As its latest cost-cutting gambit, the entertainment trade publication Variety has fired its film critic, Todd McCarthy, and its theatre critic, David Rooney. Variety president Neil Stiles told the New York Times “economic reality” no longer allows the entertainment journal to carry staffers who actually review entertainment; instead, the movie and theatre reviews will be done by freelancers. Variety already uses freelancers to write many of its reviews; Stiles says that he will keep the same number of reviews in the paper, but give McCarthy and Rooney’s assignments to people who are not on staff.