Readers react: Why movie stars still matter
Regarding “U.S. Is at Sea Without a News Anchor” [June 17]. Mary McNamara’s view of network TV news hit the bull’s eye and what she decries is, unfortunately, the result of the 24/7 news cycle and the out-of-control rampage of “get-it-now” satellite-delivered shout-casters.
My list of the great ones would have included Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, both of whom brought dignity to the screen (much as Walter Cronkite did) as well as NBC News’ original glass ceiling-buster, Pauline Frederick.
Warren Cereghino
Pacific Palisades
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Mary McNamara’s column about a lack of a national news anchor that people can trust and respect has been true for years. That’s the reason I abandoned TV news long ago and replaced it with NPR news.
For me and many others, it is the only broadcast news that we pay attention to.
Marianne Gregory
Los Angeles
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Here I thought the malice America is facing has to do with a never-ending war in Afghanistan, high unemployment, etc., but no, the problem facing American is a lack of a good talking head.
Jim Lynch
Cardiff
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McNamara’s piece bemoaning trusted anchors of national stature completely fails to mention PBS. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff co-anchor a program that consistently tops surveys for honest and trustworthy reporting. Charlie Rose’s PBS show, set around his famous round table, lacks only Edward R. Murrow’s cigarette smoke with its in-depth interviews.
Michael Seward
Bakersfield
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Mary McNamara’s article about the “vacuum” of national news anchors misses the bigger picture. It’s not the anchors who have people floating on the air of mistrust; it’s the credibility of news organizations as a whole. People do not know who is controlling the narrative.
Cy Bolton
Rancho Cucamonga
Precious L.A. memories
Lorraine Ali’s wonderful piece on the legendary Olympic Auditorium [“A Melting Pot of Grit and Glamour,” June 19] brought back precious memories. I grew up in Los Angeles in the 1950s, and my father and I used to watch the Olympic fights together on Friday nights. We parked ourselves in front of our black and white TV and counted down together whenever a boxer was knocked out. Those were thrilling nights for a 6-year-old girl, not only because I became — and remain to this day — a big fan of boxing but because they represented sweet times spent alone with my dad.
Wendy Werris
Los Angeles
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One significant aspect of the story was missing. No reference was made of Gilbert Stanley Underwood, who was the architect of the then-engineering marvel of a building.
People today should know the name Gilbert Stanley Underwood and his influence on Los Angeles architecture.
Julie Werner-Simon
Santa Monica
We’re ready for Ms. Jane Bond
Regarding: “The Franchise Power List” [June 19]. Marc Bernardin asks whether a female James Bond should replace the old dinosaur. Good for him. A Ms. Bond would gain a whole new fan base for the longtime spy series and add a little spice to the mix.
David Tulanian
Los Angeles
Movies still matter for some
Regarding “Why Movie Stars Don’t Matter,” [June 19]. Perhaps movie stars don’t matter anymore, but great actors and fine acting do matter. The list of films that Marc Bernardin submits to validate his claim is not exactly an example of the type of films that require proficient acting skills.
Giuseppe Mirelli
Los Angeles
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The sidebar piece to the “Why Movie Stars Don’t Matter” has this line in regard to the “Star Trek” franchise: “Abrams’ second installment ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ was a critical disappointment.” “Star Trek Into Darkness” has an “excellent” 87% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In what universe is that “a critical disappointment”?
Anthony DiSalvo
Culver City
A ‘Stairway’ to litigation
As someone who has taught copyright for over a decade and been involved in many of copyright law’s developments in Washington, D.C., I thought your coverage of the trial [“Rock Legend Takes the Stand in Battle of Bands,” June 16], was spot-on. Congrats.
Justin Hughes
Professor of law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
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The lawsuit accusing Led Zeppelin of plagiarizing their epic song “Stairway to Heaven” should’ve never gotten as far as it has. But where there is money, there are lawyers. The song famously ends with the classic line “buying a stairway to heaven.” That’s a very appropriate description of what Randy Wolfe’s estate lawyers are attempting in this case.
Charles Reilly
Manhattan Beach
Theme music and titles missed
Recent articles and letters bearing on the works of John Williams and film music prompt me to underscore a trend that I perceive to be a growing problem. I grew up in an era when most movies had title sequences accompanied by theme music. Yet these days both title sequences and theme music at the start of films are increasingly rare. Virtually all action-adventure and special-effects-driven films of recent years eschew title sequences and theme music altogether in order to drop the audience right into the film without a moment’s delay. For me, at least, movies aren’t nearly as much fun without those big themes grabbing my attention at the start and giving me a kind of musical anchor that resonates through the rest of the film.
Thomas Kent Miller
Redlands
A woman of opera mystery
Regarding: “A Grisly Spectacle Goes Under the Opera Knife” [June 16]. Composer David Lang is quoted: “No one is completely evil, but no one is completely good. So it’s not like ‘Tosca,’ where the wrong woman dies.”
Who is the right woman to die in “Tosca”? There is only one women in “Tosca,” Floria Tosca.
No other women in Tosca. Nope! Not one! Perhaps Lang was thinking of “Turandot,” also by Puccini, where a case could be made that the wrong woman dies.
Jay Galbraith
Los Angeles