Michael Moore’s new film, “Sicko,” got a critical boost today from an unexpected source. Roger Friedman, the Fox411 entertainment reporter, lavished praise on the film in his online column:

“Filmmaker Michael Moore’s brilliant and uplifting new documentary, “Sicko,” deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity.”

Maybe this is not really all that unexpected. Friedman also reviewed Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” saying…

“It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.” He continued, “…a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty – and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice.”

I wonder how Friedman managed to evade security at the Fox compound and seed the conservosphere with such disinformation. It appears he may have risen from a covert assignment at Murdoch’s New York Post before infiltrating the mother ship.

Friedman is not, however, out of danger. Having predicted last September that Sicko will be “a huge, huge hit…another cultural phenomenon,” Friedman, is directly challenging Fox’s heavy artillery, Bill O’Reilly, who has his own security force, and has already declared Sicko a failure that won’t make any money. Of course, O’Reilly also famously mis-forecast that the double-platinum selling, 5-time Grammy winning Dixie Chicks’ CD “Taking the Long Way” would flop.

We’ll know in a couple of months who prevails. My money is on Friedman.