I'm about sick of Kevin Costner and his wildly inflated ego, so I hope none of you mind if I engage in a small rant.

I wouldn't mind so much if the guy had talent. And it's not like I haven't given him a chance. But after "The War, "Waterworld," "The Bodyguard," "Prince of Thieves," and I can't even think what else, it seems painfully apparent that the guy can't act. Even in "Tin Cup," a movie I liked enough to give a whopping 4.5 stars to, his performance was made more by his dialogue than his delivery. His work in the recent "Message In a Bottle" was only too familiar to me: shy, lunky guy mugs the camera, gets the girl, AND engages in the most laughably ego-feeding melodramatic cornball ending imaginable. (Details suppressed for those who haven't seen it yet, lucky sods.) This particular criticism may be more justly addressed to the film rather than himself, but his "Message In a Bottle" role is typical of the screen persona he's created for himself. I am rarely able to watch Costner, now, without being distracted from the story by the uncanny impression that he's in this for the fame and fortune and not so much for the inherent joys of creative expression in the unique medium of film.

Some of you may be aware, if you follow entertainment news at all, that Costner is insanely upset over the cut of "For the Love of the Game" that was released to theaters last weekend. Extremely upset. Quote: "They (Universal) probably don't want to make movies with me (again), and I certainly don't want to make movies with them...I'll never forgive or forget what they've done." What "they" did was chop ten seconds of footage from the cut delivered to Universal. Ok so far, but one problem: Kevin Costner was not the director. It's not up to him to decide; his prerogative ends at expressing his opinion to the director (not even to the studio). But he's a big superstar, and big superstars are not used to big studios resist the pushes and shoves and threats of said big superstars. So while Costner is taking is ball and going home in a sulking fit, vowing never to play with them ever again, the DIRECTOR of the movie, Sam Raimi, is perfectly content with the cut delivered to theaters. So what was in that ten seconds of footage Universal removed from the film? A brief sexual scene that included his naked rear end. Draw your own conclusions about his ego from that.

Costner actually has quite the reputation for being involved and insistent in the editing room. Well, he's not an idiot; I'll give him that much. Performances are made and broken in the editing room. A performance cut one way can win an Oscar; cut another, be an embarrassment. But to usurp control in the editing room from the director and editor, making insistences on the strength of his position in Hollywood, is just obnoxious.

The counterargument, of course, is that "everybody" in Hollywood with power is like this. Well, not really. There are a lot of people whose work I admire who come across very down to earth in interviews and so forth. But for the ones that don't? Hey, I'll forgive them their egos if they have the talent to back it up.

Anyway, so ends my tirade. I'm better now.