When At the Movies With Ebert & Roeper begins its 22nd year in national syndication Aug. 25, Richard Roeper will be joined for at least the first several weeks by the Observer's Robert Wilonsky, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Wilonsky will take the place of Roger Ebert, who is recovering from surgeries.
Robert Meyerowitz will replace Tony Ortega, who transferred last month after he was named editor of the Village Voice. Meyerowitz served as editor-in-chief of the Anchorage Press from 1998 to 2003. According to a Village Voice Media press release, he also covered the civil war in Nicaragua, freelanced for VVM's Phoenix New Times, and briefly served as editor of the Honolulu Weekly. In an e-mail to Broward-Palm Beach staff, VVM executive associate editor Andy Van De Voorde says Meyerowitz received kudos from Anchorage's daily for "thoughtful and provocative journalism." He adds: "I believe that same description applies in spades to your own paper, and in that sense I think you will find Robert a kindred spirit."
Doug Harvey doesn't just sit around thinking about art; he also creates it. The alt-weekly critic will exhibit his paintings and sculptures in "Great Expectorations" this month and next at a gallery in L.A.’s Chinatown district. The gallery describes the exhibit as "a multi-faceted serial piece ... simultaneously disturbing and therapeutic." It's the artist-writer’s first solo show in almost a decade. ANOTHER ALT-WEEKLY WRITER-ARTIST: Austin Chronicle arts editor Robert Faires stars in "In on It," which returns this month after being "the Austin theater hit of the summer," says the Austin American-Statesman.
Robert Christgau, the music critic who was dismissed from his longtime job at The Village Voice last month, will soon assume a regular gig on National Public Radio. Bob Boilen, the host of NPR's "All Songs Considered" program, made the announcement while introducing Christgau as part of a roundtable previewing fall CDs on the Sept. 21 show. Immediately after being introduced, Christgau blurted, "I need a job. I got one, I need more."
Five of those dismissed yesterday were senior arts editors, including Christgau, who had been a music critic for the paper on and off since 1969. The other three employees were design staff, including Art Director Minh Uong. In a statement, Village Voice Media describes the layoffs as an effort "to reconfigure the editorial department to place an emphasis on writers as opposed to editors." David Blum, who was named the editor of the Voice three weeks ago, tells The New York Times, "It wouldn't have been appropriate for me to weigh in on these decisions before I even took over the job." Blum's first day is September 12.
Robert Wilder, who writes the column "Daddy Needs a Drink" for the Reporter, is the guest columnist for the "My Turn" feature in the current issue of Newsweek. Wilder's subject is his own father, whom he contacts each Mother's Day to "let him know how much I appreciate all the ways he tried to be both the hand that rocked the cradle and the one that held a hammer."
Robert Meyerowitz will find average temperatures 60 degrees warmer when he leaves Alaska in January to become editor of Honolulu Weekly. "In the five years that Meyerowitz has been editor, the Press has largely forsaken potty mouth to produce thoughtful and provocative journalism that you didn't have to agree with to admire," writes Rosanne Pagano in the Anchorage Daily News. Pagano, a journalism professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, praises the Press (which is not an AAN member) for its wide range of stories, including a probe of a for-profit business that managed rural school districts.
