CHICAGO - EBERT "DEPRESSED" BY LOSS OF SHOW

EBERT "DEPRESSED" BY LOSS OF SHOW

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert says that having to announce his departure from the television show that he launched with the late Gene Siskel in 1975 left him feeling "depressed." Ebert notes on his recently launched blog (http //blogs.sunt imes.com/ebert) that although he had not appeared on the show for two years because surgery had robbed him of his voice, he had continued as an adviser, helping to select co-hosts for Richard Roeper, advising on the movies to be reviewed, and communicating with producer-director Don DuPree. Now, he wrote,"it was gone, taken in a 'new direction.' And I was fully realizing what a large empty space it left behind." (Most of Ebert's blog entry consists of fond reminiscences of his years with Siskel who died of a brain tumor in 1999.) In a commentary on Ebert's own 'new direction,' AP entertainment writer Jake Coyle wrote Wednesday, ""Roger Ebert is gone from At the Movies , but he's an increasingly influential figure in the new dominant realm of film critici sm the Web."

31/07/2008