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Chasing
Matt Damon
In your
July 18 "Assessment" of the Weinstein brothers, you state that Miramax was
"the driving force" between various independent movies, among them
Clerks , Trainspotting , and Il Postino . The wording of your
article suggests that Miramax partook in the creation of those movies, when in
fact they were funded and filmed without Miramax's assistance, and then Miramax
bought and distributed them. Similarly, your suggestion that Miramax "eschews
expensive stars" and "uses novices" such as Matt Damon in Good Will
Hunting suggests that the use of Damon in the lead role was the result of
an aesthetic, or perhaps moral, decision on the part of the Weinstein brothers.
In fact, Damon, who was one of the movie's writers, attached himself to the
project as an actor as a condition of its purchase. True, if Miramax were not
fond of "using novices," they might have rejected Damon's condition. But it's
also worth mentioning that Harvey Weinstein's interest in funding Good Will
Hunting was not spurred by his own finely tuned aesthetic sensibilities but
rather by Kevin Smith, a golden boy after the profitable release of Chasing
Amy , who delivered the script for Good Will Hunting to Weinstein in
person and insisted that it be made. The moral here is to remember the
difference between the ability to recognize quality and the ability to create
it out of whole cloth.
-- Michael Bennett
Cohn
Chatterbox, Eat Your Hat!
The July 6
"Chatterbox" accused supporters of Alabama Gov. Fob James of
"down-and-dirty," "soulless," and "win-at-cost" politics because they called
African-American Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington a "liberal Democratic
political boss" and printed his picture when Arrington endorsed James' primary
opponent. My, my, aren't we sensitive. What part isn't true? And what is wrong
with reminding people that Arrington is black? Is Chatterbox claiming that race
is politically irrelevant? And Arrington isn't being made into a "Willie Horton
for the 1990s"? Chatterbox is equating the pairing of one's political opponent
with a violent criminal to the pairing of one's political opponent with a
mayor? I hope he will be similarly concerned the next time a Republican is
roughed up a little.
-- John Welte
The
Strong, Silent Type
About the following item in
the July 16 "Today's Papers": "USAT runs a completely positive account of
the productive and powerful partnership that has developed between Hillary
Clinton and Madeleine Albright, especially regarding international women's
issues such as the handling of rape charges at the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal,
and clamping down on the international prostitution trade. So what does it say
about the First Lady that for this article she not only declined to be
interviewed but even declined to answer written questions?"
Perhaps
it says that the first lady feels that she can accomplish more in the real
world by doing rather than talking, or perhaps she feels that the public has
had its fill of interviews and answers to written questions from such female
luminaries as Linda Tripp, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky. Get real!!!
-- Dick
Tartow Democratic candidate, state SenateNew Hampshire
All
Lewinsky, All the Time
The July 16 Today's Papers asks what it says about Hillary Clinton that she
refused to comment for a USA Today story on her partnership with
Madeleine Albright.
My
response: It says that she and her husband have been under such a barrage of
unfair criticism for so long that she is keeping her head down. A low profile
is not always such a bad thing, especially when MSNBC is all Lewinsky, all the
time.
-- Roy Barnhill
Down
With Brown!
Andrew
Sullivan's assessment of Tina Brown's New Yorker editorship in "Book Club" was brilliantly on the money. She replaced fine,
intelligent journalism with warmed-over Variety , New York , and
Vanity Fair pap and chased a lot of solid literary and artistic talent
out of the building and kept the door locked lest taste, God forbid, get
in.
-- Robert
Weber Guilford, Conn.
Too Much
Sex ...
Someday, I
am going to enter into
Slate
's online world and find nothing
about Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, or anything involving the words "sex
scandal." Someday ...
-- Kiffin Smith
... And
Too Much Breakfast
I love
the zine, and don't get me wrong about this, but go easy on "The
Breakfast Table," OK? This "easy aces" number takes up way too much space.
A lot of us read the papers, too (I do as part of my job), but why let
Marjorie and Tim hog so much of the book? If I want to have conversation about
the trivia of urban life, I can talk with my own wife; and you can fill the
otherwise entertaining, informative, urbane, and whimsical pages of
Slate
with things that I can't get at home.
-- Mike Gray
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