Fox hack ‘sacked on Cruise’s orders’

An American entertainment reporter who was sacked by Fox News in April has claimed that he was dismissed because he frequently criticised the Church of Scientology. Roger Friedman plans to file a lawsuit in Manhattan later this week, which will shed light on the powerful ties between Hollywood's A-list Scientologists and the film studios who rely on them to get their projects greenlit.

Friedman, who spent a decade covering the Hollywood beat for the 24-hour news channel and its website, accuses Fox News of bowing to pressure from stars such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston and other members of the Church of Scientology who wanted him out. Yesterday he announced that he plans to sue his former employers for wrongful termination, claiming they fired him so that Cruise and Travolta would sign on to future Fox movie projects.

In April, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation announced that it had terminated Friedman's contract after he wrote a review on his 'Fox 411' blog of the 20th Century Fox blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine and made it clear he was basing it on leaked early version of the film which he had downloaded. "Nobody from Fox News defended me," says Friedman. "They let the studio dictate to the newsroom."

Friedman, who now writes for the Hollywood Reporter, claims this was a cover-up for why he was really fired. The actual reason, he alleges, is to do with his views on Scientology, of which he has been a longstanding and vocal critic in his columns.

Last August, he ran into Kelly Preston in Memphis. Both were in town for the funeral of his friend, the soul singer Isaac Hayes, who was also a Scientologist. Friedman says the actress confronted him about his views on Scientology in the historic Peabody Hotel, blasting him for being a "religious bigot". Preston then attempted to get him fired, he alleges, by complaining to Fox News executives.

Friedman also claims Tom Cruise put pressure on Fox to fire him. The actor, who was being courted by Fox's film studio to star in an action comedy Wichita, is thought to have demanded his sacking as a condition of joining the project, a source told the New York Daily News, who broke the story.

Both Cruise and Preston have denied the reports. Preston's lawyer, Martin Singer, said that Friedman's claim was "absurd and ridiculous. He was terminated just days after [his Wolverine column]. It is outrageous to try to blame my client... on the basis of something that supposedly took place eight months earlier."