At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton stepped in front of a raucous audience of delegates, guns blazing, and passionately declaimed that, “although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it.” Today, she’s busy jetting to and fro, tending to matters of state, and according to a recent New York Times story, she hasn’t had time to watch a movie or read a book since Obama took office. One hopes she hasn’t had time to read the headlines or surf news-aggregate sites either, because she might find many of the stories she comes across to be disquieting reminders that the same ceiling she struggled so hard to break through remains securely intact.

From fawning stories about Michelle Obama that focus on what designers she’s wearing today to the suggestion of an unofficial sartorial contest between her and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, to the trashy coverage and trite caricatures of other political spouses, such as Elizabeth Edwards and Veronica Lario, we seem to have entered a strange time warp, where some of the most publicly visible women on the world stage are reduced to playing shallow supporting characters to their lesser halves, while all the good parts go to the leading men. Instead of the brave new post-racial, post-gender world that the West lays dubious claim to be on the verge of actualizing, this kind of media coverage seems closer to an assertion of subconsciously sexist tendencies in American and European societies, an insidious suggestion that women are more palatable when we don’t have to take them seriously.

It might seem that Obama and Bruni-Sarkozy are getting the good end of the bargain—after all, why wouldn’t they enjoy being celebrated for their sophisticated sense of style? Well, in Obama’s case, having a degree from Harvard Law School and a powerhouse career, she might want to be known for more than what shoes she’s wearing while gardening. Bruni-Sarkozy is more entangled with the world of appearances, having wowed the fashion world as a supermodel for many years, but she’s also a best-selling singer and songwriter. Besides, the argument that she should be used to being objectified and that she isn’t owed anything different as France’s first lady is as flawed as the idea that a beautiful woman who wears a revealing outfit is inviting verbal harassment. Considering the public scrutiny both women are under, it’s no wonder that they’re trying to err on the side of chicness. The more important question is why the media care so much. Both women would be better served by an equal amount of attention on the initiatives they are attempting to build support for, such as, in Obama’s case, support for military families.

Some political spouses find themselves receiving more patently negative attention. Elizabeth Edwards, the cancer-stricken wife of onetime presidential hopeful John Edwards, suffered public humiliation after the revelation of her husband’s longterm affair and alleged love child with freelance campaign contractor Rielle Hunter. Recently, Edwards, a vocal advocate for women’s health and cancer patients, submitted to pop culture’s ultimate confessional: a sitdown with the queen of daytime TV, Oprah Winfrey. After suffering months of innuendo and commentary about her private life, while she underwent intensive medical therapy, she is publishing a memoir, Resilience. Instead of focusing on her struggle to survive and her remarkable life, however, the news media obsesses over any references she makes to her husband’s adultery. Referring to a passage in the book in which she admits to crying, screaming and throwing up in a bathroom after learning of the affair, Oprah asker Edwards if she still loves her husband. If Edwards wants to attract attention for her larger message, she has to make a Faustian bargain, suffering the indignity of the media’s tabloid interest in her life.

Veronica Lario, wife of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, finds herself in an analogous situation—after years of rumors of extramarital affairs and his brazen flirtations with other women (prompting a public apology to his wife two years ago), she has filed for divorce after news broke of Berlusconi attending the 18th-birthday party of Noemi Letizia, who calls him “Daddy.” Though she has maintained a low public profile throughout her marriage, Lario has resorted to open letters to the media on two occasions as the only means of recourse she felt she had to counteract his humiliating public behavior. In the first, she says, “I see these statements as damaging my dignity. To both my husband and the public man, I therefore demand a public apology, since I haven’t received any privately. I have faced the inevitable contrasts and the more painful moments that a long conjugal relation entails with respect and discretion.” The press was only too happy to play along, and as a result, the retired actress has been typecast as the “wronged woman,” the foil to Berlusconi’s over-the-top, Lothario act.

For the full story at Newsweek, click here.

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Jeff Parker, Florida Today.

Eric Allie, Chicago

Dave Granlund, Massachusetts
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“Extra” caught up with Oprah Winfrey at the Chicago gala for visiting international Olympic officials, where the talk queen rallied to bring the 2016 Olympic games to the Windy City – and Queen O received some political backing for her cause.

Famed Chicago resident, President Barack Obama, sent the Olympic committee a taped message expressing his support. “It lets the Olympic committee see that the President of the United States who is from Chicago is also for Chicago.”

Winfrey, a longtime supporter of Obama, also gushed about the Commander-in-Chief. “Several years ago I saw something in him that I never experienced in meeting anybody… I thought he was a great candidate, but he’s an even greater president.”

Oprah is also a fan of First Lady Michelle. “There’s a poem by Maya Angelou called ‘Phenomenal Women.’ She is the definitive answer to that poem,” says O.

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One of my all-time favorite stoner movies is “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle,” so imagine my surprise when I heard that one of the stars of the movie, actor Kal Penn, was leaving Hollywood behind and heading to Washington, D.C. to work for President Obama instead! WHAT??!!

Turns out Kal, who has been appearing regularly on the Fox show, “House,” caught the political bug while working for Obama during his presidential campaign last year.  Kal recently decided to leave acting to pursue a career in public service, leading to his character’s surprising departure (his character committed suicide) on this week’s episode of “House.”

USMagazine reports the following:

Penn will be the associate director in the White House’s Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs — a similar job he had while campaigning for Obama last year.

“They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations,” Penn explains. “They’re basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House.”

Penn — known for his role in the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle — says he had been “thinking” about moving into politics “for a while.”

He took several political science courses in college and even participated in an online international studies program at Stanford in 2006.

“I love what I do as an actor. I couldn’t love it more. But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service,” he says. “I thought this might be the right time to go off and do something else.”

Wow! Who knew?!

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