Elvis

"Look at me, do I look like an alter kocker ?" Jerry Weintraub asks. Verily, he does not. At the moment, he looks like a guy ready to swing a golf club at a visitor for asking him if he feels like -- to offer a rough translation from the Yiddish -- an old fart. At 72, Jerry Weintraub is still swinging. He has just come out with his autobiography: "When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories From a Persuasive Man" (Twelve: 292 pp., $25.99). For a fat tract of the last half of the last century, Weintraub was the Man Behind the Man, whether the man was Sinatra, Elvis or George H.W. Bush.

Elvis was not cooperating. I wanted to raise his back left leg and clean his hoof. Elvis wanted to be left alone. I pinched, prodded and pulled. Elvis remained as rigid as a carousel charger. "Do you rely on charming people?" asked Wyatt Webb, a beefy, bearded, cowboy-therapist who was monitoring my futility. Huh? Sure. I guess so. "Charm's not going to work on a horse," he said. "Stop thinking, and commit to what you're going to do. Walk purposely to him. The last step same as the first.

Johnny Thompson may be the king of King, but Elvis would never wear a wristwatch while in jumpsuit garb ("Rockers, Rollers & Slot Machine Trollers," The Vegas Issue, Nov. 5). A diamond-studded bracelet? Always on the King. And Johnny's rings are mere pebbles compared to the boulders Elvis always wore. And Johnny is wearing two; Elvis would always wear at least three. Ronald Hennes Hollywood

The warm and charming "White Wedding" is like "The Hangover" off steroids. It's another get-me-to-the-church-on-time obstacle course but filled with smart social commentary, romantic wisdom, credible complications and memorable characters. Along the way, director Jann Turner (who co-wrote the script with the film's co-leads Kenneth Nkosi and Rapulana Seiphemo) provides an absorbing physical and cultural snapshot of contemporary South Africa that deepens but never burdens this buoyant, energetic effort.

I recently saw the TV movie "Elvis and the Colonel: The Untold Story" (NBC, Jan. 11) and I thought it was ridiculous. I have known Col. Parker for many years and I was also one of several acts that were on the concert bill before Elvis was presented. I was a lyric tenor. As far as I'm concerned, if it hadn't been for Parker's (able) management of Elvis, he would have remained a truck driver in Tupelo, Miss. Frank Connors, Beverly Hills