Few entertainment scribes are as vocal, and unexpurgated, as Nikki Finke.
The founder of Deadline.com calls ’em like she sees ’em, but lately her cybervoice has been silent. Her protracted legal fight with her former employer Penske Media Corporation means she isn’t updating her recently launched site NikkiFinke.com.
And it looks as if that site may never replicate what she once created at her former site.
In June of this year, Ms. Finke started her own site, NikkiFinke.com, and resumed reporting on Hollywood in apparent defiance of a noncompete agreement with Penske that barred her from doing so. But Ms. Finke stopped writing on Aug. 11, raising questions about her intentions for the new site.
BuzzFeed reported on Friday that Ms. Finke would shut down the site, but a person with knowledge of the negotiations suggested that it could remain active. Ms. Finke stopped writing about Hollywood, the person said, in order to reach a settlement with Penske that stipulated she could not cover the topic online. (A book she is working on is exempt from the current version of the agreement, as would be any writing in newspapers or magazines.)
She has told friends that she might turn her reporting attentions on NikkiFinke.com to Los Angeles generally, or the media or politics.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.