Roger Friedman is a long-time Fox News entertainment blogger, and according to the parent company of Fox News and 20th Century Fox, he’s out of a job today.
It all started Thursday, when Friedman wrote a review of the not-yet-released, 20th Century Fox production, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. An illegal copy was leaked to the internet; a disaster that could cost the studio “millions in box office receipts.” The studio was quick to respond, distancing itself from its sister company, Fox News:
“We’ve just been made aware that Roger Friedman, a freelance columnist who writes Fox 411 on Foxnews.com — an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox — watched on the Internet and reviewed a stolen and unfinished version of ‘X-Men Organs: Wolverine.’ This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically — whether the review is good or bad.”
So, yeah. Screwing over your own company will get you fired (even though, as of now, Friedman claims that he has not been terminated.) End of story. But this dude has been on my radar for awhile now, because of something that actually happened a couple of weeks ago.
Everyone jumps on me for my distaste towards America’s Sweetheart Homewrecker, but here is more evidence that she just is not a nice person. On March 16th, Friedman attended the premier of Julia Robert’s flop movie, Duplicity. He approached her, asking for a comment and she was beyond an ignorant bitch.
Once, Warren Beatty, whom I do consider the smartest guy in Hollywood, told me: “The biggest mistake you can make is to think no one’s reading what you write.”
But that’s Warren, he’s in a different league, and he knows everything going on around him.
Not so Julia Roberts, apparently. Mother now of three kids, she probably doesn’t have the time to read anything. She certainly doesn’t read this column. When she saw me last night at the premiere of her sleek new thriller, “Duplicity,” Roberts didn’t hesitate to cut me dead. She was rude, downright nasty, and dismissive. She snubbed me in front of other people to make her point, and later cut in between me and director Tony Gilroy to make her point. Her behavior was unexpected and chilling.
So what was the problem? Her officious publicist, Marcy Engelman, said: “She knows you broke the embargo on her play and wrote bad things about her.”
Indeed, a top agent at the party said, “Julia said, ‘that’s the man who writes bad things about me.’””
Not only is Julia Roberts a little fucking crybaby, she’s a little fucking uninformed crybaby. The play that Marcy Engelman is referring to is Roberts’ 2006 Broadway debut, Three Days of Rain. You may remember this as the production in which Julia Roberts was universally panned. Would you like to see the review that this bastard Roger Friedman wrote?
As for Julia: She was very good on Saturday afternoon. We heard her clearly in the last row. She has a strong stage presence and I suspect it will just get better and better as she warms up for opening night. She is funny and charming when appropriate, somber and grim with conviction too. She has all her lines digested and you cannot take your eyes off of her. She actually injects some life into that first-act character with some real Roberts sarcasm. It’s most welcome. In the second act, though, she combines her best riffs from her performances in “Steel Magnolias” and “Ready to Wear,” among others.
And she does not look thin, gaunt or unhappy. Quite to the contrary, she has a supple energy. Our audience went wild for her, with a standing ovation and cheering. So there.
As our usher said, she’s already very good and by opening night, pow!
So retract those claws, kitties. And get ready. No, she’s not Cherry Jones or Phylicia Rashad — yet. But she’s a movie star and can act circles around anyone, and she’s going to be a sensation in the papers on the morning of April 20.
My guess is this will open the door for her to alternate doing plays and movies, and that can only be a good thing.
I feel bad that Roger Friedman was so stupid as to not only admit to watching a bootleg copy of a movie produced by his own employer, but that he thought it prudent to publish a review for it as well. But I love and adore him for exposing Julia Roberts for the vindictive little wench that I’ve always known was lurking behind that flounder face.
I am so glad that I’m not the only person who doesn’t care for Julia Roberts. But I figure that’s okay, because Julia Roberts like herself enough for the both of us.
Make that all three of us. :)
I was glad when Shelby kicked the bucket in Stell Magnolias. She was such a bitch about her wedding. “Blush and Bashful”….. bitch and please!!!!
“X-men Organs” hahaha… yeah I’m 12…
Darn! You beat me to it!!!! :D
I always thought she was a bitch.
The last good movie she was in was Ocean’s 12…
That was like what, 5 years ago?
And she was still outstarred by Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Andy Garcia, and Matt Damon.
Uh, I cannot stand Julia Roberts. Every thing she says has to end in superlatives and yes, she homewrecked, an ultimate no-no (and her husband is a jerk for cheating on his spouse with Julia too)
But honestly, the way she acted like a bitch, an uninformed one, she didn’t act any differently than most stars do. They are surrounded by enables who make them feel like kings and queens and honestly,, they don’t bother to find the truth out for themselves.
I used to live in a town near Taos, New Mexico, where JR has a house. I’ve never heard a good thing about her. My old poli-sci prof has the ranch adjacent to hers and Dick Cheney’s; and the prof only talked about DC. She’s really, really disliked in Taos (by anyone with any sense).
Sorry, but you’re not going to get me to hate Julia Roberts. FAIL.
She’s been having an on off affair with George Clooney for a while, even after she had those trolls, I mean twins… anyway George told her store bought husband to run before the marriage as Julia has a massive ego and that Danny would be de-balled, as he has been. The store bought husband was down in Cabo on a “surfing” trip last year and all he did was “surf” the high end hookers while he was there with his buddies. His reward for having to endure that egomaniac is he’s paid to service and shut up.
If you can’t open a film starring Clive Owen, you are not America’s Sweetheart, your career is in decline and all those big paydays gone – her behavior is appalling. Her spawn frighteningly homely, look for them under your local bridges with billy goats. Blech.
Juicy!
Roger Friedman’s column was good – he had a lot of juicy scoops, especially when the Michael Jackson trial was going on. Some other outlet’ll probably grab him up pretty quickly.
Julia is just a white trash whore who has fucked every guy in Hollywood, even the married ones. She can’t act, is ugly as hell and severly stupid.
I cannot stand this woman. She thinks she is this smart woman when she barely can put 2 sentences together that actually make sense.
She needs to go away. America has spoken and it hates Roberts.
Sorry! I love ALL Julia Roberts movies! I don’t know or care if she is a bitch. All I care about is if I like the movie I have paid to see, and I always do!
I can’t stand that toothy mouthed biatch either!! So full of herself.