Gene Wilder

In Hollywood, size counts. Whether budgets, box-office receipts, parties or pools, bigger is inevitably considered better. That being the case, the town's greatest honors, adulations and compensations are offered to the stars of the biggest screen. Movie actors are the most luminous in Hollywood's star system; television performers may be admired but for the most part are . . . well, smaller points of light.

In "Another You" (citywide), co-stars Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder are showcased as if they were one of the movies' great comedy teams--even though they've only appeared together three times previously. A transparent marketing gimmick? Not entirely. Pryor and Wilder do have something special when they interact--though, maddeningly, they rarely get to exploit it fully. Here, their roles are thin but tailor-made.

It has been two years since actress Gilda Radner died from ovarian cancer and two years since her widower, actor Gene Wilder, took up the crusade of informing women about early detection and treatment of the disease. He jokes about retiring from medicine now but seriously states that he's happy to have accomplished some major goals in educating the public and the medical profession.

The posters promoting Paramount Pictures' "Funny About Love" show Gene Wilder in a wacky pose with an alarm clock and baby perched on top of his red-blond Brillo hair. The image is typical of how audiences have come to perceive the actor, best known for an endearingly guileless slapstick schtick that has defined his on-screen persona from 1968's "The Producers" through his last film, 1989's "See No Evil, Hear No Evil."

It seems like only yesterday--in fact, it was only yesterday--that babies were big in the movies. This kitchy-kitschy-koo era, typified by "Three Men and a Baby," has receded somewhat, but a few stray gurgles and burps can still be heard. "Funny About Love" stars Gene Wilder as Duffy Bergman, a Garry Trudeau-like cartoonist whose marriage, his second, founders on the couple's inability to produce a child. His new wife, Meg Lloyd (Christine Lahti), is an aspiring chef.

I have a "one word" complaint about Pam Lopez-Johnson's May 29 article, " 'See No Evil'? Deaf Actors Say They Do." She wrote that the movie "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" "isn't drawing many laughs from members of the hearing-impaired community. They say the film just reinforces age-old stereotypes." That's just not fair and it's just not accurate. If Ms. Lopez-Johnson had used the term " some members of the hearing-impaired community," that would have been fair and accurate.

"See No Evil, Hear No Evil" (citywide) is an apt title for this brisk, ingenious and funny comedy that happily reunites Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Pryor's Wally is blind, and he is as proudly stubborn about acknowledging his disability as Wilder's Dave is about admitting that he is totally deaf. They skirmish mightily upon meeting each other, but Dave recognizes enough of himself in Wally to hire him as an assistant at his Manhattan lobby newsstand. Wally doesn't even have a chance to start work before he and his new boss are swept up in non-stop adventure.