The Internet makes bloggers think anyone can be a critic and many are now losing their jobs.

I won't cry too hard because I think I could be a critic too.

And how apt George Sanders' farewell note:

"Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck."

Not to mention his double claim to fame by having been married to two (2!) of the Gabor sisters.

@2 - Lucky!

Any time you offer free food and/or drink, you're bound to have at least a few assholes show up.

Thanks, Brendan, for putting up the photo of Addison DeWitt. And for those of you who haven't seen "All About Eve" yet, you're in for a treat.

only a true drama fag would ever use the word "crudites". dependng, of course, on how they pronounce it.

The reviewer is often called a parasite. I prefer the more down-right word, thief. Shakespeare, in Timon of Athens, described the whole cycle of nature in terms of theft; and the same applies to the creative cycle by which the author steals from life, the theatre steals from the writer making his work its own, and finally -- if he is up to it -- the critic steals from the theatre. He has, however, some humdrum tasks to fulfill before he can lay claim to the goods. He has, first of all, to make himself useful.

...and a true drama fag would utilize the accent aigu as in crudités - otherwise the word looks like - well - crud-ites. And sometimes they are. Speaking of loading up on free food - ever attend the alleged gala opening of SIFF? Some people act as if they just arrived with from Oklahoma with the Joads.

"The critics? I hate the critics? I have nothing but compassion for them. How can I hate the crippled, the mentally deficient, and the dead?" Spoken by Sir (Albert Finney) in 1983's The Dresser.