I am quite confident that more people saw him as Chris "in the Morning" Stevens on Northern Exposure (a network show in which he appeared in more than 100 episodes) than in Sex in the City (a premium cable show in which he appeared just 1/5 as many episodes).

Why is Nia still around? Her movie "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" was the most over-hyped, over-blown, uber-PR'd piece of crap ever to hit the big screen. After hearing the reviews, I thought I was going to meet God and have an orgasm at the same time when I saw the film. It barely made for a slightly amusing "ABC After School Special," circa 1981. Aristophanes would pluck his eyes out with a strigil after 30 minutes of viewing.

But, yes, she is friends with Tom Hanks' wife, so of course let's all go gah-gah over doo-doo.

John Corbett also did a great job in "Dinner Rush."

Maybe I'm revealing my age too much here, but the role I, think of when I see John Corbett is not "Sex in the City" (I'm a guy; I didn't watch a single episode) or "The United States of Tara (no interest; sorry), but his wonderful turn as the erudite ex-con and radio jock Chris on "Northern Exposure."

Ah, "Northern Exposure;" how I miss you.

Yeah, I'm a guy too, so I too him more for the "erudite ex-con and radio jock Chris on 'Northern Exposure,'" than the "please use me" toy from Sex in the City. He was a bit of welder there; I think it would serve him well to pretend now to be a Semi for awhile.

And still muse about it. Fantastic unresolved sexual tension, great weird relationships and weird characters yet with a truth to it all that made it work. John Corbett was great, also the lead ... dammit, can't remember his name, also other lead, Maggie ... So many great actors. They should start making it again.

I agree, LauraBB. Hey! We've figured out a way to talk about one of these films before it scrolls down into oblivion, or the two-day window passes. We could go for this sort of tangental-thing, or opt for the haven't a clue as to whether you're bang on or universes wrong on your take, 'cause I haven't seen it, but you sure do write swell, Steph!

Thankyou Stephanie for verifying that, no, she is not.

Certainly, any Nia movie is going to suck and it's criminal that she makes money and some success from them. John Corbett is a one-dimensional actor who is most famous for dating that sleazy republican Bo Derek. Corbett is like one of those annoying longish-hair-folk- singing types from high school whom even the weak kids wanted to beat up. Nonetheless, after reading reviews by Stephanie Zecharek for about 6-8 years, I find that I disagree with her about 90% of the time with about a 10% gray area. I've seen her on tv and she is a very attractive, well-spoken woman. But my question is: Is she as big a c*nt in real life as she is in her reviews? Please respond.

And I'm even a woman...never seen a single episode of S&TC. How I loved that quirky-ass show.

We have reruns of Northern Exposure daily on the local PBS station -- I can keep up with my favorite episodes that way.

And, yes, the show ages well.

I just saw seasons 1-4 on sale at K-Mart for about $20 each and I may (doing my part to stimulate the economy) just buy them as a remedy against: fat people falling in the mud, nameless nobodies in microminies and heels texting on cell phones, and the troll-women from New Jersey yakking about ...what? Until Mad Men starts up in August, the TV is no more useful than a broken stove. Oh, and John Corbett was my favorite character.

Why all this extreme hostility towards Nia Vardalos? I thought Zacharek was unnecessarily mean but some of the commenters actually take the cake. Maybe you folks (including Zacharek) should tone it down until you create something as successful, culturally and financialy, as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

Maybe you folks (including Zacharek) should tone it down until you create something as successful, culturally and financialy, as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

The dumbness of that sentence takes my breath away. The cultural significance of MBFGW was about as substantial as a meringue. The measure of greatness of a movie is not how much money it makes; witness the recent Transformers movie for an example.

So, what have you done, DeborahA, that qualifies you to criticize others' criticisms?

Well, GeeBee friend, for one thing I use my name and not whatever you call your dopey moniker. For another thing, I have as much right to criticize other people's criticisms as people have to make the initial criticisms -- i.e., I am as entitled to my opinion as you are to yours.

By the way, you must not do a whole lot of reading if you think I am capable of writing the most stupid sentence you ever read. I can point you to a whole bunch of others. You must have penned a few yourself.

Finally, I note that your nasty little missive skirts the issue, which is this: you, sir (or madam) are no Nia Vardalos. I admit to never having created anything as successful or culturally significant as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." WTF have you created that anyone who doesn't read letters to Salon has ever heard of?

First, I want to congratulate you on your bravery and courage in using your first name and another random letter of the alphabet as your username. You possess the fearlessness only the truly self-righteous can summon.

Second, it wasn't geebee that was looking to shame anyone into silence here - that would be you. You were the one who came fandangoing in here with your straw partner, shouting "how dare anyone criticize Nia Vardalos unless you've achieved at least the cultural and commercial zeniths she has!"

Thirdly, you haven't provided any "issue" for geebee to "skirt". Unless you think that film criticism should only be reserved to those who have earned as much money as the filmmaker, you really haven't provided a coherent complaint about the review.

Your point, assuming you even have one, is totally irrelevant and clearly motivated by some misplaced emotional investment you've made in My Big Fat Greek Wedding; which, by the way, was fucking awful Lifetime Channel-MOW-level swill that did nothing but parlay cultural and ethnic stereotypes into cheap laughs atop a pathetically predictable rom-com plot.