Interesting Wrinkles

Regarding the July 5 Off-Centerpiece on the aging of Geena Davis’ character in “A League of Their Own”:

As the wife of a special-effects makeup artist and having been privy to some of the “insides” of the makeup industry, I found Elliot Abbott’s remarks (“We had never seen anybody do any of the older makeup that looked very good”) to be that of an obvious makeup oaf.

Didn’t he see “Hook” and Greg Cannom’s delicate artful detail on Maggie Smith? Or Kevin Haney’s seamless makeup on the “Gran T” character in “The Cosby Show”? Or were these people already too old? How about Stan Winston Studios’ work on Winona Ryder in “Edward Scissorhands”?

And going back a bit, what about the makeup artists who aged Cicely Tyson in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” Eddie Murphy in “Coming to America” and Jack Lemmon in “Dad”? Dick Smith did some remarkable work on Max Von Sydow in “The Exorcist” (he didn’t just make Linda Blair’s head spin), and F. Murray Abraham didn’t “suddenly” age overnight for the old Salieri in “Amadeus.” I think even the motion picture academy saw that one.

Perhaps when it comes to finding a competent makeup person, Abbott is watching the wrong films. Or talking to the wrong people.

JAZ DAVISON

Culver City