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Deadline Hires New Los Angeles Film Editor Brian Brooks, … 
‘Thor 2′ Director Will Be ‘Game Of … 
AMC Renews ‘Hell On Wheels’ For Season 2 
Fox’s ‘The X Factor’ Ends Bumpy First … 
Marc Graboff To Run ‘American Idol’ Parent … 
Box Office Brawl: Warner Bros Demands Recount From Rivals … 
OSCARS: ‘The Help’ Gets In The Holiday – … 
‘Salmon Fishing In The Yemen’ To Open Palm … 
Hannover House To Release English Language Version Of … 
National Geographic Joins Forces With Hyde Park/Image 
Hammond: ‘Bridesmaids’ A Serious Oscar … 
Sony Classics Acquires Woody Allen’s ‘Nero … 
Lionsgate, Saban And Celestial Pictures Forge Asian Pay TV … 
AOL Investor Says Content Acquisitions Have Been A Big 
Sony Pictures Strikes Exclusive UK Streaming Deal With … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected 
Orson Welles’ Oscar Sold For $862K 
FCC Law Judge Says Comcast Abused Its Power By Charging For … 
‘Terra Nova’ Moves To Pick Up Stars Jason … 
Dish Network Shares Rocketing On Speculation Of AT&T … 
2ND UPDATE: Gossip blogger Roger Friedman emails that he was not fired or let go. “The Hollywood Reporter simply decided for budgetary reasons not to renew my employment agreement which expires next week.”
UPDATE: THR editor Elizabeth Guider just emailed the following in response to my query: “To answer your question: we decided that we wanted to go in different directions editorially and focus our resources differently. That editorial decision was made and communicated mid February. He left us right around March 15. And to clarify: [Roger] Friedman was originally hired by Nielsen Corporate in New York last May. He did report to me and to a Nielsen executive on the content side in NY.”
12:50 PM: Roger Friedman’s freelance celebrity blog is gone from THR‘s website now. It happened at the end of last week (while I was travelling) and was mentioned briefly in Anne Thompson’s indie blog last night. I hear his deal was with old owners Nielsen Business Media, so it wasn’t renewed by the new owners e5 Global Media. “He goes almost a year without reporting much, then gets fired [let go] after he just broke the Rosie O’Donnell-getting-a-new-talk show story,” an insider tells me. Friedman was hired last May THR editor Elizabeth Guider ”to beef up its coverage of the celebrity world” after he was canned as a freelance blogger by Fox News for posting about Internet piracy.
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A few years ago Roger reported about a Broadway producers SRO book signing at the Union Sq. Barnes. He went on and on and on and on about how: there wasn’t one empty chair, everyone laughed and cheered at the stories the producer told, and made it seem as if the Beatles had reformed and played that night. Thing was I went to that book signing. There were (maybe) 5 people there. Since then I haven’t believed anything that Roger reports. Sure he gets things right from time to time but I never forgot how he either lied about the book signing…or, let the producers PR person pen the item himself.
He wasn’t fired by Fox “for posting about Internet piracy.” He was fired for illegally downloading and then stupidly reviewing a pirated copy of one of their biggest films a month before it was released in theaters. Big difference.
Not having your employment agreement renewed — isn’t that the same thing as being let go?
I actually doubt Roger illegally downloaded anything and he never said that he did. He actually watched it on some streaming site located in some foreign country. Fox could clamp down on this in a second but they problem don’t want to make China mad. Let it go. I loved his Michael Jackson coverage and his stuff, when he wasn’t kissing up to the Miramax crew was very entertaining.
They should have just been glad anyone wanted to even talk about a finished or not X-men movie without Bryan Singer involved. Oh well.
I am so glad this loser is gone. I kept looking for confirmation he was kicked out when his blog disappeared from the HR website. If you saw the kinds of comments readers wrote about this embarrasment, it was because he kept getting simple facts wrong in his reporting. He was such a passive aggresive jerk that he’d talk out of both sides of his mouth. One day he’d say Michael Jackson’s children wanted to accept their father’s lifetime achievement award and that they should instead of his brothers, whom he didn’t like, and a few days later he was chastizing Michael’s brothers for not accepting it.
He’d keep reminding us how he supposedly broke stories but not admit the ones that he was totally wrong on. Pathetic, fat, ugly loser. Rest in pieces, Freed-man.
He is a hack with over inflated ego who waxed lyrical about people that massaged said ego. I was surprised and shocked when THR hired him because his reporting is hardly ever accurate.
@Chris L
You are absolutely wrong about that. Friedman wrote an entire article/review at his Fox 411 column where he explicitly said he illegally downloaded and watched the movie and then gave his mini-review of it. I know because I read it when it went up. It created a huge backlash against him because other online writers were played by the rules and he didn’t. It showed a huge double standard so Fox had no choice but to can him.
roger did more reporting than most folks out there – especially in the gossip category. he’ll bounce back, because he fills the need for solid, well-researched entertainment news and gossip and no one gets more music scoops.
“Gossip blogger Roger Friedman emails that he was not fired or let go. ‘The Hollywood Reporter simply decided for budgetary reasons not to renew my employment agreement which expires next week.’”
That’s kind of what “let go” means.
Indie: You can say that again! Dead-on.
Roger is an old school gossip columnist in the style of Walter Winchell, totally corrupt and in the pocket of the PR types who feed him the tidbits that he passed off as scoops. His obnoxiousness preceded him. I actually thought it was commendable when someone as ineffectual as Elizabeth Guider hired him to give the foppishly fawning THR some edge. Right idea, just the wrong guy for the job.
The real question is, what does this say about the new owner, e5 Global Media. Here’s my take:
1. In typical private equity style, expect brutal rounds of cutbacks as they trim the operation to the bone to spruce up the balance sheet and position the pub for a resale.
2. For them it’s about the money, not journalistic independence or integrity. When push comes to shove, they’ll vote to stand on their wallets, not the First Amendment.
3. They are not journalists, they do not understand journalism, nor do they care. They don’t know why columns like Nikki Finke’s thrive, while fawning publications like THR lack credibility and flounder. (Note to Variety) THR still adheres to publisher John Kilcullen’s editorial philosophy: “Don’t piss off the advertisers.” That’s unlikely to change.
4. Hiring Richard Beckman, formerly Condé Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group CEO, does not bode well. It’s well known that Condé Nast executives don’t fair well outside Condé’s deep pocketed corporate culture. Outside of Vanity Fair, Condé’s editorial philosophy is to promote its advertisers, the formula followed by Vogue and Fairchild fashion pubs. That won’t work in hard-nosed Hollywood, just like it failed when Condé dropped $100 million trying to produce a business magazine. Remember Portfolio? Total disaster.
5. Not to be totally cynical, let me say this; maybe, just maybe they realized that Friedman was the leech that he is, and they are planning to invest their scarce resources in real journalism. After all e5 Global Media supposedly tried to hire Finke, that says something. But do I believe this? Honestly, no…
Funny Roger got credit for breaking the Rosie O’Donnell story. That pointing fingers at everyone else site GossipCop.com actually broke it way before Roger and THR, and they had a bunch of details like good old Dick Robertson setting it up. Roger/THR must’ve flacked it better because they took the credit when they shouldn’t have.
And if I’m not mistaken, Roger also said Deadline was wrong about Conan getting an exit package in the $30-40M range, only to write (a few days later) exactly what Deadline had first.
Roger Friedman, gone – and definitely forgotten.
What a hack! Why did the Reporter hire him in the first place? He isn’t good and he’s obnoxious. The only thing that roly poly ever broke was a sweat running up to Harvey’s butt to kiss it.
Nikki,I wrote an article about this and credited you as the one who broke the story. I wrote it in the same vile format that Roger writes his stories when he does one of his hit pieces.
http://www.examiner.com/x-30616-LA-African-American-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m3d29-Liberal-reporter-Roger-Friedman-loses-second-job-within-a-year
Fortunately, Roger is having his day in court on that matter with Fox. I wish him the best. He helped expose a lot about what Scientology is doing in Hollywood. It must suck being blackballed.
Court: New York Civil Supreme Index Number:602005/2009
Case Name: FRIEDMAN, ROGER vs. FOX NEWS NETWORK LLC Case Type: Other Torts Track: Standard Appearance On Justice /Part DIAMOND, MARILYN G. MOTION IAS 48 Date Time 05/26/2010 9:30AM
HERE’S A REAL SCOOP. If anyone is interested in the truth behind Roger Friedman’s firing they should investigate how much his libelous writing cost Fox in legal fees. The “illegally downloaded movie” fiasco is just the excuse Fox needed to finally get rid of this loser.