Mail from our readers

While many of our readers found themselves inspired to weigh in, one way or another, on our Ally McBeal & The Practice cover (#451, Sept. 25, 1998), others were more distressed by a different kind of practice: audio sweetening. ”Decades of annoying canned laugher and lame lip-synched music performances were bad enough,” says Paul Harrar of Nevada City, Calif., ”but now, some network sports highlight segments have begun to shamelessly add artificial sounds, such as the crack of baseball bats and fake grunts of football players on crunching tackles. More and more, I can’t trust what I hear on TV, and what I do hear often insults my intelligence.” We feel your pain, Paul (awww!), and we’ll do what we can (yay!) to stop the dubbing madness (applause!).

DAVID’S GOLIATHS

I just received the latest issue of EW with Calista Flockhart and Dylan McDermott on the cover and oh…my…God! This one definitely goes in the EW cover hall of fame, joining the likes of the Kim Delaney-Jimmy Smits and Michelle Pfeiffer-George Clooney pairings. Thanks for such a breathtaking cover and a great article on David E. Kelley.
SUSAN GOLDBERG
New York City

I can’t tell you how long it took me to actually open your Sept. 25, 1998, issue because I couldn’t get past the cover! I am one of a growing number of fans of The Practice, and David E. Kelley, Camryn Manheim, and the cast and crew deserve to celebrate their Emmy wins, and hopefully they will be around longer than the ”five-year plan” to prove the incredible talent that resides at that other Boston firm!
TRACY EVANS
Plano, Tex.

This afternoon I grabbed my EW and sat down to eat my lunch while I read it. Then I saw the cover and thought maybe I should share some food with Calista Flockhart! Can someone please feed this girl?
BARBARA CALUSDIAN
Mansfield, Mass.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For more on the controversy surrounding Calista Flockhart’s appearance, check out the article entitled “Calista Flockhart: Anorexia Rumors Abound”.

CANNED HAM

The quote from Drew Carey Show exec producer Bruce Helford (”A Laugh Riot”) — ”American audiences need a laugh track to be told it’s okay to laugh out loud” — is one of the most ludicrous things I’ve ever heard. Every year we hear the networks bemoaning the loss of their audience to cable and other venues. I think this attitude of needing to dumb down everything so that the simpleminded audiences can understand is one of the reasons for that loss. Hopefully, these network execs will realize this and begin producing shows which will appeal to people with an intellect higher than the average 5-year-old’s.
CINDY JACKSON
Carrollton, Tex.

PREVIEW REVUE

Thanks for the enlightening article on Sheryl Crow and her music. I’m a 15-year-old female musician, and I find her talent to be refreshing. I could care less about her love life, but if it brings us more great albums, then more power to her.
ESTHER PATTERSON
Hayward, Calif.

Oh, what a surprise! Not one upcoming country album previewed. Are you implying that no country albums are coming out this fall, or that you can’t be bothered with country albums? I have never seen such a mainstream magazine ignore an entire music category the way that you did.
GERARD A. FORTIER
Plainville, Mass.

MAPLE GRIEF

Owen, Owen, Owen… You’re one of the only reviewers whom I can constantly rely on. So I ask you, Owen, my man, what the heck does ”a very Canadian thriller” mean? I am one of the first people to admit that Canadian films are not always on a par with those of our American neighbors (let’s face it, it seems that Americans make better films, perhaps because all of our most gifted film talent go to the States so they can make some money!), but what’s with that crack? To say that many Canadian movies are humorless just doesn’t hit the mark. I know that Canadian films aren’t all that popular, but I really, honestly thought that comment was pretty unfair.
GREG PREECE
Toronto

CORRECTIONS: Actress Leelee Sobieski’s agent is Nancy Carson; her publicists are Craig Schneider and Jennifer Pinto at Kane & Associates (News & Notes). We misidentified a photograph of actor Anthony Roth Costanzo which accompanied our review of A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (Movies).

NEXT WEEK IN EW

NBC’s Will & Grace and the gay man-straight woman trend. Plus reviews of

— Beloved, with Oprah Winfrey (Movies)
— ABC’s The Hughleys (Television)
— Wander this World, by Jonny Lang (Music)