Letters

—Barbara Tannenbaum
San Rafael

TOONTOWN FACING URBAN FLIGHT

Rico Gagliano’s article on the labor dispute at Nickelodeon [“Naughty Nick,” December 21–27] has been gnawing at me all week. Like most parents, I have become an expert in children’s TV, and I’ll say here and now that
SpongeBob SquarePants, Fairly Odd Parents and — especially — Hey Arnold! are three of the best-written shows on television, period. The Amanda Show, on the other hand, is basically Cher for preteens. Why are the Amanda crew rewarded with residuals and benefits while the cartoon writers get squat? It’s an absurd distinction, and eventually the best animation writers will abandon the medium just to survive.

—Dino DiMuro
Hollywood

JACK ON THE BOARDS

Re: Steven Leigh Morris’ “Waiting for the Cable Guy” [December 14–20]. Actors who focus on showcases are looking for the golden ticket — that one-in-a-million chance that a casting person will notice them, bring them in to audition, and then have the producer and director all agree that they are the one for the job. Slim chance. The actor’s number-one rule is: Work begets work. Do the work, and more work (paying) will find you. Circus stunts (read: showcases) and game-show appearances don’t count.

Secondly, I make my living as a commercial actor. When I do a “Jack in the Box” spot, I have not abandoned the theater — I am subsidizing it. Only 35 percent of small-theater budgets comes from ticket sales; the rest of that cash comes from the pockets of writers, directors and actors.

—John Williams
Hollywood

HIGH OCTANE

Manohla Dargis’ review of The Royal Tenenbaums [“High Hopes,” December 14–20] was the best I’ve read in years. This review and her tribute to Pauline Kael [September 14–20] were the two most memorable works of writing this year in your newspaper. Tell her I think she’s brilliant!

—Jackson Yee
Santa Monica

LOW BLOW

Ella Taylor begins her review of the film Ali by writing “the world’s most famous boxer, training for a rematch with George Foreman.” George Foreman and Ali only fought once! I know that most of your staff is made up of Noam Chomsky–regurgitating, self-righteous dweebs who typically frown upon things such as boxing.

—Max Acosta-Rubio
Pacific Palisades

EDITOR’S NOTE: Actually, it was Taylor’s National Review–citing, self-deprecating twerp of an editor who confused George Foreman with Joe Frazier and suggested changing “fight” to “rematch.”

CORRECTIONS

Contrary to what appeared in last week’s feature “The Neurotic Superhero,” Stan Lee wrote the Marvel Comics adaptation of the Spider-Man movie, not the movie itself. Also, in the issue previous to that, U.S. Representative Richard Gephardt was indeed misidentified in a photo caption as “Senator.”