Nikki Finke, caustic entertainment writer, and blogger who broke Hollywood news and antagonized moguls died Sunday in Boca Raton, Fla. 68-year-old
Family spokesman Madelyn Hammond confirmed her death, citing a protracted illness.
Ms. Finke joined The Associated Press in 1975 after working as a staff assistant for Rep. Edward I. Koch, the future mayor of New York City. In the 1980s, she joined The Dallas Morning News, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, and other venues until established Deadline Hollywood in LA Weekly in 2002.
There and on the Deadline website, she mingled news and gossip in a vibrant, no-holds-barred approach, whether snagging the Oscars presenter, uncovering star-agent transactions, or dissecting top executives’ deals.
David Carr noted in The New York Times in 2013 that Finke “is the queen of ritual sacrifice,” having roasted business executives including Universal’s Marc Shmuger and NBC’s Ben Silverman.
She agreed.
In 2006, she told MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman, “If there’s an open wound, I’ll rub salt in it”
Ms. Finke was the opposite of red-carpet entertainment writers who jockey for soundbites. Gawker offered $1,000 for a current photo of her in 2009.
MarketWatch asked her what makes her odd. “I worry about business issues, not celebrities.”
She didn’t only target executives. Her scorn included the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
She told Deadline in 2007 that she doesn’t get excited about the Park City film festival. “I’m cynical. If cinema is the folly of the filthy wealthy, then the independent film must be the folly of the stupidly rich.
Ms. Finke, then out of entertainment journalism and working on Hollywood Dementia, commented on her career and reputation in a 2015 Vulture interview.
She said, “I’m old school.” I believe you should make the comfortable uncomfortable.
Brad Grey, Paramount Pictures chairman during Finke’s peak, felt uneasy.
Mr. Grey, who died in 2017, told The New York Times in 2007: “Everyone in Hollywood reads her.” “Respect her power”
Nikki Jean Finke was born in Manhattan on Dec. 16, 1953.
In a 2005 column for The Times, she lamented the demise of the Plaza Hotel, where her mother took her and her sister for afternoon tea in the late 1950s.
My cliquish environment consisted of Manhattan’s finest private schools and New England boarding school preppies, she wrote.
Nikki and Terry travelled often with her parents. Ms. Finke recounted her mother’s fascination with visiting Europe’s best attractions and staying in its finest hotels in a 2005 Times column.
“Travel was a luxury,” Ms. Finke said, “not to be squandered by booking cheaply or mechanically.”
“When I asked to go to Disneyland to visit Cinderella’s castle, my mother said, ‘Why do you want to see false castles when you’ve seen genuine ones?'”
When Deadline began, the financial model for independent web publications was unknown. She sold the site to Jay Penske’s firm, Penske Media Corp., in 2009. She remained editor-in-chief but often disagreed with Mr. Penske; they split in 2013. A legal dispute with Mr. Penske prohibited her from entertainment journalism, so she established the fiction site in 2015.
She told The Times, “There’s truth in fiction.” “In fiction, I can say things I couldn’t in journalism”
Her 1982 divorce from Jeffrey Greenberg. Terry Finke Dreyfus survives.
Nikki Finke’s died after a lengthy illness
The Finke family has stated that Nikki Finke passed away as a result of a protracted illness. It is unknown whether she was suffering from any other health concerns, and her medical history is not known to the public.