On NY1 Neil Rosen's Driving: One Wormy Apple!



Above: A Pixieish Emily Connor with the dubious Neil Rosen (image via NYSociadiary.com).
For those of you who don't know who Neil Rosen is -- and, trust me, it's no big deal if you don't -- he is a movie critic for the local New York 1 Time Warner station here in the city. The Corsair used to work for the former classical station WNCN (1992) as an intern over the summer during college break. Neil Rosen at the time did film and theater reviews of -- how does one say it? -- dubious literary quality.

As you can imagine, the office gossip at the time was on the order of: How the fuck does this man get to review theater and film -- in New York City -- over the radio, on an influential cultural station, when he can't ... put together ... a legible sentence? Shouldn't one of his "remedial composition helpers" get a shot? The Corsair always thought so; there were many who ought to have been given the shot (not me, I was only 19).

Rosen would sort of fly in, take his corrected copy at the appointed time, give a sheepish, "thanks," to the assigned Composition teacher -- a wonderful and ambitious lady who never got a shot on air, but would have liked to -- then do his thing in the studio and be off. So, The Corsair went back to college, forgot about all that behind-the-scenes stuff, then, after returning to New York, find Rosen is pitching his wares on NY1 -- the Time Warner station -- a sort of hungry man's Siskel and Ebert, minus the charm, offering up 4 Apple reviews for good films, and so on. If a film was really, really bad -- as was Neil Rosen's "aromatic" prose in ye olden days -- it received "One Rotten Apple." With wit like that it is no wonder he went so far in New York media.

Occasionally, if you read between the lines in the beloved tabloids, one blind item can come into full relief between Rush and Molloy and the Page Sixxies and their hints, like this one, concerning dear old Neil Rosen. First Rush and Molloy:

"Which New York City film critic has made a habit of crashing parties and sneaking unwanted into the VIP areas? He found his way into a private bash Jessica Simpson threw for her hubby's bro Drew Lachey. He also is said to have showed up so drunk to the Mazda-MX5 event at Gotham Hall that he nearly drove his car onto the red carpet...."

Now, the coupe de grace, the Page Sixxies:

"NY1 talking head and perpetual party fixture Neil Rosen getting tossed out of the VIP room at the Mazda MX-5 party at Gotham Hall."

Oh, Neil. We give that drunken driving one ... wormy apple!