Nikki Finke has issued a response to Jeff Robinov’s response to her claim that three producers told her that Robinov is no longer putting films starring women into production. After meticulously detailing a couple of days worth of phone tag between her and Robinov, Finke writes:

Sources inside Warner’s tell me that, 1) Robinov doesn’t believe there’s an actress who can carry a movie worldwide since Julia Roberts, 2) Robinov has now gone so far as admitting to his studio colleagues that the decree I reported was made when he was “in the room”, 2) Robinov is acknowledging that the studio is reassessing the strategy of making action pictures starring women, 3) Robinov was inundated with calls on Monday and Tuesday from media and Hollywood types asking him about my posting, 4) Robinov has three pics currently in production and six in pre-production and not one stars a women as the main lead of the film, and 5) he’s nixed Wonder Woman as a stand-alone film, downgrading her to just one of four superhero characters in the proposed Justice League. Again, I stand by my story.

So, in other words, more of the same. Much more interesting, I think, is an excerpt from Lisa Chase’s interview with Finke in the latest issue of Elle, in which Finke explains why women in Hollywood “can’t get ahead.” More after the jump.

The motion picture business is as brutal as it’s ever been. I believe that’s a direct result of the lack of women. But they can’t get ahead, because here’s why. The men all golf together at the Riviera Country Club or the Bel-Air Country Club. They all take vacations together, they rent yachts together—right now the European seas are littered with Hollywood moguls. The women will sometimes get together for the kid-birthday-party thing, but they don’t have as many opportunities to bond. Because they’re not just running networks and movie studios, they’re running households and families. Sure, they have tremendous amounts of help at home, but it still falls on their shoulders. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on the phone on the weekend with a male executive and he turns to his wife and says, ‘Look, don’t bother me with that. That’s your thing.’

It seems unlikely that these male executives who are chatting with Finke on the weekends are married to women who are seeking equal status on the power ladder, but whatever: it’s good to know that Hollywood would be a less “brutal” place if more women would just hang out on boats together and learn how to play golf.