THUMBS UP FOR 2 BENS
EBERT and Roeper have made way for Ben and Ben.
“At The Movies,” the syndicated show in which critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper would give movies a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” will now be hosted by Hollywood scions Ben Lyons, 26, and Ben Mankiewicz 41. Lyons – the son of movie critic Jeffery Lyons and grandson of famed Post columnist Leonard Lyons – has been a film critic for “E! News,” while Mankiewicz is a host for Turner Classic Movies.
His grandfather, Herman Mankiewicz, won an Oscar for the screenplay for “Citizen Kane” (with Orson Welles). His great-uncle, writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz, won Oscars for “All About Eve” and “A Letter to Three Wives,” and cousin Tom Mankiewicz wrote several James Bond movies, including “The Man with the Golden Gun” and “Diamonds are Forever.”
Mankiewicz was also a longtime host on the popular, left-leaning radio talk show “Young Turks,” while his father, Frank, was campaign director for 1972 Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern’s presidential campaign and was Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s press secretary.
The original TV show was hosted by Chicago newspaper critics Gene Siskel and Ebert who started “Sneak Previews” in 1975 for Chicago station WTTW. Siskel died of a brain tumor in 1999; the following year, Roeper became Ebert’s co-host. Ebert, meanwhile, has been battling cancer in recent years. He announced he was leaving the show on Monday, a day after Roeper said he was quitting, too.

