Talk:Elaine May

The Green Heart musical
There was previously a sentence about 'A New Leaf' being turned into a musical. This is wrong. The movie was based off of a short story by Jack Ritchie named 'The Green Heart', but the movie did not follow the story & only used a part of the actual plot. The musical is based off of the short story & is more faithful to Jack Ritchie's short story. So in short, the statement about the musical does not belong on Elaine May's page. It would be more fitting to mention this in the movie page, but not on Elaine May's page. Since she had nothing to do with the musical & the musical was not based off of her film, it doesn't belong here. Tokyogirl79 (talk) 05:59, 7 June 2009 (UTC)Tokyogirl79

Comprehensive Update
Friday, April 28th, 2006

As part of a class assignment, I did a tremendous amount of research to expand the knowledge on the underrated filmmaker and comedic writer Elaine May. I consulted academic published works such as "The St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia" by Amy L. Unterburger and essays derived from my "Women in Film" college class to expand the previous information already in the article. As always, if you notice any grammar mistakes or accuracy in facts, please edit them.

- Schwenkstar

Tuesday, May 9th, 2006

Added section about May's stage partnership with Mike Nichols, an excerpt taken from the Foreward, written by Mike Nichols for The Birdcage shooting script (1997)

- Schwenkstar


 * Thank you for your additions! --Arcadian 21:30, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Nichols & May really deserve a page of their own. I recall reading a wonderful article some years ago, but my googling efforts to track it down were unsuccessful. -- Joey Harrison —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.8.46.4 (talk) 03:47, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Poorly organized
This article is unworthy of Elaine May, a major cultural figure. I hope some astute editor will give it a thorough reorganization. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.64.101.195 (talk) 05:26, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Filmography cites?
Note: Elizabeth Taylor filmography or Richard_Burton, which don't include a cite for each film, instead relying on wikilinks. I would like a specific guideline about not using wikilinks in the Elaine_May sections, which only uses them to verify facts in the film articles. --Light show (talk) 05:55, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

There are also tags at the top about a single source and incorrect formatting. Both those topics should be discussed since both seem appropriate and don't warrant a tag. There are 25 sources in the article, and the one major book source, Nachman, covers 44 pages. --Light show (talk) 06:31, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

I'll remove the tags pending any guideline discussion on the talk page as none of the tags seem warranted. --Light show (talk) 17:53, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Reference to attractiveness
Under "Stage career: The Compass Players", it is claimed: "Because she was physically attractive, some members of the group, including Nichols, became distracted during workshops." I find the first words of this sentence problematic for two reasons. First, it assumes that you can state attractiveness as an objective fact. Undoubtedly she was seen as very attractive by many of the people who met her. But attractiveness cannot be measured objectively, such as height and weight can. Second, her attractiveness is described as "physical", suggesting that it was (is) a quality residing solely in her body – ie that she would have been found equally attractive had she been a dull and unimaginative person. You might argue she would – but I do not believe it can be taken as an undisputed fact. I suggest that this sentence be rephrased thus: "Some members of the group found her to be very attractive, which caused them to become distracted during workshops". Anyone against? Wdanbae (talk) 16:35, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Where's Jeannie?
She seems to have gone off to Chicago soon after giving birth to her daughter. Who was raising Jeannie while Elaine was in Chicago auditing classes, acting, and living life on the wild side?

Maria Ouspenskaya died in 1949
It is not possible for Elaine May to have studied with Maria Ouspenskaya in the frame referenced, as Ouspenskaya died in 1949. The current sources on the internet have been written since this Wikipedia article was written, perhaps picking up the erroneous information from here. — Maile (talk) 11:53, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

Whatever does this sentence mean?
‘before transitioning her career regularly breaking the mold’

It smacks of feminist rhetoric and/or a bad New Yorker profile. 2001:8003:303D:BC00:CCD3:150C:7CDD:103E (talk) 22:27, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

The Opinions of Women
Do any of the WOMEN who worked with May have opinions, thoughts or insights? 2A0A:EF40:1036:BA01:9A71:C6F9:30EE:73E3 (talk) 12:00, 17 February 2024 (UTC)