Gene Shalit's car hits house in Massachusetts

Former television movie critic Gene Shalit escaped injury Wednesday when his car struck a utility pole and came to rest against a house near his home in western Massachusetts.

According to a report in the Berkshire Eagle, police in Lenox say Shalit, 86, was the only occupant of the orange Honda Element involved in the one-car crash just after noon.

Shalit spoke with police after the crash, collected some personal belongings from his vehicle, then was picked up by someone else. His car was towed.

No one was in the house at the time of the crash. The car took out a wood post, some bushes on the lawn and some of the house siding. It did avoid a farm stand on the front lawn, which was destroyed in a 2004 crash and later rebuilt.

Lenox police said Thursday that the crash remains under investigation.

Shalit, known for his bushy hair and mustache, reviewed movies for the NBC's "Today" show from 1973 until he retired in 2010. He now lives in Stockbridge.