Open Letter to Entertainment Weekly

I don’t write letters to magazines and I’m not sure that my comments are worthy of writing this time, but I just had to write after reading another love letter to “Juno”. Let’s get this out of the way. I LOVED the movie; I loved Ellen Page and every other major character. I loved the soundtrack (I bought it the day after I saw the movie). I loved the screenplay. But I must wonder if EW’s incessant cheerleading for Juno has to do more with validating the hire of Diablo Cody as a “columnist” or the quality of the movie. (Do I have to insert the required allusion to Ms Cody’s past as a stripper and sex phone operator or can we stop doing that now?)

I was pretty shocked when I saw that Ms Cody was going to be a columnist, but again after the near weekly references to her in your pages even before Juno hit screens maybe I should have seen it coming. I was also skeptical after months of reading, what amounts to Stephen King’s blog on your last page. But at least Mr. King has decades of cred and is the most famous and successful master of his genre. Ms. Cody has one credit, but her deal with EW pre-dated the arrival of Juno. Hmmm.

So, I must wonder if the constant cheerleading is to drum up legitimacy for your new columnist. Just because someone can write a screenplay doesn’t necessarily mean they can write a column on culture and entertainment. No more than being the world’s best horror writer makes one an entertainment columnist. There are two legitimate culture and entertainment columnists out there while these two cross professional boundaries. I don’t blame EW for this as in America in recent years we’ve come to believe that the only way a person can be an expert on anything is to be a famous participant in what they comment. Honestly, does anyone think Terry Bradshaw provides better analysis of sports than Bob Costas or Mike Tirico? The same goes for EW columnists. Celebrity has replaced competence/merit in America. And EW is no exception. And maybe that should be expected in an entertainment magazine.

The article I just finished (EW #977) made it sound as if Juno is the first strong female character in the history of film, even while your sidebar points out strong young female characters in recent years. Of course Ms Page couldn’t relate to The Breakfast Club, but neither could I and I was in high school at the time it came out. I went to a tiny semi-rural school in, which was a million miles away from the preps and stoners of Hughesian fantasy.

The point of all this? While Juno is a fantastic movie, it didn’t invite the strong female lead. While Diablo Cody has written a fantastic screenplay, she isn’t Orson Welles (or Walter Winchell) yet. I wish her well; in the meantime EW should exhibit a little critical detachment.

Thanks