Not that Ebert worried what his friends thought — or anyone else. In fact, such self-assuredness is precisely what made him so alluring. As Chaz explains, “Roger weighed 300 pounds when we first started dating. He didn’t care that he was fat. He thought he was great. And that was so sexy.”
As for Siskel, he consorted with an altogether different crowd of women. The documentary reveals the little-known trivia that he was close friends with another Windy City native who’d done well in media. “[Gene] was a philosophy major at Yale,” says his wife of nearly twenty years, Marlene Iglitzen. “While Roger was one of the good old boy news reporters, Gene was just more of a, for lack of a better word, elegant character. He caught the eye of Hugh Hefner, and he was adopted by the clan at the Mansion. And he traveled with Hefner in the Bunny jet. Even though Roger wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, I think Gene lived the life for a while.”
While Life Itself offers many captivating storylines — an inspiring portrait of one man’s indefatigable will to not only live but to enjoy life and bring joy to others, a moving tribute to the equally indomitable spirit of his beloved spouse and caregiver, a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of America’s medical-industrial complex, an ode to friendship, a love letter to cinema — it’s also worth seeing simply for the snapshot of a mustachioed, bird-chested Siskel posing with some topless blonde in the Playboy Mansion pool.
Article Appeared @http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/siskel-ebert-ladies-men