inside You!"
30 Rock's Liz Lemon Drunk Dials, Sings Alanis Morrisette Into A Wine Bottle Microphone