CHARLTON HESTON, who died Saturday at age 84, was an avid newspaper reader, eager to share his opinions. In addition to writing dozens of letters to the paper over four decades, the "Ben-Hur" star often would telephone Los Angeles Times editors with his comments.
While his political views were typically conservative, they were not always dogmatic. Equally distinctive was the way the Oscar winner sometimes read the paper: He would have an assistant spread sections around his pool, and Heston would peruse different stories between laps. By the time he'd completed his workout, he also had finished the day's news.
Here are excerpts from some of Heston's letters to the paper:
Spike Lee's threat
IN a fit of pique at the Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee said I should be shot "with a .44 Bulldog" (the handgun used by the serial killer Son of Sam). In response, I feel some irony. In '63, when I was marching for the freedom of black Americans, I was threatened by white men. In '99, active now for the freedom of all Americans, I'm threatened by a black man.
June 1999
--
Elia Kazan's Oscar
SO the Oscars came off smoothly, with good work rewarded. Early anxieties about the [honorary Oscar presented to director Elia] Kazan . . . went unrealized. There was some scuffling by street protesters but inside the hall the presentation was vigorously applauded; only a few sat silent. It seems that the fierce and relentless attack on Kazan, lasting many weeks, was in fact the last hurrah of the Hollywood left. (Mind you, the Hollywood liberal is still with us, but that's a different breed of cat entirely, alive and well, content to be the arbiter of taste, political correctness and the search for the next Great Restaurant.)
March 1999
--
Well, whatever
THE cultural and social fabric of the country is fraying around the edges as we split up into separate little Gypsy camps, each with a different agenda, heading in different directions. A while ago, I was at one of those silly "A-list" parties and fell into conversation on all this with a stunningly beautiful, famous star (not a bad actress, either) who said, "Well, look what it says on the dollar bill: 'e pluribus unum.' From one, many." "Actually, you've got the Latin backward," I replied. "It translates, 'From many, one.' As in one nation . . . indivisible?" "No kidding?" she said, amazed. "Well . . . whatever." And there you have it. We live, increasingly, in a "well, whatever" nation. God help us all.
