Pretentiousness is not one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but perhaps it should be. I am not sure of Dante's position on this infraction. Today I am going to complain about the group I have named Úquot;Working Class Heroes.Úquot;

Dungarees and contrived scruffiness are the major characteristics of this group. Even though they are millionaires many times over, they project the image of your local tramp or hobo.

Bruce Springsteen revels in his New Jersey background, but his open-necked flannel plaid shirts must be bought at a shop on Rodeo Drive, LA. I like his singing and the thoughts he conveys to his audience, but all that proverty-pretension makes me uncomfortable.

Another singer whom I adore and would classify as a genius, even though he would rather be a man from the streets, is Bob Dylan. The first time I heard And a Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall, I nearly joined the Úquot;Flower PeopleÚquot; in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury Section. I bought the record (33 1/3 RPM) and played it a thousand times. I looked for it recently, but one of my sons had stolen my copy. Bob Dylan (nee - Robert Zimmerman) was born into the middle class in Minnesota and has been trying all his life to submerge himself into the much put-upon working class.

Billy Bob Thornton scares the heck out of me. In his movie Sling Blade he played a sub-normal individual who is misused by society. Billy Bob (don't you just love that name?), garnered all my pity and sympathy up until the day he married Angelina Jolie. All that scruffiness and bottom feeding won him one of the most beautiful stars in the Hollywood firmament. Maybe this denigration and debasement are the way to go. Their recent divorce proceedings have confused me a lot.

Last, but not least, is my Bronx neighbor, Al Pacino. My sister was in his class at James Monroe High School and he lived on Bryant Avenue in the East Bronx. Al will always be remembered for his brilliant portrayal of Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy. When he stops shouting at the camera, he is one of the better actors in Hollywood. He can also be menacing as in Scarface, Carlito's Way and Serpico. He, too, seems to want to evoke a lower class image, but at this point with all his wealth, it takes a great actor to pull it off.

Others in this group that I would also include are Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra, Jane Fonda, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando. They all want to be just plain Úquot;working folk.Úquot; No way!

My heroes - Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Jack Lemmon and William Holden. They perform their roles and can go in all directions - up and down.