Entertainment

03:27 PM CDT on Friday, April 7, 2006

Knight Ridder Newspapers

The slow-simmering grudge match between Hollywood and movie critics flared again this week.

Originally, Sony Pictures Entertainment planned to let critics see its new David Spade-Rob Schneider sports comedy The Benchwarmers. Tentative press screening dates were announced.

But as today's opening date approached, Sony changed its mind. Press screenings were canceled, including one for Dallas media.

But at least one critic did see the film, wrote his review and had it picked up by the Knight Ridder/Tribune wire service. Roger Moore, the movie reviewer for The Orlando Sentinel, gave the film one star out of five, the lowest rating possible.

Then things got interesting. On Tuesday evening, The Dallas Morning News and other papers received calls from Sony's advertising and public relations agency. An agency spokeswoman said Wednesday that she was asked by Sony to call newspapers and advise them that Mr. Moore's review was "unauthorized."

The critic has a different story. He says he was invited to and attended a Benchwarmers screening earlier this week along with other critics from central Florida.

"Three hours later, someone from Sony called me and said there had been a mistake, that I wasn't supposed to have seen the movie," he recalls. "Well, too bad. The train has left the station.

"Obviously, Sony's local field representative made a mistake," Mr. Moore says. "She wasn't supposed to let critics see the film, and she did. It's probably going to cost her her job.

"The crazy thing is that this is a critic-proof movie that's going to do business no matter what I or anybody else writes about it. I don't understand why Sony has its panties in such a bunch."

Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony, issued a statement Thursday afternoon: "He attended a screening that was set for a word-of-mouth audience, but we want people to know that we weren't showing it to critics early, as we don't believe our target audience for this movie is very influenced by their opinions."

Staff writer Stephen Becker contributed to this report.