The New York-based film critic, Armond White, was expelled from the New York film critics circle after reportedly heckling Steve McQueen, the director of 12 Years A Slave.

A member since 1987, he had chaired the group three times. His was the first expulsion in the group's 79-year history and left the 34-member circle with one black member.

White, no stranger to controversy in a career punctuated by outspoken criticisms of movies and directors, has responded - in a New York Times interview - by calling the group "an incestuous clubhouse of friends, not people who made their bones as journalists or critics."

He also has a measure of support from other members of the critics circle. Thelma Adams, contributing editor at Yahoo News, described his expulsion as "Stalinist".

David Edelstein, chief film critic for New York magazine, said: "We need to treasure the cranks, we need to treasure the crackpots, because the profession has gotten so cautious."

But the circle's chairman, Stephen Whitty, of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, defended White's ousting as necessary "to prevent any reoccurrence."

To confuse matters, White has denied heckling McQueen at a New York awards dinner. He insists he did not shout out at McQueen: "You're embarrassing." Nor, he says, did he call him "doorman and garbageman."

There is no denying, however, that White's review of 12 Years A Slave was extremely negative. He called it "the most unpleasant American movie since William Friedkin's The Exorcist", and an example of "the torture porn genre."

Sources: Hollywood Reporter/New York Times/City Arts Hat tip: Gawker