I, for one, love the New Yorker's use of the dieresis, which is technically not an umlaut and is not Germanic in origin. Wait, that was the main point of this post, right?
It's quite easy to be "very, very, very accurate" when you edit, re-edit and never acknowledge your changes.
Finke is a batshit crazy wackjob that everyone in town reads because they love to see her rake their enemies over the coals. They also love to feed her compliments and stories to get on her good side and avoid her poisoned pen.
Finke likes to say she doesn't give a fuck what people think of her, yet she's the first one out there to point out when she's being talked about and why she 'doesn't care'. Yes. She cares.
Basically, Hollywood created the monster they cannot control. It's like borrowing money from a gangster and never getting ahead of the vig.
Enjoyed your post, Kamer. Will add that I thought Friend's comparison to Nikki with early female Hollywood gossip columnists was a sexist double standard that overshadowed the article. I think the article and Nikki's reputation would be very different if she were a man, especially in a town and industry where films are written, greenlighted, funded, produced and directed almost entirely by men. She not only understood the zeitgeist of internet news in LA, she became it.
I'd also add that while the New Yorker article shows her tenacity and cajones, especially in a company town that's all about relationships, what he glossed over, and where she was effing brilliant, was during the WGA strike, where she was the lone journalist calling out mega-corporate studios for their bs and serving - really serving - as ground zero for not only the latest information, but a place where all sides could air their information/opinions/grievances, both in her posts and in her comments sections (which were extensive, and because of the heated nature of the debate, she had to constantly monitor).
She worked her arse off during those months (to the detriment of her health), when other Hollywood bloggers and most trade journalists wouldn't go near the biggest issue in Hollywood. Of course they were largely dependent on the studios for advertising, especially during the run-up to the Oscars, when the strike took place. So here's this huge event that rocked Hollywood and the film industry - and Nikki Finke covered it pretty much single-handedly and round the clock as the press looked on. (Anne Thompson at least gave it a brief mention in her column: "I know Nikki Finke is kicking ass with the writers strike." !!!)
It shows how powerful these corporations and their advertising dollars are, to silence the fourth estate like that, and one could say it shows how powerful Nikki is, but it would miss the point. She had not only the courage, but the humanity and decency to insist on reporting both sides, standing up to corporate mega-powers and giving the writers a seat at town hall. So while she can be annoying (mainly when I don't agree with her), she has earned the respect of many.
It would have been interesting to see how she might have handled Joseph McCarthy and the Hollywood Blacklist of the 50's. I'd bet just about anything that McCarthy would have gotten the hell out of Dodge with his tail between his legs. If he'd shown up at all.
I like Nikki, the so-called "nihilism" makes things fun. She's mean, but whatever. And if, in the end, she's the most accurate, then maybe she is the "best" journalist.
Reporters delude themselves into thinking that they're capable of truly reporting something objectively -- it's for the same reason that the mainstream media is such a joke when it claims to be "balanced" when it comes to politics. The best way to be fair is to let your biases be known, and Nikki certainly does that.
Right, because Hollywood isn't a vicious fucking snakepit. Nikki Finke is just mean to those studio moguls!
Just don't know why this post seems to harp and gloat on her health problems, social anxiety, being a blogger. From what lofty height are you judging her?
She seems to have quite a devoted following of people in the industry for telling it like it is, no matter the studio spin. She's apart from that system, so she can report on it. How is this a bad thing?
I don't imagine she's a fun person, but she's carved her niche. And I don't care about her cat.
@Baroness: Bah! I have health problems, social anxiety, and am embarrassingly a blogger by trade. I wasn't harping on Finke in those regards. And I'm a fan of her work, for my own reasons. As far as Blue the Cat goes, that's just interesting, character-development stuff.
@Foster Kamer: I gotcha. She IS an interesting sort. I shouldnt've pointed out your pointing out of what makes her interesting. Hm. Retiring to my glamourous Old Hollywood boudoir to think about this some more.
She made The New Yorker her "buttboy" and Friend was "easy to manipulate" and yet in spite of all that masterful string-pulling her time was wasted? Uh.
Yeah, I gots no reason to care about her. I don't even know what she actually does.
Nikki's most impressive feat is her Dorian Gray in reverse routine. She gets older and older, but her picture stays the same ... always the same Veronica Lake Goes to Supercuts then hits Glamour Shots classic. Considering her worldview, it's appropriate that it's black-and-white.
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
Finke is a batshit crazy wackjob that everyone in town reads because they love to see her rake their enemies over the coals. They also love to feed her compliments and stories to get on her good side and avoid her poisoned pen.
Finke likes to say she doesn't give a fuck what people think of her, yet she's the first one out there to point out when she's being talked about and why she 'doesn't care'. Yes. She cares.
Basically, Hollywood created the monster they cannot control. It's like borrowing money from a gangster and never getting ahead of the vig.
10/05/09
I'd also add that while the New Yorker article shows her tenacity and cajones, especially in a company town that's all about relationships, what he glossed over, and where she was effing brilliant, was during the WGA strike, where she was the lone journalist calling out mega-corporate studios for their bs and serving - really serving - as ground zero for not only the latest information, but a place where all sides could air their information/opinions/grievances, both in her posts and in her comments sections (which were extensive, and because of the heated nature of the debate, she had to constantly monitor).
She worked her arse off during those months (to the detriment of her health), when other Hollywood bloggers and most trade journalists wouldn't go near the biggest issue in Hollywood. Of course they were largely dependent on the studios for advertising, especially during the run-up to the Oscars, when the strike took place. So here's this huge event that rocked Hollywood and the film industry - and Nikki Finke covered it pretty much single-handedly and round the clock as the press looked on. (Anne Thompson at least gave it a brief mention in her column: "I know Nikki Finke is kicking ass with the writers strike." !!!)
It shows how powerful these corporations and their advertising dollars are, to silence the fourth estate like that, and one could say it shows how powerful Nikki is, but it would miss the point. She had not only the courage, but the humanity and decency to insist on reporting both sides, standing up to corporate mega-powers and giving the writers a seat at town hall. So while she can be annoying (mainly when I don't agree with her), she has earned the respect of many.
It would have been interesting to see how she might have handled Joseph McCarthy and the Hollywood Blacklist of the 50's. I'd bet just about anything that McCarthy would have gotten the hell out of Dodge with his tail between his legs. If he'd shown up at all.
10/17/09
10/05/09
Reporters delude themselves into thinking that they're capable of truly reporting something objectively -- it's for the same reason that the mainstream media is such a joke when it claims to be "balanced" when it comes to politics. The best way to be fair is to let your biases be known, and Nikki certainly does that.
10/04/09
10/04/09
Just don't know why this post seems to harp and gloat on her health problems, social anxiety, being a blogger. From what lofty height are you judging her?
She seems to have quite a devoted following of people in the industry for telling it like it is, no matter the studio spin. She's apart from that system, so she can report on it. How is this a bad thing?
I don't imagine she's a fun person, but she's carved her niche. And I don't care about her cat.
10/04/09
10/04/09
10/04/09
[www.youtube.com]
10/04/09
10/04/09
Yeah, I gots no reason to care about her. I don't even know what she actually does.
10/04/09
10/05/09
03/10/09
03/10/09
03/10/09
03/10/09
"My Computer Hates Me."
(Computer) "Man, Do I Hate That Bitch."
03/10/09
Michelle, please give your Dell a break from the constant tap, tap, tap of hate and exaggeration.