Let's hope there's no truth that old "these things come in threes" adage. Exactly a week ago, I rounded up reactions to the death of film critic Anderson Jones; today, I'm collecting responses to the death of film critic Joel Siegel.
Siegel, who had been the house critic for ABC's Good Morning America for the past 25 years, succumbed to colon cancer on Friday. He is remembered vividly by former college roommate Harry Shearer at the Huffington Post, who offers a few anecdotes in tribute to "the Joel Siegel that I knew: the pre-moustache Joel." Siegel's fellow cancer sufferer Roger Ebert quotes from an email in which Siegel admitted to actually appearing on camera with "a pouch in my right hand pumping chemo into a port in my chest." Ebert also quotes Siegel's wife, Ena Swansea who says her husband was "so sad that true film criticism was being replaced by entertainment news, when they only get interviews if their review is laudatory, or they dont review at all.
Speaking of the current state of entertainment journalism, it seems like a lot of us heard of Siegel's death and immediately wondered how Kevin Smith would react.
You'll remember that last summer, Smith and Siegel engaged in a sort of feud, sparked when Siegel loudly marched out of a press screening of Smith's Clerks 2 forty minutes in. At the time, Smith wrote a lengthy response on his own blog, in which he noted that while he was glad Siegel "survived his fairly recent bout with cancer", disruptively walking out of a press screening was unforgivable. "I dont come down to your job and slap the taste out of your mouth for coming up with a line like Shark Tale Is a Halibut Good Time; so dont *** with my stuff WHILE ITS STILL SCREENING."
As it turns out, Smith seems genuinely remorseful that his little spat with Siegel happened recently enough to make it into the obits:
When a guys being remembered post-mortem, he doesnt deserve the inclusion of that minor footnote in his storied career. Id say people should only write about all the good things he did, with nary a mention of the dopey time some punk-ass hacks ego got the better of him and he overreacted to something the guy did/said. Well, I would say that, but Im in no place to tell people how to write about Joel, considering the fact that, when I did so, it was in such a childish and whiney fashion.
Then the director spends about 1,000 words berating a Hollywood-Elsewhere commenter for further tarnishing Siegel's legacy by accused Smith of lacking class for not blogging about Siegel's death within five minutes of the news hitting the wires. "R.I.P., Joel. I regret our last (and only) exchange was what it was, and Im sorry your memorial thread was hijacked by the cyber-stalking antics of the 209th scariest (or saddest, Im not sure) person on the net".
More on Joel Siegel:
Popbytes
Edward Champion
Film School Rejects
More from Spout:
Clerks II
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog