COSTNERWORLD

Your cover article “Kevin Costner: Dances With Destiny” (by Judy Brennan and Robert W. Welkos, April 9) refers to “three straight flops,” including “A Perfect World.” That film won critical acclaim and grossed over $33 million at the domestic box office. While the amount was less than expected for a Costner-Clint Eastwood flick, it went on to gross three times that amount abroad and might garner another $125 million in video sales and rentals. That could add up to about a quarter of a billion dollars in total revenue. Some flop!

The “Brad Pitt” look Costner has been sporting of late (long hair, light facial hair) is required for the character he is playing in “Waterworld.” Surely this was obvious to your reporters.

For me, the saddest thing about the treatment Costner has received in the press the last nine months isn’t about what I’ve learned about him. It is what it tells me about the quality of reporting in the press (print and television) and what it tells me about the nature of the public for accepting it.

BILL CWIKLO

Los Angeles

Can’t we just wait for “Waterworld” to come out? America has this ancient nasty streak that’s being played out every day in the O.J. Simpson trial. The only thing we love more than the glorious rise of a hero is a terrible fall. I personally like some of Costner’s movies and dislike others, but nothing he has done deserves the hailstorm of bad press that has been crashing down on him for the past year.

JOHN LAVITT

Los Angeles

The cruel and grotesque caricature on your cover only demeans The Times, not Mr. Costner, whose face is one of the most honest and open I’ve seen for 20 years.

CRANDALL NORTON

South Laguna

Costner should be applauded for always trying new things. Thank God he’s not doing “Dances With Wolves IV” like most stars would.

As for his stubborn desire to control his projects, I’m not convinced he would be anywhere today if he hadn’t grasped and maintained some degree of control. Hollywood simply won’t acknowledge those who are passive. Control and power are not qualities to be criticized.

Finally, with regard to his divorce, he has proved that he is human. So what? He’s not the first person to get divorced.

TRACY ALISON

Brentwood

On the cover you call him “invincible” but in the ensuing article you tear him to pieces. Kevin Costner is human like the rest of us. He is not the Almighty, come to save us all. He has proven himself superbly as an actor, director and producer. Let’s leave him alone and enjoy his new movie.

CECELIA K. WAESCHLE

Beverly Hills

“Dances With Wolves” was writer Michael Blake’s accomplishment, which Costner shrewdly turned into his own moneymaking cause. Costner’s apparent appeal has always dumbfounded me, considering the man’s shallow intelligence and lack of any noticeable acting talent.

Just as Plato suggested that the most intelligent members of a republic ought to head its government, so should the most thoughtful entertainers rule in Hollywood. Clearly Mr. Costner is not among them.

JORDAN ELGRABLY

Los Angeles

Kevin Costner as Oskar Schindler!?!?!? How about Steven Seagal as Amon Goeth and Pee-wee Herman as Itzhak Stern? NOT!!!

Who does he think he’s kidding, after his “surfer-dude” Robin Hood? (Come to think of it, Liam Neeson would have been a great Robin Hood.) I wonder how hard Steven Spielberg and company laughed when they heard Costner wanted to play Schindler. Is there a bootleg of his screen test floating around Hollywood?

Costner should realize how replaceable he is after Clint Eastwood shot around him during “A Perfect World.”

JEFF KING

Anaheim