Gene Shalit
Born	March 25, 1932 (1932-03-25) (age 77) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Film critic, Book critic
Nationality	American
Subjects	Film

Gene Shalit (born March 25, 1932, in New York City) is a film and book critic. He has filled these roles on NBC's The Today Show since January 15, 1973. He is known for his frequent use of puns, his oversized handlebar moustache, and for wearing colorful bowties.

He is known to have had a rocky relationship with former Today Show co-host Bryant Gumbel. He has been involved in reviewing the arts since 1967. He has written for publications including Look magazine, Ladies' Home Journal (for 12 years), Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Seventeen, Glamour, McCall's, and The New York Times. In 1987, he published Laughing Matters—A Treasury of American Humor, a critically praised humor anthology. As of 2009, he lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with his cat Fellini. Shalit's children include the artist and entrepreneur Willa Shalit, and he is the godfather of radio producer/personality Gary Dell'Abate.

According to his official MSNBC bio, "Shalit was born in a New York hospital ever so long ago, and eight days later cut out for Newark, New Jersey, to be with his mother. In six years he fled to Morristown, New Jersey, where he was columnist for the high school paper and narrowly escaped expulsion."^[1]

Born of Jewish parents, Shalit attended Morristown High School, where he wrote a humor column for the school newspaper.^[2]

On June 22, 2008, during the puzzle segment of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, host Liane Hansen erroneously referred to Shalit as the "late, great Gene Shalit." This error was edited out when the segment audio was placed on the program Web site later that day. Hansen had Shalit on the next week to announce to the winner their prize.

Contents 1 Brokeback Mountain review controversy 2 In popular culture 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Brokeback Mountain review controversy

Shalit was criticized by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) for his January 5, 2006, on-air review of the acclaimed film Brokeback Mountain, which he panned. Shalit referred to Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack Twist, as a "sexual predator" who "tracks Ennis (Heath Ledger) down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts."

The Advocate noted that the tone of the criticism seems to be at odds with an essay Shalit wrote about his adult gay son in 1997. Shalit speaks highly of his son in this essay, which concludes with the statement, "Let children follow their own star."^[3] Peter Shalit wrote a letter to GLAAD defending his father^[4] and said GLAAD had defamed him by "falsely accusing him of a repellent form of bigotry."

Shalit wrote in a letter to GLAAD:

"In describing the behavior of 'Jack' I used words ('sexual predator') that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. . . . I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of Brokeback Mountain."

Peter Shalit told GLAAD, "He may have had an unpopular opinion of a movie that is important to the gay community, but he defamed no one, and he is not a homophobe."^[4]

[edit] In popular culture

Shalit guest-starred as the voice, and was portrayed in the form, of a fish named "Gene Scallop" in the Spongebob Squarepants episode "The Krusty Sponge" in which the character was an important food critic with which through his review episode titled Bottom Feeding, he stated all of the negatives of the Krusty Krab and its management but in closing praised SpongeBob's cooking style and stated that Mr. Krabs should "sponge it up", thus causing Mr. Krabs to go overboard, even as far as selling "Spongy Patties" which were actually old rotten yellow Krabby Patties thus causing several customers to get very ill and to turn yellow. Scallop appeared later in the episode as the head juror, reading "the jury finds Mr. Krabs guilty." Shalit told Entertainment Tonight that he enjoys the show and was amused seeing the episode.

He also made a cameo appearance in an episode of Family Guy in a cutaway gag, mugging Peter and talking in puns with movies. In another episode, Peter obtains the power of transformation. While in the form of Britney Spears he kisses Justin Timberlake and then turns into Shalit, exclaiming to a horrified Timberlake "I'm Gene Shalit now! BYE!" An animated Gene Shalit (with an imitator voice) appeared in the pilot episode of The Critic reviewing a restaurant.

Shalit was featured on Sesame Street in the 1970s. A Muppet character based on him appeared in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gene Shalit at the Internet Movie Database
• Gene Shalit at TV.com
• Biography on MSNBC

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