To the Editor:
Re “The Baseless Portrayal of My Life in ‘Love Story,’” by Daryl Hannah (Opinion guest essay, March 9):
Good for Ms. Hannah for pushing back and setting the record straight about how she’s portrayed in the FX series “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.”
The series dramatizes the lives of the famous star-crossed couple from their courtship and marriage to their tragic deaths in a 1999 plane crash. Ms. Hannah had dated Mr. Kennedy before that, and as she points out, her character in the story is used as a plot device rife with misinformation. She quotes one of the producers explaining why: “Given how much we’re rooting for John and Carolyn, Daryl Hannah occupies a space where she’s an adversary to what you want narratively in the story.”
The problem is that what the producers want narratively clashes with the truth, trashes Ms. Hannah’s reputation and will be taken as fact by viewers. The reasoning goes, well, if it’s in a docudrama it must be true.
There’s a reason that film and television producers prefer to do biographies about people who are dead and can’t defend themselves.
Unfortunately for the producers of this series, Daryl Hannah is very much alive. Here’s hoping her pushback compels viewers not to take television and film biographies at face value and leads them to check the facts.
Greg Joseph Sun City, Ariz. The writer is a retired television critic.
To the Editor:
I applaud Daryl Hannah’s resonant essay. I have known Daryl since 1991, when we met through a mutual friend. I’ve been impressed and inspired by her fearless use of her celebrity for the betterment of humanity and the environment. She is an artist and consummate professional.
It’s uncharacteristic for public figures to address the mischaracterizations that plague them. It is a challenge for artists to find their voice in their work, let alone in the public arena.
The Daryl speaking out in this essay is the person I know — addressing issues broader than herself. Her voice resonates with much-needed moral clarity in a time of frequent demeaning, false characterizations of others — whether the victims are women, immigrants or the marginalized.
It is particularly abhorrent when such demeaning, false characterizations are used for financial exploitation.
Adam Ross Malibu, Calif. The writer is a documentary filmmaker and musician.
My Sports as I Age
To the Editor:
Re “Stop Trying to Optimize Your Workout,” by Emily Oster (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 26):
I’m 80 years old. Over the course of my life, I’ve tried to stay active, beginning with varsity sports in high school and college, and continuing over the years as I’ve aged.
Here’s a list: cross-country, swimming and track in high school and college; skiing and tennis beginning in my mid-20s; biking and basketball in my 40s to my early 60s; swimming again in my 70s; and now walking in my 80s.
I’m convinced that it’s the consistency of the exercise and the fun you experience with friends as you age that are as important as the type of activity or the number of reps you log each session.
So my advice would be to start while you’re young, and keep at it as best you can as you age.
Al Behringer Wilmington, Del.
A Traveler Welcomed in Iran
To the Editor:
Re “How to Think About Trump’s War With Iran,” by Thomas L. Friedman (column, March 3):
Mr. Friedman lays out the complexities of Iran’s politics with great clarity. One sentence resonated with me personally: “The Iranian people are among the most naturally pro-Western in the region.”
In 2018 my husband and I traveled to Iran. On our first evening in Tehran, I asked the group leader if I could go out for a walk alone. She said that there was a large park right behind our hotel and that I would be perfectly fine there.
I arrived to find many families picnicking on the grass, and several of them invited me — a lone, elderly woman — to join them, share their food and talk.
Over the next 10 days, my husband and I found the same attitude everywhere. People said, “We hate your government, but we love the American people.” Young women talked about wanting to remove their head coverings and older women talked about how hard it had been to go back to covering after the current regime undid the liberalization that took place in the past. Two women even offered us a taste of their ice cream cones!
My husband and I came away from that trip with a respect and fondness for the people of Iran, unmatched by any other country we have visited.
Barbara Gold Philadelphia
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