First-Class Treatment

For the record, while only John Wells can say precisely why I was hired to direct “Angel Street,” Fred Gerber is mistaken when he notes that “we pretty much hired him because his mother lived in Chicago, where we were shooting, and therefore we wouldn’t have to pay airfare, hotel and per diem” (Letters, Feb. 14).

Although my mother does live in Chicago, Warner Bros. (the studio of “Angel Street”) flew me first class to and from Chicago (my first time!), put me up in a suite in the swank Ambassador East and paid my per diem upon arrival. To do any less would have been a violation of the Directors Guild minimum basic agreement, as any television producer knows--you can’t just ask directors to claim different homes to save money.

But I’ll cut him some slack. His allusion to “ER’s” $13-million license fee versus “Angel Street’s” tight budget suggests a deeper motivation for criticizing Wells’ motives--and one that I can be guilty of as well. Just as in my ill-chosen words regarding the brilliant Stephen Sondheim (“he never had to work a day in his life”), the real motivation behind swipes at our heroes may be just good old-fashioned envy.

PARIS BARCLAY

Los Angeles