Lilith Fair

Girls just wanna make a statement. Some of our faithful readers didn't appreciate some of the comments the folk divas of Lilith offered in their cover story, "A Fair to Remember" (#437, June 19). "If Liz Phair finds being stuck with men all the time to be such an oppressive part of her job, why doesn't she hire a fellow female or two or three for her band?" asks Sara Blumenstein of Essexville, Mich. "I feel like I should be kneed in the crotch for this, but the one thing I took away from the Lilith article was that 'Frank Lloyd Wright never paid his bills,'" confesses Carter Navarro of Sunnyvale, Calif. On the TV front, our review of the brand-new Game Show Network managed to make Rich Engel of Pittsburgh a happy camper: "Glad to see EW is a Nipsey Russell fan." C'mon, deep down inside, isn't everyone a Nipsey Russell fan?

FAIR BAWL

Thanks for the otherwise delightful experience of participating in EW's Lilith Fair cover story. However, I'd like to correct one error. In my dream about the Spice Girls, I did not envision the Girls in their "wet panties," as printed. I actually said "white panties."
NATALIE MERCHANT
On tour with Lilith Fair

Although I'm glad to see the improving quality and diversity of Lilith Fair, I can't help feeling a bit of déjà vu reading this year's feature. How about interviewing the artists of H.O.R.D.E., Smokin' Grooves, OZZfest, or the Tibetan Freedom Concert?
DREW BROWN
Bellingham, Wash.

I must say that I find it quite contradictory that the women of Lilith make distinctions between being a good person and a good artist when referring to the personal lives of the likes of Bob Dylan, Jackson Pollock, and Frank Lloyd Wright. In these days of media crucifixion over the intrusion into stars' personal lives, how can these women also make a distinction between morality and art? We're not supposed to know about their personal lives; we're only supposed to listen to the music, or so they say. You can't have it all: a private life and a soapbox on which to proselytize.
BEAU JOHNSON
BakerBudz@aol.com
New Orleans

Ever hear of Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Joan Baez, or Nanci Griffith? They did years ago what Lilith Fair claims they pioneered, but without the self-congratulatory posing or the exclusion of men.
CHARLIE YOUNG
Spotsylvania, Va.

I thought that the Spice Girls weren't performing at Lilith this summer, yet there they were in the June 19 issue: Sporty (Paula Cole), Baby (Liz Phair), Ginger (Sarah McLachlan), Scary (Missy Elliott), and Posh (Natalie Merchant).
VINCE FORRINGTON
scream@bc.sympatico.ca
Surrey, Vancouver

POSTER CHILD

Yet another fabulous article by your genius staff! "The Art of Selling" was so much fun to read. I loved getting to see all the movie posters collected on the page.
Lynn M. Hinkley
San Diego

'MONEY' MATTERS

Your review of Comedy Central's Win Ben Stein's Money ("Smart Money") was right on. People who don't get Comedy Central are really missing out. The banter and chemistry between Stein and announcer Jimmy Kimmel make for some great comedy, and the concept of the show itself is brilliant. And we can trust a lawyer and former Nixon speechwriter to not ''have prior knowledge of any of the questions to be asked'' in the final rounds, can't we?
CRAIG DUNN
ad537@seorf.ohiou.edu
Union Furnace, Ohio

'TIME' ENOUGH AT LAST

Bravo to Steve Daly, who asks, in his recent video review of Disney's Melody Time, if somebody at Disney would "stop stamping the word masterpiece on every bit of middling-to-good animation the studio ever produced." We have come to anticipate a new animated film each year; is it too much to ask that we not be assaulted with video releases of unheard-of 50-year-old cartoons like Melody Time because everything that could have been released by the millennium already has been? Can we be spared bad direct-to-video retreads of recent releases (of Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, etc.)? Please let me know when it's safe to go back to McDonald's!
BARRY WENIG
wenig@valley.net
Enfield, N.H.