SISTEMA CONSTRUCTIVO DE MAMPOSTERIA REFORZADA

In order to generate enough profit, films aimed at a predominantly female audience have to be about topics that will allow them to ‘… benefit from “unaided awareness,” through a highly visible star, previous exposure in another medium, such as television or novels, and various consumer oriented tie-ins that will enable the project to gain the support of other industries….’806 _{The first chapter argued that}

Bridget’s popularity as a character contributed to the success of the adaptations, while the second chapter illustrated that the adaptations examined in it capitalized on an interest in voyeuristic insights into a character’s life, the lives of New York socialites and the fashion industry. The multi-protagonist romantic comedies analysed in the third chapter offered a variety of identity positions and narratives to widen their appeal. This section examines the importance of stars and commercial tie-ins for the marketability of the adaptations I Don’t Know How She Does It and Eat Pray Love.

A decrease in divorce rates during the 2000s resulted in an increase in films about married relationships, which elongated the careers of female stars associated with the romantic comedy genre, such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Julia Roberts.807

Simon Frith explains that it is unclear why stars become stars. The public develops an interest in stars and the entertainment industry relies on this interest to generate profit. Frith argues that the entertainment industry is not really a calculating culture industry: ‘It has to be seen, rather, as an industry organized around the fickleness of the public. … What matters is to make as much money as possible out of what does work, and in the end stars matter so much to the entertainment industry because they are the only

tangible evidence of what the public does want.’808 _{While chapter 2 has already shown}

that stars are not the only aspect films can rely on to entice a large audience, they are nevertheless important for the marketability of a film. Furthermore, this chapter examines how star personas can contribute to changes made in the process of adaptation.

The first part of this section explores how Parker’s star persona was essential for a change in tone in the adaptation of I don’t know how she does it. Moreover,

806 _{Radner, Neo-Feminist Cinema, pp.170-171.}

807 _{Betty Kaklamanidou, Genre, Gender and the Effects of Neoliberalism. The new millennium}

Hollywood rom com (London and New York: Routledge, 2013), p.95.

199

changes in discourses about motherhood and the personal experience of successful screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna enabled a different ending for the film. The second section shows that Roberts’s immediate interest in Gilbert’s memoir facilitated its adaptation. The marketing of the film relied heavily on Roberts’s star power but also on a synergised media campaign and themed consumer goods to create an interest in the adaptation in advance of its release. In addition, the film’s focus has shifted from spirituality to relationships, thus returning to the well-known formula typical for romantic comedies.

4.2.1. The possible happy end - I Don’t Know How She Does It (2011)

Kate in the novel I don’t know how she does it was frequently compared to Bridget, as for example in the headlines ‘Kate Reddy is Bridget with brains’809 _{or ‘a}

working mom's Bridget Jones’810 _{and she was even declared ‘the newest chick-lit}

archetype.’811 _{Reviewers repeatedly stressed the authenticity of the character}812 _and

the novel was celebrated as a text that told the truth about motherhood by exploring and expressing feelings real mothers have. Kate Betts, for instance, describes the book in The New York Times as a ‘sharply observed, sometimes painfully sad story about the sordid disparity between the ideal and the reality of “having it all.”’813 _{Pearson also}

pointed out in interviews that her readers strongly identified with Kate Reddy: ‘Pearson says what she hears from women readers is “the universal yelp of recognition.”’814

809 _{Adam Begley, “Kate Reddy is Bridget with brains, a woman-not a girl-who knows better,”}

New York Observer, October 07, 2002.

810 _{Jocelyn Noveck, “New cultural icon? Kate Reddy is a working mom’s Bridget Jones,”}

Associated Press International, November 21, 2002; see also Joan Smith, “Pull yourself

together, woman; big house, big salary, big fuss,” The Independent, July 06, 2002 and Kingston, “Bridget’s legacy: Mumlit’s chic, but what is it saying?”

811 _{Betts, “Your Family and How It Works.”}

812 _{Elizabeth Payne, “Having it all,” Ottawa Citizen, October 26, 2002 and Eileen Travers, “A}

working mom’s ragged life: British novel has struck a chord. The whole point of I Don’t Know How She Does It is, in fact, that she doesn’t,” The Gazette, December 21, 2002.

813 _{Betts, “Your Family and How It Works.”}

814 _{Stoffman, “Working mom’s Oscar Wilde,” see also Roxanne Roberts, “The Whole Mom}

Catalogue; A Hot New Novel Addresses Career Mothers. It’s Total Fiction,” The Washington

200

The financial success of the novel, selling more than 4 million copies,815

inspired other Mumlit and honest accounts about women’s lives. Literary successors cover a wide range of topics and genres and differ in tone. In the bestselling anthology

The Bitch in the House,816 _{for instance, 26 ‘… mothers and wives rage about their}

exhaustion and their unfulfilled expectations.’817 _{In contrast, The Mummy Diaries by}

Rachel Johnson explores the life of a supposedly stay-at-home mother living in Notting Hill (the narrator insists on referring to herself as a stay-at-home mother even though she works part-time) in a humorous and light tone.818

The interest in confessions about motherhood spread during the 2000s to internet blogs and parenting forums, such as Mumsnet, Netmoms and The Bump, which became a source for parenting advice and online community support.819 _These

new media outlets offered a platform for mothers to exchange their experiences. Lori Kido Lopez, for example, argues that ‘mommy blogs’ have radical potential because the honest stories of mummy bloggers differ from the idealised image of motherhood promoted in the media and are thus ‘… beginning to expand our notion of motherhood, women bloggers and the mother’s place within the public sphere. In this sense, showing the ugly side of motherhood has the potential to be liberating and beneficial for all women.’820 _{While Claire Madge and Henrietta O’Connor show in their research}

that the particular community of new mothers on babyworld.co.uk reproduced traditional gender roles and ideas about mothering,821 _{Sarah Pederson and Janet}

Smithson argue that the UK parenting blog Mumsnet created a space in which users

815 _{Dylan Jones, “Men who juggle School runs, nappies, long hours at work,” The Times,}

September 03, 2011.

816 _{Cathy Hanauer, ed. The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth about Sex, Solitude,}

Work, Motherhood, and Marriage (London: Harper Collins, 2003).

817 _{Kingston, “Bridget’s legacy: Mumlit’s chic, but what is it saying?”}

818 _{Rachel Johnson, The Mummy Diaries. Or How to Lose Your Husband, Children and Dog}

in Twelve Months (London: Penguin, 2004).

819 _{Clare Madge and Henrietta O’Connor, “Parenting gone wired: empowerment of new}

mothers on the internet?” Social &Cultural Geography 7.02 (2006): p.205; see also Emma Barnett, “Web is top source of parenting advice say British mums,” The Telegraph, May 14, 2012 and Meghan Casserly, “Moms Connect On The Internet,” Forbes, June 08, 2009, accessed February 14, 2016, http://www.forbes.com/ 2009/08/06/mothers-online-blogs- forbes-woman-time-community.html.

820 _{Lori Kido Lopez, “The radical act of 'mommy blogging': redefining motherhood through}

the blogosphere,” New media & society 11:5 (2009): pp.743-744.