Few people in Hollywood have ever seen the hermit-like Nikki Finke, but they fear her anyway, David Carr reports in the New York Times. Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily blog has become essential reading for tinseltown players, a source of scoops and gossip that afflict the powerful. "In a town where people often secretly hope for the worst, Ms. Finke delivers wish fulfillment," notes Carr. “She gave me a nervous breakdown,” said one executive. Quothe another, “She terrifies me.”
Finke's reporting chops and doggedness have paid off in a sale of her site that Carr estimates will net her upwards of $5 million. She is, of course, not without detractors, who point out that she sometimes amends earlier posts that turned out to be wrong. But no one denies that she's usually ahead of the curve. When Paramount parted ways with president John Lesher, he remarked, “Nikki Finke knew about it before I did.” (More Nikki Finke stories.)
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