Gene Shalit - Biography

Gene Shalit (born March 25, 1926) 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.

Career

He has been involved in reviewing the arts since 1967 and has written for such publications as Look magazine, Ladies' Home Journal (for 12 years), Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Seventeen, Glamour, McCall's, and The New York Times. From 1970–1982 he had a daily essay on NBC Radio "Man About Anything", that was carried on more stations than any other NBC network radio feature. 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.

According to his official MSNBC bio, "Shalit was born in a New York on March 25, 1926, and eight days later arrived in Newark, New Jersey, in company of his mother. In 1932 he accompanied his family when they moved to Morristown, New Jersey. In Morristown High School he wrote the school paper’s humor column (prophetically called "The Broadcaster"), and narrowly escaped expulsion."

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

Gene Shalit wrote for The Daily Illini in six years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1943–1949).

Shalit announced that he would leave The Today Show after 40 years, effective November 11, 2010. Of his decision, he was quoted as saying: "It's enough already". Shalit, according to a NY Times Magazine interview of Dick Clark, was Clark's press agent in the early 1960s. Shalit reportedly "stopped representing" Clark during a Congressional investigation of payola. Clark has never spoken again to Shalit and referred to him as a "jellyfish."

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." Peter Shalit wrote a letter to GLAAD defending his father 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."

Cameo appearances and bit parts

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 up" (Talking about The Krusty Krab), 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 (who himself ate one of the patties), 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!". A review that was supposedly written by Shalit was read aloud by Peter, in the episode "Big Man on Hippocampus". Shalit also voiced his own likeness in three episodes of the animated series The Critic.

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

External links

• Biography on MSNBC