He Lost It at the Movies

A reviewer's tie with a studio raises the issue: Should one who judges films also help those who make them?

Caesar's wife wasn't a film critic, and Julius didn't run a movie studio, so Roman gossips never got to whisper that she was in bed with the moguls. Last week, though, at least one picture reviewer found it hard to be above suspicion.

Michael Medved, who rates movies on the PBS series Sneak Previews, stood accused of selling his services to movie companies. According to an Associated Press story, the critic "accepted money from studios to rewrite scripts and advised studios how to market their films." Medved angrily denies the charges: "I will plead guilty to writing some bad screenplays --...

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