Nikke Finke - Dread and Obsession

It is said that Hollywood bosses are afraid of Nikke Finke. If there is something in the air, she is finding it out before they do, and she reports it on her blog Deadline Hollywood. Her ability to deliver "inside information" is so formidable that an army of eyes around Los Angeles watch what she writes with a combination of obsession and fear.

Anyway, that's the legend. The actual fact is that Finke delivers a consistently well-written, funny and thoughtful blog that takes apart the craziness of Hollywood and puts it back together in something like a recognizable shape.

This isn't to discount her wit or her ability to land some hard verbal blows. During the 2009 Academy Awards, I read her live comments (online) about events that were unfolding onscreen, and a lot of what she said was either withering or hilariously contemptuous. She works in a town where biting the hand that feeds you isn't necessarily unknown (Billy Wilder, for example); nonetheless she seems to keep rising into more and more prominence as one of the chief founts of truth in a place where lies get a great deal more currency.

A New York Times profile written by David Carr gives an outline of her talent:

In the three years since she started Deadline Hollywood Daily, a daily blog about the entertainment business, her combination of old-school skills — she is a relentless reporter — and new-media immediacy has made her a must-click look into the ragingly insecure id of Hollywood.

Among movie executives, the stories of Ms. Finke’s aggressiveness are legion, but they remain mostly unspoken because people fear being the target of one of her withering takedowns.

“I’d prefer not to ever deal with her,” said a senior communications executive at a studio who declined to be identified. Many others declined comment saying, variously, “she gave me a nervous breakdown,” “she terrifies me,” and “there’s no percentage in me saying anything to you about Nikki no matter what it is.”

But they all read her. In a town where people often secretly hope for the worst, Ms. Finke delivers wish fulfillment. During the recent merger of the William Morris and Endeavor agencies, she ridiculed William Morris executives to the point of distraction. She has published network schedules before many people at the network knew what was on them.

Finke did an interview at iwantmedia.com, and in response to a question about her relationship with trade media giants Variety and Hollywood Reporter, she said:

They're led around the nose by the studios and networks who constantly advertise in their pages and online and expect very favorable coverage in return. The trades criticize no one in Hollywood. Every movie or TV show is a hit to them. They publish nothing without Big Media's consent. It's a mutant strain of journalism.

Summary: Finke has the most interesting writing coming out of Los Angeles since the passing of Cathy Seipp in 2007.

New Jean Harlow book

I've not seen a copy of the book yet, but simply put, the Vieira Hollywood picture-books are the best albums on Hollywood, bar none, for well over a decade now. No one puts as much attention to the production aspects, design, picture choices, and then ladles the whole affair with affection and admiration in the text. Classic Hollywood has not had a modern explainer and admirer like Vieira for decades now, and the taste and skill brought to bear on his books make them both readable-fun and collectible (some of his past books are out of print and instead of dropping down to the remainder pricing so many used Hollywood books seem to end up at, his instead get harder to find and buy).

Book is by Darrell Rooney and Mark Vieira, 240 pages, Angel City Press. Available from amazon.com

New Book: Broken Silence: Conversations with 23 Silent Film Stars

This is a collection of 23 original interviews with stars of the silent screen, with biographical information and a filmography included for each.

Interviewed are Lew Ayres, William Bakewell, Lina Basquette, Madge Bellamy, Eleanor Boardman, Ethlyne Clair, Junior Coghlan, Joyce Compton, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dorothy Gulliver, Maxine Elliott Hicks, Dorothy Janis, George Lewis, Marion Mack, Patsy Ruth Miller, Lois Moran, Baby Marie Osborne, Muriel Ostriche, Eddie Quillan, Esther Ralston, Dorothy Revier, David Rollins and Gladys Walton.

About the Author
Michael G. Ankerich is a writer whose work focuses on the silent film era of Hollywood. A former newspaper reporter, he has written extensively for Classic Images, Films of the Golden Age, and Hollywood Studio Magazine, which featured his interview with Butterfly McQueen (Prissy) on the 50th anniversary of the release of Gone With The Wind.

Book is 319 pages, McFarland. Available from amazon.com

New Busby Berkeley book

Maybe the most revered of musical directors was the extreme-stylist of the golden era of Hollywood movies, Busby Berkeley, a man who changed what a stage-production meant on film by taking the camera and making it move like a winged-eye that could see the motion of actors from every angle. Whether they were underwater, behind glass, or below a skyward lense, Berkeley made synchronized motion more than a filmed reproduction of a Broadway play.

Book is by Jeffrey Spivak, 408 pages, University Press of Kentucky. Available from amazon.com