A round of applause please, for two hardworking women recently honoured for their services to the screen and theatre industries. For her services to film, screenwriter and film producer Fran Walsh has been made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours; and TV's favourite Westie Robyn Malcolm has been made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to New Zealand television and theatre. Walsh told the New Zealand Herald that the fact she's been a working mother for the past 24 years made her even more grateful to receive the honour.
"It's just something that women take for granted - that they have two jobs, and they have to do them both well - which is almost impossible," she said. "Working women, working mothers - it's a harder road."