Can Hollywood Read?

By blaming “incompetent” and “envious” readers for the failure of good scripts to reach studio executives, Calendar letter writer David Evans (Nov. 10) displays near-total ignorance of how the studio system works.

More than 90% of studio deals are made on the executive level without reader review or input. However, in calling attention to quality writing, readers alone are responsible for countless new writers receiving their first assignments.

Perhaps Evans is projecting when he calls readers envious, but every reader I know (and I know many more than he will ever know) rejoices upon reading a script of quality or one that’s remarkably commercial.

The sad fact of life in this town is that the general level of submissions is mediocre. Money rules in Hollywood, not readers. We are a relatively powerless and benign lot. And a final fact of Hollywood reality you should know, Mr. Evans, is that if a reader didn’t read your script, no one would.

JEROLD KRESS

Culver City