Dumb

That is how I describe all the parties involved in this story. The flight attendants are over reacting to a contrived Hollywood movie. Flightplan sounds like typical Hollywood schlock. The best way to treat films like this is ignore it. All the AFA is doing is giving this movie some extra publicity. And to the screenwriters, television and movies, try coming up with something original for chrissakes.

Thursday's Special- Cafe Oregano

SPOILER ALERT: If you are considering seeing this movie, a major plot line is given away in this story.They may have put up with being depicted as featherheaded flirts or even carry-on counting fascists, but flight attendants draw the line at the way they come across in Jodie Foster's new hit movie.

Three flight attendant groups are calling for a boycott of "Flightplan," which debuted at No. 1 last weekend, claiming that the depictions of a flight attendant and air marshal are outrageous and disrespectful.

In the thriller, Foster's character, Kyle Pratt, awakens mid-flight to find her 6-year-old daughter missing. A search is launched, an announcement is made, but the girl does not turn up.

As Kyle becomes increasingly upset, the plane's crew begins to suspect that Kyle is unbalanced, which seems to be confirmed by the fact that no one saw the girl board. According to one attendant, the girl is not on the passenger list.

But —spoiler alert — that attendant turns out to be part of a nefarious plot concocted by the federal air marshal who is "handling" the incident.

"With security concerns what they are, it is not a good time to release a film with a terrorist in the position of flight attendant," said Corey Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Assn. of Flight Attendants. "There has to be a layer of trust between the passengers and the crew, to ensure good communication during times of emergency, and a film like this undermines that trust."

The groups calling for the boycott — the AFA, the Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants and Southwest Airlines flight attendants represented by the Transport Workers Union Local 556 — represent more than 80,000 flight attendants at 23 American-based airlines.

According to a statement, the groups were also troubled by the depiction of the non-villianous flight attendants, who were "rude, unhelpful and uncaring."