‘Today Show’ film buff, Gene Shalit retires from TV

[HMG Celebrity News] – In a move that will change the face of breakfast TV, and certainly its neck-wear, ‘Today Show’ movie critic Gene Shalit has announced he’s retiring.

Born in New York on March 25, 1925 the now 85-year old film buff, who has been part of the cast since 1970 announced his departure with typical brevity;

“It’s enough already!” THR quotes him as saying.

Starting as an occasional guest Gene became a fixture on the show in 1973, and also found time to write for publications like ‘Ladies’ Home Journal,’ ‘Cosmo,’ ‘TV Guide,’ ‘Seventeen’ and The New York Times.

He even delivered daily essays on life for NBC radio while doing all this — and published several books.

Tomorrow will be Gene’s last appearance [barring re-runs] and the Today crew will mark his departure with a retrospective salute to his four decades of work, including film reviews, celebrity interviews and his endless collection of puns.

But they might skip his ‘Brokeback Mountain’ review. When the movie opened in 2006 Gene tore it to shreds and called Jake Gyllenhaal’s character “a sexual predator.” saying he trapped Heath Ledger’s character into ‘sexual  trysts.’

The people at GLAAD had a fit. Then Gene wrote a letter explaining his views, the GLAAD folk relented and now everyone’s friendly. But for a while it was bad.

And despite leaving ‘Today,’ Gene’s not retiring. A statement from his rep made it clear he would now ‘pursue other activities’ including publishing, radio work and commercials.

And you can bet Matt and the folks will make sure we hear about that…