Burt Reynolds fought back with a letter to the editor after a newspaper columnist said he's lost his sense of humor and grace.
Phil Rosenthal wrote in his Los Angeles Daily News column Oct. 25 that Reynolds' "rage is no longer filtered through the humor that once enabled his digs to tickle as they needled. His anger is raw, unwashed and ugly now, and not even his uneasy laugh afterward disguises it."Reynolds replied in a letter published Saturday: "We seem to live in a world where the followers can't wait for the leaders to fall."
Reynolds has gone through an ugly split with actress Loni Anderson and the cancellation of his CBS-TV show, "Evening Shade."
"It seems every time I pause on the edge of any heights and perhaps look down, that act is interpreted as stumbling," Reynolds wrote. "Then from everywhere people, some `friends,' come out from behind the envy barriers and grease the pole."