Kim tithes to a church her mother founded with a wayward Rick Warren disciple. Countess LuAnn gets a job. Jennifer Aniston isn't adopting a baby. Jenna Jameson calls Chelsea Handler a "whore." Thursday gossip sends mixed messages.
There's a rumor going around that one of Scientology's most powerful proponents, John Travolta, is looking to leave the draconian religion once and for all. After the year he's had, it would make sense.
As we know, Roger Friedman—the writer who got fired by Fox for reviewing an illegally leaked online version of the film Wolverine but claimed it was really a crazy Scientology conspiracy—is suing. The amount? $5.18 million.
• The urban/music magazine Vibe is shutting down. [Daily Finance]
• Media coverage of Michael Jackson's death is now "receding." Not that there was any other place for it to go but down: A report finds that 93% of the coverage on cable late last week was Jackson-related. [AP, Journalism.org]
• Or maybe not. Katie…
Wow: Roger Friedman's accusing prominent Church of Scientology members Tom Cruise and Kelly Preston of conspiring against him, and he's citing this as the reason he was fired from his job as a showbiz columnist in a lawsuit against Fox.
Nikki Finke's got it on good authority that Roger Friedman's gonna sue Fox for his firing over watching a leaked copy of Wolverine. And he's talking about it in the (Fox/NY Post competitor) Daily News tomorrow. [DHD]
In your job-searching Monday media column: Looking for work: college professors, Harvard Crimson editors, ombudsmen everywhere. Finding work: portly gossipmongers. All's well!
• Monthly mags continue to suffer: Ad pages have dropped by 23 percent on average, although the situation is particularly dire at Condé Nast. [NYP]
• Maureen Dowd landed in a bit of hot water after it was revealed she'd "borrowed" from blogger Josh Marshall for her op-ed column yesterday. She's since offered a…
Roger Friedman got laid off by FoxNews.com this month for watching a pirated movie. He's already back in the game. You can't keep him down, in any sense of the word! Let's check in:
Roger Friedman, a showbiz columnist for FoxNews.com, failed to persuade Fox News head Roger Ailes that he should keep his job after downloading a pirated copy of Wolverine and angering 20th Century Fox studio executives.
• The New York Times Co. says it will shut down the Boston Globe within a month unless the paper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions. [BN]
• Fox News gossip columnist Roger Friedman got axed after he reviewed a pirated version of Fox's new X-Men movie, Wolverine. [DHD, NYT]
• Vanity Fair is scrapping its…
(UPDATED) Despite reports he was fired for reviewing a pirated copy of Wolverine, Fox News columnist Roger Friedman will have a chance to argue for his job, a Fox News source said.
We knew Fox News gossip and mortal Tom Cruise enemy Roger Friedman was upset last week when MGM denied him an advance look at Valkyrie. Today, he exacted his mouthbreathing, error-packed and all-around vicious revenge.
Fox News' Roger Friedman has made an annual holiday tradition of probing Will Smith's tax returns. And Smith traditionally insists he's not a Scientologist, despite showering the cult with money. Especially this year.
Most celebrities only announce a stint in rehab after undergoing a very public flame-out, so when David Duchovny offered last week (apropos of nothing) that he was being treated for sex addiction, gossip hounds went wild trying to figure out the reasons why. One columnist hot on the case is Fox News gadfly Roger…
Won't anybody listen to the "content kings" over at Warner Bros.? Despite the fact that they actually have plausible reasons for bumping Harry Potter to next year — i.e the writers' strike had left them with a summer 2009 slate that lacked a single tentpole release besides Terminator: Salvation — tongues are…
After getting through a remarkably quiet week without a single controversy or racketeering lawsuit, the Church of Scientology was dealt another bruising body blow with Isaac Hayes's death over the weekend. As much as the Church is expected to miss the singer/songwriter's hot buttered soul and totemic cultural…
• Thanks to the Daily Show, American Apparel becomes the latest victim in the War on Christmas. There's a holiday lesson to be learned here: When you sodomize a reindeer, nobody wins. [American Apparel]
• Fox News's Roger Friedman seems a bit too excited at how gay the Oscars are shaping up to be. [Fox411]
• The…
From: Roger Friedman
Date: 11:34* AM August 5 2005
To: Gawker
Subject: here's my quote—You people are freaks. Get a life.
