Open letter to the Editor of Entertainment Weekly

Dear Editor,

Please cancel my subscription.

I have written countless unanswered letters to Entertainment Weekly begging for you to stop being the sole marketing vehicle behind the Twilight franchise. You have given two movies over 7 cover stories in just over one year. Just so we have a little perspective, all 6 Harry Potter movies have garnished a whopping 9 cover stories, and one of those nine was about the last book. So to recap Twilight = 7 cover stories in 15 months, Harry Potter = 8 cover stories in 8 years.

I painfully pushed my way through this latest Twilight "article": Team Twilight. I am sad to see your magazine reduced to such humiliating standards. Do you really believe that letting three actors prattle on for nine pages of print, covering such topics as muscles, hair, and all things celebrity is the best use of your space? I have never read anything by Karen Valby before, and I hope never to again. This is the most repugnant and lazy style of reporting I have ever read. It's as if Ms. Valby was nothing more than the dorky girl who was just barely holding in her excitement over being so close to these "celebrities". Her questions ranged from irrelevant; "What was it like to sit behind Mickey Rourke?" to idiotic "Here's your chance to say what is purely amazing about enormous fame?" What did she even contribute to the conversation? If you have to keep reporting on this poorly written barely-skirting-plagiary series of movies, then at least find a reporter who isn't... like... the biggest fan... like...ever!

Also, I find it interesting that your memory is painfully short. Your own reporter Jennifer Reece had this to say about the end of the Twilight stories: "...Breaking Dawn, when Meyer takes her supernatural love story several bizarre steps too far. ''I felt like — like I don't know what. Like this wasn't real. Like I was in some Goth version of a bad sitcom,' Jacob confides before he too is swept up in the narrative mayhem. So do we, Jacob. So do we." And then she gave the book a big fat D. As in: it sucked.

You printed this three weeks after giving Twilight the movie it's first cover story (an exclusive first look) and even though you know the end is a bomb, you have devoted unprecedented print space to these two movies. It almost makes me want to call shenanigans on you and the producers of the Twilight Saga. Are you somehow in bed together? I can think of no other reason you would lambaste something and point out it's amateur plot holes and shortcomings and then spend what must amount to millions in advertising dollars promoting the hell out of it. What exactly are you guys over there getting out of constantly selling these movies? If you think I am nutso, then I challenge you to find a single issue of Entertainment Weekly starting July 18th, 2009 in which you DO NOT promote these movies in some way.

I have asked repeatedly for you to cover things that people who actually love the art of film would want to read about (actor stories, development stories, method acting and the lunatics that do it, screenwriter stories, process stories, cinema history, location scouting, seeing like a cinematographer, the art and madness of making a movie, just to give you a few ideas). Yet you seem to have decided instead to head the TMZ route and become just another trashy magazine that covers mass amounts of pop culture while spending less and less print space on anything of substance or quality. You have gotten used to providing the basic minimum on original thinking and quality reporting and in many cases you just retype the studios' PR material and repackage it as your own, or at least that's how a lot of it comes off to me, your reader. Every week when I get the latest issue I am constantly disappointed. There is so little actual content. Now there is shopping, and outfits, and Twilight. If that is the direction that you have chosen, and you have no more originality to bring to the publishing world, than I refer back to my first sentence and request that you cancel my subscription.

I am a thirty-four year old gay man in the prime of your demographic. I have been a loyal reader since your inception and I am tired of having to suffer through articles written for and about the lowest common denominator. If you cant give me quality content, than after 19 years I am sorry to say, I am done reading you.

Shane J Kroll
krollsj@hotmail.com

Ps. I have also noticed that you have stopped including a staff list in your magazine and online. Is it shame?

How to argue without Logic...

Try talking to someone of "FAITH".

Anderson Jonathan Wilder

Anderson voted "Yes" in the Jesus Christ Poll. 11,137 people have already cast their vote.

Question: "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?"
- Yes
- No
- Maybe

Fri at 5:29pm via My Polls · Comment · Like / Unlike · Vote!

Shane Kroll

Oh god... we havent lost you to the dark side have we????

Fri at 5:34pm · Delete

Debbie Quintero

Jesus is not the dark side. He is the light. Satan is dark and evil. I Pray that one day you will find his eternal life and you will then see what I am talking about. If you don't find it you will never see the kingdom of God ( heaven). Harsh reality I know but God's word is my confimation. God's word is the truth.

12 hours ago

Shane Kroll

No Offence Debbie, but as the old russian proverb goes: "Go to heaven for the weather, go to hell for the company."

4 hours ago · Delete

Debbie Quintero

I don't know about any russian proverb, never heard it but I don't listen to old wives tales or proverbs. Except the Proverbs in the Bible. The book next to Psalms.There is no offense taken here. I know I want to go to heaven for more than the weather it will be to see my Savior that died for me. As for going to hell to see my friends or be with company that is just what satan wants you to think. That you will be having a party with your friends side by side. So far from the truth. There will be fire, waling and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 25:46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.Revelations 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.
I am sad for you that you don't care whether you live eternal life in hell or not. It gives you no hope and it just saddens my heart. Debbie

about an hour ago

Shane Kroll

I dont believe in your book any more than I believe in Harry Potter, since they both have about the same basis in reality. And what the russian proberb means is that I would rather spend my waking and after life with people who actually LIVED their life, learned to think and were aware while still alive, as opposed to people who spent their entire time on earth worrying about what happens after. And people whose sole experience of life can be confined to one book and one experience. Out of respect for AJ I'm done having this conversation.

about an hour ago · Delete

Debbie Quintero

Sorry to hear you don't believe in the Gods word. One day you will regret you said that and you will be reminded of this conversation. As for your life, you spend it whatever way you feel you need to. As for my life I don't worry about my eternity. I have the hope of Christ and He gives me a eternal peace. I feel so sad for your soul Shane. May God touch you in His mighty way. AJ's Aunt Deb

58 minutes ago

Shane Kroll

Debbie, I will not regret living my life fully. Nor will I ever regret not believing in one of the worlds many religions. As has been demonstrated throughout history, the righteous have brought nothing but division, hate, war and death (with the only exception being Buddhism). And while you can defend and argue that point until you are blue in the face, it will not change the fact. Religion is simply a way to control thought and separate the human race from each other.

Religion is an excuse to not be responsible for your own life. "God will provide, Jesus will guide me, etc..." I am responsible for my life, not some fiction of imagination. I have made my mistakes and I have worked hard for my miracles. I am alive NOW, not after I die.

I'm sorry to have declined your offer of friendship, it is not a reflection on you personally. I just don't want Jesus crap on my page every day. I cant be engaged with an organization that consciously ignores fact, logic and reason, just so they don't have to reconcile reality and fantasy.

The ability to think for ourselves is one of the best parts of being human, and I'm sorry to say Christians do very little other than tell people that they are bad and wrong, and that only they are right and just. Any proof of that can be seen in all of your messages, and to be perfectly honest not only is it insulting but it just demonstrates your christian arrogance and one sided thinking. And personally I neither need nor do I want your phony christian sympathy. I don't fear for my soul, and you don't even know me.