Hollywood’s Graylist: Writers and Ageism : THE WRITERS : The Perils of Youth

T imes staff writer Nina J. Easton’s article on ageism and writers in film and television (“Hey, Babes! How Old Is Too Old for Hollywood?,” Nov. 17) has produced an usually large response from readers. A sampling of their views appears here and on the facing page: To set the record straight, there were two Bielby reports on age discrimination commissioned by the Writers Guild, not one as indicated by your article.

They were printed and disseminated, filed and forgotten quickly. And as is customary with the Writers Guild, a committee was formed but no action will be taken no matter how many articles or reports are forthcoming.

The real issue is not age but youth . Agents, story editors, producers are a vacuous lot; the majority are callow and culturally illiterate. They dread meeting with an older writer for fear that their emptiness and ignorance may be cruelly exposed.

(Once I had the temerity to point out to one of these empty vessels that “Jaws” owed a great deal to Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People.” The young man asked what films Ibsen had written.)

When I look for a movie, I go out and buy a video, usually an oldie written by a mature writer, or I end up with a foreign film.

I activate the VCR and repeat a line in a play I wrote that was presented in London and on Broadway and has played in more than a dozen countries. It is the curtain line: “You’ll be old someday.” EDMUND MORRIS

Santa Monica