It’s a Woman Thing

I think the quote from Drew Barrymore in “Can They Give the Big Boys a Run for Their Money?” (by Robert W. Welkos, Jan. 16) sums up the issue at stake here: “I think that women making no apology for being women is very refreshing.”

It is said that there are only three basic human emotions: mad (action, horror, thriller), sad (drama) or glad (comedy), and most of the eight to 36 plot archetypes encompass some combination of these.

What does the female audience want? Women characters being, unapologetically, women in the above circumstances, whatever the genre.

Women actors can do any genre you please, provided they do it as women, not as defined by men and how they would act in similar circumstances.

MAUDE HAM

Burbank

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Trying to explain the intense interest by actresses in a film version of “Charlie’s Angels,” co-producer and star Drew Barrymore shows less than angelic wisdom when she says, “There aren’t a lot of roles for women to be strong and capable and funny, to really like women and have great camaraderie with them without being feminist, and loving boys and getting to do what boys do, but not trying to be a man about it” (italics added).

Knocking feminism, and equating it with “trying to be a man,” sounds bizarrely ungrateful from a woman promoting a film that would’ve been inconceivable only a few decades ago, before feminism enabled women to become more independent, strong and adventurous--in a way, more like a Charlie’s Angel.

For her own good, and for her movie, maybe Barrymore, a bewitching actress, should remain goldenly silent until a screenwriter supplies her with some sensible dialogue.

AL RAMRUS

Pacific Palisades

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I’m glad The Times finally reported on the sad state Hollywood actresses are in these days. Want to know what I liked the best about “Girl, Interrupted”? Not the plot, not really even the characters. It was just so wonderfully refreshing to see Angelina Jolie be given the opportunity to act in a meaty role and to run with it.

Who is writing in Hollywood today? There are no “Mildred Pierces” anymore and not even a “Baby Jane.” What we are forced to sit through are roles like Salma Hayek’s in “Wild Wild West.” A fleshy role, you bet, but not exactly in regards to acting. I may not be as appreciative of that sort of paper doll role as some of my male counterparts, but I do like to go to the movies too.

LAURIE STEVENS

Northridge

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Welkos neglected to mention the top female box-office star of all time--Betty Grable. She still owns the record for consecutive placement in the Top Ten Exhibitors’ Poll (10 straight years from 1942 to 1951). In 1943, Grable was the top box-office star in the world, and her famous pin-up is one of the icons of the 20th Century.

STANLEY GOODRICH

Laguna Niguel

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Would you please have Welkos explain his descriptive phrase of Drew Barrymore as “the adoringly sweet actress with the girl-next-door demeanor”?

Am I so far out of it that a self-described drug abuser and one who flashes her bare breasts on late-night TV is a girl next door? Not to my criteria.

STANLEY G. HOPE

Whittier