DREAMY DIRECTOR

Sheila Benson suggests that Steven Spielberg was the wrong director to pair with “The Color Purple” (“3 Movies That Reveal Director’s Blind Sides,” Dec. 21).

Poor Steven must feel like Pam in “Dallas.” He wakes up on Sunday morning and finds out the past year has been just a dream:

Eleven Academy Award nominations; the Directors Guild Award; two awards from a psychologist’s convention; a director’s award from movie distributors; two recent awards from the NAACP; three Oscar nominations for talented ladies who weren’t, at that time, known for their movie acting ability (Whoopi Goldberg won every award available that year, except an Oscar and an Olympic Gold Medal); praise from the author, Alice Walker (“I watched my book give birth to a beautiful child”); favorable reviews from a majority of the critics; and bigger box-office receipts than “Out of Africa.”

Just think what the right director could have done with the “Color Purple”! Who did Benson have in mind? Spike Lee, Ingmar Bergman or Henry Jaglom (another devoted Spielberg basher)?

BOB FARLEY

Hollywood