By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Seeking Fiscal Fix, Made Trade Nix Crix
Variety is housed on the top 3 floors of a lovely building on Miracle Mile but first reports on the firing of chief theater critic David Rooney and chief film critic Todd McCarthy indicate that it’s not a place for staff anymore: “In a telephone interview, Mr. Stiles said the critics were cut as a cost-saving measure. “It’s economic reality,” Mr. Stiles said. He said the paper will continue to carry the same number of reviews, but he expects them all to be done on a freelance basis. Many of the trade paper’s reviews are currently done by freelance writers.” The paywall is one kind of black curtain: this is a more deadly one. Sime., Skirt. and Mosk. were unavailable for comment. Twitter comments follow. Roger Ebert: “Variety fires Todd McCarthy and I cancel my subscription. He was my reason to read the paper. RIP, schmucks.” OregonianShawn Levy: “Variety has let go of Todd McCarthy, its chief (and solid) film critic. This is huge…and awful.” LA journo Chris Willman: “Not to be a drama queen myself, but this feels like the end of the world as we know it. I can’t even comprehend.” LA Times media blogger Joe Flint: “Big bummer! Longtime Variety film critic Todd McCarthy let go.” IndieWIRE’s Anne Thompson: “Todd McCarthy out at variety I am shocked dismayed and disturbed. very sad day.” Media Studies prof Alisa Perren: “That’s insane.” Eric Kohn: “Wow, Variety’s Todd McCarthy is the latest full-time film critic casualty.” Jim Emerson: “Variety dumps Todd McCarthy? Because it wants more critics like this?” [Emerson links to Derek Elley’s pan of the Venice premiere of The Hurt Locker, which is behind the paywall.] Bumble Ward: “This is hideous news.” Salt Lake Tribune’s Sean P. Means: “Probably Variety’s smartest voice. WTF?” Toronto Int’l’s Cameron Bailey: “Shocking.” Writes FishBowl LA’s Tina Dupuy: “Variety has let go their last staff critics Todd McCarthy and David Rooney. They will be replaced by “freelancers.” We hope that won’t become code for crowd-sourcing student labor and Twitter reactions. Hm. Chills.”