By: E&P Staff Chicago Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips will be a guest co-host of the "Ebert & Roeper" TV show next month, according to a Friday piece by Phil Rosenthal of the Tribune.
Rosenthal said this will be the first time writers from the rival Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times will split reviewing duties on TV since the 1999 death of the Tribune's Gene Siskel, who co-hosted with Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert.
Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper now co-hosts with Ebert, who's recovering from surgery and will not be on TV for an unknown period.
Ebert's work is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, and Siskel was syndicated by Tribune Media Services.
Rosenthal wrote: "It's not quite 'The Front Page.' More like the front page of the feature section. But the old tradition of Chicago's two major daily newspapers challenging one another on TV over coming movie releases will be revived, at least for one week."
According to Rosenthal's piece, Ebert himself suggested Phillips -- who said the airdate of his "Ebert & Roeper" appearance will be Sept. 2
Others guest-hosting with Roeper have included "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, filmmaker Kevin Smith, and TV/movie writer John Ridley.
Rosenthal said Roeper, in Ebert's absence, has been contributing one weekly review for the Sun-Times and Ebert's other newspaper customers.
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