Funny Femmes

In his “Sean Young, Seriously” (May 17), Chris Willman actually begins a sentence with the words “Despite the maxim that people don’t like to laugh at a pretty woman.”

Are we supposed to take this guy seriously? Any expert on comedy will tell him that it’s just the opposite. People enjoy laughing at a pretty woman because it’s more unexpected; the sight of “classical features” smeared and a perfect hairdo gone askew always revs up an audience. In TV, the two cardinal examples are Lucille Ball and Candice Bergen.

On the big screen, we had Marion Davies in the silents. In the ‘30s and ‘40s, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur, Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne; the Marlene Dietrich of “Desire” and “Destry Rides Again”; the Constance Bennett of “Topper,” “Cellini” and “What Price Hollywood”; the Greta Garbo of “Ninotchka”; the Barbara Stanwyck of “Lady Eve” and “Ball of Fire”; the Jennifer Jones of “Cluny Brown,” and the Ann Sothern who could go from glamorous musicals to knockabout “Maisie” with ease.

In the ‘50s and ‘60s, we had Marilyn Monroe in “Bus Stop” and “The Seven-Year Itch”; Judy Holliday in “Born Yesterday” and half a dozen more; Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday”; the bilingual Sophia Loren, and Ingrid Bergman in “Indiscreet.” And this is only a partial list.

If Willman doesn’t wear glasses, maybe he should. If he does wear glasses, maybe he should have them changed.

DAVID R. MOSS

Los Angeles