John Doe, Critic

Oh, that resourceful New World Pictures! Their ad for Whoopi Goldberg’s latest pic, “The Telephone,” carries a rave blurb that boasts: “The brilliant comedienne and the powerful actress are together at last to give the performance of a lifetime.”

Great quote--but who wrote it? The ad doesn’t attribute it to anyone, which got us to wondering. So we called for details, only to be told that the blurb is a “mystery quote.”

“It’s definitely a quote from a critic, but the critic didn’t want his name on it,” a New World publicity spokesman insisted. Why? “I have no idea. All I can tell you is that it’s not an L.A. critic . . . and we have no plans to reveal who it was.”

The company rep promised that critics’ blurbs used in future ads will be attributed.