"How come you wrote about the Suns the way you did? How dare you sell out to Colangelo like that?"
Wonderful. Things are back to normal. Let's get a few other things out of the way.
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@body:The story about Heidi Foglesong's resignation as anchor at KTVK, Channel 3, was front-page news in both local daily newspapers.
I wonder why?
Who'll ever notice she's gone? Would they even recognize Heidi two weeks from now if they passed her at Metrocenter?
Consider the situation. Despite the hoopla, Heidi was a dual anchor at 10 p.m. with Cameron Harper, the Ken doll of local TV. So how much time did either of them have to gain immortality?
Media critic Ken Auletta pointed out something fairly significant about dual anchors in Three Blind Mice, his study of the fall of network television.
"With time subtracted for commercials and station breaks," Auletta wrote, "the half-hour newscast was only 22 minutes long--the script for the entire newscast if laid out would cover only two-thirds of the entire front page of the New York Times.
"Subtract another minute or two for music and credits, then add correspondents' reports, and the anchor was left with about five minutes to read the news and do bridges between stories."
How do you possibly divide the time? How do you allot enough for either of the two readers to make an impact?
Tom Brokaw, who isn't particularly bright, once summed it up fairly well: "This is a situation that can lead only to 'competitive cannibalism.'"
The truth of the matter is that Heidi and all the other women anchors in this town look alike. They all have jobs only because it is considered the politically correct thing for the stations to do.
All of these pretty, young things came out of the same charm school with similar haircuts, the same eyebrows and identical styles of reading the news.
We ignore the fact that it takes little more than a grade-school education to develop the skill necessary to read the news.
And yet we are inundated with so many advertisements about the news-gathering abilities of Heidi and her compatriots that we mistakenly begin to consider them journalists.
They are not journalists.
They are skilled readers who have learned when to pause, how to tilt their heads and how to smile at the end of each news brief describing the latest drive-by gang shooting.
If these young ladies weren't reading the news, they'd be running up and down the aisles of airplanes passing out bags of peanuts.
Incidentally, I was amused by Cameron Harper's fond farewell to his fellow anchor, Heidi.
Harper told the Arizona Republic, "She's breaking my heart, and I'm sure the hearts of a lot of people who have fallen in love with her on TV."
Harper, too, reminds me of one of those male airline stews. I can picture him rushing up and down those aisles, casting those bags of peanuts with the reckless abandon of a Castilian bullfighter.
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@body:Every time I come across an extremely readable novel, someone else comes along and turns it into an inferior movie.
This is what has happened to John Grisham's The Firm. As a novel, it was a terrific, suspenseful read. I looked forward to the movie.
I should have known better. I should have been warned off when I learned Tom Cruise was to be the film's star. Cruise's name at the top of the bill should be a signal to avoid the vicinity of the theatre at all costs.
Once you have seen Cruise in one movie, you have captured his style forever. It is impossible for him to play any character other than Tom Cruise.
And that character is always so self-centered, self-satisfied and narcissistic that he is guaranteed to give the average viewer a squirming fit in less than five minutes.
Watching Cruise act in a big scene is as relaxing as sitting down in a dental chair for a root canal. But nobody in Hollywood ever learns. They keep pairing Cruise with the best actors in Hollywood, hoping, no doubt, that moviegoers will forget Cruise's erratic presence.
In The Color of Money, Cruise played opposite Paul Newman. In A Few Good Men, he was paired with Jack Nicholson. In Rain Man, he worked with Dustin Hoffman. Now, in The Firm, he plays against Gene Hackman. In each of these films, Cruise's performance is dwarfed by those given by Newman, Nicholson, Hoffman and Hackman. The Color of Money, A Few Good Men and Rain Man were outstanding films despite Cruise's presence. They succeeded because the roles assigned to Newman, Nicholson and Hoffman were outstanding.
The weakness of The Firm stems directly from the fact that Hackman's role as the veteran lawyer who sold his ethical standards isn't powerful enough to carry the script.
They paid Cruise $12 million plus percentages to play the young Harvard lawyer who goes to work for a firm representing the Mafia.
The film's producers were so pleased with Cruise's performance that they gave him a bonus: a $100,000 Mercedes-Benz. What else is there to say?
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@body:I love it that the Arizona Republic has once again jumped on the Phoenix Cardinals' bandwagon. Joe Bugel, the lame-duck head coach, says he has been given an ultimatum by owner Bill Bidwill: Win or be gone. Bugel should have been gone two years ago. All of this is ridiculous. Once again, Bugel won't and can't possibly win, but Bidwill will keep him around until his contract runs out.
Bidwill is a man who is very close with a buck. But he has no pride. He would rather see his team continue to be embarrassed on the field than to dump Bugel while the coach still has time on his contract.
The key to this year's Cardinals roster is not who they brought in, but who they let get away. The loss of Tim McDonald, one of the best defensive backs in football, was devastating. I'm sure McDonald now figures that he escaped from the National Football League's zoo.
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@body:What has happened to Jerry Colangelo's search for an impact player to bolster the Phoenix Suns? Unless Colangelo makes the trade for Dennis Rodman or comes up with the dough for A.C. Green, the Suns will come up short again next season.
Or has Colangelo decided to stand pat and build up the profit margin while everyone remains in a state of euphoria over last season?
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@body:I heard County Attorney Richard Romley on the Pat McMahon radio show the other day. Romley continues to be the most despicable public servant in memory.
Before the show was over, Romley admitted he plans to become Arizona's governor before his career ends. That's not all. While being interviewed recently by Laura Greenberg for a quietly devastating profile for Phoenix magazine, Romley let it be known that his friends keep urging him to run for attorney general.
Romley's "friends" are no doubt the same lawyers Grant Woods tossed over the side when Woods assumed command of the AG's Office. Is one of them named Barnett Lottstein?
On another note, was Lottstein named Romley's special assistant only to remove Lottstein from a very embarrassing situation?
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@body:Dennis DeConcini, like Richard Nixon, insists he is not a crook. Our problem is that we just don't understand Dennis or how deep his desire is to do good and honest work for us.
His wife understands him. She left him. Dennis kept insisting he never knew that his two top aides, Earl Katz and Ron Ober, were as thick as thieves with Charles Keating. John Dougherty's blockbuster article, "DeConcini & Keating," in the July 14 New Times blasted that alibi away for good.
But what about Superior Court Judge Paul Katz? That's Earl Katz's son. Wasn't Paul involved in all those Keating deals, too? How did he end up?
DeConcini's clout got him appointed to the bench by Rose Mofford as one of her final acts as governor. Lovely. Time marches on.
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@body:Speaking of judges, let's turn our attention for the moment to Jim Skelly. The rollicking former member of the state House of Representatives was on a talk show the other day. Skelly was asked how he thought J. Fife Symington was doing as governor.
Skelly said he thought Symington was doing an excellent job as governor, and that sooner or later, the voters would realize what a great job Symington had done for the state.
What Skelly forgot to mention was the fact that Symington recently appointed Skelly's son, Chris Skelly, a young man with limited credentials as a lawyer, to the Superior Court bench.
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@body:Clint Eastwood is better in In the Line of Fire than he has ever been before. John Malkovich's performance as the assassin is of Academy Award quality. And yet, after seeing this film, I took Of Mice and Men out of the video store and discovered Malkovich in another giant performance as Lenny in the John Steinbeck epic.
Some movies never find their proper niche. Two very good ones that were overlooked in the theatres are now out on videocassette: Used People, with Shirley MacLaine, and The Waterdance.
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@body:State Treasurer Tony West raised his porcine head from the muck again last week. By the time the story about the effort by West and his pals to gain control of the $10.5 billion in the state retirement fund surfaced, the oleaginous former legislator was running for cover again.
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@body:It is now acknowledged that Richard Romley and his cronies not only botched the AzScam case, but that they have now succeeded in botching the temple murders case, as well. How do you grant immunity to the main man in the killing, one who went on to commit a subsequent murder with another accomplice two months later?
As for the AzScam case, former state senator Carolyn Walker is on her way back out of prison. A juror in the Walker case called Romley on the telephone the other day. The juror had a question that Romley could not answer.
"How come I sat on the jury longer than Carolyn Walker served in jail?
