A League of Her Own

Regarding the Ivy League takeover of television (“From the Halls of Ivy . . . to a Table at the Ivy,” by Robert Strauss, April 3):

While Brandeis alum Marta Kaufmann is by all accounts extremely creative, capable and intelligent (and her show, “Dream On,” is a riot), her alma mater is no more “Ivy League” than mine (UC Berkeley).

But that’s OK, because you didn’t include Kaufmann in your story because of her Ivy League cachet. You included her because she’s a woman. Without her, you would not have had a single female participant in the Ivy League TV- and sitcom-writer trend you have reported. And that, I’m afraid, is the real story.

For while it is somewhat interesting that the Ivy League old-boys network has put down roots in Hollywood, it’s not at all surprising--it’s rather inevitable. These people are trained from the first day of freshman year to exude maximum self-importance and to go where the money is.

Why wouldn’t the same smart-and-smug network of Eastern privilege and nepotism that has reigned supreme in such fields as banking, big business and publishing do the same in Tinseltown?

It’s to their credit that smart and determined women, such as Kaufmann, from less exclusive (i.e., non-Ivy or almost-Ivy) backgrounds have succeeded in the entertainment business by bucking this old-boy trend, not by riding it.

KAREN SULKIS

Costa Mesa