1) to the author, Camille Peri. Gosh I'm sorry for nitpickin' but I really wanted to know Eleanor's maiden name. You talk about her and her dad and her mom and her WASPy background. I wanted to know fathers name and mothers name for some odd reason. Is she Irish, English or Scottish, etc?

2) to Eleanor - a question from a father of a daughter - I'd like to know more about the artist table she set up for her own daughter. I find that fascinating for some odd reason. Mostly because she suggests that she created this space for her daughter because she's a girl, only to discover that it was a good idea because she had a creative child after all - almost hinting that would a mistake it might've been if she hadn't. It wasn't the "girlyness" - it was this creation of space for her own children. I have a son and a daughter and I think I'm going to set up an artist table in the basement for them to do whatever they want.

Sofia Coppola didn't win the oscar for best director. It was for best original screenplay. Duh.

Does anyone fact check these articles before publication?

The whole point of view no longer makes sense to me. I don't understand the "dilemma" other than the loss of the child.

Americans have forgotten how to appreciate their life. It's in how we see ourselves, and how we see each other. One is "rich and famous" or "powerful" and that somehow makes them an expert on living--or game for projecting our insecurity. We pretend they're totally unlike "us" if we don't have "their" high profile.

What's refreshing is to see how Coppola and Eleanor weren't seduced by the glam of Hollywood, or at least successfully concealed their corruption. I met him on the set of Godfather II when the SAG representative threatened my life. I'd shut down the movie so they'd give the block association some funds as compensation for the inconvenience so we could buy trees, and give a few jobs to the mostly impoverished locals. The SAG rep didn't like that.

Coppola apologized personally and assigned a bodyguard to protect me when I made my way on and off the block--a genuinely kind act.

Appreciate Your Life and don't give it away to anybody whose had more breaks. I think fame is the biggest scam on the planet.

The author seems very confused.

Would anyone have published this book if it wasn't for the author's famous family? And if the book is really about being an artist, rather than the wife and mother of famous people, why is she so focused on her children and husband? In almost every point made about a turning point in her life it was what Frances wanted that determined her choices.

NB I have absolutely no criticism of being focussed on family. It sounds likee the author has done a great job. But if that is the case she's not an artist, she's a wife and mother.

I got the same confusion from the anecdotes told about her 'exhibition'. Her daughter is her greatest work? That's about being a mother. She put little oscars given to her in Frances' Oscar cabinet? That's being a (envious perhaps) wife.

You don't get everything. If she'd had that abortion her whole life would have been different. If she'd screwed up the courage to quit being a martyr and hired some help she MIGHT have made it as an artist. As it is, the whole thing read to me as a series of excuses.

Frances said ... He had to work that day ... I was frustrated but ...

Too many women live this way. Own your choices! Feel good about them! Make no apologies for them! BUt don't make excuses either.

And finally - it's a bit rich to have written a book - apparently, this is what I gleaned from this interview - about being a wife and mother and then to say you don't want the frustrations of your marriage to be talked about in the interview. Isn't that the interesting bit where the author individuated herself? Apart from being married to a rich and famous man and having a famous daughter I mean. I decided I wouldn't read it at that point.

I don't usually nit pick in letters but I need to correct that first para because what I meant to say was ...

Why does the INTERVIEW focus so much on her as a wife and a mother rather than as an artist. I didn't mean to imply you can't be an artist and also focussed on family. But if you're writing a book about being an artist then it doesn't make any sense for most of the talk about it to focus on family.

Why can't the mode in which you raise your kids and run your family be considered a work of art in and of itself? It seems to me that everything and everything can be put in an artistic context these days. If hanging a cows bloody head in a gallery in in London can be seen as art, why can't running a family in a unique way be seen that way too?

is a terrific film, written and directed by George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr, large portions of which use documentary footage shot by Eleanor Coppola. And it is narrated in part by her. She's obviously an important element of the film, but not its creator. Every time I see anything written about this insightful and gripping documentary, Hickenlooper and Bahr are ignored, and it is played up as another extension of those brilliant, fecund Coppolas. Print the legend, I guess.

I think you really missed the boat on Eleanor Coppola and were projecting things that just aren't there. She never considered having "that abortion;" she considered giving up the child for adoption. I didn't see her using her housework and being a mother as excuses for not making it as an artist. She didn't seem to me to be making excuses at all. Also, she is known as an artist in her own right, so there is no issue of not making it. I really liked her documentary and, while I'm not into conceptual art, I am aware of her in that realm. Maybe you don't personally know her as an artist, but I hope that's not the standard. I imagine the majority of people don't know that Meryl Streep's husband, Donald Gummer, is a successful sculpter, but the fact that he's much less famous generally than she is doesn't mean that he hasn't made it as an artist.

I also missed the part where she didn't "[o]wn [her] own choices." Finally, I didn't see at all that her book is about being a wife and mother. It's about her life as an artist and part of that is her family.

I know we all view things through the prism of our own reality, but I think in this case your prism pretty thoroughly distorted your view.