Fame-Is-Fleeting Dept.

I recently attended a reception for pop-portrait artist Rick Ambrose’s “Fame Before Cable� exhibit at Melrose Place restaurant and found myself in a lively discussion with the artist, who expressed sentiments similar to those of your Halloween cover story (“The Hobgoblins of Pop Culture,� Oct. 31).

While wholeheartedly agreeing with your writer Chris Willman that the value of fame has been seriously eroded, Ambrose believes the evidence your writer cited--instant celebrities Susan Powter and Heidi Fleiss--to be merely the symptoms, the real cause of the death of fame being the birth of cable television.

Ambrose believes that 24-hour broadcasting has perverted the traditional relationship of fame to exposure, making TV the cause, instead of the effect, of being famous, the life span of the celebrity existing only as long as the cameras are rolling.

Referring to Warhol’s oft-quoted remark, Ambrose offered his own corollary: “In the present, nobody will be famous for more than 15 minutes.�

THOMAS GREGORY

Los Angeles

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I think it’s time to coin a new term: artistically correct. This after trying once more to find merit in a work of Orson Welles following his great short period ending with “Citizen Kane� and “The Magnificent Ambersons.�

OK, because your critic Kenneth Turan was so high on “It’s All True� (Oct. 24), I checked out the film up here at the Castro. Very simplistic and simplistically acted. By that time, Welles photographed more than he wrote or directed; he might have had a post-movie-making career with National Geographic.

I’m sorry, world, our heroes fail us, and the making of magic eludes even the greatest once-acclaimed masters. “It’s All True� is embarrassing evidence of how fame and control went to Welles’ head and defeated his earlier brilliant creative capacity.

Either this, or Welles, like many people who have enjoyed their fabulous 15 minutes in the spotlights, luckily hit upon the right circumstances at the right time with the right talent.

It may be artistically correct to afford Orson Welles such a glowing tribute for trite, stillborn achievements. Realistically viewed, however, Welles was just a very mortal man who lost it early and never found his way back. Without a script in Brazil, look what he showed us.

DAVID LEWISOakland