Nikki Finke Is Dead To Me

Mein Fuhrer.

Although she often protested that she did leave her apartment, her total lack of a public presence in Hollywood — she never attending private screenings or met her sources in person, and only two known photos of her exist — gave Finke the aura of a mythical recluse who still managed to keep every top executive on speed dial.

68 doesn’t seem that old.

R1 both threads were posted @ the same time

Rat finke.

What does iconoclastic mean, again? A typical salty dog?

How much did she get to sell her company?

She was an original.

This is a fun read.

A real bitch par excellence.

I’m stunned that she was only 68.

No one knows much about Nikki’s background. She kept it a mystery. Maybe was married once. She said she was debutante. (This is unlikely.) For a long time she lived in Studio City. That was where Jay Penske found her.

When Penske offered around $5 million to buy Deadline and keep her on, she took it. She didn’t comprehend that if she left, she could start a new site or write about Hollywood. When Penske couldn’t take the hourly complaints about her, they severed their relationship.

And then, after causing so much grief for everyone, she drifted away. Nikki moved to Florida. Hollywood didn’t notice.

Finke was just a grifter who wound up in Florida. Surprise.

Do you think she posted here?

[quote]Nikki Finke, a tenacious journalist who revolutionized entertainment reporting

Bitch, please.

I'm not seeing what evil Finke is responsible for other than being a grifter who was paid for work she didn't do.

[quote] 68 doesn’t seem that old.

It isn’t.

Are all the obituaries really going to ignore that 2014 period when Jay Penske terminated her at Deadline because he wanted the website to be amendable toward the Hollywood establishment rather than antagonistic. Finke then retaliated by launching her own website NikkiFinke.com where she viciously attacked Penske and studio executives even more so than on the old Deadline. Then suddenly a NikkiFinkeExposed website pops up plastered with new pictures of Finke looking old, fat, and infirm shot by a PI. Allegedly this was Amy Pascal's idea. Then all of a sudden both websites disappear. Finke returns to Deadline as editor emerita and Penske gives her a vanity webiste HollywoodDementia to run. She largely disappears.

Even her wikipedia avoids this topic.

Surprise she's only 68. But you gotta give it to her. She founded Deadline which is still thriving and arguably the best for the latest showbiz news.

Is this reclusive Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke?

Elusive Nikki Finke Exposed by Nikki Stink Site Amid Bitter Legal Battle With Jay Penske

she looked chunky, is that it

R20 yes those were the pictures of Finke that were shot by a PI. The first non-headshot photos of her ever.

ok? she was fat? is that it?

A group called the Committee for Decency in Journalism launched a website Wednesday, NikkiStink.com, which not only details specific instances she has “threatened and bullied the Hollywood community,” but unveils the current appearance of the notoriously camera-shy founder of Deadline Hollywood.

Also read: Nikki Finke Demands NY Post Retraction Over Story Claiming She Wants $3.5 Million for Deadline Split

“You will be a decent journalist or you will not be treated decently yourself. Get your head out of the sand and act like a human being. If not, as you can see, we are going to fight back – aggressively and relentlessly.

This set of photos is only the beginning.” the site writes. “There is much more. A lot more. We are motivated and have unlimited resources to see this through to the end.”

Also read: Nikki Finke Hires Powerful Hollywood Lawyer to Represent Her in Penske Media Arbitration

The group followed a string of clues — including a tweet from Bret Easton Ellis — to track down where Finke lived, and then captured her leaving the West Hollywood apartment building on camera and video.

They made her sound like a gorgon.

But she was just fat.

A well dressed, well styled woman who was fat.

In 2002, Finke’s LA Weekly column Deadline Hollywood took off and, four years later she struck out on her own to found the Deadline blog as the internet overturned traditional journalism.

The internet suited Finke’s style, who couldn’t resist breaking a story at all hours of the day. A blog freed her to write and report at will – without the oversight of an editor.

In 2009, Penske Media Corp. purchased Deadline for a reported $14 million, with her remaining editor-in-chief and continuing her reporting and commentary.

But her scorched earth writing and reporting tactics eventually caught up with her, as too many Hollywood players complained about Finke now that she had a boss. Penske defended and protected her for years until Finke finally stepped away from Deadline Hollywood in 2013.

R9, that is a whole lot of nerve coming from the likes of him.

She rose to the height of her power during the Writers Strike of 2007, when she wrote on behalf of Hollywood’s writers who were being shut out by the studios. According to those who knew her at the time, she would sometimes fall asleep on her keyboard as she kept up with the news.

She made common cause with power player Ari Emanuel as he sought to merge his Endeavor agency – but actually take over – William Morris in 2009. With Finke as his ally, Emanuel outmaneuvered and pushed out Wiatt, the long-time William Morris chairman.

r28 very poorly written. too. these people are paid as writers? strange

Although personal data may have been stolen, early news reports focused mainly on celebrity gossip and embarrassing details about Hollywood and film industry business affairs gleaned by the media from electronic files, including private email messages.

Among the information revealed in the emails was that Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai pressured Sony Pictures co-chairwoman Amy Pascal to "soften" the assassination scene in The Interview.

Many details relating to the actions of the Sony Pictures executives, including Pascal and Michael Lynton, were also released, in a manner that appeared to be intended to spur distrust between these executives and other employees of Sony.

Other emails released in the hack showed Pascal and Scott Rudin, a film and theatrical producer, discussing Angelina Jolie.

In the emails, Rudin referred to Jolie as "a minimally talented spoiled brat" because Jolie wanted David Fincher to direct her film Cleopatra, which Rudin felt would interfere with Fincher directing a planned film about Steve Jobs.

Pascal and Rudin were also noted to have had an email exchange about Pascal's upcoming encounter with Barack Obama that included characterizations described as racist, which led to Pascal's resignation from Sony.

The two had suggested they should mention films about African-Americans upon meeting the president, such as Django Unchained, 12 Years a Slave and The Butler, all of which depict slavery in the United States or the pre-civil rights era.

Pascal and Rudin later apologized

Details of lobbying efforts by politician Mike Moore on behalf of the Digital Citizens Alliance and FairSearch against Google were also revealed.

Amy Pascal - Oscars Nominees Luncheon 2018 in Beverly Hills

All I can say about Nikki is that Deadline was an amazing read, often with real, legitimate figures from the industry participating and/or spilling tea in the comments.

Deadline is now a bloated redundant cesspool, with a tenth of the comments it used to get and most of THOSE by Trumpers and idiots who think if a celebrity is mentioned, their comment will be seen by that celebrity.

There is no editor there - most columns are a mess with terrible reporting. Someone there loves Bill Maher and a few other assholes that Nikki would have immediately put on blast.

Nikki had severe diabetes, I know that. She took the money and ran when she saw Penske was going to close out her connection and her platform, anyway. I don't blame her.

Rest in peace, you old salty bitch. Thanks for all the tea, and all the no nonsense commentary. A lot of it was right on the fucking nose.

Rudin is widely considered to be one of the most abusive bosses in the entertainment industry.[43] He has been called "Hollywood's biggest a-hole" (the New York Post's "Page Six"),[44] "the most feared man in town" (The Hollywood Reporter),[12] and notoriously hot-tempered.[45] Rudin acknowledged having "a temper" in a 2008 interview, but said he has "grown up".[46] Hugh Wilson admitted in a 2015 interview that he had negative experiences working with Rudin during the making of The First Wives Club.[47]

On April 7, 2021, Rudin was accused, by numerous employees speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, of demonstrating a long-standing pattern of abusive behavior towards his employees, including physical abuse, such as throwing objects at his assistants, and in one instance breaking an assistant's hand with a computer monitor.[6] In that article, he was also accused of having victims sign non-disparagement agreements and having the victims' film credits increased or retroactively decreased after quitting.[6]

Who did she think she was, Angelyne? Why are the pretentious mystery?

Jesus Christ, she was fatter than Lizzo!

The haircut looked rather lesbian from the side.

Funny or Die parody.

The "Penske" in that clip is hot.

I was looking for a controversial posting by Finke and see nothing. One of her critics admitted she didn't turn in an article for a publication he owned.

There was for a time a TV show based on her and Deadline in development. I think Diane Keaton was attached to star. But eventually the producers became so overtly concerned with Nikki and possible litigation that they gave up the idea.

An idea so old, Elliot Page was still a woman way back then.

Who will play her in the inevitable biopic? Cate Blanchett?

[quote]and only two known photos of her exist —

One of which, she is fucking a donkey.

How did she get her initial gossip? I’m sure she was getting it by the truckload towards the end. But how did it start.

I can't find anything written by the deceased that describes the bed reputation, strange

Finke started her long journey as a journalist while attending Wellesley College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.

After graduating, she got a job in then New York congressman Ed Koch’s office.

She credited the future New York City Mayor for inspiring her to become a reporter when she watched how he and his staff “would genuflect to journalists.” She went on to cover his mayoral run as a reporter on AP’s foreign desk.

As the years progressed, Finke wrote for various publications, including The Dallas Morning News, Newsweek – where she was a correspondent in Washington and Los Angeles – and at the Los Angeles Times, where she covered entertainment and features. Shortly thereafter, she became west coast editor for The New York Observer and, later, New York, where she was the Hollywood business columnist.

As her career evolved, Finke also wrote for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and The Washington Post, among others

[quote]Do you think she posted here?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

DL old-timer here. Back in 1993, she wrote a hit piece for Vanity Fair on Bob Mackie and his involvement with the mob. Sometime after the article was published, I attended a small dinner party in which Nikki stopped in. Years later, there was a thread here on Datalounge about her and I recounted the story about meeting her at the party and how she was kind of a windbag. She must have had Google alerts on and magically appeared in the Datalounge thread to vehemently deny what I wrote and tell me that I was full of shit. I thought it funny at the time, because why the fuck would I have ever made something like that up?

I'm sure the thread probably exists somewhere, but I really don't give enough fucks to search for it.

Never rad her - though often heard the name. What was some of the gossip she broke? Everyone talks about her but I’ve never heard of a gossip item by her.

Did she brunch with Lynn Stairmaster?

Same r49. One of the critics admitted she failed to submit an article while employed at his publication.

One of those who failed upwards in life. Grifter.

Another example of failing upward

Pete Hammond's appreciation:

[quote]Is this reclusive Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke?

She looks like a post-transition Paul Williams.

Great headshot.

For DHD and me, the 2007-2008 Writers’ Strike was a huge turning point. The days leading up to the walkout were chaotic, but I was the sole journalist covering it in real time. DHD had a much-watched countdown clock.

I quickly realized that the trades and newspapers were reporting the moguls’ lies as truths. My own coverage told a different story. Hundreds of WGA and other guild members became my regular sources from the picket lines. My involvement reached critical mass when a striker was photographed in a T-shirt that read, “Free Nikki Finke.” Indeed, I felt like a hostage,

The always unreliable gossip columnist Richard Johnson, who last published a purported photo of me that wasn’t me among other inaccuracies, is publicly embarrassing himself yet again. Apparently he is the last person to get a clue that I am on vacation and using up the 19 weeks which I’ve banked since selling Deadline Hollywood in June 2009. I’m very grateful to The Deadline Team for carrying on so well without me, and to Hollywood for not bothering me too much during my time off, and to readers for understanding everyone needs a rest. I’ve continued doing box office because no one else at DH wanted to do it – and because, for some sick sad reason, I still love putting my own spin on it. That said, Richard already helped run Rupert’s ill-conceived ‘The Daily’ into the ground. Obviously, Johnson will never learn the fundamental lesson about calling subjects before he writes about them. How does this waste of space stay employed?

M. Night Shyamalan Needs To Get Schooled

She absolutely upended the Hollywood machine. I wish she’d made her opinion known on #metoo. Deadline has never been the same without her.

I see her claim to infamy was fevered coverage of the writers strike.

Is this it?

PRIMETIME PILOT PANIC!!

That strike caused problems for society. Reality TV was used as a substitute and gave you know who a wider audience for the grift of a lifetime.

TOLDJA!

She kinda burned bright and burned out.

But she was very good for a very focused time frame.

Luke Ford

Kevin Roderick writes July 15 on LAObserved.com: "Searching in the WWD archives finds no mention of the piece. I'm told by a source that the electronic version was pulled after the story ran in the print paper. If true, that would suggest serious questions on the part of the editors. Until I get some clarification from WWD, I'm yanking the excerpts I originally posted here after the jump."

If they keep feeding Nikki bullshit, it's gonna be open season on Nikki's sources.

No one really blames Nikki for the pain she's caused. But now the string pullers are gonna have to pay if they keep it up, because no one wants to see Nikki found like [former LA Times gossip columnist] Joyce Haber.. Nikki needs help, not a column at the LA Weekly.

I looked online for an article written by the deceased that explains her ferocious reputation and found nothing.

Maybe it was scribbled.

The article linked above was a brag of the coverage she provided of the writers strike.

Is that it?

The Sony email hacks were far damning.

I din't know why posters call her a grifter--she delivered, that's not a grift. None of her stories were earth-shaking but her targets were studios--she punched up--which makes her bullying ok with me.

She was a great gossip. Certainly one of the very best for the last three or four decades.

[quote] Who will play her in the inevitable biopic?

It’s called “The Whale”.

Louie Anderson has sadly passed so he can't do it.

R68

What happened to Joyce Haber?

Joyce Haber, known for her barbed commentaries as one of the last of Hollywood's powerful gossip columnists and the author of a best-selling book on the movie industry, died on Thursday at a hospital in Los Angeles. Her age was variously given as 60 or 62.

The cause was kidney and liver failure, said a spokesman for the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Miss Haber and her syndicated column played a role in a sensational case in the 1970's that involved the actress Jean Seberg, who suffered a premature labor and later committed suicide.

In 1968, The Los Angeles Times named Miss Haber as a successor to Hedda Hopper, who had died in 1966. Louella Parsons, a rival Hollywood columnist for the Hearst papers, had retired in 1965.

Miss Haber once described Melina Mercouri as having "wall-to-wall hips, an ear-to-ear smile and more teeth than a pretzel has salt." She said Julie Andrews had "a kind of flowering dullness about her."

Miss Haber retired as a columnist to write "The Users" (Delacorte, 1976), a best-selling novel. Its passages on the exploits of 70 real and fictional Hollywood characters disturbed even some of her friends and sources. Role in Seberg Case

The Seberg episode started in 1970 when Miss Haber wrote about "the baby Miss A is expecting and its father." The column said: "Papa's said to be a rather prominent Black Panther."

Did you know you can share 10 gift articles a month, even with nonsubscribers? Share this article. Three months later, Newsweek named Miss Seberg, a white actress, as the expectant mother. The day after reading that, she went into premature labor. The baby girl died three days later. Miss Seberg and her husband, Romain Gary, a French novelist and former diplomat, sued Newsweek and settled for several thousand dollars.

It was later disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had plotted to plant the rumor in a campaign to discredit and harass radicals, whom Miss Seberg had supported. But the agency's files said that J. Edgar Hoover had temporarily delayed the plan when the Haber column item mysteriously appeared.

Mr. Gary said Miss Seberg became despondent and tried to commit suicide on the anniversaries of the baby's death. Eventually she killed herself in 1979. Mr. Gary, who blamed the F.B.I. for her troubles, committed suicide in 1980, although the reason was unclear.

Editors’ Picks

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Why Chimps and Gorillas Form Rainforest Friendships Miss Haber said that her report was based on a letter given to her by an editor, whom she did not name, and that she had not been aware of any F.B.I. involvement.

Miss Haber was a child of the movie industry. As a six-year-old, she acted in three "Our Gang" features. She was educated at Brearley School, Bryn Mawr College and Barnard.

After working briefly in summer stock theater, as a political campaign aide and at an advertising agency, she joined Time magazine as a researcher.

She was divorced from Douglas S. Cramer Jr., a television and film producer.

Her survivors include a son, Douglas 3d, and a daughter, Courtney Cramer.

I loved Nikki. She was great. She sure wasn't afraid of all those ass kissers.

I thought she had been a foreign correspondent for a while before settling into industry reporter. Kind of a more modern Rona Barrett.

No idea she was only 68. I wonder if she fudged her age.

I was never any kind of huge fan but I love (above) that she read Richard Johnson to filth. Such a dumb hack (as is any Page Six alum, really) who just happened to stay in the game because he was good looking.

This is a good thread. She seems like she was a sad, complicated person who would have been impossible to deal with in most professional capacities, and probably had some undiagnosed underlying mental issues.

She sure was fun to read, though.

Great obit.

“She was smart, incredibly hard working, and relentless.

She had no ethics, no perspective, and only a passing interest in the truth.”

I love how the guy at r79 posts a picture of latterday Nikki right after detailing the rape threat she claimed he'd made.

Mr. Poland could have proof read his piece about a journalist...

[Quote] I am assauted by gossip

[Quote] Not sure is she was a manic-depressive

[Quote] That are those who claim

What kind of sentence construction is this:

[Quote] We have the revenue platform that was never what was important to her.

Yes, there were some amusing errors but overall it was interesting. R80, the juxtaposition of that allegation with THAT picture did not go unnoticed here either!

R75

Thank you. I had already read that. I got the impression that Joyce Haber had killed herself or something.

Lots of sloppy writing and dead ends. The subject interests me because it is full of dead ends.

I read Finke self congratulatory send off from Deadline. It is wordy and details only the work she put in covering the writer's strike, everything else is vague.

Covering a writers strike doesnt seem to be the source of the controversy. I can't find anything controversial written by Finke. I only see her described as controversial.

Maybe her original blog writing was scrubbed from the internet after the purchase of her blog.

Someone asked what was the purchase price of her blog, I saw two different figures. 5 million is one figure and 14 million is the other.

If someone were to ask me what PerezHilton blog was like way back when, I recall it included lots of paparazzo photos with crudely drawn inserts on the pics.

His blog entries weren't particularly nasty but the comments written by visitors to the site were cruel and nasty.

Neil Patrick Harris wishes he had Duck Dynasty‘s audience. Their premiere last month scored 11.8 million viewers, while HIMYM‘s May 13 season finale only had 8.4 million watching. Harris should have hosted tonight’s show in camouflage

[quote] I can't find anything controversial written by Finke.

We know. You've posted this about 25 times already.

Type [italic] nikki finke hated [/italic] into Google and find some examples.

Try this article.

I never write about myself. But this marks the 1oth anniversary of my founding Deadline Hollywood, so I’ve been asked to craft a remembrance despite the fact I rarely look back. Here goes:

When I started Deadline Hollywood Daily, as it was called way back in 2006, I needed a quicker way to report breaking entertainment news than my weekly newspaper column. So I bought the URL DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com for 14 bucks and change. I didn’t set out to be a disruptor. Or an internet journalist who created something out of nothing that put the Hollywood trades back on their heels, and today, under Penske Media ownership, is a website worth $100+ million. Or a woman with brass balls, fuck-you attitude and ruthless hustle, who told hard truths about the moguls and who accurately reported scoops first.

Yes, I did recognize that showbiz coverage could change, because the digital platform leveled a playing field that had previously belonged to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Back then, the trades were slow to embrace the idea that trees no longer had to die for a media outlet to be influential. “The trades were polite and objective, but you realized it was far more interesting to tell stories through your own perspective,” Mike Fleming reminds me. “I always used to tell people you were like a duck that walked around on land and then somebody knocked you into the water and suddenly it was like, damn, look at how that duck swims!”

I’ll never forget the weekend of DHD’s birth. I received the website template on a Friday, figured out how to post text and photos that Saturday, and live-blogged the 78th Academy Awards that Sunday. To my great surprise, The Drudge Report posted a link to my Oscar snarking. Deadline Hollywood Daily was off and running.

Over the first few months, I had to come up with a format to break news, analysis and commentary in real time. I was truly making it up as I went along. I followed my early AP training, devised a chronological linear format and instituted bold UPDATE, EXCLUSIVE, BULLETIN, WRITETHRU signage—as well as the adored/abhorred TOLDJA.

In that early period, eager for Hollywood to notice DHD, I felt the need to blow its horn because of my own insecurity.

I also had to figure out how to deal with Hollywood’s rumors du jour, since where there’s smoke, there’s fire in this town. I wrote up one rumor and then vowed never to do it again. I also decided that transparency was the best policy for press releases. If I only had a single source for news, I said so. For content, I kept DHD laser-focused. When Michael Jackson died, I decided not to cover it. I made it clear that readers should go elsewhere for celebrity nonsense, because mine was a business blog. I thought of suing for defamation the next media outlet that claimed I was a gossip columnist.

Here's some old Usenet stuff discussing Nikki's super fun homophobia of the "it's not conservatives who won't watch Brokeback Mountain, it's the Hollywood elites" variety

Here's a good example of how Nikki Finke's writing was basically just a Datalounge rant, passed off as insider Hollywood info.

R90. Thanks, that screed is difficult to interpret. THAT post was written by a reporter with decades of experience including stints at the Associated Press?

So after reading this whole thread I still don’t see why she mattered. Seems like a pointlessly antagonistic hateful person - who was unhappy and spreads that unhappiness. At least people who channel it into among money often create something of worth. She accomplished nothing. I can understand why she is discussed on DL - but an ultimately pointless and cruel life. She probably died a drunk.

Among money? Or making money?

C'mon, fire the grinning actor idiot because he's lost his box office appeal, or because his first dollar gross is so disgustingly huge that no studio has a prayer any more of making money on his motion pictures, or because of any other business reason.

And fire him in the usual Hollywood way: with a bland-but-dignified press release about how much these 14 years have meant to both parties, ad nauseum.

But, jeez, don't fire him with this lame stuff that Sumner didn't like the way Tiny Tom behaved.

If that's true, then no Hollywood studio can ever hire anyone. Drugs, sex, harrassment, mendacity, fraud: Paramount like most major studios has a rich history of horrible behavior by its work-for-hires.

I could reel off for you 10 people now with rich studio deals, some at Paramount, who should be in jail or rehab or the Funny Farm but instead are well-paid miscreants.

Far be it from me to judge whether Cruise belongs in a straitjacket or not, or whether Scientology is a cult or a religion, or whether he's gay or not, or whether MI3 would have done a lot more business in theaters if another big star had been the lead.

But it's absurd for Redstone to make an issue of Cruise's conduct like he has.

My god, Sumner himself was openly shtupping one of his producer girlfriends on the lot for years, and his own son is suing him.

And Redstone looked the other way when Les Moonves carried on a long adulterous affair with employee Julie Chen and then married her after dumping his wife in the process.

Which are all violations of so many corporate codes of conduct that I don't think I can count that high.

And let's not forget how the old guy's studio is still in business with Robert Evans who not only was a hopeless cocaine addict and regular client of Heidi Fleiss's prostitution call girl ring for years but pled the Fifth Amendment in connection with a murder rap no less.

And let's not forget that Redstone didn't blink when Brad Grey's name surfaced in that Anthony Pellicano (the thug P.I.) mess.

So lemme get this straight: Cruise's jumping around on Oprah's couch is worse?

But the fact is that even Cruise's recent movies, the ones done after he'd made Scientology the publicly avowed cause celebre of his life personally and professionally, and after he declared Katie Holmes the love of his life and knocked her up without benefit of marriage, are still top earners since 2000.

Cruise did better for his studios with MI3, War of the Worlds, Collateral, The Last Samurai, Minority Report, Vanilla Sky and MI2 than almost any other star, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Adam Sandler.

My best guess is only Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp and Mel Gibson did better box office.

Speech to text drivel.

Didn’t she write a groundbreaking expose of Hollywood that surprised no one?

It feels like only yesterday I read this fantastic profile of her in The New Yorker. I feel old.