1. Roland Emmerich vs Roger Ebert
Quick, which one of the above is Roger Ebert? If you remember Godzilla, you may remember the character named Mayor Ebert - a bumbling, ornery, arrogant leader of New York City who persistently makes ridiculous decisions. Director Roland Emmerich hired Michael Lerner for this part, and slapped him a costume that made him appear as a mirror-image of film critic Roger Ebert. Why did Emmerich do this? Revenge, of course. Ebert had given negative reviews to Emmerich's previous films Universal Soldier, Stargate, and Independence Day, and the director chose to cast Ebert as the truly hateful Mayor character to get his own back on the critic. Emmerich even went one further in the film by picking on Ebert's movie critic partner Gene Siskel, with Mayor Ebert having an incompetent adviser alongside him during Godzilla named - you guessed it - Gene. Ebert seemed unmoved by his inclusion in the film, and expressed his bemusement about how he and Siskel hadn't gotten squished by the scaly feet of Godzilla during the movie. In his review of the film, he wrote: "Now that I've inspired a character in a Godzilla movie, all I really still desire is for several Ingmar Bergman characters to sit in a circle and read my reviews to one another in hushed tones". Now,
that's a response. Any other rivalries between film stars/directors and critics you can think of? Feel free to mention them in the comments section below!