\u201c\u2018The Silence of the Lambs\u2019 may be all wool and a yard wide, but it makes a terrific yarn,\u201d he said in his review of the 1991 horror classic, which won best picture at the Academy Awards the following year.<\/p>\n
He rarely minced words when a movie left him cold. In panning \u201cX-Men,\u201d he said the first entry in the hit superhero franchise \u201cshould not be taken seriously. In fact, it should be taken with two aspirin.\u201d Judd Apatow\u2019s \u201cFunny People\u201d is \u201cpassable,\u201d he said \u2014 \u201cspeaking colonically.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to surveying Hollywood releases, Shalit interviewed some of the biggest stars of the day, from Oprah Winfrey to Harrison Ford. His questions\u00a0ranged\u00a0from the serious to the silly, such as when he asked Kermit the Frog whether he planned to marry Miss Piggy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat resonated above his unusual appearance was his incredible wit, his remarkable intelligence. But he didn\u2019t pound you over the head with it. He amused you. He enlightened and amused whatever subject he was on,\u201d Guy Ludwig, Shalit\u2019s producer for more than 20 years, wrote in an essay published on the \u201cTODAY\u201d website in 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shalit started his career as a print journalist. He was the senior film critic for Look Magazine and wrote the \u201cWhat\u2019s Happening?\u201d page for Ladies Home Journal for a dozen years. He published articles in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Seventeen, Glamour and McCall\u2019s.<\/p>\n