Oscar moment

TIM RUTTEN engages in hand-wringing over excessive media coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death [“How Smith’s Death Hit Page 1,” Feb. 10], but at least the story has some newsworthiness because of the irony of the situation -- her and her son dying young; her baby, now worth hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on a lawsuit’s outcome; the circling of her silly hangers-on desperate for a few minutes of fame on cable television, etc.

The same charge about excessive media coverage could just as easily be leveled about the Academy Awards, the annual self-congratulatory fest of dressed-up actors telling each other how great they are, a far less newsworthy event and one that would be forgotten the next day if not for the unending media attention to post-award parties, fashions, political blatherings, etc.

CAROLINE MIRANDA

North Hollywood