Hollywood Q&A

Q: Is the guy who does the TV commercials for Persil laundry detergent the same guy who plays Bridget Moynahan’s exhusband on “Blue Bloods”?

A: Peter Hermann is a lot of things to a lot of people. That includes, as you say, being both Jack Boyle on “Blue Bloods” and the face of Persil laundry detergent. He’s also Trevor Lanigan on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” he was referred to affectionately as “The Hair” on an episode of “30 Rock,” and to celebrity-news watchers, he’s Mr. Mariska Hargitay, one half of a crime-TV power couple with his “SVU” co-star. For a certain type of TV fan, he’s Dr. Michael Burke from the long-running but now-canceled soap opera “Guiding Light.” That was his first screen gig, which he landed in 1997.

Five years later, he landed his “Special Victims Unit” role, which may be his biggest. It’s certainly been his longest-running — he recurred as the high-priced defense attorney for a whopping 17 years, from 2002 until his most recent appearance in 2019.

Q: Settle an argument for me: Is it “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” or “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”?

A: The correct, original title is “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” because the variant spelling “dwarves” didn’t really become part of the English language until later, and because the dwarfs in the film are the happy-go-lucky working kind, not the killing-orcswith-axes kind.

The preferred, original plural of “dwarf” is in fact “dwarfs.” “Dwarves” wasn’t commonly used until it was popularized by author J.R.R. Tolkien in his landmark fantasy novel “The Hobbit,” published in September 1937.

Indeed, Tolkien admits outright in the foreword to the book that he used an incorrect spelling to give an air of romance to the also made-up race in his book. “In English, the only correct plural of ‘dwarf ’ is ‘dwarfs’ and the adjective is ‘dwarfish’. In this story, ‘dwarves’ and ‘dwarvish’ are used, but only when speaking of the ancient people to whom Thorin

Oakenshield and his companions belonged.”

But when he said “only,” he wasn’t accounting for the fact that language is always changing, nor for how popular his book would one day become.

Today, both spellings are in use. The venerable Merriam-Webster dictionary lists “dwarfs” as the primary spelling, but says “dwarves” is also correct.

Q: Is Mark Wahlberg making any more Spenser movies? I think Spenser’s a great character who has been underused in movies and on TV.

A: It’s not as if Spenser has been neglected by Hollywood — there had already been two TV shows and two separate telefilm series based on the Spenser novels before Wahlberg took on the character earlier this year. However, his screen legacy is nothing close to his print one. And so far, there’s no sign of another movie to come. Spenser is without a doubt one of the great literary private eyes. He is the most popular character created by one of the giants of the mystery genre.

Spenser featured in a stunning 49 novels — 41 by his creator, the great pulp author Robert B. Parker (including one completed by his agent, Helen Brann, after his death), and eight by his successor, Ace Atkins, who was given permission by Parker’s estate to continue the series.

With that sort of cultural cachet, it is a bit of a wonder that the character hasn’t gotten more attention from a screen industry obsessed with retelling stories with pre-existing fanbases.

But Spenser’s screen fortunes seemed poised to improve earlier this year, when Netflix released a flashy new adaptation, “Spenser Confidential,” starring big-name film star Mark Wahlberg.

The film was a huge hit — the company recently announced that it is the third-most watched film it has produced, having been viewed 85 million times as of July.

And yet, so far at least, there’s been no announcement of a sequel.

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