Before The Parade Passes By

Sunday is Parade Magazine day. The cover is their annual "What People Earn" issue. It's always interesting to know what different people make, though how they figured Angelina Jolie made $30 million last year, I don't know. And I was surprised, speaking of Hollywood salaries, how the star of a top hit like Desperate Housewives, Teri Hatcher, only made $1.25 million. I bet she's making more in 2006.

But the best part of Parade is the regular columns.

There's the ineffable Walter Scott and his "Personality Parade," which I've written about before. This week someone actually wrote in to ask "Why didn't Q'orianka Kilcher get as Oscar nod for her role [as Pocahonatas] in The New World?" Scott replies that the Academy doesn't like nominating juveniles, and Kilcher is only 16. As evidence (evidence!) for his theory, Scott notes the last youngster nominated for Best Actress was 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider, 2 years ago. Let me suggest an alternate theory. The Academy wasn't particularly impressed with this flop and felt the only nomination it deserved was for cinematography. (It should have won that, by the way.)

Then there's the smartest human in the world, Marilyn Vos Savant. People send her two sorts of letters: puzzles, which Marilyn answers easily, and thorny moral or philosophical problems, which Marilyn also answers easily.

Today someone asks why there are laws preventing fast food companies and gun manufacturers from being sued, but nothing to protect the tobacco industry. Marilyn usually gives sharp, sensible answers, but today she apparently lets her hatred of tobacco get the best of her, and her answer--sorry Marilyn--makes no sense. She states: "The subjects are neither related nor parallel: Food and guns can be used properly and without abuse. Tobacco cannot."

The arguments here is so obviously flawed I will not waste time refuting it. Instead, I call on Marilyn to look at it again and correct herself.