READERS BITE BACK

Letters

Ross Currents

Lynn Hirschberg's "Diana Ross—The Re-Happening'' [March] was fantastic. Diana is my idol. As far as Whitney Houston is concerned, Diana has nothing to worry about. She is the boss of pop music and always will be.

BECKY REED Edwardsville, Pennsylvania

As Diana Ross says in your article, "It always seems to be who takes the credit for how something became..." Lady Sings the Blues was first produced by me, not Motown or Berry Gordy. After the picture finished filming, Berry Gordy purchased an executive-producer credit and bought the foreign rights to the picture for Motown from Paramount for the $2.2 million cost of the negative. The foreign release was sadly mishandled, but the domestic release proved to be a huge success.

I acquired the rights to Billie Holiday's autobiography in 1959 and held on to them for thirteen years against the onslaught of many who tried to force their way into the project. Diana's manager, Gordy, twice refused to allow her to star in the film, relenting only when I signed Sidney Furie to direct it.

Diana Ross is the best, most professional actress I've worked with in twenty-five years of making films. Her subsequent film career was a major disappointment to me as well as to her fans. In February I was with her in Spago, and we discussed a film reunion. I predict she'll come back to the movie world bigger than ever.

JAY WESTON Beverly Hills, California

Diana Ross has been criticized unfairly for forgetting her roots, for not having an Aretha-size voice, and for selling out. People should understand that Ross has earned a place in history as a female black who succeeded in almost every form of entertainment. No deep Tracy Chapman messages, no great causes, just entertainment. More than Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, or Josephine Baker, Ross was the trailblazer for Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, and Sade.

THOMAS ADRAHTAS Northbrook, Illinois

Hirschberg casually mentions that Nile Rodgers is producing Ross's latest album, which is like saying that it would be perfectly natural to see Johnny Carson and Joan Rivers out on a date. The feuding between Rodgers and Ross during the making of the 1980 album Diana is legendary. The very idea of these two in the same room together again is worthy of at least a raised eyebrow.

SAM IRVIN New York, New York

Your cover photo showed Diana Ross with a smoky sensuality seldom displayed by any other celebrity, black or white. Ross is her own Mount Everest.

ALAN L. LA SHA Pasadena, California

A comeback for Diana? She never left.

WICK BLAIR Thomasville, North Carolina

Seeds of Violence

I have never been more angered by a story than I was by Leslie Bennetts's "Seeds of Violence" [March]. Since John and Judy Wideman continue to insist that their son Jacob was not himself when he murdered Eric Kane, what I want to know is, who was he? Did he turn into a hero figure for himself, or was he just another youth who committed a murder?

MICHAEL ROBEY Dallas, Texas

Leslie Bennetts's probe of the Widemans struck me as callous and insensitive. So the Widemans' ex-neighbors found them to be private people; so, maybe they're private people. Judy Wideman's quoted remarks in her letter to one of them seemed to me to be right on the mark. I would hope that my neighbors, none of whom 1 know much more than by name, would never feel compelled to assess my character. How could they? Likewise, how can a rival in a pickup basketball game be asked to assess the character of another player? Perhaps the Widemans have asked their real friends to remain quiet because they don't wish to have a very painful personal tragedy laid bare and possibly distorted.

ARNOLD SABATELLI Williamsburg, Massachusetts

Guppie Love

I hope James Wolcott reads the rest of the March issue in which "Guppie Fiction,'' his review of David Leavitt's new book, Equal Affections, appears. He could gain some insight into reviewing by reading Bob Woodward's quote in Toby Thompson's "Red-Diaper Bernstein'': "People for too long have been reviewing Carl's life rather than his work.''

DALE KIMMETT Boston, Massachusetts

Give the guys a break! James Wolcott's review seems out of step with the reality of AIDS in the gay male world. Gay men living out the fantasies of gay male writers, satisfying their "greedy thirst for gritty swigs of experience,'' have had their share of societal abuse, heartache, sickness, and death. "To be a guppie is to be something of a control queen.'' Thank goodness. Hopefully it's not too late for most. "Middle age may leave them petrified.'' But they'll be alive.

JEANNE LESZCZYNSKI Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Mouthing Off

In "Bernie's Blabfest," by Lynn Hirschberg [March], Hee Haw should not have been included among Bemie Brillstein's successes. Frank Peppiatt and I created that show for CBS in 1969. Bemie was our manager at the time, and he collected his straight commission from us. He at no time had a part in the creation or ownership of Hee Haw. True, as our manager he did offer advice. When the show was canceled by CBS in 1971, Bemie pleaded with us not to put it into syndication. If we had listened to him, Hee Haw would not have celebrated its twentieth successful year on the air in

March 1988. Perhaps Brillstein should put his memory where his mouth is.

JOHN AYLESWORTH Palm Springs, California

Lynn Hirschberg's article was a wonderful distillation. As Bemie Brillstein's architect and decorator, I was delighted that she liked my work. Thanks for the praise.

EVAN P. GALEN New York, New York

Hirschberg says that Bob Woodward in Wired felt that John Belushi's "friends were not there for him.'' Bemie Brillstein, his manager, explains his nonaction by saying, "There was a certain time in this world when drugs were very hip. No one had died. Well, black people had died, but no white people had died." Perhaps that explains why drugs have only recently become a national issue—because now white people are dying. It didn't matter so much when it was only Dorothy Dandridge, or Charlie Parker, or Billie Holiday. Or urban youth seeking escape. Now the enemy has infiltrated white America's tennis courts, its schools, its homes. It's a guerrilla insurgence that can't be fought with the slogan "Just say no."

CARLA-MARIA SOREY Brooklyn. New York

Emperor's New Locus

I would like to make one correction in Edward Klein's very interesting article on Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko ["Empire of the Son," March]. The opening color photo was taken not in Boston but in front of the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. This site was chosen by Akihito for his formal address to the American people because of a dramatic sea rescue that occurred in 1841. One of the rescued, a fisherman named Manjiro from Tosashimizu, Japan, returned to Fairhaven with his rescuer, whaling captain William H. Whitfield, and became the first Japanese to be educated in America. He subsequently returned to Japan just ahead of Commodore Perry, and his knowledge of America influenced the relationship between the two countries. In 1987, a sister-city arrangement was formalized between Tosashimizu and Fairhaven.

CAROLYN LONGWORTH Fairhaven. Massachusetts

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