Though he hasn’t appeared on air in quite some time, Roger Ebert has remained very active behind the scenes of his show, Ebert & Roper: At the Movies.

Well, now, the legendary film critic has announced that he is also leaving the show.

In a statement, Roger says:

“After 33 years on the air, 23 of them with Disney, the studio has decided to take the program named “Siskel & Ebert” and then “Ebert & Roeper” in a new direction. I will no longer be associated with it.

The show was a wonderful experience. It was a great loss to me when surgery in July 2006 made it impossible for me to appear on the air any longer. Although I remained active behind the scenes, I feel that Richard Roeper and several co-hosts, notably Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott, have excelled at carrying on the tradition Gene Siskel and I began in 1975 with “Sneak Previews” on PBS.
Gene and I felt the formula was simplicity itself: Two film critics, sitting across the aisle from each other in a movie balcony, debating the new films of the week. We developed an entirely new concept for TV. Few shows have been on the air so long and remained so popular. We made television history, and established the trademarked catch-phrase “Two thumbs up.”

The trademark still belongs to me and Marlene Iglitzen, Gene’s widow, and the thumbs will return. We are discussing possibilities, and plan to continue the show’s tradition.”

This is an outrage.

Damn you, Disney!

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Another sign that the economy is in the shitter: things are not well at the fashion bible, Vogue magazine.

Ad pages
http://www.wwd.com/notavailable/dotcom?target=/issue/article/126577&articleId=126577&articleType=A&industryKw=issue&industryKw2=issuearticle” target=”_blank”>are down this year for the mag’s September issue.

Last year’s Sept. issue had 50 more ad pages than this year’s!

The coveted September issue of all the fashion magazine’s are usually the biggest - with more ad pages - than any other issue of the year.

This is not a good indicator of things to come!

[Image via WENN.]

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She’s got her reality show, a jewelry line, a role on the new 90210 (2.0) and now….

Tori Spelling is writing a book.

Another one!

This one, though, will focus on her life as a Hollywood mom.

The new book, tentatively titled Mommywood, is expected to hit shelves next April.

“Writing my first book, sTori Telling, was an amazing, cathartic journey for me,” Tori says. “Now, being a mom of two beautiful babies, I’m excited to share more stories as I embark on this new chapter of my life.”

Laugh as we may at the thought of Tori Spelling as an “author” - her first book spent seven weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. And we know she didn’t buy all those copies herself. She’s not filthy rich!

Girlfriend’s gotta hustle since daddy left her pennies (relatively) in his will.

We appreciate the hustle!

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She is heading down the same path as her mother, the late Paula Yates, who died of a drug overdose!

The Sun is reporting that the British equivalent of Paris Hilton, Peaches Geldof, Sir Bob’s daughter, suffered a drug overdose on Sunday.

The teenager, who a few months ago was caught buying drugs on video, was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions by a friend to keep oxygen pumping to her brain.

Emergency crews raced to her flat to find her unconscious. Peached was successfully revived but she refused to go to hospital for fear her rock legend dad would find out.

London Ambulance confirmed its crews attended the scene. A spokeswoman said: “We were called shortly before 4:45pm yesterday (Sunday) to an address in London N1, to reports of a female patient taken ill. We sent an ambulance, a bicycle responder and a fast response car to the scene. Following assessment, the patient did not need hospital treatment.”

Despite her near-death experience, the celebutard was back on the pAArty scene on Monday night.
Peaches attended the London premiere of the Dark Knight.

Nothing gets between her and a red carpet!

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Speidi love Jesus and America!

“My brother was an airborne ranger in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Montag tells TV’s Extra. “It’s very important to me and important to Spencer to support the troops and go over there.”

Does anyone wanna give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re doing it for any other reason that positive press?

Let’s hope they don’t get stuck there!

[Image via WENN.]

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