Pardon, madam.
                  BDF
At 01:31 PM 7/27/2005, you wrote:
>Souchet played Hercule Poirot (the Agatha Christie character), not
>Inspector Clouseau (the Pink Panther character).
>
>Picking nits,
>
>Ken
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of bruce d. fisher
>Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 1:04 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Oleanna
>
>I have seen the play twice in London--once about 10 years ago with David
>
>Souchet miscast as the professor (recall he played Inspector Clousseau
>(sp)
>in public TV Mystery series) and was far too "mousey" to play the
>prof.)and
>a second time with a better, more plausible man cast as the prof--about
>a
>year or so ago, again in London.  The play is a study in power
>relationships with a distinct reversal of power from dominant prof. over
>
>student to dominant student over prof during the course of the
>play.  Whether Mamet's depiction is accurate across the board is
>questionable because the way he treats legal rights conferred on women
>is
>to implicitly say they can be perverted by opportunistic women.  In so
>doing he seems to say a well intentioned law--protecting women from
>sexual
>harassment--can, in a given situation, lead to unintended results.  I
>have
>NEVER seen this play in the U.S.  Possibly a reason for this is the
>skeptical view Europeans have in "naive Americans' attempt to rectify
>every
>wrong by passing a law.
>                 In terms of cases dealing with this topic, you might
>want
>to consider CJ Rehnquist's opinion in Meritor v. Vinson (1986) in which
>one
>of the most conservative SCt justices writes strongly in favor of women
>who
>raise sexual harassment claims.  Clearly, Rehnquist does NOT agree with
>Mamet's "take" on the evils of conferring such rights on women.
>                 A provocative play, though.
>                                     Bruce D. Fisher
>At 11:46 AM 7/27/2005, you wrote:
> >Hello everyone,
> >I have been asked to participate on a panel to discuss the David Mamet
> >play "Oleanna" as it relates to student faculty interaction.  Do you
> >know of any specific materials that deal with that play in terms of
> >sexual harassment law?
> >Thanks.  See you in San Fran.
> >rc
> >
> >--
> >Ronnie Cohen, J.D., LL.M.
> >Professor of Business Law
> >Christopher Newport University
> >1 University Place
> >Newport News, VA 23606
> >757-594-7075