SPEEDING BULLOCK

Letters

The fascinating, enigmatic, controversial Sandra Bullock ["America's Sweetheart," by Jennet Conant, September]! C'mon now. She's a sweet, crushingly ordinary young woman who has carried just one motion picture. Maybe, I thought, there was more to this lucky Mary Tyler Moore clone than meets the eye. A quirky artistic vision? A bohemian underlife? Nope. No skeleton in the closet . . . just junk food in the fridge . . . and the horror of having once been dumped by a boyfriend.

KARL SCHIFFMAN Los Angeles, California

Jennet Conant has brought out the funloving, charming personality that has made Ms. Bullock America's sweetheart. It is nice to see a genuinely nice, down-to-earth individual receive the success she so richly deserves.

NANCY EPSTEIN Fairfax Station, Virgina

For those of us who graduated from high school with Sandy Bullock, it was bad enough that she's beautiful, has maintained a great Figure, has a terrific career, hangs out with gorgeous men like Troy Aikman, and makes lots of money. But it seemed a particularly cruel twist of fate that while the rest of Washington-Lee High's class of '82 marched bravely into our 30s she somehow managed to remain a preternaturally young 27 or 28 years old, depending on which publication you read. So, it was a big relief to read in September's Vanity Fair that she's Finally hitting the big three-oh—albeit nearly two years after the rest of us. Some girls have all the luck.

LESLIE AUN McCLAIN Dallas, Texas

Egad! "America's Sweetheart" is about as saccharine as the entire jar of Marshmallow Fluff Ms. Bullock purportedly ate in Joel Silver's trailer. We know Sandra has got to have more substance than this. Besides, it's just not fair that she gets to eat Twizzlers—and looks so damned good in bloomers hanging from a tree.

JANE HUGHES YEUNG West Sacramento, California

Barbra Black Sheep

Thanks for the remembrance of early Streisand ["Becoming Barbra," by James Spada, September]. While Barbra may prefer the powerful and successful woman she is today, I feel that something wonderfully unique was lost when she became a Hollywood star.

MARTIN ZONIS Hamden, Connecticut

In the excerpt from the new Barbra Streisand biography there is a photo collage of the opening night of Funny Girl. The man who is identified in the caption as lyricist Bob Merrill, my husband, is actually Milton Rosenstock, the show's musical conductor.

SUZANNE MERRILL Beverly Hills, California

Revisionist HIStorv

As an ex-Jackson employee who worked closely with Michael Jackson, and who has been harassed and outcasted because I dared to tell the emperor that he is naked, I wish to thank you for your article, which informed the world that Michael lied and PrimeTime allowed him to do it ["The Jackson Jive," by Maureen Orth, September].

I must admit, I was not surprised. (Did you really expect him to say on national television that he is a childmolester?) What I wonder is, if the child were given the same airtime to tell his story, would the world still see Michael as a victimized icon? If everything came out, would people finally realize that there is a negative side to Michael Jackson that goes deeper than bleached skin and countless plastic surgeries?

ORIETTA MURDOCK Los Angeles, California

Maureen Orth is to be commended for giving so many people the truth about this man-child King of Nothing.

ANNE F. SCHAEFFER New York, New York

Since when have Vanity Fair and Maureen Orth been designated as judge and jury regarding Michael Jackson? This man has not been tried or convicted of any crime, period. When the dust settles in this sorry debacle and the real criminals are exposed, the only abuse shown will be the media persecution of Michael Jackson based on unproven allegations.

ROSEMARY COIA Bentonville, Arkansas

Newt Testaments

After reading Gail Sheehy's remarkable portrait of the Speaker of the House ["The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich," September] I cannot decide whether I am more disillusioned by a system that allows such men to rise to the top or disheartened by the prospect that this man may rise even higher.

Sheehy's almost casual observation that Gingrich is "self-obsessed" may be the journalistic understatement of the century. Seldom, if ever, have I observed such a combination of cynicism, arrogance, and manipulation in a public figure. While I have never liked Gingrich or his politics, I was, frankly, unprepared for the level of antipathy I experienced as a direct result of this reading.

JAMES ROSS JOHNSON Boston, Massachusetts

Gail Sheehy's bilge about Speaker Gingrich was callous and cruel. Newt Gingrich is a brilliant, courageous visionary who threatens the political establishment and cultural elite as no other politician ever has. This is the true reason he is being vilified by the powerful forces aligned against him. If voters like me have our way, Newt will be elected president one day, and personal attacks in the media will not prevent us from supporting this wonderful, remarkable man. He has handled this vile assault with strength and dignity. He has always been very candid about his personal problems and struggles and has never pretended to be a saint. Newt has the vision and leadership qualities America desperately needs.

L. WARREN Atlanta. Georgia

Unfortunately, the ones who need to read your article on Newtie are the very ones who would never admit to reading your excellent publication. It should be a required text for all the voters in the Sixth District of Georgia before the next election. One hopes that when the congressional lines are redrawn Newtie will Find himself in a district with thinking voters—not knee-jerk no-brainers.

GAIL STRICKLAND Griffin, Georgia

Gail Sheehy reveals more about herself than her subject. She wants the public to believe that Newt Gingrich is a self-serving ideologue, while she indulges in much the same antics in her broad-brush disparagement of him and his character. After reading such a distorted picture of Newt Gingrich, one wonders how reliable Sheehy's analysis and research skills are; certainly she appears incapable of moving outside of her need to manipulate opinion while exploiting her subject.

JESSIE ADAMS Wilsonville, Oregon

I can't make up my mind which is sadder, a country that would make an obviously lonely, sick, dysfunctional emotional cripple into a political leader or that man himself. As a human being, I can only wish Newt good luck in his search for fulfillment and healing. But as a U.S. citizen, I don't care to have my political or moral boundaries set by a man who obviously doesn't have any of his own.

KEVIN McCLUSKEY Boston, Massachusetts Gail Sheehy offers some valuable psychological insights into Speaker Gingrich, but we can't help noting her failure to credit David Osborne's 1984 Mother Jones article, which initially reported many of the anecdotes in her piece.

Last summer, we published a groundbreaking account of the ethics charges against the Speaker. In 1995, this is the issue that cries out for scrutiny. Yet Ms. Sheehy devoted only two columns of a 14-page article to examining how the Speaker's monumental ego has led him to run roughshod over the rules set up to control the influence of money over politics. Newt's "inner quest" is having consequences far beyond his family and personal associates. Would that Sheehy had devoted more of her considerable reporting talents to those consequences.

JEFFREY KLEIN Editor in chief. Mother Jones San Francisco, California

Mike Feedback

I was the only Daily News employee quoted on the record in M. A. Farber's account of Mike McAlary's controversial columns ["Unreasonable Doubt," October], and as a result many people reasonably concluded that Farber interviewed me. He didn't. My quote was lifted, without attribution, from a Five-year-old New York Times story. Farber and I never spoke about McAlary or anything else.

TOM ROBBINS New York, New York

Fair Game

Your magazine cover may cater to the "star-conscious," and your advertisements to the "fashion-conscious," but the majority of your articles cater to us "news junkies/truth seekers." Please don't ever let that dwindle.

REONNE HASLETT Vacaville, California

CORRECTION: In "Trouble on the Court," by Frank Deford, in the August issue, the name of the late women's-tennis aficionado Teddy Tinling was misspelled. Vanity Fair regrets the error.

Letters to the editor should be sent with the writer's name, address, and daytime phone number to: The Editor, Vanity Fair, 350 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10017. Address electronic mail to vfmail@vf.com. The letters chosen for publication may be edited for length and clarity.