Roger Ebert Gets Smacked By NY Post Film Critic

The NY Daily News reported yesterday that legendary film critic Roger Ebert got hit with a Toronto Film Festival binder by Lou Lumenick of the New York Post after Ebert tried to alert the critic that he was blocking his view at a screening last weekend. Now Ebert’s come forward with his own account.

The movie Slumdog Millionaire had subtitles on the bottom right side of the screen. I was seated in an outboard aisle seat on the right. The person in front of me was leaning over into the aisle, making the subtitles impossible to read. He is not short. Because of neck and shoulder surgery I could not look around him.

In my medical condition I cannot speak, I tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and gestured him to move over a little. He said, “Don’t touch me!” and remained in position. I tapped him lightly again. “I said–don’t touch me!” He leaned further into the aisle, as if making a point of it. I tapped him a third time, and he jumped up and…

whacked me on the knee with whatever it was. He sat down, and I defiantly tapped him again, not as lightly, but not too heavily, just to show I wasn’t intimidated.

There was a commotion, some people stood up and asked him what he was doing, and a person from the studio who was seated behind us across the aisle intervened. I gather there was a conversation with security, which I did not witness. He reentered the theater and took the studio person’s seat. His seat was taken by someone who had been standing in the rear of the theater. No more problems.

Lumenick, best known for writing a mind-bogglingly assholish memorial to Heath Ledger (“It’s always a tragedy when a 28-year-old dies, but I wasn’t totally surprised. He spent the last decade throwing away opportunies any young actor would die for.”), has yet to give his taken on why he’d rather smack the ailing mute behind him rather than move his damn head already. In his defense, it sounds like Lumenick might have been annoyed that he was missing the chance to interview “real comer” Kat Dennings.