January 2015

On the red carpet, women are the stars of America's film industry, but on the screen they only star in 15 percent of films. And that percentage hasn't gotten any better since the 1930s. Hollywood has a gender problem.

The movies it produces vastly underrepresent women, and portray them in ways that place them as inferior to their male costars. Just 10.7 percent of movies produced between 2007 and 2012 featured casts that had equal men and women. Women are also paid less: The top 10 highest-paid actors from 2013 made a collective $465 million dollars. The top 10 highest-paid actresses made $181 million. When we talk about "gender representation" in Hollywood, we're talking about two things: 1) The percentage of people on the screen and producing what's on the screen who are women and 2) The ways in which those women are represented. Representation onscreen is so important because Hollywood films reach people all over the globe, and they significantly impact the way that we see women in the world. What we see on the silver screen, ultimately, tells us what to believe about ourselves, and the world around us. The most potent argument for those demanding changes in gender representation is this: women make up 50 percent of the population. So why don't they make up 50 percent of Hollywood as well?

When Louis Moravec and Susan Thauer moved into a new home in Philadelphia, it took 24 days for Comcast to set up TV and Internet service.

When technicians did show up, they repeatedly came without the right cables or equipment to outfit the newly built house. When they didn't show, the couple heard what seemed like bizarre excuses. They were told, for instance, that when a service representative offered an emergency appointment, the representative was merely making a request to dispatchers free to turn it down. Moravec and Thauer estimate that they spent more than 50 hours on the phone with Comcast employees, often on hold for as long as two hours. Amid the mess that Moravec said "borders on the Kafkaesque" came the final absurdity: notice that they were about to be billed for another month's service. After finally connecting the couple's home, Comcast admitted fault in a statement. Comcast also said the customers would be given a credit for the weeks they went without service.

T-Mobile is offering a program called Score, where, for a $5 monthly fee, customers get various discounts toward their next phone purchase.

After six months in the program, T-Mobile says customers can get a free low-end smartphone, or after a year Score members can get a discount on top-of-the-line models like the Galaxy S5 or Nexus 6. It’s an unusual approach, with customers paying ahead for an uncertain discount on their next phone. For T-Mobile, though, the benefit of Score is clear as customers will be, in essence, incentivizing themselves to stick with the carrier for their next phone.

CTIA-The Wireless Association announced Tom Power as its Senior Vice President and General Counsel, effective immediately.

With more than twenty-five years of public service and private sector experience, Power will be an integral member of CTIA’s senior leadership team under President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker. Power will succeed Michael Altschul who is retiring after more than two decade of service. Power served as the US Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications in the White House Office of Science and Technology Office from August 2011 until December 2014. Previously, Power served as Chief of Staff for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, United States Department of Commerce from April 2009 through August 2011.