The Sunday view from New York

Selling MCA to Matsushita was the biggest mistake of Lew Wasserman's extraordinary career, Bernard Weinraub writes in his NYT review of Connie Bruck's biography, When Hollywood Had a King. Weinraub calls the the book fascinating but sometimes ponderous, impressively researched but light on personal details he hoped to read, and revealing about Wasserman's notorious dark side. A decent review for Bruck, a New Yorker staffer who lives here in Brentwood, and who has been getting mostly good reviews, including by Larry McMurtry in the current New York Review of Books. She also cracks the Los Angeles Times bestseller list on Sunday, at #4. ..On the other hand, the South Bay's Liz Phair probably should skip the NYT's lengthy dissing of her new album: "An embarrassing form of career suicide."