The $20-Million Man

If ever I was motivated to criticize the movie studio system and the huge salaries paid to “leading” actors, I was doubly so after reading the interview with Chris Tucker (“In a Big Rush,” by Richard Natale, July 29).

Jackie Chan provided the energy, the genius, the impact and more than his share of the entertainment in the first “Rush Hour,” while Tucker did a decent job of holding his own in comparison. Upon reading that Tucker got paid $20 million to star in the next film to Chan’s $15 million, I was stunned. Obviously this man has the hardest-working agent in Hollywood, where a class act like Chan literally pays a price for concentrating more on his craft than in manipulating the system to increase his payday.

BOB LOZA

Burbank