Hollywood is in somewhat the same position as Las Vegas these days. It went from being the capital of sin to Disneyland, and now it's landed somewhere in between. It tries to keep the sins hidden away and outwardly present itself as a defender of American virtues: justice, individual freedom, and the power of one innocent soul to save the world.

The launch of a space shuttle can still make you weep with amazement and wonder, if you happen to be watching it.

What the economy requires now is a whole different set of skills: You need intelligence, you need an ability to sit still and focus, to communicate openly to be able to listen to people and to operate in a workplace that is much more fluid than it used to be. Those are things that women do extremely well.

Fixing things around the house was the last bastion of manliness. But now, even that is getting taken away. As women become more economically independent, they are starting to fix things around the house for themselves.

If men can quilt and take over the kitchen, then women can pick up a wrench and fix a leaky pipe.

If my own current husband was suddenly a stay-at-home dad, it would be emasculating. That would be hard for me.

In my mother's day, she didn't go to college. Not a lot of women did. Now for every two men who get a college degree, three women will do the same.