As ‘SNL’ spoofs Black Widow, leaked emails reveal studios’ gender bias; Los Angeles Times, 5/4/15

Los Angeles Times; As ‘SNL’ spoofs Black Widow, leaked emails reveal studios’ gender bias:

"When “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” co-star Johansson hosted “SNL” this weekend, it didn’t take long for her perpetually supporting role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and the state of onscreen female superheroes — to be skewered on the episode.

The spoof arrives at a time when Marvel Studios — and the superhero genre at large — has come under fire for the representation of female heroes on the big screen.

A new batch of leaked emails from the Sony hack, posted at Wikileaks.org, indicates that Marvel Studios is still wary of female-driven superhero movies. In a leaked email sent to Sony’s Michael Lynton on Aug. 7, 2014, Marvel Entertainment Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter lists a number of recent (and not-so-recent) box office duds based on female superheroes — including 2004’s “Catwoman,” 2005’s “Elektra” and, bizarrely, “Supergirl” from 1984, a full three decades ago — with commentary about each film’s quality and low grosses."