Who Else Missed Nikki Finke?

Who Else Missed Nikki Finke?

Nikkie Finke is back, or nearly back, which is a cause for celebration. Yes! It was easy to get distracted by the politics of the weird Deadline situation, or the specifics of her big blowout fights with Jay Penske and Sharon Waxman, and to forget that Nikki Finke is a consciously destabilizing force in every environment where she operates, and that that’s the point: She’s a filterless killer of a type that barely seems to exist on the internet, especially now. Kate Arthur writes that Hollywood, and the media, has largely moved on.

Maybe for Finke [her absence has] been difficult — but it’s been a joyful time for the publicists and executives who used to deal with her constantly.

“It’s a hundred times better in every way, shape, or form,” said one of the dozen people I spoke to for this story, all of whom insisted on anonymity because Finke is scary. “Everyone was trying to copy or trail her, so now everyone doesn’t feel like they have to be so ridiculous. I mean, the New York Times was chasing her. Things are almost normal.”

Have you ever read a better reason to be happy that someone is back? An un-ridiculous Hollywood press, one that doesn’t have at least one person trying to burn it all down all the time at all costs, sounds so terrible.