IFS, ANDS & BUTTS

I hate to be a killjoy, but was it really necessary to use as the cover photo a picture of Geoffrey Rush holding a wineglass and both he and Billy Bob Thornton smoking cigarettes (“The Outsiders,” by Claudia Puig, March 23)?

Or perhaps the photograph you used was part of the message that it takes alcohol and cigarettes to help one survive in Hollywood.

Debra D. Craig

Moreno Valley

*

So! Two guys, each holding cigarettes, are L.A.’s outsiders. Well, they’d be outside of my house for sure. They both look foolish to me, dangling their cigarettes in a symmetrically posed photograph (Thornton’s left hand and Rush’s right-- how convenient).

Good heavens, what were you trying to suggest? What purpose did it serve? There was no reason for these guys to be holding cigarettes in their hands.

Elizabeth Bell

Agoura