I have been a faithful salon reader for a few years now, and one question has struck me from the first day: Is Stephanie Zacharek just mean and spiteful by character trait, or is this some sort of affected schitck?

Zacharek's review of RENT is the last straw for me. I would humbly suggest that Zacharek DO HER HOMEWORK! Perhaps at least listening to the original broadway cast album, or investigating the story. Perhaps even researching the time period in which the show is set, or researching the story being re-told here (Pucini's La Boheme).

Whereas the Phantom movie had numerous flaws (I did not like it save a few moments) I felt that RENT was powerful and gripping. It was nice to see actors really become their characters, and for a movie musical to actually be well sung.

It seems to me that Salon employ's Ms Zacharek to be a professional hatchet woman, but if a periodical is going to have someone do a review of musical theater, how about getting someone who actually UNDERSTANDS MUSICAL THEATER. Music drives a story like this, and it is something that Ms Zacharek simply does not grasp with her intellectual "I am much smarter than anyone else in the room attitude". I dare say Ms Zacharek is threatened by the material, mentioning several times in her review about the "homosexual" parts of the story. This is not a film that is meant to make the viewer feel comfortable. Ms Zacharek needs to take some Zoloft and get a life.

It seems as though Ms Zacharek hates every movie that I ultimately love (and really hates most movies in general, although apparently liked King Kong, which looks hideous to me), so her negative endorsement of The Producers makes me all the more anxious to see it.

Please, ms Zacharek, grow a sense of humor, you might be able to do that with stem cells now.

The author of this article missed a critical point. While Stern is a star on Satellite Radio, he is not the ONLY THING on satellite radio. I wouldn't pay $12 a month to listen to Stern, but I would gladly pay $12 a month for the whole package that Sirius provides. For me it is very much worth it to get to listen to what I want when i want. I get to listen to broadway hits while driving through rural montana, love songs with my special someone, 80's hits while I am highway driving... the list goes on.

Viva la satellite!

To all Montanans who are complaining about the characterization of cities in Montana... down boys and girls. Sure, Billings is more than a traditional farming town. Missoula is like its own little republic (The People's Republic of Missoula, Montana). But I would not call Kalispell or Whitefish exactly progressive. I would not even call Helena progressive, and Great Falls is certainly as bass ackwards as they come (I live there, don't argue with me). So I think Montana is an interesting case study. That being said, I have not seen the film. Not because I am homophobic (I am not) but because I HATE WESTERNS! I have hated every one i have ever seen, from Clint Eastwoods early work, the Unforgiven, to any other western I have ever seen... I do not enjoy them. I am definately not "A Little Bit Country". I'll rent BBM when it comes out on video, or perhaps I will take in a matinee, but what irks me is that we have not gotten "Good Night and Good Luck" or "The Producers" in Great Falls. Grrrr... makes me mad.