Woke up to this e-mail from a reader, conveying a problem I have written about numerous times over the years. Had to explain it again during a TV interview the other day:

"What's the story? Hundreds of folks saw Sex and the City at Tri-City AMC and there were many scenes where the microphone and/or boom mic was visible. How could a major studio release such a badly edited film to the public? There is some word about this on the Internet. You're the expert -- what's the story?

MJ Gruskin
Clearwater, FL"

My reply:

I guarantee you that's a problem with the teenager assigned to run the
projector. He/she didn't have the film properly framed (in this case,
too high so too much at the top was showing). It's the same as going to
see a foreign movie and the subtitles might be cut off because the film
is framed too low.

The fact that some folks are complaining online about this with regard to that movie says two things: Sex and the City is bringing out people who don't go to theaters enough to know how sloppily many are operated, and the problem of poorly trained employees who don't care what happens as long as they get paid is everywhere.

What ticket-buying customers need to do is get off their butts,
complain immediately to management and have them make that very simple adjustment. Nothing gets
done if you just sit there and complain to yourself.