Foreign press

I need to take issue with the nasty comment that Patrick Goldstein made in his column “Do the Right Thing, WGA” [Jan. 22]. Goldstein’s column was broad in its scope, and I know that his crack that the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. was “run by a featherweight group of foreign journalists whose net weight in doing good for the world is near zero” was secondary to his overview of the Writers Guild situation. Nonetheless, his remark was grossly off the mark and undermining of one of the most important programs of support for nonprofit arts and cultural groups.

The association has been a major supporter of CalArts student filmmaking as well as several other film schools in the country for many years (its aggregate awards have totaled well over $1 million to CalArts alone). It has also been generous to numerous other grass-roots community groups and film archives. This is hardly a group whose net worth for the world is near zero.

Steve Anker

Valencia

The writer is dean of the CalArts School of Film/Video.