In Hollywood, said Patrick Goldstein, a former Los Angeles Times film industry columnist who has known Ms. Finke for decades, people are “scared of their own shadows.”
“I would say that everyone is secretly full of trepidation about what Nikki’s new site will be like,” he said. “Will it be literary short stories, or will it be fiction as a thin disguise for the truth?”
On a recent day, surrounded by paintings and photographs, some made by friends, and a library of books on Hollywood, Ms. Finke was an energetic presence. She asked what a reporter thought of her appearance (whether it matched the public perception) and expounded on topics ranging from marriage (“never again,” she said after being divorced in the 1980s) to movies (she grew up on Long Island and in New York City, watching mostly subtitled European films). She said she had been tempted to write a book on the craft of journalism, her way. It might include what she describes as a common technique — calling a source, telling him he is a bad person and demanding he justify, by providing fresh news, why he is not.
Mr. Goldstein said Ms. Finke had significantly swayed entertainment reporting, for better and worse: It became more aggressive and rigorous, but also more vicious and relentless.
“It’s fascinating to see that since she left Deadline, the trades have again by and large gone back to that same very respectful reporting, and that the hard edges have been buffed away.”
Ms. Finke’s have not. Asked why she consistently used to describe an executive with a phallic expletive, she said she did so because he fit the description. “Most of my career I’ve talked to incredibly powerful, rich people,” she said. “How can I bully someone like that?”
She learned from those she covered, she said. “I mean, they play rough. I have to play rough, too.”
Source: New York Times
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