See the Resemblance?

C’mon guys, your article on Shane Salerno (“Up Against His Own Deadline,” by Kevin Brass, April 7) just didn’t go far enough. Although the subtext merely implied it, you didn’t take the next logical step and state the obvious: that Shane Salerno is the Orson Welles of the 21st century. The parallels are legion: Orson Welles was the Hollywood enfant terrible of his time and so apparently is Shane Salerno.

Orson Welles gave us classics such as “Citizen Kane,” “The Magnificent Ambersons” and “Touch of Evil.” Salerno has given us equally memorable classics like “Armageddon,” “Shaft” and “UC: Undercover.” Welles was inspired by the melancholy Dane. Salerno was inspired by the not-so-melancholy Don (Johnson of “Miami Vice”).

Welles was a driven man. Salerno drove himself from Encinitas to Los Angeles every day for a year. Welles was an extraordinary talent. Salerno claims that being ordinary is the worse thing you can be, which I can believe, considering the extraordinarily mind-numbing projects he has been involved with.

Please. Maybe I missed something, but instead of the article’s intended “young, driven man with no industry connections, faces down Hollywood (and apparently, according to the opening photograph, rolling surf too) to make it big” feeling I assume I was supposed to get, I came out of it with a “young, driven man who knows how to exploit connections gets rewarded for participating in mediocre-at-best projects simply because they made somebody some money.”

OK, we all know that’s the bottom line, but did we really need this puff piece to point it out?

RICK LEDDY

South Pasadena