A PIECE OF THE MUSIC

Readers give Clive Davis something to listen to; V.F. reader seeks S.Y.R (single young painter); Jay Moloney remembered; Jeffrey Archer gets a laugh; The Sopranos strikes a wrong note with Italian-Americans; Annette Bening is sent to her room; standing up for Chicago

would be Robert Sam Anson's profile of Clive Davis ["Clive Davis Fights Back," February] left it with the mistaken impression that Davis was responsible for discovering Bruce Springsteen for Columbia Records. While Davis's relationship with Springsteen was a good one, and he did, as head of the company, go out of his way to promote Bruce's first album, there is no question that Bruce was discovered professionally by the legendary talent scout (and civil-rights activist) John Hammond. It was the elder statesman Hammond who heard Bruce audition in May 1972, inl-

and demanded that Columbia sign him. That's when Davis picked up the ball, only to be ousted before the recording of Springsteen's first masterpiece, Born to Run, in 1975.

ERIC ALTERMAN Author of It Ain't No Sin to Be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen New York, New York

WHILE CLIVE DAVIS is clearly an extraordinary music executive, Robert Sam Anson demonstrates aptly that his "ego is rivaled only by his

YOUNG, BEAUTIFUL, AND SHOWING AT MARY BOONE

WHY DOES your article "Gotta Paint!" [by Ingrid Sischy, February] look more like a casting call for a Gap ad than a portfolio of cutting-edge artists?

Even the Gucci ad in that issue shows people of varying ages and ethnicities.

Reading this article made me think that one of the criteria for artists in New York is to be photogenic, and that the line between supermodel and fine artist is blurred.

Hey, I can appreciate beauty, but in this case, it's a distraction from the article's original intent. As I was reading, you see, I developed a crush on artist John Currin.

OLIVIA TARR Seattle, Washington

ear." Davis laments that "CBS not only fired me, they rewrote history to pretend that I'd never existed." Then Davis does some pretty fancy rewriting of his own.

Here are just a few who were written out of the mythology Davis created for himself: John Hammond (the century's most important A&R man, who actually discovered Bruce Springsteen, as well as Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Bob Dylan), Gerry Griffith (the "unknown A&R man" who found Whitney Houston for Arista), and my late father, Larry Uttal, the longtime president of Bell Records.

Contrary to the Davis myth, Arista was not created out of whole cloth—it was a continuation of Bell Records. Bell gave Arista executives, artists, and three of its earliest big successes—Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester (each released two albums on Bell), and the Bay City Rollers. Look at the photo of Davis's own gold record for Manilow's "Mandy"—it's on the Bell label, not Arista.

Clive Davis has accomplished a great deal. It's too bad he seems incapable of sharing the credit.

JODY UTTAL Venice, California

EXCELLENT ARTICLE ON Clive Davis by Robert Sam Anson. I am truly amused by a recent comment on Davis by Tony Bennett printed in the December issue of Jazz Times. To a query by an interviewer about Duke Ellington's being dropped by Columbia Records in 1962,

Bennett replied, "Yeah. Clive Davis came up to Duke and said, 'Mr. Ellington, we have to drop you from Columbia because you're not selling records.' And Duke said, 'Well, I think you have it turned around. I write the music; you're supposed to sell the records.'"

Knowing of Ellington's pride and temper, I would be surprised if he did not say a good deal more to Davis at that time. This may have had a residual effect in the offices of Columbia Records to this day, for it has yet to honor Ellington's centennial with a full reissuance of all his great music in its vaults.

FRANK K. SCHENCK Greenville, North Carolina

CLIVE DAVIS IS clearly very good at one thing: self-preservation. In a business that's almost as notorious as the film business for rapid rises and even swifter descents, Davis has demonstrated that he's very capable of outmaneuvering all comers. But I do not think that Davis's musical sensibilities are what Anson and others say they are. Yes, he's had many successes, but they must be viewed in proportion to the length of time he's been in the business.

At quite a few points, Davis's taste seemed behind the curve. His tastes, more often than not, have tended toward the tried and safe. For example, it's true that Santana recently had a monster hit, but that's the first one in almost three decades.

I also think Davis has had a negative

influence in escalating costs. Sean "Puffy" Combs demanded outrageous sums of money, for instance, and Davis eagerly gave it. As both your article and time itself have shown, Combs's track record has not been so good of late. And does anyone honestly believe that his is a talent that will be around in a decade? Giving in to Puffy's demands only causes the financial side of the business to spiral even more out of control.

Finally, I'm amazed that Davis feels that it's he who decides when he leaves his job—not his superiors. We'd all love to work in a job like that, but that's not reality. Part of the entertainment business is fantasy, and I think that Davis's long ride has left him with a deluded sense of grandeur. That's unfortunate. If Davis really cared about what was best for BMG, he would step aside gracefully, and let LaFace Records cofounder Antonio "L.A." Reid step into the position.

CLARK PHILLIPS New York, New York

HIGH TIMES AT CAA

I WAS TRULY SADDENED when I heard the news of Jay Moloney's passing ["Golden Boy Lost," by Ned Zeman, February]. I started in the mailroom of CAA in 1982, and, like Moloney, I became Mike Ovitz's assistant. I remember seeing Jay that first day of his internship. He was innocence personified. Since it was summer and Moloney's college dorm was closed, I invited him to stay in my house. He was like a little brother. We laughed and worked long, long hours.

As my tenure with Ovitz went on, I, like others who worked closely with him, was treated differently. I had access to his clients and to executives. Actors wanted to know me.

Then I, too, fell into the trap of drug use, lies, irresponsibility, and depression. It went on for much of the time I was at CAA, which ended in 1987. I had periods of sobriety, went to treatment in 1993, and finally realized I needed out of "the business" in order to put my recovery first. It still took time. I would reflect on where I had been, the opportunities I had let pass me by. But it did not matter anymore—my focus and first priority was to stay sober one day at a time.

Knowing how much Richard Lovett and David O'Connor and the other CAA "Young Turks" cared for Jay makes the story all the more poignant. They did all they could, I'm sure, both personally and professionally. Jay needed to leave the business, to deal with his demons, and to gain some humility. It is a humbling experience to fall from Hollywood grace, but you can land on your feet. So far I have!

Rest in peace, Jay.

STUART GRIFFEN New York, New York

I WISH to applaud you for your most sensitive and provocative article about Jay Moloney. Ned Zeman's term "primary villain" accurately describes the disease that "ravaged Moloney's life." Almost two million Americans suffer from manic-depressive illness, and one out of every five will die by suicide. Zeman provided the readers

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With a description of a bipolar illness that enabled them to grasp the terrible turmoil Moloney experienced. There is evidence linking manic-depressive illness, artistic creativity, and suicide. More research is needed to determine this vulnerability. Thank you, Vanity Fair, for giving readers some insight into the tragedy of Jay Moloney.

PEGGY FARRELL New Jersey chapter American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Freehold, New Jersey

ALLOW ME TO COMMEND you for your insightful piece on Jay Moloney. Unlike one of our glossy local monthlies, which ran a puff piece on the similar death of the television actor David Strickland last year, Ned Zeman had the intelligence not simply to dismiss Moloney as a victim of Hollywood excess and "too much too soon." Manicdepression is far more prevalent in our society than many either realize or will acknowledge. I pray that one day the stigma of mental illness will be removed and that no more young, talented lives will be wasted.

SID ROSELLINI Hollywood, California

LORD OF DENIAL

CONGRATULATIONS to Judy Bachrach for her fine article on Jeffrey Archer's downfall in your February edition ["Fall of the House of Archer"]. One point needs correcting. On page 100, she writes, "It's a wonder scarcely anyone in London noticed how dangerous it would be for Archer to run for mayor." Early in 1998, the London Evening Standard courageously ran a two-page article by Paul Foot which listed all the reasons why Archer was unfit to be lord mayor. From its cautious wording, I believe that every punctuation mark had been triple-checked by a team of lawyers, but it still contained enough damning evidence to convince any sane person that Archer was a massive risk.

For legal reasons, that article carefully stated that the accusations which the tabloid Daily Star made in 1986 about Archer and the prostitute Monica Coghlan were false. From my own recollections of that hilarious libel case, I doubt that more than a handful of people in Britain believed a word of Archer's denial. Archer won a technical legal victory and £500,000 in damages, and comedians had a field day saying, "I need £2,500

to go abroad—can Jeffrey help me out?"

I suspect that, like me, most British people took the view that it was wonderful to see the sewer press being crucified, guilty or innocent. The downside was that the huge award made editors even more terrified of legal action than they had been, and it probably inhibited several important investigations into genuine scandals.

WILLIAM MURPHY Farmington Hills, Michigan

THAT'S NOT ITALIAN!

JAMES WOLCOTT'S effusive piece on The Sopranos ["HBO's Singular Sensation," February] dismisses any objections the nation's estimated 20 million Italian-Americans might have to the series, and inaccurately states that "their protests proved short-lived when Rudy Giuliani, among others, rallied to the show's defense."

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., and dedicated to preserving the heritage of Americans of Italian descent, the nation's fifthlargest ethnic group. We wish Mr. Wolcott had gotten in touch with us or any of the many other Italian-American organizations across the country before misstating the case so grossly.

NIAF has aired its concerns with HBO and David Chase, the program's creator, in a series of meetings that began last year. NIAF also complained about the Web site of HBO's parent company, Time Warner, which had a glossary from The Sopranos containing terms such as "Stugots," "Ginzo gravy," and "Wonder Bread Wop."

As a result of the NIAF protest, Time Warner has removed the offensive page from its Internet site and HBO has agreed to meet further with NIAF to discuss ways to present a fairer portrait of Italian-Americans on the network.

NIAF also has joined an alliance of seven leading Italian-American organizations, which has met with HBO on this issue. In January the alliance released a joint statement condemning the unbalanced portrait of Italian-Americans presented in The Sopranos and other television programs.

Our supporters are deeply disturbed by this HBO series and the media's embracing of it. They believe that if "artistic excellence" were the only criterion for entertainment, we would still be watching reruns of Amos and Andy. That once popular series is off the air because it perpetuated unflattering stereotypes of

African-Americans. Italian-Americans are at a loss to understand why The Sopranos is still on the air.

DONA DE SANCTIS Director, Research and Cultural Affairs

NIAF

Washington, D.C.

WHILE I'M A FAN of HBO, I don't share Mr. Wolcott's exuberance over its merits, particularly those of The Sopranos. As a study of manners, the Mafia show is spot-on. But the characters? Come on.

Livia and Carmela are in danger of becoming the "ghetto" Alexis and Krystle Carrington. And despite therapy, the men are merely charming murderers—J. R. Ewing with snarls and strip clubs.

MICHAEL LIPSCOMB Bronx, New York

HOLLYWOOD BABY

I WAS APPALLED by Annette Bening's comment concerning pregnancy in the article "He Stars, She Stars" [by Peter Biskind, February]: "At the end of the pregnancy, you are so filled with hate and bitterness and rage ... that all you want is

to get it out." In all my commiserating with fellow pregnant women, I have never heard pregnancy described as such; maybe it's been referred to as an uncomfortable, miserable, or anxious time, but not

full of hate, bitterness, or rage. I wonder how those feelings will affect her unborn child.

MARILYNN FIKARIS-PIERETTI Glen Ellyn, Illinois

HOW REFRESHING. After years of tap dancing and playing it safe, Warren Beatty finally goes out on a limb and reveals something personal. One hopes he'll find the experience similar to his first taste of goat cheese ... a little sour initially, but then strangely satisfying.

LINDA VIDETTI FIGUEIREDO Los Angeles, California

DISAPPOINTED. IN CHICAGO

I WAS TRULY disappointed by the Chicago column of your "Intelligence Report" [by Adam Leff and Richard Rushfield, "Vanities," February], which was filled with decades-old stereotypes and cheap shots. Jim Belushi hasn't lived in Chicago for years, and neither has Mike Ditka. References to a garden gnome, Redbook, and the Dodge Caravan reflect a stereotype of no-style midwestemers that all East Coasters buy into simply to reassure themselves that they are still the hippest people in North America. Have you visited our Michigan Avenue? Our five-star restaurants and hotels? Have you traveled our incomparable lakefront? It is obvious that Adam Leff and Richard Rushfield have never seen any of it. Otherwise, they would have had more accurate and respectful things to say about Chicago, a distinctive, distinguished place to live and to visit.

TAMRA POWELL Chicago, Illinois

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