Theatre critic John Simon dead at 94

A child!

Sylvia Miles dumped another plate of food over his head upon arrival.

Nasty old bigot. Good riddance.

He was a bitter, angry asshole. Bad reviews are one thing but he was mean, especially to an individual performer, just cruel. Scarecrow.

Was it the show or the food? One of them has to be responsible!

“His wife, Patricia Hoag Simon, shared the sad news on Facebook.

‘We were having lunch at a local dinner theatre when he was stricken...’”

John Simon dead?! I thought he was only in critical condition?

One night on the Merv Griffin Show, Simon and Jacqueline Susann got into a big argument about theatre and literature and criticism......it was great. She was actually very articulate and knowledgeable.

Jackie put him in his place finally brushing him off with "....you bore me, little man....."

He was at dinner theater and died during the performance? You couldn't write that ending and have anyone believe it.

For once they didn't die onstage.

I read that he once described an actress as a cathedral with insufficient buttresses.

Later on he compounded the error by admitting in print that he did think she was attractive and totally would have sex with her.

I'm sure that made her feel so much better.

Anyway he did rip that cunt who wrote Love Story a new one so that's worth half a star.

"History has given you the choice between knave and fool. You seem to have settled for both."

She was still alive? I was sure a house had dropped on her long ago!

Amanda Plummer finally has her revenge!

He was a misogynist and homophobic. Mostly he was very angry- and insecure. He wrote some awful things that more or less reflected on him, not the material he was reviewing. I met him and he was one of those who had a hard time looking you in the eye which has always been for me one of the obvious tip offs to an insecure personality. He was definitely very smart and a good writer. But his defects of character overwhelmed. I really do not know why New York kept him on for so long. Strange man.

Don't forget racist, r13.

I never paid much attention to him--always struck me as an ultra-nasty, viperish queen whose opinions weren't worth much and who pretended to be straight. I still think of him that way....am I wrong, DL-ers?

His recent blog was sad. He had retired and was living upstate rehashing old glories (such as they were).

dead you say....the cuntiest cunt who ever cunted.....so a devil gets his trident today

[quote] I read that he once described an actress as a cathedral with insufficient buttresses.

The actress was Diana Rigg. Simon wrote of Rigg's appearance in Abelard and Heloise: "Miss Rigg is built like a brick basilica with insufficient flying buttresses."

He mentioned that one of his critics had panned his writing abilities, saying "but we must remember that English is his second language" to which Simon responded, "no, it's my fifth."

His other four were Cunt, Asshole, Prick and Douche.

[quote]I really do not know why New York kept him on for so long. Strange man.

The reason I heard is just what you might guess: The bitchier Simon's reviews were, the more attention that got. So the publisher of the magazine was never going to fire him, under the theory that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

He said that "Company" was only for homosexuals and old ladies.

ATC liked him.

r22 Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[quote] What did he think of "Follies?"

He warmed to it later in life. Didn't love it in 1971.

My mother always told me, When someone dies, you should never say bad things, you should only say the good things. John Simon is dead. Good.

Mark Harris (writer and Tony Kuishner's husband) says NYT obit does not sufficiently cover what an asshole Simon was....

He sounds like the perfect DLer.

He was a legend, and these grave dancers are just sore losers.

R7, It was The David Frost Show. Jackie faced three critics sitting in the front row, John Simon, Nora Ephron and her buddy Rex Reed. At one point, an exasperated Susann referred to Simon as Simple Simon.

I have nothing but respect for Dinner Theater, any form of theater where people work to put on a show. It's the fact he probably thought it was ever so beneath him, that it was where he face planted. Grand.

He likened Cybill Shepherd to Mussolini in drag. He said Liza Minnelli resembled a Beagle.

He destroyed Barbra in several reviews. One that gets posted on here quite frequently and is just vicious.

The critic in What's Up Doc? was deliberately based on Simon.

[quote] He likened Cybill Shepherd to Mussolini in drag. He said Liza Minnelli resembled a Beagle.

Mean.

Not necessarily wrong. But mean.

Thank you R30 - the David Frost Show.....what a train wreck that could be. Now that you mention it I do remember Jackie calling him Simple Simon......something along the lines of "I've heard of Paul Simon and Simple Simon,....but who are you again?"

DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD!

R7, she was laughing at him as he was foaming at the mouth - THAT was great theater. I wish it was on Youtube.

I used to see Simon on the Harlem Line commuter train. No one recognized him. He was very short. Got off at Mount Vernon.

The first sentence of his review of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is a good one:

“There is a smell at the Martin Beck Theatre, but it is neither sweet nor that of success.”

I like when he told off Felix during his guest appearance on "The Odd Couple." Yes, it happened--Season 5, ep 14, "Two on the Aisle." A great episode.

He didn't "destroy" Barbra Streisand, he merely vented his inability to be anything but bitter about people who were his superiors.

Rex Reed totally eclipsed Simon as the bitchiest queen of movie criticism. That's why Simon had to go off the rails trying to compete.

He wrote that Marin Mazzie's mouth looked like a garage door going up and down....

"He didn't "destroy" Barbra Streisand, he merely vented his inability to be anything but bitter about people who were his superiors."

Ha ha ha. Barbra probably took to her bed after his beating. Another reason I don't like her insecure ass.

Did he go to Harvard on the GI Bill or something like that? Saw him and wife or girlfriend during an intermission of Cinderella at City Opera at the State Theater--the one where Steve Allen revised the book--and wife/gf was chewing gum. How would he have reviewed that? He was overheard leaving Circle in the Square loudly complaining that all fags should die from AIDS. Someone reported it to Liz Smith in her closet. All of the other arts critics at New York Magazine, like Tobi Tobias and Peter G. Davis, loudly protested but it did no good. He kept his job and they kept theirs too. I also used to see him at the theater from time to time with obvious gay men.

The more I hear about him, the more he seems like he should have a star on the DL Walk of Fame.

For all the the was, he made a great guest on Theater Talk

He should have done a cooking show with Fanny Cradock.

That would have packed them in.

In the early 70s he wrote that, "Miss Streisand is to our histrionic aesthetics what the Vietnam War is to our politics."

"Lost and Found", the horrible Glenda Jackson/George Segal "comedy", features a character who is a pointed caricature of Simon (John Bayliss as John Schuster).

"Dinner theater is anti-culture."

--the late John Simon

He had hot analysis but it couldn't last forever.

[quote]He was a misogynist and homophobic. Mostly he was very angry- and insecure.

[quote]Don't forget racist, [R13].

And antisemitic. Remember when he said Streisand was the reason the Nazis exterminated the Jews? Like Charlie said, it wasn't about the criticism, it was just his own bitterness and need for attention.

In an obit I read yesterday someone mentioned the time that he loudly declared at intermission of a play that the faggots had taken over theater and he couldn't wait until they all died of AIDS.

I've seen people online say they're sad that no one can say the things he did anymore because "PC has run amok" blah blah, but the kinds of things he said were never acceptable, not even decades ago.

He once wrote that Mandy Patinkin looked like a caricature from Der Sturmer.

The Queen is dead. Long live the...NEXT!!!"

Has Elaine Joyce weighed in?

Ask Walter Bobbie!

[quote]Remember when he said Streisand was the reason the Nazis exterminated the Jews?

If he actually wrote or said anything like that, it's amazing to think he didn't immediately lose his job, even in less sensitive times. Same with his AIDS comment, but I've always thought maybe he got away with that because it was overheard, not written down.

P.S. I have had the displeasure of meeting his wife on two occasions, and she seemed as nasty, hateful, and miserable as he is. I mean, was :-)

Of Angela Lansbury he said, " "Somewhere Miss Lansbury has acquired a reputation for class, but all I see is fag hag."

He's the reason the word rancid was invented.

His relentless anti-semitism was particularly dismal because a few years ago he finally admitted that his father was an unobservant Hungarian Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism after emigrating to England (and later America) from Serbia in the late 1930s. His story (which, typically, involved name-dropping) was that it wasn't until he met Robert Graves that he considered the possibility that his father was Jewish, an obviously threadbare veil he throws over his own shame.

"It is only when I met, fairly late in life, my favorite poet, Robert Graves, he asked me whether I was a Welsh or a Jewish Simon, asserting that those were the only extant kinds. An extremely learned man, his word, if I will be pardoned for putting it that way, was gospel. So, since Welsh was out of the question, this meant a Jewish heritage of some kind, though practice there never was. This made some sense in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, now merely Serbia, where if you weren’t Greek Orthodox, you were lumped together under the label Other, but just what kind of other hardly mattered, unless you chose to make it an issue."

Someone sent this to me today, from the asshole writer, James Gavin (Peggy Lee and Lena Horne bios)

If I'd been on the receiving end of his disdain I would no doubt view him differently, but John Simon (1925-2019) was very good to me. He gave me a long, eloquent blurb for my first book and came to the Algonquin launch party in 1991 (see below); and I will quote his full-page Times review of my Lena Horne biography forever. He was an aristocrat who could make the guillotine fall with one devastating adjective.

Many if not most reviewers are crummy writers. John's flair with the English language was, I think, unrivaled in his field; it's what made both his praise and his pans carry so much weight. From his 1988 review of "Michael Feinstein in Concert": "Feinstein is one of those Broadway-and-Hollywood-crazed provincials who, helped by what I assume to be a supreme talent for self-promotion, clambered into the limelight via crooning in hotel lobbies, disingenuously humble buttering-up of audiences, the support of Liza Minnelli, and widespread lack of taste. When he sings ... he assumes a soulful expression that must make him the envy of calves' heads in the country's better butcher shops." I would have been upset, too. Socially, John had a courtly, European-bred charm, but it was lost on Edward Albee, whom he had eviscerated repeatedly in print. In 2005, at Ned Rorem's 82nd birthday party, I stood in the kitchen for at least 15 minutes with Edward Albee, who in my previous meetings with him had been as engaging as a sleeping cat.

This time Albee kept talking to me and talking to me. Why? Because John Simon was in the living room and Albee hated John's guts and did not want to go in there. (Eventually he had to, and the two men exchanged not a word.) John's great book, "Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and Its Decline"(1981), has taken on deeper meaning than ever. He was more than a critic; he had star quality, and he evoked strong feelings in everyone. I am extremely proud that he liked me.

True Story: In the late 80s I was a guest at a friend's house on Fire Island Pines. John was also a guest on the same weekend. I was in the early 20s and he was crushing on me. The second night I was there, John came back from the Botel drunk as a skunk and crawled into my bed and pawed at me until I pushed him off the bed and he hurt his neck. He was in a nasty, pissy mood the rest of the week and never spoke with me again. Pretended he didn't know me whenever we crossed paths over the years. Laughable.

[quote]Feinstein is one of those Broadway-and-Hollywood-crazed provincials who, helped by what I assume to be a supreme talent for self-promotion, clambered into the limelight via crooning in hotel lobbies, disingenuously humble buttering-up of audiences, the support of Liza Minnelli, and widespread lack of taste. When he sings ... he assumes a soulful expression that must make him the envy of calves' heads in the country's better butcher shops.

Where's the lie?

When he started as a theater critic, in the early 1960s, he had access only to small outlets, like The New Leader and Theater Arts, which was on its last legs. He must have realized that the only way to get Up There was to call attention to himself, and that's when he suddenly began writing like the enraged queen he really was.

Whoever hired him for New York magazine knew that Simon would become notorious and that would keep New York famous as people would always be quoting him, hating him, etc.

I used to know an actress who was not pretty but, in certain roles, was quite wonderful. And acting is about more than looks. She finally became one of JS's victims, and she told me that being singled out for his contempt for her physical appearance, in front of such a large readership, was bound to have an effect on her. She said she never came on stage in quite the same way after that. She was always aware that the audience was "seeing" her in a way they hadn't been before the disgusting JS used her to buttress his notoriety.

I'm sorry, I don't see his writing as that good. In fact, I find it bad. He used a very stilted, condescendingly arch tone even when he was praising work and he didn't have the gift of letting a caustic remark be flyaway funny, the way Pauline Kael could. Rex Reed is an even worse writer, but somehow less intrinsically vicious.

A comment on Twitter:

"If there was any justice, his obit would have said he wasn’t good-looking enough to play a corpse."

His best line ever was something like "not only is Miss Streisand missing the second 'a' from her first name but everything else from 'b to z' (to be pronounced 'zed')".

He was very cruel in mentioning Glenda Jackson's varicose veins in reviewing her in the 1985 revival of Strange Interlude. Wonder if she had them surgically removed thanks to him?

I’ll forgive Susan Dey for not sending her condolences to mean John Simon.

So jung!

R65, it was the review of On a Clear Day when he said that the difference between Barbara and Barbra.....

He also called Angela Lansbury a bisected androgyne, male on the top, female on the bottom.

He hilariously tore into Maureen Stapleton talking about her unattractiveness and said the range of her gin soaked voice would not exceed a cricket's.

His most notorious review was probably Zoe Caldwell in "Colette". It neatly encapsulates everything about him. He said she was fat and unattractive in every area of her face, body and limbs, although he'd never examined her teeth. "When she climactically bares her sprawlingly uberous breast, the sight was enough to drive the heterosexual third of the audience screaming into the camp of there majority. Colette had sex appeal. Miss Calwell has sex repeal."

He apologized for the AIDS comment R55, but never the Streisand and Patinkin comments. The Patinkin comment was in his review for A Winter's Tale in 1898, and Simon also made racist comments about Alfre Woodard, saying she was Topsy from Uncle Tom's Cabin. He insisted that blacks should be prohibited from playing Shakespearean roles.

Actor's Equity demanded Simon be fired, and Eli Wallach sent a nasty letter to New York Magazine complaining about it but they published it right next to millionaire Robert Paolucci's praise for John Simon being so "brilliant." They loved the attention Simon's racism got them, he stayed on with NY Mag for 16 more years after the Winter's Tale incident.

Sorry, 1989, not 1898. He was old but not THAT old!

Simon was an old school chauvinist who looked at women as things on display for his approval - that means if he disliked any part of her face or body, it must be commented on. YOU must know what he feels about it, a female's looks were as important as her performance.

I remember talking to older professional men in the 1980s who stated easily that they would not vote for a female candidate if she wasn't attractive, if she didn't meet their aesthetic standards. This sounds so stupid today, and I don't excuse Simon for any of his sexism, racism, antisemitism etc, but understand how fucked up most men were back then.

Colette and her sex appeal....

[quote]I remember talking to older professional men in the 1980s who stated easily that they would not vote for a female candidate if she wasn't attractive, if she didn't meet their aesthetic standards. This sounds so stupid today,

No, not really. It doesn't sound much different today.

He died a few months after Claus von Bulow: Alexandra Isles dated them concurrently. Dark shadows, indeed.

"One night on the Merv Griffin Show, Simon and Jacqueline Susann got into a big argument about theatre and literature and criticism......it was great. She was actually very articulate and knowledgeable.

Jackie put him in his place finally brushing him off with "....you bore me, little man....."

You must be fucking kidding. Susann came across as a complete idiot. Simon skewered her. The exchange went like this:

Susann: All right little man, I was telling a story.

Simon: You were telling a story?

Susann: Why are you so uptight"

Simon: I'm not uptight. I'll smile charmingly through my false teeth like you.

Susann: Let me see you smile.

Simon: Now look...I'm asking you what kind of story you're telling.

Susann: A too sophisticated story for you to understand because it's dirty...

Simon: The trouble is, it's not dirty Miss Susann. If it were honest-to-goodness pornography, it would be a thousand times better than what you have written. At least it would serve the purpose of turning people on.

Susann: What's your name? Simple Simon. Mr. Simon, what are you after?

Simon: I hope you realize that by calling me insulting names you're making yourself sound ridiculous. Do you think you're writing art or do you think you're writing trash?

(Critic Rex Reed interjects to report that Simon admitted before the program he had read only thirty pages of Susann's novel that was under discussion, "The Love Machine.")

Susann: You've only read 30 pages and you're putting me through this inquisition?

Simon: I've read 40 pages actually, after which I couldn't stomach anymore. I mean, how many swallows of a rotten stew do I have to swallow before I puke and know that this is inedible? (burst of audience applause)

Susann: What are your credentials?

Simon: Not that it matters, but I have a Ph.D in comparative literature from Harvard.

R75, you're fantasy will not go over for a millisecond without VIDEO. No video? Go home.

Simon could have a PhD in asshole studies and I'd still hate his fag-hating fucking guts.

"You're fantasy will not go over for a millisecond without VIDEO. No video? Go home."

"Fantasy?" I never saw a video of Susann and Simon's row, but I DID read it in an amusing book called "Sex American Style" By Jack Boulware. It happened. Fuck off.

^ CASE CLOSED

Now take your own advice, darling

[quote]you're fantasy will not go over for a millisecond

Oh dear. You must go for booze and dope.

Nice try, R78.

It was the July 23rd, 1969 episode of The David Frost Show, mentioned in this Vanity Fair article:

"On July 23, 1969, Mansfield’s 61st birthday, Susann arrived at a studio to tape the David Frost show with a panel of friendly journalists: Rex Reed, Nora Ephron, and Jimmy Breslin. At the last minute and with-out Susann’s knowledge, critic John Simon was brought in to replace Breslin. Simon went for the jugular, lashing out at Susann for “writing trash” and smiling “through false teeth.” Rex Reed recalls, “It was terrible. Simon was spitting all over Nora Ephron’s arm and Nora was sitting there like a caged animal. It was the only time I ever saw Jackie lose her cool.” "

That was no "try", R81. That was game, set and match. Sorry if you're displeased. But I'm sure you'll find some way to deal with it.

R78, there are lots of versions of the story which don't have much without video. I heard that he called Jackie out with her "whorish ways and fake hair" to which she responded that his hair has to be natural because it's too thin not to be, which is a pretty good comeback.

His "debate" with Erich Segal was so ridiculous that the audiences almost gave a standing ovation to Little Richard when he said that no one cared about the lousy book, only about how pretty he was,.

Simon's most pathetic moment came on Saturday Night Live when he played himself in a filmed segment as a blubbering mess who admitted he criticized people because he was such a loser.

His Nightline appearance against Siskel and Ebert about Star Wars really did underscore what a poor critic he was. He threw out bitchy one liners that were actually quite inarticulate and was unable to truly defend them.

Spy Magazine once did an article on celebrity feuds and listed a whole series of them (Dean Martin vs. Jerry Lewis, Johnny Carson vs. Joan Rivers, etc.) , and one of them they listed was "John Simon vs. actresses not as pretty as he is."

" I heard that he called Jackie out with her "whorish ways and fake hair" to which she responded that his hair has to be natural because it's too thin not to be, which is a pretty good comeback."

Where'd you hear that? Since Simon commented on how ridiculous she was to call HIM names, I find it hard to believe he would call her "whorish" and say she had "fake hair." Anyway, John Simon was a million times more intelligent than Susann. He could wipe up the floor with her verbally.

"His Nightline appearance against Siskel and Ebert about Star Wars really did underscore what a poor critic he was. He threw out bitchy one liners that were actually quite inarticulate and was unable to truly defend them."

If he didn't like "Star Wars" then he was an excellent critic. That movie was one of the most overrated pieces of shit of all time.

He loved Betty Lynn and she re-tweeted his obit.

With Dick Cavett.

Go to the 42 minute mark.

Thanks R90

Simon must be using his Ouija Board from hell. He's a great critic because he hated Star Wars? If you watched the Nightline piece, he was totally unable to defend his position and when Siskel took a personal shot at Simon, he was unable to fire back. I have no problem with him liking or disliking any performer or work, but it has been pointed out numerous times that he simply wrote the most outrageous things to gain attention, often even changing opinions when something was popular

I still think Jackie won that night......

The Tragedy of John Simon

He was no Stuart Klein.

Thanks for that link R94; they also posted an obit by Jack O'Brien.

" If you watched the Nightline piece, he was totally unable to defend his position and when Siskel took a personal shot at Simon, he was unable to fire back."

Maybe Simon wasn't into doing things like taking "personal shots" at people. During his argument with Jacqueline Susann he commented on how her name-calling was "ridiculous." I don't think he cared to stoop so low. Unpleasant he was, but he wasn't into that kind of juvenile shit. By the way, Siskel and Ebert were assholes and their reviews could be stupid beyond belief. Ebert gave a film a thumbs up because he thought the French actress in it was hot. Siskel disliked "Aliens" because the little girl in the movie was constantly in peril, and that disturbed him. Those two were idiots.

"Maybe Simon wasn't into doing things like taking "personal shots" at people."

WTF? Simon made a living taking personal shots at people. He was a very disturbed self-hating individual.

R97 = insane.

"WTF? Simon made a living taking personal shots at people. "

In his reviews he was ruthless, but in interviews he was quite civil to others. He always remained calm and collected while other people raged at him. He always came across as more intelligent.

R99, you're an idiot. Go ahead and hate John Simon all you want, but he was a very intelligent critic whose reviews were always interesting. I read one of his books "Something To Declare", and while I don't agree with everything he said, it was evident that he was a good writer and a lot of what he said made sense. I found his honesty refreshing.

R100 / R101 = insane x 100

Darling, this is not the place to drool over John Simon. If you do, you'll suffer the consequences.

He once wrote something to the effect that Liza inherited her father's looks and her mother's judgement.

"Maybe Simon wasn't into doing things like taking "personal shots" at people."

Did you even see the piece? Simon starts out by taking a personal shot at Siskel and Ebert and Siskel threw it right back at him and he had no response.

As a writer, he was capable of sometimes incisive comments but he was not overly talented. He found the gimmick of insult criticism and it gave him some fame, which would have eluded him if he tried to stick to general criticism.

His "honesty" was a gimmick and the fact that his fans fell for it suggests that the WWE isn't the only venue with gullible people.

R101 = Why we need more than 3 FFs a day.

It is significant that with the exception of his insults, none of his opinions are ever quoted.

One of the few times Simon hit the mark with something less than a Minnelli insult was when he reviewed her concert and said that it should be reviewed by those who cover disasters because as a performer, she is a tiny talent with huge amplification who is longing for love, understanding and help. That is very perceptive. Of course, the only thing anyone talks about is his review of The Act where he starts with "I've always found Minnelli's face deserving: Of first place in the beagle category". That's the sort of trite insult we'd expect from a third rate poster on DL.

His terrible puns, mentioned in the Feingold obit, were even more insulting.

R97 you are too stupid to realize the fact that Simon could be very perceptive and eloquent in his criticism doesn't mean he wasn't ALSO frequently so disgusting in print that he should have lost his job decades ago. His comments about Streisand and the Nazis, and about gays in the theater and AIDS? Those comments ALONE should have caused him to be fired from New York magazine long before that finally happened.

Oh you SJWs are always going on about something r109. He was entitled to his opinion. That's what he was paid for. If you don't like it, don't read it. Right?

R102 & R105 are positively unhinged in their hatred of John Simon. Maybe he said something about Barbra Streisand's appearance that made them lose their shit. What silly twats they are.

"You are too stupid to realize the fact that Simon could be very perceptive and eloquent in his criticism doesn't mean he wasn't ALSO frequently so disgusting in print that he should have lost his job decades ago."

Nobody said he was a nice guy, dummy. I think he said a lot of nasty things because he knew it would rile people up and that would create more publicity for him. He was a bitch, but a very smart one.

There's an interview with him on the Dick Cavett show where Mort Sahl (who came across as the most repellent asshole imaginable) is doing his best to bait him about homosexuals in the arts and even goes as far as to try and get him to out gay actors and playwrights. Simon remained reasonable and rational throughout, despite Sahl's attempts to make him look bad. Actually, it was Mort Sahl who came across as the asshole.

Some people here are insane RELATIVES of the insane :)

Simon's widely reported overheard comment was that he couldn't wait forl AIDS to kill all the homosexuals in theater, and I'm pretty sure he would have lost his job if that comment had appeared in print. But there's no doubt that he actually said it, because he later publicly apologized for it. And, in an interview, Simon admitted that he once wrote "Barbra Streisand was the sort of thing that starts pogroms," but that line was cut by his editors.

ANYONE who thinks remarks like this are remotely acceptable as someone's "opinion" is a POS -- and that definitely includes you, R110. And of course, R110, you would never have the nerve to go on record that you consider such comments acceptable if you had to sign your name to that. Anonymous chat boards unfortunately can be a refuge for scum like you.

Simon's comments about AIDS and pogroms were obviously attempts to be outrageous, not "opinions." He seemed to like getting people worked up and he was good at it. He kind of reminds me of Madonna; she too, would do utterly outrageous things (like her Sex book) just to get publicity and shock people. They both seemed to need attention, even if it was negative.

Madonna flashing her tits in a crap art book is not equivalent to wishing all gay people would die of AIDS.

QED....R116.

I wonder if the John Simon lovers in this thread were actually around and saw that steaming pile of shit on talk show in the 60s and 70s. This was long before his AIDS comments. Simon was a smug, disdainful asshole, and people probably watched to see what he's say next. I don't think Simon was in on the joke. He was completely serious, he was.

R118, it's Simon lover, singular. Block one poster and all the ridiculous comments are suddenly gone.

From the Wikipedia article on John Simon:

Dick Cavett's late wife Carrie Nye reported that she overheard Simon in the lobby of a theater exclaim "Homosexuals in the theater! I can't wait until AIDS gets all of them!"

I remember when this happened at the height of the AIDS pandemic, and remembered him apologizing. I've never forgiven him for this. For much of society, that was the attitude towards the gay community at the time. For a large chunk of the American population , it still is.

Aunt Sylvia tattled!

Bedelia! You BITCH!

I don't care if he had a Ph.D from Harvard. I don't care if he spoke 4-5-6 languages. I don't care that, when he was drunk out of his mind, he wrote well. He was a crass, unkind, nasty unfeeling piece of shit who rode on the fame of his vitriolic attacks. Did he like the show? No and he found the leading lady as ugly as a bag of potatoes. Fuck you, JS. DON'T rest in peace.

As noted elsewhere, I've met his wife a couple of times, and she seems as nasty as he is -- err, was. I wonder if they were miserable together. Or maybe they were in synch because of their evil nastiness, and they got along really well?

R61 That's pretty close to the truth, though Feinstein does have a nice voice. What really turned me off to him years ago was when he was singing directly to Nancy Reagan in one of those White House concerts and looking doe-eyed and longingly/sincerely into her eyes, she, who around that time denied help to Rock Hudson and others suffering from AIDS. Feinstein just seemed like an opportunist then who was publicly kissing ass, even though he was kind of cute.

Liz Smith reported the AIDS comment and Simon showed what a pathetic worm he was by groveling at the very first AIDS related play he was forced to review.

He had a long running feud with Jay Cocks of Time after he told him that Simon's girlfriend had a heroin problem. Hell, if you had to be with Simon wouldn't you have to resort to heroin?

Was Simon's girlfriend the woman who wound up marrying?

R10, the exact quote is, “Diana Rigg is built like a brick mausoleum with insufficient flying buttresses.”

It has often been said that Kenneth Mars was sending up Simon in What's Up Doc."

The accent is certainly very close/

Also I think Eric Braden's vicious critic on an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was based on John Simon as well.

Eric Braeden, that is

He was homophobic, anti-semitic and word is he had an issue with blacks too. But I guess only the good die young.

" It's Simon lover, singular. Block one poster and all the ridiculous comments are suddenly gone."

There aren't ANY Simon "lovers' on this thread, you pathetic cunt. There ARE quite a few pathological haters of him, though. Must be pretty hard to go through life so filled with hate for a person you didn't even know. a THEATER/FILM critic for God's sake. He WROTE stuff, he wasn't a serial killer or a child molester, or a depraved politician whose insane acts affect millions of people. I think hating him would be a waste of time, but I guess some of you have nothing better to do.

R127, no, the exact quote from Abelard and Heloise from Simon was: "As Heloise, Diana Rigg is built like a brick basilica with inadequate flying buttresses". Rigg did the misquote in her book "No turn unstoned" but also left out the most pertinent criticism "(she) suggests neither intense womanliness nor outstanding intellect." The reason Simon's comments on Rigg's body were somewhat justified was because she had a nude scene that was somewhat of a scandal on Broadway.

R131, his idea of humor was calling Sammy Davis Jr. Littlechimp in Stop the World.

Yes, R128. It was stated her was AT THE TIME the movie came out. Correct, R129, he was a softball version.

Simon must have hated himself something awful, and living with him must have been hell. It makes me think of how playwright John Osborne sized up his wives. On actress Jill Bennett who eventually committed suicide:

"She had a voice sounding like a puppy with a mouthful of lavatory paper. I did everything I could to scrub up her diction, but it never improved. Indeed after we separated and she was consigned to lesser parts it became even worse. During a television series… even by the pier-end standards of sit-com, she was quite incomprehensive and cried out for sub-titles."

"Her frigidity was almost total. She loathed men and pretended to love women, whom she hated even more. She was at ease only in the company of homosexuals, who she also despised but whose narcissism matched her own. I never heard her say an admiring thing of anyone… Everything about her life had been a pernicious confection, a sham."

Looks like something hit R132's very insecure nerve.

Must be terrible to die and have everyone say what a disgusting person you were. Makes your life pretty worthless.

[quote]I think hating him would be a waste of time, but I guess some of you have nothing better to do.

I think if you DON'T hate someone for stating that he hoped AIDS would "get" all homosexuals in the theater, and that he hated a Jewish performer (Streisand) so much that he could understand why there were pogroms leveled against Jewish people, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you. And if you want to try to make a distinction between hating what Simon wrote and said, and hating the man himself, you can do that if you want, but I think it's pointless and idiotic to do so.

AND if you're saying that only actions can be hateful, and words cannot be, you are a fool.

It's obvious that it's the nerves of the Simon haters that are the ones being "hit", R132. They seem very, very upset.

As for John Simon, I think he's probably resting very comfortably. I think if he saw the comments on this thread he'd be chuckling to himself and thinking "well, I certainly got THEIR knickers in a twist!" I think he'd probably enjoy all the rancor hurled at him from the hysterical haters. No doubt he finds their vapors amusing.

"I think if you DON'T hate someone for stating that he hoped AIDS would "get" all homosexuals in the theater, and that he hated a Jewish performer (Streisand) so much that he could understand why there were pogroms leveled against Jewish people, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you."

I never took anything John Simon said very seriously. He just some acid CRITIC who liked to push people's buttons. Seems like you (and others of your ilk) took everything he said very, very, very seriously, which proves that something is indeed wrong with YOU.

Give it a rest, R139/140. You're boring as hell and not convincing anyone.

Give what a rest, R141? I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything. And I must definitely not be "boring"; I'm getting a lot of attention here. On the other hand, poor souls LIKE are trying to do a lot of convincing. Seems like you're trying very hard at it.

DIE R142. Shut up, stop answering posts, just go away.

R143 had a problem and it isn't R142.' R143

Underlining the retort level here as minus C minus..

R143 had a problem and it isn't R142.' R143

Underlining the retort level here as minus C minus..

Twice? Well you made your point, i guess

I guess R143 dislikes John Simon's venom. And he tells me to "DIE?" Wow, talk about a hypocritical pile of steaming shit. What a pathetic ass.

^ copies others to make an insane point. I'm done...you'll see me in your dreams, fucktard!

[quote]I never took anything John Simon said very seriously. He just some acid CRITIC who liked to push people's buttons. Seems like you (and others of your ilk) took everything he said very, very, very seriously, which proves that something is indeed wrong with YOU.

So how do YOU decide when a remark like "I hope AIDS gets all the homosexuals in the theater" is to be taken seriously, and when it's just something someone said to "push people's buttons?" A related question: If I tell you that you're a vile human being, how do you know if you should take me seriously or if I'm just pushing your buttons? ANSWER: In this case, it's definitely the former.

Hldk jkoieh klsalk mlioeij. Jlkd hell ljdjoien!

[quote]Maybe Simon wasn't into doing things like taking "personal shots" at people.

GIRL WHAT

That is the dumbest damn thing I have ever read on this website, and I've read the numerology threads.

Is he still dead? Sometimes it's best to check. Why shouldn't a critic take shots at people? Not o n l y at people though. There is no worthwhile criticism of anything anymore. Well yes, there is. But it's given the same airtime as all other opinion. I find it terrible to have no leaders in thought, taste and decision. Criticism is always subjective. Based on some loose common criteria. That doesn't mean there aren't bright lights and dumb disasters. I wasn't even alive for John Simon's reviews. He still reads like a less misogynist Datalounger. He's nowhere near as vile as Miss Warwick. ( that real old white man fancies himself a critic )

I'm sure Simon's words did damage. But he was the darling of the NYC jews, in and out of the arts. He didn't seem to go after the weak. Streisand's career didn't suffer from him revealing the truth of her appeal. He loved Cynthia Nixon from the time she was a young performer? I'm starting on his book of reviews. Whew. He's pretty damn smart and mean and biased. A critic. He's dead.

^ INSANE

94, huh? Mean people live forever.

I'm not insane R153. I am full of realization. But you know that. CAPS aren't a good look on you. I read your other posts. May god grant you peace.

^ NEW to Datalounge. Good luck.

Luck is for ugly old people r156. GOOD LUCK TO YOU!