Family Ways II

The irony of a paper that prints each morning its lineage of publishers (with the name Chandler appearing with considerable frequency) publishing a report revealing that people hire their relatives is too delicious.

The wonderful photograph elsewhere in the issue of Melvin Van Peebles in his son Mario’s film eloquently gave the lie to the undiluted scorn of your article. For what it’s worth, I think the article misses the point: It is money, not blood, that makes the media massage mediocre films--how else to explain the puff pieces in your paper about “Home Alone 2” and the rest?

When my film “The Giving” was released, your reviewer dismissed it as the work of a “rich kid” (presumably because my grandparents were well-known designers). Though I am very proud of my heritage and am not poor, it was a real surprise to my parents to discover that we were rich when I was growing up (and an even bigger surprise for my wife to discover that we are rich now). Oh, well, at least you spelled my name right.

EAMES DEMETRIOS

Santa Monica