- If you haven’t heard, film critic Joel Siegel passed away a few days ago. Siegel made news here at the site when he loudly walked on on a Clerks II press screening last year. We hadn’t planned on mentioning his passing, though it seems many of the obituaries recalled their tiff. So, Kevin made a brief comment on the web board expressing condolences, which then turned into a blog post, a few bits of which we have straight ahead:
Read Roger Ebert’s eloquent and beautiful thoughts on Joel Siegel’s passing, here.
This saddens me, because a) it’s unfortunate when anyone gets taken too early by cancer, and b) I had a rather shameful row with him last year around this time. It was petty then, but it certainly feels a million times worse now that he’s died.
Sadly, I’ve read more than one obituary of the man [OBIT REMOVED] in which our back-and-forth was recalled. When a guy’s being remembered post-mortem, he doesn’t deserve the inclusion of that minor footnote in his storied career. I’d say people should only write about all the good things he did, with nary a mention of the dopey time some punk-ass hack’s ego got the better of him and he overreacted to something the guy did/said. Well, I would say that, but I’m in no place to tell people how to write about Joel, considering the fact that, when I did so, it was in such a childish and whiney fashion.
This in mind, I went back and forth about whether or not I had any right to blog about Joel’s death, considering the vehemence of my 347 day old thoughts on what had transpired last July. There didn’t seem to be any way to address his unfortunate passing with the proper respect it deserved.
As for all the scoopers who wrote in with the news, sorry we don’t have you all listed up there — We were debating mentioning this at all, but felt compelled to at least run Kevin’s post. Our condolences to the friends, family, and fans of Mr. Siegel.
