Did you watch "At the Movies With Ebert and Roeper" this weekend? We did and we noticed something was horribly missing. The thumbs! Apparently, according to Variety, there is a contract dispute going on between Ebert and Disney-ABC. According to a Disney-ABC statement released Friday, Ebert's representatives have withheld the use of the show's signature "thumbs up, thumbs down" feature -- owned by Ebert and the estate of the late Gene Siskel -- until a new contract is signed.
But Ebert wrote in an email and on his Web site Friday that while he found Disney-ABC's first offer for the use of the thumbs "offensively low," he never told Disney he was not letting them use the thumbs on this week's show. "I was not contacted by a Disney publicist or by e-mail," he wrote. "Contrary to Disney's press release, I did not demand the removal of the thumbs," he wrote. "I love the show and I love the thumbs and I hope we will all be reunited soon."
We're not sure what the real story is. All we know is that we want the damn thumbs back!