Carrie and Debbie

Scott Hardie | December 29, 2016
Thoughts on the passing of one of Hollywood's great mother-daughter duos?

Scott Hardie | January 1, 2017
I mourn the loss for their families, and the loss of what more each of them would have done in Hollywood (the ninth Star Wars comes to mind). After being so close to each other for so many years, literally living next door to one another and talking daily, I cannot imagine the shock and pain that Reynolds went through in the loss of Fisher, and the idea of "death by broken heart" seems quite potent and tragic when something like this happens.

I'm having a hard time understanding the controversy over Steve Martin's remembrance. Yes, he mentioned her appearance and she didn't like being valued for that. But he also paid tribute to her intelligence and sense of humor in the same 140 characters, and besides, the comment was about his own remembrance and opinion, so why shouldn't he share what his real impression was? Maybe I missed something that made his nice words so wrong. Or maybe I'm a guy and I can't understand. Or maybe our culture wars have gone beyond all reason.

Erik Bates | January 1, 2017
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Scott Hardie | January 1, 2017
Yes, exactly. Since Martin himself struggled to escape the box Hollywood put him into and become respected as a writer, I would think people would appreciate his sensitivity to Fisher's dilemma. He maybe could have chosen a better word than "creature," but this was far from the outrageous insult that people made it out to be.