Was she supposed to be Pauline Kael? Seemed likely to me.
One of Gideon's lot complains that she is just showing how clever she is rather than discussing the movie itself...I can imagine that might be a popular opinion about Kael.
Does anyone know what Kael thought of Cabaret, Lenny or Fosse's other films?
TV critics in general were not taken seriously in these pre-Siskel & Ebert years. Most likely the critic is modeled after a colorful morning show personality like Gene Shalit or Joel Siegel. There were many local New York reviewers on newscasts. The "balloon review" is actually based on a negative TV review of Stanley Donen's THE LITTLE PRINCE, in which Fosse performed a flamboyant number as The Snake. Fosse and Donen watched the review in Fosse's hospital room, and so a version of it ended up in the film. It's interesting that Fosse, in his art, transferred his sympathy for Donen, an old friend who directed Fosse in the MGM B-musical, GIVE A GIRL A BREAK (1953), in the period when Fosse was trying to make it in the movies as a musical-comedy star, to himself; it becomes his own balloons that are burst by the glib reviewer.
The reviewer is played by Chris Chase, a former actress (She appears in the early Kubrick film, KILLER'S KISS (1955) under the name Irene Kane) and dancer and Fosse friend. Chase by the 1970s was a show business journalist; she interviewed Fosse for a NEW YORK TIMES article that appeared in late April 1973, at the height of his "Triple Crown" euphoria/depression (He had won the Oscar and Tony; the Emmy came a bit later in the year).
Kael never gave television reviews, although she did appear occasionally on talk shows. She hailed CABARET in the NEW YORKER in 1972, was critical of LENNY overall, but praised Fosse's direction.
The film critic was I believe based on Rona Barrett. She was a popular film critic/gossip columnist in the 70's. She was on
Good Morning America on ABC.tell me if anyone remembers her.