Roger Ebert to Sit Down with Oprah
Roger Ebert, Oprah
Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show Tuesday, marking Ebert's first TV appearance since he lost the ability to speak.
Ebert, who lost his voice and part of his jawbone in a battle with thyroid cancer, will participate in the interview with the aid of text-to-speech computer technology. Ebert and Winfrey are longtime friends, and even briefly dated in the 1980s, which Ebert has documented on his website.
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Ebert was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in 2002. The cancer was removed, but returned in his salivary glands in 2003. Ebert underwent further surgery in June 2006 to remove additional cancerous tissue near his right jaw, resulting in the loss of part of his jaw bone. His cancer battle was recently documented in an Esquire profile.
After multiple unsuccessful surgeries to restore Ebert's jaw, he remains unable to eat and drink normally. Ebert, however, continues to crank out film reviews week after week and is very active on his blog.