Living in Los Angeles, I’ve heard the plight of female actors who claim by the time they hit 30 – 35 years old good roles for them dry up and they have to wait until they’re more mature to once again be considered for plum parts — usually as someone’s mother. There are certainly exceptions to that rule — Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts the most obvious. Susan Sarandon seemed to be working through each decade of her life, but she played some pretty edgy roles for a while there — including Thelma (or was it Louise?) and Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking. And of course Meryl Streep seems to be perpetually in demand. As I said, there are exceptions to the rule.

For the rest of us, the marginalization that comes with aging gives us a little more time, but not much.