Thursday, January 29, 2004

Smackdown: Fox 411's Roger Friedman vs Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth

Fresh off of his mini feud with Sharon Waxman of The New York Times, Fox 411's pugnacious scribbler Roger Friedman is now picking a bone with Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth.

Friedman writes in 411:

"Vanity Fair magazine issued a press release yesterday about their new Michael Jackson story, and the whole thing sounds pretty funny.

"It turns out that writer Maureen Orth, whom I have cited before as lifting material from this column and other places in her recent Jackson reporting, got her latest scoops from the National Enquirer.

"The Vanity Fair press release breathlessly announces that Jackson plied his 12-year-old accuser with wine and called it 'Jesus Juice.' Big news, indeed!"

Ouch. Friedman goes on to complain that Orth's news that Jacko gave sleeping pills and wine to the accuser came from his November 19th story, but the quote Jesus Jusice came from the Enquirer.

Friedman goes for the jugular:

"But people's memories are short, and Orth's clip reading is deep. I think the National Enquirer -- which gets a lot of flack and is never taken seriously -- should go after Vanity Fair. "

Oh, Roger, come on now: can't we all just get along? Let's not all fight over the Jesus Juice. There's enough Jesus Juice for everybody.



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