Fox News Columnist Roger Friedman Fired

April 6, 2009— -- Roger Friedman, the longtime Fox News online columnist, is no longer working for the news organization after reviewing a pirated version of the X-Men sequel "Wolverine."

"Fox News representatives and Roger Friedman met today and mutually agreed to part ways immediately," Fox News said in statement Monday. "Fox News appreciates Mr. Friedman's ten years of contributions to building foxnews.com and wishes him success in his future endeavors. Mr. Friedman is grateful to his colleagues for their friendship and support over the past decade."

Two Web sites, The Huffington Post and Gawker, reported that Friedman was scheduled to meet this morning with Roger Ailes, the Fox News chief, and John Moody, his executive vice president for editorial, to plead his case for keeping his job and online column "Fox 411."

ABCNews.com reported Sunday that Friedman was fired after News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, advised the news outlet to terminate Friedman for reviewing a leaked copy of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

The highly anticipated movie was produced by 20th Century Fox, which is also owned by News Corp.

The film starring Hugh Jackman isn't due to hit to theaters until next month but a leaked copy surfaced online Wednesday.

"Roger Friedman's views in no way reflect the views of News Corp. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corp., have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy," the company said in a statement issued Sunday.

"When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post and promptly terminated Mr. Friedman," it said.

But when contacted by ABCNews.com, Friedman, who has been with Fox News for 13 years, said, "There was no action taken against me."

When reached this morning by ABCNews.com, Friedman referred any questions to a Fox News representative.

Friedman apparently gave the unfinished movie, which is scheduled to open May 1, high marks, according to New York magazine.

"I doubt anyone else has seen this film. But everyone can relax. I am, in fact, amazed about how great 'Wolverine' turned out. It exceeds expectations at every turn," he said, according to the magazine's Web site.

Now that the film has been leaked online, analysts estimate that thousands of people may have already seen the movie and that it could affect the movie's bottom line. Once a film hits peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, stamping out all clips and incarnations of it can be difficult.

"We immediately contacted the appropriate authorities and had it removed," 20th Century Fox Film, the film's distributor, said earlier in a statement.