Mail

An E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial reunion graced the cover (#646, March 29), but most readers reacted to our feature on another creature—Courtney Love. ''The juxtaposition of Courtney Love with E.T. on your recent cover did not go unnoticed,'' writes Jason Dupont of Irvine, Calif. ''I found myself wondering, which was actually the extraterrestrial?'' Love's newly discovered roots also puzzled readers: Jodi Fox of Chicago, says ''her crude appreciation of her newfound ancestry is insulting. Upon discovering her partial Jewish heritage, does she quietly investigate the religion and its history? No, she puts it to use in a legal battle.'' Natalie Klenotic of Greenfield, Ind., however, remains fond of Love. ''She may be a messed-up person, but she does not hide it. I like that about her. So many stars are so fake, it makes them boring and carbon copies of one another.''

Alien Nation

E.T. was the first movie i vividly remember seeing, and the story captured my heart. The 20th anniversary of this cult classic marks a milestone, and it will be like a pleasant dream to see new footage of this classic tearjerker. Steven Spielberg, you are a genius.
Chad Sexton
mrwilly73@msn.com
Knoxville, Tenn.

In your article, Steven Spielberg mentions that he has gone into a darker period of his life, and that he thinks he knows ''too much now to be able to tell stories like E.T. in the same ways.'' I truly hope that isn't the case. With all of the violence we are bombarded with from the news and Hollywood, it's nice to see a little magic, even for just two hours. That's what we go to movies for. And Mr. Spielberg, you are the best at it.
Jeffrey Slavik
jsoavik@acoolplace.com
McAfee, N.J.

Tough Love

I commend courtney love for her fight against her record label (''Love Is a Battle-field''). However, she never fails to prove that marginal talent and never-ending name-dropping equal severe banality. I can only hope that the daughter doesn't end up as spiteful as the mother.
Amanda E. Bogard
abfab420@yahoo.com
Oakland

I've tried to give Courtney Love the benefit of the doubt. I even enjoy some of her music, but your interview with her just solidifies the image of the pathetic mess she is. She makes Madonna look positively humble.
David Cerda
det442@earthlink.net
Chicago

Courtney Love is about as Jewish as a ham sandwich! I found her sudden Semitic revelation sadly self-serving and her perceptions quite stereotypical. Judaism is a religion for which people have died; it should not be reduced to a feather in the cap of such a seemingly unstable individual.
Joel MichaelPalatine, Ill.

Courtney, Courtney, Courtney. The absolute absurdity of your comments in EW proves, without a doubt, where exactly your brain is located. I suggest you cut back on the colonics before you lose what little gray matter you have left.
Kelly Ann Bessa
devildollmail@yahoo.com
Dousman, Wis.

Rodgers Redux

Thank you for highlight-ing the great American composer Richard Rodgers' centennial (Stage). However, your writer draws a largely unflattering portrait of Rodgers. Rodgers did not ''drop'' Lorenz Hart for Oscar Hammerstein; the trio was scheduled to write the musical that would become Oklahoma! together until Hart himself withdrew from the project. In addition, your writer states that Rodgers' partnership with Hammerstein ''bears the taint of cynicism,'' since ''a life of mining hits was pretty appealing,'' a speculation confounded by the fact that the first three Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway musicals — Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), and Allegro (1947) — are universally acknowledged as among the most daring (and, at the time, least commercially viable) in the American theater.
Bert Fink
The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization
New York City