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Ishtar
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The Devils
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The Pirates of Penzance
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The Fortune
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-30-
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Betrayal
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Play It As It Lays
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The Outfit
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Alex in Wonderland
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The Legend of Lylah Clare
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In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
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Thumb Trippin'
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Midas Run
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At Long Last Love
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Outcast of the Islands
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Run of the Arrow
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House of Secrets
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Saint Joan
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The Fiend Who Walked the West
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Five Gates to Hell
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You're a Big Boy Now
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Tropic of Cancer
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I Never Sang for My Father
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Sometimes a Great Notion
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Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
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The Music Lovers
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Drive, He Said
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The Steagle
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Made For Each Other
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Open Season
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Law and Disorder
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Welcome to L.A.
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Citizens Band
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Looking for Mr. Goodbar
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Players
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Rich Kids
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Screams of a Winter's Night
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When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
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The Awakening
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Simon
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God's Angry Man
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Fast-Walking
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Twice Upon a Time
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Trouble in Mind
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When the Wind Blows
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Housekeeping
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The Glass Menagerie
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Patty Hearst
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Drowning by Numbers
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Haunted Summer
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The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
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1990's
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Prospero's Books
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City of Hope
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The Baby of Macon
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King of the Hill
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Dadetown
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Upcoming

January 8

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Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

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The Girl on the Train

They Whacked Him

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For the sin of shutting down around 8 pm last night and ignoring all online happenings, I missed the news -- broken by Nikki Finke -- about Fox 411's Roger Friedman getting fired for posting that review of the pirated Wolverine work print. I can't say I was surprised, given Friedman's provocation and the stakes involved.

(l. to r.) former Fox News columnist Roger Friedman, Wolverine star Hugh Jackman, Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman, Fox News chief Roger Ailes.

"I hear the move was done with the full support of News Corp," Finke posted at 5:57 pm Pacific last night. A Fox News source told Finke that "[Friedman] promoted piracy...he basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is okay, which is absolutely intolerable...so we fired him. Fox News acted promptly on all fronts."

Actually they took a couple of days. Friedman downloaded and viewed the film on Wednesday evening. His review (which has now entirely disappeared) was posted on Thursday morning. Fox issued its condemning press release on Friday. The axe, I gather, fell more or less at the same time. And Finke was apparently told about the dismissal sometime on Saturday afternoon.

I wrote Friedman on Friday morning, asking him what's what, looking for any kind of update or elaboration -- nothing.

Although I suspect he thought he was doing 20th Century Fox a roundabout solid by posting a thumbs-up response to Wolverine (which, let's face facts, has not been the recipient of ecstatic buzz so far), Friedman's Thursday column did appear to blithely approve of an illegal downloading of the 20th Century Fox release, which will open on 5.1.09. Friedman especially conveyed this in the cavalier tone of his prose.

Certain columnists (Hitfix's Drew McWeeny, MCN's David Poland) called for Friedman's dismissal. It goes without saying that Poland -- a longtime Friedman hater -- is delighted.

Friedman put his neck on the block in doing what he did. He blundered. Piracy is too threatening an issue for 20th Century Fox and Hollywood in general for Newscorp. not to react as it did.

I for one feel badly for Friedman. He screwed up in this instance, but he's a ballsy, sharp-eyed reporter-columnist who knows what he's doing, and who's delivered some very solid and tough reporting.

In his now-disappeared Thursday column, Friedman wrote that he decided to review the downloaded print because "the cat is out of the bag and the genie is out of the bottle" and "there's no turning back."

A guy identified as "Kenny" in Finke's talkback section wrote that "Friedman wasn't advocating a crime -- he was just telling it like it is. But rather than find a way to monetize reality, Fox pretends most people aren't already aware movies are easy to find on-line. As long as Fox would rather grandstand then try to monetize what's already happening, they'll lose money to people stealing their movies."

When you go to the URL where Friedman's Thursday column appeared, you see a message that says "this is Google's cache of http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512139,00.html. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Apr 4, 2009 13:20:23 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. These search terms are highlighted: roger friedman. These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: wolverine."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 4, 2009 at 7:05 PM

comment #1

D.Z. says ...

"he basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is okay, which is absolutely intolerable..."

That's weird, because last time I checked, Karl Rove saw a bootlegged version of Fahrenheit 9/11, and he's still doing political commentary for FOX's network...

"Piracy is too threatening an issue for 20th Century Fox and Hollywood in general for Newscorp. not to react as it did."

Except when it comes to bombs like Chun Li and DB:E.

Posted by D.Z. at April 5, 2009 5:31 AM

comment #2

Krazy Eyes says ...

The idea of Poland and McWeeney calling for his dismissal was hypocrisy of the highest order. Less so with Poland who was guilty of doing the same thing with Hostel 2. But McWeeney? This is a guy who made his name helping to run a website that did essentially the exact same thing week after week after week. I'm guessing he probably has a script in development at Fox so they get to be sucked up to this week.

Posted by Krazy Eyes at April 5, 2009 5:34 AM

comment #3

frank_delsa says ...

Yeah, Poland's position is beyond words. Apparently it's OK doing it to Lionsgate, but if you do it to Fox, then it's death penalty...
Also, I do agree with Kenny, from DHD talkback...

Posted by frank_delsa at April 5, 2009 6:25 AM

comment #4

byanyother says ...

I've always thought Friedman was kind of a hack and a whore but even I don't think he should have been fired for this. It was a pretty dumb thing to do, though. It's like, say, launching a rocket over the Pacific Ocean just because you can. Maybe he shouldn't have admitted he illegally downloaded the movie. I dunno. Information wants to be free. There is no stopping it. But probably mainstream media can't be party to it.

Okay so Friedman is going to .... The Wrap. Either that or they'll hire him back for FoxNation. He could start rogerfriedman.com and do just fine.

Posted by byanyother at April 5, 2009 6:50 AM

comment #5

Ray says ...

What's going on with the comments today?

Posted by Ray at April 5, 2009 7:24 AM

comment #6

Ray says ...

Drew McWeeny is the worst sort of parasitical internet intestinal fluke. He's a corporate shill and a Hollywood pole smoker.

A simple Google search reveals is 2002 defense of Harry Knowles' review of a pirated version of ATTACK OF THE CLONES, which caused FOX to attempt prosecution of the pirates involved.

"... Lucasfilm can't sue us. It's a review. Harry doesn't have the film. He's not distributing the film. He's talking about something he saw. And yes, he saw it."

What a joke.

As for the Friedman business, it's a shame that Hollywood continues to shoot the messenger rather than face certain realities. Piracy is only going to get easier. The music business didn't face the truth until it was too late for them. Hollywood needs to learn a quick lesson before the same thing happens to them.

http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/debate/piracy-and-the-art-of-posturing.php

Posted by Ray at April 5, 2009 7:32 AM

comment #7

corey3rd says ...

Friedman broke the number one rule of journalism - don't do harm to your corporation. Maybe he thought he was bulletproof when FoxNews was able to run all those stories about how evil Hollywood studios make anti-Bush movies like Star Wars and Day After Tomorrow made by Fox.

Well the good news is that there's so many jobs in entertainment reporting at major newspapers that Friedman will have no problem finding another major gig by Monday morning.

Has he sent his resume to Jeff?

Posted by corey3rd at April 5, 2009 7:47 AM

comment #8

R. Hunt says ...

The uproar over "Wolverine" and the dismissal of Friedman strike me as sheer hypocrisy. If the "Wolverine" leak is so news-worthy, then isn't it legitimate to actually know what the leak contained? Is this really any different than news sources reporting on the O.J. Simpson book when it was cancelled? And how many film bloggers have written reviews of Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", another leak that certainly QT and Harvey Weinstein would have preferred to avoid?

Posted by R. Hunt at April 5, 2009 7:51 AM

comment #9

scooterzz says ...

"Well the good news is that there's so many jobs in entertainment reporting at major newspapers that Friedman will have no problem finding another major gig by Monday morning."

wtf?!?

Posted by scooterzz at April 5, 2009 8:19 AM

comment #10

tommysunshine says ...

I can't believe this. Friedman was a good man, a decent columnist. He gets invited everywhere. He didn't spoil anything in his review!
Tom Cruise will be happy...

Posted by tommysunshine at April 5, 2009 1:06 PM

comment #11

LYT says ...

D.Z. -

"Karl Rove saw a bootlegged version of Fahrenheit 9/11, and he's still doing political commentary for FOX's network..."

If you'll remember, Michael Moore was so anxious to get the word out that he announced he was okay with people downloading it for free. I don't know how the studio felt about it, though.

Posted by LYT at April 5, 2009 1:41 PM

comment #12