THE STAR SYNDROME

Carol and Jack Rubinoff have the wrong take on Jules Feiffer’s May 7 cartoon (Letters, May 21).

The current stratagem of conferring instant star status on almost every actor who has had maybe one leading role in a reasonably successful film has so cluttered the entertainment firmament that the field must be kept under nearly daily surveillance lest one of these “stars” go unrecognized.

The age of the audience, while it certainly is a determining factor at the box office, will not prevent real stardom, name recognition, etc. Feiffer and the rest of us will know who they are.

And how does an actor attain real stardom? He earns it.

PATRICIA MERRILL

Los Angeles

I’m 41 years old, and I know who Sheryl Crow, Jon Secada, Jenny Garth and the rest are. But someone should let me know when they get around to performing Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi or Shostakovich--or Corigliano or Crumb, for that matter--because until they do, I don’t care.

MATTHEW B. TEPPER

Los Angeles