Privacy, Please

I have to disagree with Barry Simon’s idea that artists’ sexual preferences (the homosexuality of George Cukor in the instance he was discussing) is “central to their work” (Letters, Nov. 26). I am not sure it is.

I doubt if Oliver Stone or Spike Lee’s sexual orientation is that central to their work, for example. The same is true of actors as well. I realized several years ago that there were a lot of British actors, male and female, whose private lives I had no knowledge of. And then I had an even greater realization: I did not care.

At the risk of doing enormous damage to the gossip and publicity mega-industry, I find that I have saved an enormous amount of time by not reading about or listening to the gossip about film people’s private lives and sexual preferences. And I enjoy their work just as much, if not more.

TOM STEMPEL

Los Angeles