Naomi Foner has written RUNNING ON EMPTY (for which she received an
Academy Award Nomination, A Golden Globe and a Pen West Award), LOSING
ISAIAH and the soon to be released adaptation of BEE SEASON starring
Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. She was involved with the
development of Sesame Street and The Electric Company at the
Children's Television Workshop and has an ongoing interest in
progressive politics. Her children Maggie and Jake are actors.
Husband Stephen Gyllenhaal is a director.

Blog Entries by Naomi Foner

Step up, SNL

Posted September 16, 2008 | 12:23 PM (EST)


The girls were great on SNL. Clever. Funny. Smart. And then the show fell into audition segments for cast members to sell their vacuous movie franchise ideas.

Enough.

Step up. This show has the possibility of being a real political force. And every week it throws it away.

Rarely, does...

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Every Picture Tells a Story

Posted September 10, 2008 | 01:11 AM (EST)


Some years ago MOMA had an exhibit on the history of photography. The general premise of the exhibit was that when photography first appeared on the scene people had their pictures taken because they were important to the culture. But it wasn't long before it was reversed and people were...

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We're in Big Trouble

Posted September 7, 2008 | 11:41 PM (EST)


We're talking to ourselves.

And we're not saying anything that's going to help win this election.

Everyone who cares knows that Sara Palin is a born again, right wing Republican. That she's a right-to-life, anti-gay, anti-global-warming, book-banning kind of gal.

No one seems to care.

The package and not...

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You Don't Need a Weatherman to Tell Which Way the Wind is Blowing

Posted January 30, 2007 | 08:26 PM (EST)


I couldn't believe my ears. NPR. A perfectly sane sounding commentator was discussing what seemed like a dilemma for the Congress. How to balance the concerns of the national economy against the concerns for the environment. How to shape our national policy on global warming. And not once in the...

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It's All About The Story

Posted December 8, 2006 | 08:52 PM (EST)


It's occurred to me lately that everything is about the story.

I was listening to an NPR report on Barack Obama and I realized that he knows how to tell his. That's why everyone's so excited about him.

Bush knows how to do it. Maybe his story isn't...

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Praying for a Miracle

Posted January 29, 2006 | 07:40 PM (EST)


A lot of people are strangely hopeful. Many won't admit it. It's not politically correct. But the feeling is there. The Hamas majority in the Palestinian election last week has opened the door to possibility.

The first ray of hope came from the knowledge that the election wasn't managed. The...

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Terminator In Deed

Posted December 13, 2005 | 11:42 AM (EST)


My brother died in June. Taken by cancer. Too young. Full of hope and possibility.

Last night another cancer killed a man about the same age. The paraphernalia familiar. IVs and gurneys. Lethal drugs dripping into his veins. Ending a life that had found redemption. But this time the...

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A Memorial Day moment....

Posted May 28, 2005 | 06:05 PM (EST)


A friend of mine sent me the following article:

Slain Soldier's Mom Rejected by Gold Star Mothers

Membership Restricted to U.S. Citizens

By JIM FITZGERALD, AP

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (May 27) - Everyone agrees that Ligaya Lagman is a Gold Star mother, part of the long line of mournful women...

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How do they do it?

Posted May 20, 2005 | 01:26 PM (EST)


How do they explain "a culture of life" that supports the death penalty? Freedom that denies "choice"? "Free elections" in Iraq where not everyone gets to vote? An American culture that allows for prison torture and spying on its own populace? Cut backs in Social Security and health care. Compliments...

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Our Children Are Trying To Tell Us Something

Posted May 12, 2005 | 06:00 PM (EST)


And we're not listening. So they wage guerrilla war. Shooting at each other and at us. In schools. On freeways. Copying our violence. And it still doesn't get our attention. We don't see ourselves in the mirror they hold up.

The recent Iranian movie, set on the Iraqi/Kurdistan border, Turtles...

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