Photo: Timothy Hiatt/WireImage (Getty).
How dare he! But on the other hand, during a time when you see a headline a day about another celebrity harassment scandal ending their career, this doesn’t seem so bad by comparison. But it does sort of beg the question: how relevant are critics anymore?
Suicide By Social: Richard Roeper Suspended For Buying Twitter Followers
Pretty much everyone has a voice now, so more than ever, a large following is important for yours to be taken seriously. While film critic Richard Roeper used to be a household name when he was palling around with Roger Ebert, clearly his clout isn’t all it used to be. Therefore, he’s allegedly resorted to (gasp!) buying a large portion of his 225,000 Twitter following, and the Chicago Sun-Times isn’t all that happy about it.
The paper announced on Monday that they would be suspending the “popular” film critic until an investigation into his actions comes to a solid conclusion. Editor-in-chief Chris Fusco also made the following statement on the matter:
We became aware over the weekend of issues relating to Rich Roeper’s Twitter account. We’re investigating these issues. We will not be publishing any reviews or columns by Rich until this investigation is complete.
Perhaps it’s just me, but I have a feeling ol’ Rich is gonna be just fine if he and Fusco are on a nickname basis. Still, they realize you can actually buy Twitter followers for other people as well, right? If the paper does wind up giving Richy-Rich the heave-ho, what’s to stop rival critics from buying each other followers to sabotage the competition?
Also, would they still be required to send a “Thank You” card since they technically received a gift that got them canned?
