All That Glitters . . .

It appears that The Times has managed to sever its allegiances to the Los Angeles Police Department (“Onetime Allies, LAPD and Press,” Section A, May 24), and only Hollywood remains.

Calendar’s story that same day, “Rooms With a View,” devoted to million-dollar private screening rooms, is proof of just what an absurd stranglehold Tinseltown has over the journalistic sensibilities of The Times.

That Barbra Streisand has Milk Duds and jelly beans in her screening room is news not even the National Enquirer would find fit to print. That such mindless fluff makes its way to the front of Calendar at the exclusion of features on the other arts, theater in particular, is a travesty.

In the case of your only theater-related article on May 24, it is actually a blessing. Don Shirley dutifully reports that the California Music Theatre has gone bust. Ironically this news appears in the Stage Watch column. Translation: Watch the stage dry up with the helpful neglect of the most influential paper in town.

The first pages are the most accessible and widely read. They must be filled with diverse articles that represent all the arts. If The Times does not break its unspoken Hollywood allegiance, we can count on the Music Center becoming a multiplex by the end of the century.

EARL DAX

Los Angeles