DIANE FARR: LINKS / ARTICLES

My most formative sexual years were spent listening to your advice on "Loveline." What was it like telling 12-year-old guys how to put on condoms?

Suprisingly easy. I owned a bar in NY before I worked all the time as an actor and taking care of drinkers is just like taking care of sexual-freshman. “Just use a condom.” Loveline was great because it was all improv and as cheeky as it sounds, I think we really did help people.

And you already had practice helping people...you taught acting in a maximum security prison.

Another side job before acting paid the rent. I taught improv to men between 16-22 who were tried as adults but in an "in-between juve and big house" facility. They gave me the most dysfunctional behavior problems to see if the arts might help them. My first contract was ten weeks. The final project for the inmates was to do Edmund's monologue from King Lear. It was the most I've ever learned about acting.

You've been on plenty of hit TV shows (Drew Carey, Roswell, The Job, CSI, Like Family). We often hear that there are a dearth of good roles for women in the movies. Do you feel the same way about TV?

I think as you work more you become picky which leads us all to feel like there isn't as much out there as we would like. This is especially true with women because most writers are men. I think there is plenty out there, I'm just not as bowled over by it as I used to be. But we should all know, if you don't like the choices...anyone can make their own roles...As a women writer, any desire to break into that side of the sitcom world?
Last year I sold a sitcom to ABC based on my first book "The Girl Code." Writing a sitcom was the hardest thing I have ever done. The economy of language is so tough. The show has been on hold for a year and a half and when it eventually dies... as most do... I don't think I'll be knocking down the door to try that again.

During the recent Valentine season I saw your book displayed alongside books like "Romance for Dummies"...which "The Girl Code" most definitely is NOT. If the number one thing you could tell dating women is to have a sense of humor, number two is...

Pick your girlfriends with care. They will be your confidants for life. At men, at work, at family, at everything. Dating women need to value other women more and the whole process will be easier.

Do you think that the women's magazines you write for like Jane and Glamour reinforce this ideal or make women more competitive?

Women's magazines are the worst thing in the world for women. I highly recommend everyone cancel their subscriptions. The things I 'pitch' these magazines are women empowerment stories in the hopes that this is what these magazines will become. Now, of course, not all my ideas are good, but still they only buy maybe one out of one hundred that I try to sell. Then it becomes a process of not letting my idea become a fear-inducing tale that will make women stay home from insecurity.

You've recently added 'Producer' to your long list of talents.

I just got a deal with HBO for a documentary I've worked on for two years. It deals with kids who were born into the Christian apocalyptic cult “The Family” aka “The Children of God.” I met an aspiring filmmaker years ago who told me his survival story which I found so inspiring I thought more of them should be told. I'm producing it, and totally in over my head. Which I love...

Finally, the broken engagement that spawned a greeting card company
(www.OtherAnnouncements.com) How did you funnel all this anger into an empowering tool for uncomfortable situations everywhere?

I sold an article to Glamour Magazine called “What to do when your engagement is called off.” Because I had sent out unannoucement cards when mine fell apart, I had an idea to make a whole greeting card line for uncomfortable things we have to announce. Unemployment, divorce, gay kids coming out of the closet, a pet's death, a face lift…there are oh so many. I put one line at the end of my Glamour article and the business got 5000 hits the first day. One month later, Oprah Winfrey called to tell me that she loved these cards and had me on to tell my story.

Do you think he watched you on Oprah?

I think I've gotten a personal note through my card site from every woman he has ever slept with. They have been wonderful. I'm guessing one of them probably told him. And yes, that makes me laugh. All the way to the bank...

Diane would like people to contact her through her Otherannouncements.com site…there is section for stories and comments and they all go directly to her.