Roger Friedman, the gossip columnist who was fired by Fox News allegedly for seeming to endorse video piracy, says the real reason the company dismissed him was due to pressure from The Church of Scientology, which was offended by articles he wrote that were critical of the church. Friedman got in hot water several months ago when he wrote in his column that he obtained a bootlegged copy of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine with ease - and seemed to be less than critical about the practice of viewing pirated copies. Fox News summarily fired him and he now writes for The Hollywood Reporter. In an interview with the New York Daily News gossip column Rush & Molloy, Friedman says he will sue Fox News because he thinks the video piracy issue was just a convenient excuse to cave in to pressure from Scientologists, specifically actress Kelly Preston, wife of John Travolta. The organization has been a hotbed of controversy over the decades. Defenders say it is a genuine religion that has been constantly harrassed by the media because its beliefs and practices are outside the realm of other churches. Critics call it a cult that exploits naive and emotionally fragile people through techniques that approach brainwashing. For more
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