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Film critic Roger Ebert is a big deal in the USA. Imagine Barry Norman and Mark Kermode combined, then times that by five. That's what you need to know before reading his article entitled . Following cancer of the salivary gland, Ebert has had surgery and a tracheotomy meaning, as he describes it, that he's "wearing a gauze bandage around my neck, and my mouth will be seen to droop".

Because of that, he has received 'helpful advice' that his attendance at various high profile film festivals to carry on his work as a critic would be, well, inappropriate: "I'm told that paparazzi will take unflattering pictures, people will be unkind, etc. I was told photos of me in this condition would attract the gossip papers". Roger, however, is having none of it: "I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks. I still have my brain and my typing fingers ... We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I’m not going to miss my festival".

More power to your elbow, Mr Ebert. The bucket of popcorn is on us. [Link via ]