The Only Thing These Two Have In Common is their First Names Begin With Ro.

Roger L. Simon thinks terribly highly of himself. He has for some years now sustained the delusion that, were it not for his youstabee status, he would still be a player, a sought-after screenwriter. His latest scribble is of a piece:

Now screenwriters have their prejudices against actors - and I’ve certainly been guilty of them on occasion. Truth to tell, we’re jealous. In the Hollywood pecking order they have all the power. Hardly anyone goes to see a Roger Simon movie and not that many even go to see a Robert Towne movie. So among ourselves we writers like to disparage actors as pretty boys who mouth our words, etc., etc.

Oh. My.

The first part of that sentence is indisputably true, mainly because Simon hasn't gotten a movie made in more than a decade, and hasn't written one that anyone actually saw since the first Bush Administration. (A movie which, btw, nobody liked.) As for the latter, well, that must be why Mr. Towne keeps getting work.