Monstrous debate

I let out a grateful sigh when I read Kenneth Turan’s piece about the lack of any acknowledgment by Charlize Theron in her Oscar acceptance speech regarding the tragic life of Aileen Wuornos. I too noticed that omission at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, when gorgeous, gold and glistening Theron basked in her moment of triumph for her performance as Wuornos. I waited during both speeches, but she never once mentioned Wuornos or gave her status as a human being during her moment of glory. Anyone who has seen the documentary of Wuornos’ life would understand and feel the pain of her existence that would warrant at last a passing comment by the actress who played her and gloried in her infamy. Wuornos was, after all, a real person and human regardless of the tragic life and circumstances.

Thank you, Kenneth Turan, for noticing this and writing your piece. No nod to Aileen Wuornos at the Oscars was monstrous.

Christine L’hotsky

Pasadena

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“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest� exists due to the talent, creation and imagination of a man who should have been thanked, and deservedly so. I can understand where the heartbreak comes into this situation. But to say that “Aileen Wournos, executed for murder, was not around to have her heart broken by her Oscar and Spirit omissions� is ridiculous. You cannot compare talent with murder. This woman did not deserve a thanks, she deserved what she got.

Janelle Burmaster

Riverside

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Thanks to Kenneth Turan for pointing out an unconscionable omission in the acceptance speeches at the Academy Awards.Wuornos, as Nick Broomfield’s film on her documented, was a complex person whose dignity and humanity were assaulted by violence, the justice system and the media. It is unfortunate, indeed, that Charlize Theron missed the opportunity in both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards to raise the issue about violence against women, or the role of the media in sensationalizing criminal cases or the questionable process of the justice system that executed Wuornos.

Lenore Navarro Dowling

Los Angeles