WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

My friend Marylu Downing promised herself in her 40s that in her 50s she would become a professional artist. It gave her something to look forward to, rather than dreading that milestone birthday. And she did it. Among her painting subjects are luscious, fanciful women who look like they have a past and are not stopping now.

On my Juicy Tomatoes radio show I talked to four women over 50 who act, paint, write and contribute their own kind of magic. One followed her muse that got her to leave California and move to the high desert in Utah where she started writing mystery novels and fell in love.
One acts and writes and feeds her passion by taking assorted jobs instead of slogging for years in a career.

Then there's Marylu whose art has brought her a national following.
And another who has been acting since high school and just told me that she's decided to write a one-woman play for herself.

Creative women don't stop.

Listen to some of my favorite creative types on my radio show which you can hear at my website http://www.juicytomatoes.com/
And tell me what magic you've been up to lately.

Susan

ARE WE STILL IN THE MOVIES?

When Sally Field's character on "Brothers and Sisters" had a 60th birthday party I celebrated. As did I when Helen Mirren won an Oscar for "The Queen" and when I read that Diane Keaton is coming out with a new film and so is Susan Sarandon.

And this: Jill Clayburgh could end up playing Pat Nixon in the same film that Meryl Streep plays Martha Mitchell. It makes you want to cheer.

These are my contemporaries. As long as they're still getting juicy parts, so will we all.

Meryl Streep told Entertainment Weekly that Hollywood should be grateful to women her age because they're the ones who continue to buy tickets and go to movies.
"They damn well better market to us," said Meryl. "and give us something to watch."
And she told a British reporter that she expects better parts – "roles that do not depict women of my age as either dotty or horrible."

I love it when Meryl talks like that.

On this week's Juicy Tomatoes show (www.juicytomatoes.com) I talked to Diane McCurdy who is a film reviewer and teaches film. We talked about movies that know how to treat a Tomato.
What have you been watching in the movies or on TV lately that let a 50-plus woman be herself, laugh lines and all?.