Roger Ebert

"At the Movies," the TV series that was (under a variety of names) the longtime home of bantering film critics Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel, premiered with two new hosts Sunday night, A.O. Scott of the New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune (Siskel's old paper and corporate cousin to the Los Angeles Times, where Phillips had earlier worked and which still sometimes runs his reviews). Promo spots preceding its debut promised "two accomplished critics," "serious reviews from serious journalists" and "voices you trust," the implication being that the hosts being replaced, Ben Lyons (an E!

"At THE MOVIES," the syndicated series that introduced the TV-watching masses to passionate on-air debates about film, is about to get a major face-lift. Disney Domestic Television announced Tuesday that critic Roger Ebert -- who's been off the show since 2006 due to illness -- and current partner Richard Roeper would be replaced with two younger hosts, Ben Lyons of "E!

It WOULD BE FAIR to say that I'm not an objective observer when it comes to the news that Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper have quit their longtime gig as hosts of "At the Movies," Disney/ABC's weekly TV review show. When I was a young pup in film school in Chicago, Roger Ebert was already a prince in the critical pantheon, first from his perch as critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, then as a TV reviewer (with Gene Siskel) on their original PBS movie review show.

IT'S NO secret that everyone is weighing in on politics these days, from David Letterman to Barbara Walters and the esteemed ladies of "The View" -- who, as the New York Times pointed out, have had Barack Obama, John McCain and even Bill Clinton on their couch, with McCain clearly getting the toughest grilling. But should film critics be weighing in on the presidential race as well?

Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic Roger Ebert declined to comment for this article on Ben Lyons. But he seemed to have had Lyons specifically in mind when he wrote a recent post on his Chicago Sun-Times blog titled "Roger's Little Rule Book." It lays down "enduring ethical ground rules" governing movie criticism. Among them: "No posing for photos! Never ask a movie star to pose with you for a picture . . . . . . You diminish yourself by asking for a snapshot." "A trailer is not a movie."

Roger Ebert's recovery from cancer surgery has been a "long and unexpected ordeal," but he plans to attend his annual festival for overlooked movies. "I think of the festival as the first step on my return to action," Ebert wrote in a column celebrating his 40th anniversary as film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times. The column was posted Tuesday on his website.

Roger Ebert plans to attend his annual festival for overlooked movies tonight, returning to public view for the first time since having cancer surgery. The 64-year-old film critic had surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. He also had emergency surgery July 1 after a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation. A tracheostomy was done, meaning Ebert cannot speak.

As though in one of those movies that Roger Ebert would praise as long as the emotions rang true, the applause started softly near a rear entrance of the historic Virginia Theatre on Wednesday night and rippled outward until all in the crowd were standing on their feet smacking their hands together.

Roger Ebert said he never gave a "thumbs down" to the use of thumbs in the film reviews for "At the Movies With Ebert & Roeper" during contract negotiations. In a statement released Friday, the TV show's distributor, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, said Ebert had "exercised his right to withhold use of the 'thumbs' until a new contract is signed." Ebert is a copyright holder on the signature "thumbs up, thumbs down" judgment that's part of each film review.

Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years, will undergo cancer surgery again. In Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times, where Ebert has been the movie critic for nearly 40 years, columnist Robert Feder reported that Ebert will have surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. "It's not life threatening, and I expect to make a full recovery," the 63-year-old critic and host of the review show "Ebert & Roeper" told Feder.