GLAAD demands apology for Shalit review

Jan 7, 2006, 3:47 GMT
NEW YORK, NY, United States (UPI)

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is demanding an apology from 'Today' show film critic Gene Shalit for his review of 'Brokeback Mountain.'

During his Thursday review of the critically hailed film, Shalit called Jake Gyllenhaal`s character, Jack, a 'sexual predator' who 'tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts,' E! Online reported Friday.

GLAAD charged Shalit Friday with promoting 'defamatory anti-gay prejudice to a national audience.'

'Shalit`s bizarre characterization of Jack as a `predator` and Ennis as a victim reflects a fundamental lack of understanding about the central relationship in the film and about gay relationships in general,' GLAAD said in a statement. 'It seems highly doubtful that Shalit would similarly claim that Titanic`s Jack was a `sexual predator` because he was pursuing a romantic relationship with Rose.'

A 'Today' show producer has promised to take the group`s concern to Shalit, GLAAD said on its Web site.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Link here: http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1073994.php/GLAAD_demands_apology_for_Shalit_review

From Advocate Online:
Gene Shalit on his gay son
In 1997, NBC movie reviewer Gene Shalit wrote an article for The Advocate titled “For the Love of Pete,” about his adult gay son. The opinions he expressed in that piece, reprinted here, don’t seem to correspond to his “sexual predator” slur against Brokeback Mountain.

Excerpt: An Advocate.com exclusive posted, January 6, 2006

My eldest son, Peter, is a physician, he’s gay, he and his partner have been together for 17 years, and I wish we’d see each other more often. (You call 3,000 miles far?) He graduated from the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle, where he now lectures and has a private practice; he is a Ph.D. in genetics; he was Phi Beta Kappa at Cornell as an undergraduate; he was a prodigy in botany, beginning to grow plants at age 6; he wrote for botanical journals at 12; and he is currently finishing a book about gay men’s health. Among other areas of expertise, he is an authority on AIDS, with a great many patients, and was among a small team of physicians who went before the Washington State supreme court on the side of allowing doctor-assisted death. Peter is humane and intelligent, and I’m crazy about him. (One of the nice things about me is that I never brag about my kids.)

Full story here: http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid24133.asp

considering that he does have a gay son.

And I'm reluctant to move him to my EVIL box. I've always thought his movie reviews were the best.

a "predator"????

No wait, so a straight guy trying to get into a woman's panties is just red blooded male american, but a cowboy getting his rocks off with another cowboy is a predator?

Gene, you ignorant slut.

one of my all time fav lines.