Call Her the Immaterial Girl

How daring of O’Connor to denounce materialism from the patio of a plush West Hollywood hotel--and to inform us that the English cause child abuse in Ireland and that if “Bush believed in God, old people wouldn’t be living on the street.”

O’Connor’s jumble of politically correct slogans and New Age nonsense is exactly what one expects from an arrogant, insulated pop star. But I expected better from Hilburn, who seems to take the crew-cut singer at her own assessment, as a modern-day Gandhi or Joan of Arc.

STEPHEN OLES

Venice