Welcome Back, Roger Friedman! (Or Something)

Everyone knows you can't keep a good man down. Apparently you can't keep Roger Friedman down, either: Less than three weeks after Fox News discharged its resident gossip monster for reviewing the leaked workprint of its sister studio's Wolverine, Friedman is back online, bringing his signature brand of sycophantic, party-crashing terror to his new blog Showbiz411. You know -- like his old Fox411, but with even less accountability.

There's plenty to catch up on, too, including Friedman's own penetrating Tribeca coverage (Serious Moonlight star Meg Ryan won't be pleased), a return to his beloved Michael Jackson beat and a gratuitous dig at the New York Post, just for Murdoch-tweaking kicks. His critical chops haven't diminished one bit, either:

Like all of [Woody] Allen's great films, death figures strongly in [Whatever Works]. But then, so do waves of one liners, zingy jokes that are fresh baked and aimed at just about every sacred cow. There is also a strong literary and cultural undercurrent, with references running the gamut from Groucho Marx to William Faulkner. (Boris actually cruelly compares Melodie to "Benjy" from The Sound and the Fury.). It's maybe the first comedy ever to introduce the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty and relate it to attitudes during a menage a trois.

Careful, Rog! That scene's not in the final cut, just the version currently circulating on BitTorrent. No worries, though -- you can always delete things later. You're going to love being your own boss.

· Showbiz411 [via Hollywood Elsewhere]